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-   -   Drivers by the hour - DriveU.in (Mumbai & other cities) (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/177431-drivers-hour-driveu-mumbai-other-cities.html)

Services Offered:

• Temporary Drivers for round / one-way / outstation trips.

What I like:

• Works as promised. Driver availability is good. Never had a request turned down.
• Most drivers are good & safe. DriveU claims all its drivers are police verified, and certified by Maruti Driving School.
• Pricing is reasonable. Rs. 89 / hour for the first hour, then pay by the minute.
• Night-time charge is also reasonable (150 bucks extra). Don't drive drunk!
• Their App works like a charm. Detects starting location automatically (no typing in addresses).
• Just an hour's advance notice needed.
• Track your driver's location & arrival in real-time.
• Several payment options (including cash).
• Chauffeur wears a DriveU shirt and arrives with a seat cover & floor mat so that your car is kept clean. However, 1 driver we had didn't carry a seat cover.
• Allocates drivers based on the type of car you have (e.g. SUV, automatic).
• For the first time in decades, we don't have a full-time chauffeur in the house. No need anymore with services like DriveU, Uber & Ola. Our full-time driver was the most underutilised staff member with merely 1 - 2 hours of actual productive time.

What I don't like:

• The bad apple or two in the driver pool is inevitable. Have used them 10 times. 6 drivers were good, 2 were average and 2 were awful. I use DriveU only with the Sunny (not the more special cars).
• Despite providing the pickup location, drivers will keep calling & asking for directions (much like Uber / Ola drivers).
• Some of their drivers are from out of town. Hence, their knowledge of local roads is poor. One driver we had didn't even know where Churchgate is :D.
• An additional 100 buck charge if it's a one-way trip. For short trips, it makes Uber / Ola cheaper then.

Pricing: Very reasonable.

Speciality / USP: Only provider of its kind that seems to have an organised, systematic approach. There are many others, but they are usually run by one disorganised boss. DriveU appears to be professionally managed.

What I have bought from them: Me & my family members have used DriveU about 10 times already.

Contact Information

- Website
- Android App
- iOS App

Uses your phone's GPS to lock in on the pickup location:


Estimate calculator:


Track your driver's progress in real-time. This dude arrived on a motorcycle!


Rate drivers at the end of each trip. Hopefully, they treat ratings as seriously as Uber:


History. I have had many more trips from the phones of friends / family:


Receipt emailed to you post-trip:

Great concept. Hope its here to stay.

Any idea about what happens in case of an accident?

This is what it says. The owner of the vehicle is responsible for everything.

More than that, this is rather scary - they claim they own all your personal data and they are free to use or sell it as they please!

Thanks for sharing GTO

Passed on the same to my extended family in Delhi

One thought which comes to my mind though. Is it ok to leave the car with the driver when doing multiple errands in a day? or should one lock the car and ask the driver to wait ( I do understand all come with valid police background verification)

Just thinking more on the practical side

^^^Its probably safe to say that the risk is the same as handing the keys over to a valet; you have a contract in this case with DriveU and if the driver makes off wit the vehicle then the insurance is there to take care of things then on. Also, most cities in India have dreadful parking and one of the main objectives in availing this is to ensure one does not have to go through the harrowing experience of finding parking.

and obviously this market would also boom.

You guys can check out http://drivify.in/ too.

I guess you can make this a thread for these type of services.

Also check out www.driversuvidha.com. They have started services in Mumbai and Bhopal. Used services of their drivers in Bhopal. Impressed.

I have used or tried to use DriveU in the past and the experience has been forgettable. Allow me to elaborate.

This happened a month ago or so. I was flying to Bengaluru with my colleague. He has a car at home and his driver comes around to pick us up from the airport usually. But that day, his driver was down with flu. So I decided to use the services of DriveU. Opened the app, which crashed two times before starting finally. Anyway, created a new account and the app asked for an OTP. Waited 2 mins. 5. 10. Repeated the OTP request multiple times, no response. Finally, after trying 2 other numbers, was able to create an account on my friend’s father’s number. Booked a driver for 9 PM since we would land by 10 PM. Confirmed on the app. Fast forward 2 hours. Reached Bangalore at 10 PM. Called up my friend’s dad and asked him if the driver had reached home. His dad said that the driver wasn’t taking his call initially. After 30 mins, he called back and said that the booking has been cancelled due to some technical issue. His dad was fuming and said that he would raise a complaint with the company. On hearing this, the driver disconnected the call. :Frustrati

As I said, totally forgettable experience. I would not risk using DriveU's services again. Although that night, a nice lady who was driving down to MG Road agreed to drop us home.

Used DriveU again on Saturday. Mum said the driver drove well and was courteous. :thumbs up to the service. Used from noon to 9 p.m. for 900 bucks. I'd say the driver charges are reasonable.

Here's a picture of the seat cover:

DriveU launched in Pune this week. Installed the app on my better half' mobile. Will try using coming Thursday when she have to venture out with my little devil.
What all I have to be careful about? I will keep the vehicle documents with me for sure, anything else that I have to be concerned about. Their FAQ section says, all their drivers are police verified.
Will share my experience soon.

Bangalore has a new initiative for hiring on call drivers. I heard about DriveU from an article in the newspaper and decided to give them a try for my dad. We haven't been able to get a reliable full time guy and previously tried Ezi-drive. After drivers not showing up or drivers not being well trained we stopped relying on them. So far DriveU looks very promising.

Services offered:
Well trained drivers available by the hour. Easy mobile app makes it easy to call a driver.

How it works:

1. You have to download the Android or iOS app and register using your mobile number.
2. The app automatically detects your current location or you can change the location.
3. Make an advance booking at the date and time you need. You can try immediate booking but it depends on driver availability. I was able to get a driver arrive at my house within an hour once.
4. After you make the booking, you will get a call from DriveU customer care. They will confirm the booking, ask for the car details (make, model, MT or AT) and whether you need a driver for one way drop or a round trip.
5. The app then gets updated with the driver details including contact details. You can also track the driver enroute to your house.
6. Once the driver arrives at your house he starts the meter on his smartphone.
7. The drivers are dressed in the DriveU uniform and carry a slip on seat cover for the driver's seat as well as a foot mat.
8. After the trip, the driver ends the trip and you pay as per the amount on the app.

What I like:

• Easy to use app to book a driver in advance.
• Drivers are very well trained, courteous and well dressed in the company uniform (Shirt and Cap)
• Before entering the vehicle the driver puts on a seat cover as well as paper foot mat.
• Was surprised to see that almost all the drivers I got knew how to operate the electric seats, electric ORVM's and climate control. DriveU has an induction training for the drivers as well as test drive before they are onboarded.
• Charges are by the minute after the first hour which is very good as you don't have to pay for the full hour if you use for say 2 hours and 20mins.

What I didn't like:

• Even though they use the app, there's still some manual process as they call you to confirm the booking details. The app is still being improved upon.
• If you want a one way drop after a late night or partying there's an additional one way surcharge of Rs.250 between 9PM-7AM. The surcharge is Rs.50 during the day.
• Although they have a good screening system in place in which they don't take drivers with less than 5 years experience and ask for reference letters, there is a small chance you will get a driver who is not as good. I got one guy who wasn't very familiar with the roads and was not very gentle with the clutch and accelerator.

Pricing:

• Rs. 99/hour any time of the day. You get a Rs.50 discount for more than 4 hours and Rs.25 discount for every hour after that.
• What's nice is that the pricing is by the minute after the first hour. So a 2.5 hours trip will not be rounded off to 3 hours but will be Rs.247.
• For now you pay the driver cash as per the amount displayed on the app once the driver ends the booking on his smartphone.

Alternatives:
1. Ezi-Drive
2. Total Drive

Contact Information
- You have to download the iOS or Android app to use this service.
- http://www.driveu.in/
- https://www.facebook.com/DriveUdriver

What happens in case of vehicle theft/theft of goods in vehicle due to driver negligence ?
This is a good service, which can be used with older cars/second car but I would be scared to give my regular car to them.

A horrendous experience with DriveU resulted in...





Have some guests from abroad over who wanted to go shopping. Brother called for a driver from DriveU. The dude crashed the Sunny while taking it out of the building :Frustrati:Frustrati.

Mainly (& luckily), it's the bumper that's damaged. Car is at the shop being fixed.

Shortly after this accident, UberHire was launched - link. Just what the doctor ordered, I say! Now, whenever a chauffeur-driven ride is desired, instead of DriveU + my car, it'll be UberHire.

Accidents can & do happen. But when it's in the compound itself, that tells me DriveU's staff quality has nosedived.

:Shockked:
That's pretty bad. How do they (DriveU) entertain such drivers (???) without proper skill / experience? Having a valid driving license is the only qualification?

PS: Since it is very much clear that the fault is with the driver himself, how does this damage gets compensated?