[ajmat]

Originally Posted by Soumyajit9

19 year old sounds like super high on adrenaline, with a legal drivers license. Yet this doesn't bring any maturity. Hope Zoomcar reviews its minimum driving age.

Most countries abroad, you need to be 21 years in order to hire a car, for more powerful cars, the age limit is higher

[Soumyajit9]

Originally Posted by ajmat

Most countries abroad, you need to be 21 years in order to hire a car, for more powerful cars, the age limit is higher

Exactly
This is the kind of things needed in our country as well.

Jeopardizing things just for the sake of business is not everything. Zoomcar is learning this in a hard way - Losing cars, people getting killed using their cars, earning a bad name.

It is high time that Zoom revises its car hiring's minimum age limit.
I propose 22 or 23 should be the minimum age limit to hire a car.

[poloman]

Originally Posted by Soumyajit9

Exactly
This is the kind of things needed in our country as well.

Jeopardizing things just for the sake of business is not everything. Zoomcar is learning this in a hard way - Losing cars, people getting killed using their cars, earning a bad name.

It is high time that Zoom revises its car hiring's minimum age limit.
I propose 22 or 23 should be the minimum age limit to hire a car.

Is this really going to solve the problem? If a youngster can drive his private car legally at 18 why not a rent a car? Also what miracle is going to happen when he is 22 or 23? Why not 25 or 30? The problem with Zoom cars lies else where. You can go to previous page and see for yourself how they are inviting trouble by advising people to take their cars for test drives in any terrain or under any conditions? Many people are simply doing that. These kids would not have taken their cars to where they were, had the vehicle be one of their own.

[Eddy]

^^ The idea will not prevent the accidents totally. It's a matter of lowering the probability, assuming that people mature with age - which is true in most cases.

[arunphilip]

How can self-drive rentals encourage safer and more careful driving among their customers?
I've an idea, but its just a random half-baked thought, so don't beat me up if there's some fatal flaw in this idea

Currently, insurance policies allow you to include covers for a paid driver, or employees. How about insurance companies extend this to also providing optional cover for ad-hoc use of other vehicles, such as - but not limited to - self-drive rentals? So, if I have a comprehensive policy on my car, I can opt for the add-on cover that allows me to use this policy for self-drive rentals also.

Benefits

• Self-drive rentals can check for such coverage, and if present, remove the accident damage cover of 5000 (I think) that they currently charge. If a person renting the car does not have such coverage (either because he/she doesn't have a vehicle itself, or hasn't opted for such cover, or has a lapsed policy), then they are liable to pay actuals for damage.
• It rewards people who already own a vehicle and have opted for such cover. Same principle as who you lend your car to - would you be more comfortable lending your car to a) someone who already owns a car and has it in good condition, b) someone who already owns a car but its covered in dings, particularly at the front end c) someone who just has a license?
• It encourages customers to treat such vehicles more like their own, since it is linked to their insurance policy.
• Self-drive rentals and insurance companies can potentially restrict the type of vehicles I can rent under such terms - if I have a Swift, I can maybe go up to an XUV, but not the Mercedes. If I want the Mercedes, I can't cover it with my Swift's policy, but have to agree to pay actuals for damage.

Drawbacks

• Yeah, its not perfect. Tell me, what ever is!
• Unsure if self-drive rentals will by into this, since it might turn away customers. Their analysts might believe that one totalled car per N customers is actually acceptable (and there's no such thing as bad press, even in the case of such accidents).
• Unsure if insurance companies will buy into this, since the self-drive rental is passing on their risky business model to the customer's insurance company. That said, I'm sure the insurance analysts can come up with a suitable carrot/stick approach.
• Unsure if insurance companies will buy into this, since the insured item is no longer a customer's car.
• Still at risk of being gamed by some - you can wreck a self-drive rental car and then change your insurance provider (not sure if motor insurance companies have a common database similar to the credit scores maintained by CIBIL).
• Does not protect the self-drive rental car from rough use by the driver.

Thoughts? Comments? Discuss!

[Soumyajit9]

Originally Posted by poloman

Is this really going to solve the problem? If a youngster can drive his private car legally at 18 why not a rent a car? Also what miracle is going to happen when he is 22 or 23? Why not 25 or 30? The problem with Zoom cars lies else where. You can go to previous page and see for yourself how they are inviting trouble by advising people to take their cars for test drives in any terrain or under any conditions? Many people are simply doing that. These kids would not have taken their cars to where they were, had the vehicle be one of their own.

With age and grey hairs, the various hormones in the body also change. So in a hope that the adrenaline and other hormones which excite the brain to render it useless, would be more stable, I suggested an upper limit of age to hire cars.
As a result, the person driving a Zoomcar will be more relaxed, cautious, predictive with his driving skills, and be more aware of the terrains around.

I am saying this from my experience. When I bought my car 4 years back, I was a under 30. I have ripped my car well for 2 years. Now that I am on the other side of 30, I feel that all those stress and risks are just not the worth.

Had the fellow who died, or who was driving the car, been a little older with more real-world experiences, seen a little bit more of those youtube videos of sand dunes bashing / terrain climbing, he would have understood that:

1) XUV is not the right kind of vehicle to do offroading down a steep incline into a water fall.
2) He would have questioned himself, whether he would be able to climb back.
3) He would have probably asked all the guys to get down and take the risk alone (instead of climbing up a steep incline with an over-loaded car).

All these would have lowered the fatality and serious injuries rate. It would not completely eradicate the problem, but just help in reducing the damages.

I am not even considering what age-limit the Govt has set to obtain license.
When a murderer can be tried under juvenille court just because he is not 18, I have no hopes about our RTOs', or their logic of giving away license.

Originally Posted by Eddy

^^ The idea will not prevent the accidents totally. It's a matter of lowering the probability, assuming that people mature with age - which is true in most cases.

Exactly Eddy.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by Soumyajit9

Exactly
This is the kind of things needed in our country as well.

Jeopardizing things just for the sake of business is not everything. Zoomcar is learning this in a hard way - Losing cars, people getting killed using their cars, earning a bad name.

It is high time that Zoom revises its car hiring's minimum age limit.
I propose 22 or 23 should be the minimum age limit to hire a car.

IMO more than the age limit, it is a question of whether the driver is experienced enough to drive on ghat roads / narrow roads / terrains etc..I know some of my colleagues in the age group of late 35's, who are not experienced enough to drive on 2 lane SH's, leave alone ghat roads.
Right now if one looks at the driving test conducted by RTO, they ask us to go a level road with traffic and ask the driver to make some turns. (correct me if i am wrong). But what about gradient tests???

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by Mik

Passing the buck on our sad licensing authorities is more convenient.

Isn't the corrupt licensing and lax implementation of law the crux of the problem? The added bonus of no/minimal liability of the rental car is just an icing on the cake.
What do you expect the rental agencies to do? Increase mininum age? Increase liability? Increase cost? All things which will affect their business and cause inconvenice to the genuine users.

[Mik]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

Isn't the corrupt licensing and lax implementation of law the crux of the problem? The added bonus of no/minimal liability of the rental car is just an icing on the cake.
What do you expect the rental agencies to do? Increase mininum age? Increase liability? Increase cost? All things which will affect their business and cause inconvenice to the genuine users.

There is no denying that it is the crux of the problem. But, is it a quick solvable problem across all our licensing authorities in all the states considering we have politicians who advocate insipid things like helmetless riding (starting right from our union transport minister!)?
So how can the problem be fixed - quicker and more effectively in the short term?
I believe, at the rental agency end. Maybe the agencies take some steps before they give out the vehicles. Maybe, like in some places, XUV/Scorpios shouldn't be given to people below a certain age. Or even things like user education (how to ascend/descend) which people have no idea about.
Increasing liability could actually be a deterrent too but not for 19/20 year old weekend junkies out on a trip (Liability divided by 7 people per car)

But, as I mentioned previously, I don't expect anything to happen. Companies, be it rentals or manufacturers (Maruti and its unsafe cars), are happy to pass the buck to the 'system'.

[Caramba]

Been meaning to write about one of my zoom car experiences. Last month decided I would hire the GLA for about two days. One of the main factors was having a reasonable ground clearance having found the A class' ground clearance a bit limiting.

All was well, on the day of the pick up I got an email and message notifying that a GLA with XXX number was allotted to me and the car would be ready for pick-up at the time I had booked. I turn up at the pick up point and the car is not there. The staff there tell me that the tyres of the GLA have burst and they are changing the tyres. The car they said, would be back in half hour. I come back after half hour and they tell me the car is another part of town and they would drive me there where I could wait for them to fit new tyres, and then collect the car. This did not fit in with my plans for the day so I asked them to tell me when the car would be available and was told it would come in another one hour. I came back after an hour and as expected the car was not there. Waited for the GLA for another 45 mins and the car finally turns up looking really low for a GLA because it was infact an A class. They have texted me the correct number but not bothered to tell me they have swapped models. Now the only reason I booked the car was I wanted a specific model. I asked the staff who never once when I mentioned that I was waiting for the GLA, told me that the car was switched. Infact the booking sheet still said GLA. They told me that the GLA was at service, like this was not information they had when they sent me an SMS two hours earlier. So I asked them about the messages, there was no reasonable answer other than asking me to check with the call center. I call the call center and they act surprised that the car is not available and then say they will adjust the amount (like they have a choice). I was essentially left with no option as I was travelling out off town and saddled with a car which I did not want.

So watch out for the bait and switch, they clearly are not honest enough to tell you in advance that the car you want is not available.

Coming to the car itself, it looked like it had been used in a bumper car ride at a fair. There was not one part of the car which was not scratched, dented or touched up. So much so I just had to take photos of the car as the checklist could not take note of all the damages. The state of the car really nullified the experience of taking a premium car on hire. Luckily it seemed mechanically okay and there was no problem.

The only conclusion I came away with was this a very user friendly platform but the business practices are no different from anyone else, they just take their consumer's for granted.

[Tanmay K]

Originally Posted by Caramba

I was essentially left with no option as I was travelling out off town and saddled with a car which I did not want.

Wow, your story seems eerily familiar. In my case, I was left with no option than to take the XUV instead of the GLA after waiting for an eternity that their staff took to get their act together.

Originally Posted by Caramba

Last month decided I would hire the GLA for about two days.

Glad to see that you actually managed to get the GLA. I'm guessing mine's an isolated case but I've booked it thrice here in Gurgaon, once in February, once in April and another time in May and each time I was told after the start of the reservation that the car was not available (twice they said it somehow got damaged right before my booking and once that the previous member left the key inside the car). Needless to say, after going through heaps of inconvenience so many times, I've stopped booking "premium" Zoomcars. In fact, any Zoomcar for that matter.

And yes, I was told to wait for the car the last time around which I declined knowing their well-earned reputation for professionalism.

My rule of thumb is: if you need to rent a car for something time-critical and important, don't even consider booking a Zoomcar. Drive your own car, take a cab or borrow your friend's car but don't hope that you will be driving away when your booking starts.

Fun fact: Out of my 13 Zoomcar bookings till date, 2 have started on time, 4 had to be canceled altogether due to delay or unavailability and 7 were delayed by 45-60 minutes (when I could afford to wait, that is). Go figure.

Really, really hoping that Zoomcar's competition raises more VC money and gets some premium cars to compete with.

[Karthik Chandra]

On the contrary i have had pleasant experience with Zoom cars in Chennai probably only twice is the reason, may be further bookings might indicate the true story. I had recently rented the Merc GLA for a friend's reception, rented to just to experience a Merc as I had never driven any luxury cars. It was a different experience as it was my first stint in an AT vehicle. Experienced the 'pushed into the seat' phenomenon as I floored the pedal a couple of times.
Rent: Rs 1320 for 4 hours
Free KMs: 40
Additional KM charge: Rs 16 per KM
Totally paid Rs 1480 including Rs 160 for additional 10 KMs
Its really worth it. These charges have been revised now

[Tanmay K]

Originally Posted by Karthik Chandra

On the contrary i have had pleasant experience with Zoom cars in Chennai probably only twice is the reason, may be further bookings might indicate the true story. I had recently rented the Merc GLA for a friend's reception, rented to just to experience a Merc as I had never driven any luxury cars. It was a different experience as it was my first stint in an AT vehicle. Experienced the 'pushed into the seat' phenomenon as I floored the pedal a couple of times.
Rent: Rs 1320 for 4 hours
Free KMs: 40
Additional KM charge: Rs 16 per KM
Totally paid Rs 1480 including Rs 160 for additional 10 KMs
Its really worth it. These charges have been revised now

Good to hear this. I've heard good things about Zoomcar Bangalore too (although never tried them myself), I think what I experienced several times could likely be specific to Delhi/NCR.

[ptushar]

Hi. I am planning to book a car from Zoomcar to travel from Pune to Goa. The route planned is via Belgaum. Hence I will cross from Maharashtra to Karnataka and then from Karnataka to Goa. Does this mean that I will have to pay state entry tax twice i.e. once when I enter KA and then again when I enter Goa.

Also on my way back, will I need to pay the state tax for KA again as I will now be entering from Goa to KA? Or will my payment that I made on the way to Goa be valid on the way back.

My journey is for three days.

[wanderer4x4]

Originally Posted by ptushar

Hi. I am planning to book a car from Zoomcar to travel from Pune to Goa. The route planned is via Belgaum. Hence I will cross from Maharashtra to Karnataka and then from Karnataka to Goa. Does this mean that I will have to pay state entry tax twice i.e. once when I enter KA and then again when I enter Goa.

Also on my way back, will I need to pay the state tax for KA again as I will now be entering from Goa to KA? Or will my payment that I made on the way to Goa be valid on the way back.

My journey is for three days.

Yes, you'd need to pay for both the states as the RTO gates are just inside each state border.
You need not pay while returning as the tax payment is valid for at least 7 days.