Updated on 16th March 2013:
Ajmat and I met the co-founder of Zoom and gave him a tough 2 hours with some hard questions. David told us a bit about Zoom and clarified some of the questions that T-BHPians had asked in this thread.
Having seen "success" in China by other self drive agencies, they decided on India. The founders with no inkling about India came over and set up shop and have spent two years understanding the market and its legalities.
The response after team-bhp's thread has given them a fortunate problem. The level of inquiries has stepped up and also the number of refusals due to less supply has spiked. We have inadvertently caused them to advance their ramp up plans.
Ford, Mahindra and BMW have been very co-operative and supportive. Ford also provided help in introducing them to various potential stakeholders. Don't expect Zoom to add cars from other manufacturer just yet. They plan is to stick onto Mahindra and Ford for now on and add BMW shortly.
The Cars:
- Currently they have 4 Ford Figo Diesels and 3 Mahindra Scorpios. The plan is to ramp upto 15 shortly.
- All vehicles are registered as self drive tourist vehicles with All India Permit. They have black plates with yellow font.
- Each car is fitted with a special monitoring device. They are able to monitor cars, disable them completely and also monitor speeds. When we say monitor speed, if the car is doing more than a certain speed in what might be a congested area, frequently, then this is flagged.
- Cars are locked and unlocked using the smartphone app or via SMS for now. The key should remain inside the vehicle at all times.
- They can also monitor fuel levels, so folks who fill 10 litres but give them a bill of 30 litres on a consistently basis will be toast from the membership.
The Terms:
- Zoom always pays for fuel. Hard to believe but their rental prices are including fuel. Currently if you rent a car for 24 hours, they allow upto 150kms (this may get revised). Post 150kms they will charge a nominal fee per km which has not yet ben determined.
- Rental is hourly basis or 24 hourly basis. Any 24 hour period is accepted. So you can take a car at 2am and return it by 2am the next day.
- Until April 1st 2013 the kms are unlimited and Zoom pays for fuel. So if you plan a weekend trip to Goa for 3 days in a Scorpio (before April 1st) it will cost you Rs.7,500 all inclusive. If you need to fill diesel, they will reimburse the amount.
- A lot of trust and honesty is required - if there is damage or similar, disclose it and a pragmatic view will be taken about it.
- Founders are very hands-on, one sits with the cars and the other sits in the call centre. They spend a lot of time talking to the customer.
- Rates are subject to fuel price volatility. Else take the bus!
Damages/Insurance:
There were a lot of questions about damages and insurance.
- All cars are comprehensively insured.
- Incase of an accident or any damage caused to vehicle, members must inform Zoom immediately.
- Zoom charges a maximum of Rs.3,000 as damage claims. If there is a small damage then they may charge a lesser amount just for the damage.
- If there is an accident caused and the member is found to have violated traffic rules or Zoom's terms and conditions, then he is liable to pay for full damage and not just the 3,000.
Example: If the member was driving under the influence or a non registered member was driving and they got into an accident, the member is liable for all damages.
- If you break any traffic rules, Zoom must be informed. They will levy a nominal processing fee of Rs.150 + the fine amount to make sure the cars don't have a pile of penalties.
Future plans:
- They will spread out in Bangalore to locations such as Koramangla, Whitefield, Electronics City and Indiranagar. Cars have to be returned to same locations where picked up from.
- It will be a single pick-up/ return point basis of rental for now. Pick up here and drop off there will not happen until they have a 500+ critical mass.
- There has been good response from apartment residential comittees. They are also targetting "mature" educational institutions like IIM and IISC.
- They will be adding BMW's and Mahindra E20 in the future.
- The focus is on Bangalore for now. Once it works seamlessly, it will spread out.