Kerala: Rent-a-car business in its twilight

THIRUVANANANTHAPURAM: A decade back when driverless rent-a-car business started booming, the criminal activities committed by clients prompted authorities to persecute entrepreneurs. Today most operators have liquidated their vehicles or run them as a taxi as they could not lobby to make their operations legal. The ever increasing maintenance cost and anti-socials hiring them make the business risky.  

“I have ten cars, but my business also is considered legal as you need a minimum of 50 cars to run a business. Kerala doesn’t have such a single operator of that scale. This is not the case in many states where they have players like Zoom cars and Myles,” said a Pattom based operator. "In other states, they take a copy of driving license, address proof and caution deposit depending on the make of car. Here we take blank cheques and give cars as if they were sold to the client. This may help us in court if the car is damaged or something, but there is no foolproof guarantee”.

This week also Peroorkada police arrested a man for swindling Rs 5 lakh token amount from a Nedumangad-based trader offering to sell a BMW car taken on rent. Earlier this year, various chain snatcher gangs who used rented cars were held in the city. “NRIs are our preferred clients as they take hatchbacks and sedans for around Rs 20,000 or 25,000 per month and use it for family purpose. They clock fewer kilometres. On the other hand, we charge Rs 1400-Rs 1800 for hiring on a day-to-day basis.

Such customers are not really beneficial as they use the vehicle as much as possible and clock more kilometres,” said a Poojapura based operator. None of these operators rents their premium cars without drivers. “A piece of legislation that allows us to operate with few cars was in the pipeline, but we are unorganised and are losing hope. We rent cars the same way a person rents out building. However, unlike them we enjoy no protection,” he added.