Carzonrent Goa selfdrive car rental experience

Last week I drove in and around Goa in a Mahindra Thar, rented from Carzonrent.

Carzonrent’s self drive service in Goa is facilitated by some third party operator and my experience in Goa was entirely different from the signature carzonrent self-drive experience I was used to. 

In this article I am explaining the difference and some nuisances you should be aware of

Factor	Carzonrent Goa	Carsonrent Rest of India
Fuel	Empty tank	Full tank
Deposit	Rs 5000 cash, returned in cash while returning	Amount blocked on credit card, 30-70k
Proof	One Original ID card to be given.	None- photocopy of passport/DL etc will do.
Paperwork	None- only visual inspection	Existing damages are well marked and adequate paperwork is done before handing over the car
Time counting	8 AM to 8 AM is counted as 1 day, not always convenient.	24 hours from any selected time is counted as one day- gives lot of flexibility.
This time restriction seem to be inducted to make people book for an extra day. Most of the flights arrive and depart by mid day, so if you need a car from airport to airport, you will have to pay for an extra day, since their day begins and ends at 8 AM. I wanted car from 4PM to 4PM. If they had 24 hour format I would have booked for 5 days. Because of this time limit, I didn’t feel like paying unnecessarily and booked from 8AM next day till 8AM of the day of my return.  Managed remaining time without self-drive car
Restrictions	To be used within Goa border only	Can be driven to other states, after paying applicable fees at the border
No one has an explanation why cars rented on self drive in Goa should not be driven outside the state border. This is not the case anywhere else in India, but Carzonrent’s Goa partner has this strange rule. I can understand if neighboring states want to charge a permit fee, but here the problem is from Goa Government. I drove all the way to Chorla ghat, crossed Goa State border. No one stopped me, I drove till Karnataka checkpost and asked if I can drive this car to Belgaum- they said it is perfectly fine. Then I came back to Goa thinking I can go to Belgaum now. However, after sometime, I get a call from agency stating that Goa checkpost people have called his office about my car crossing the state border. I told him I am back and he said “After one month we will get huge fine!” When asked how much, he stated “ Rs 18000”. I don't believe this is a legitimate amount- he just blabbered some high value that came to his mind. In order to comply with this odd rule, I had to change my plans of visiting Belgaum and Dandeli and used the time to explore more of Goa interior. Anyway end of the rental I didn’t pay anything extra for crossing border for a few mins. I think the agency is not ready to pay required annual fees for out of state movement, or it is some strange rule by Goa State Government to restrict tourists within the state or make them rent another car for out of state travel. Goa is a small state and a tourist staying longer might be tempted to visit nearby towns like Dandeli, Karwar, Amboli, Pune, Mumbai etc which are on the other side of Goa border. Few resorts around Doodhsagar are also on the other side of Goa border. This ‘within the state only’ restriction can play spoilsport to one’s plans.
Vehicle documents	Not shown or explained.. “No one will stop this vehicle” is the brief given to me	Original documents are kept in the car
Accessories	None (not sure if nothing was given because it was Thar)	Fire extinguisher, umbrella, tissue paper etc are kept in the car
Daily usage limit	None (I was told on phone that there’s a 150km limit per day and beyond that Rs 25 per km needs to be paid, however this was a false claim. I didn’t pay extra per km	None
Officially there’s no usage limit. But on phone I was told by local operator that there’s a 150km per day usage limit. I checked my booking and cross checked with Carzonrent, they confirmed that there is no such charge. 150kms per day is nothing- if you drive from North end of Goa city to south extreme, it will be 75kms. So what kind of usage is possible within 150kms? Also Rs 25/km is too much- Innovas with fuel and drive come at Rs 12 per km, so there’s no reason one should charge Rs 15 per km for a self drive thar, which is half the price of Innova and renter is filling fuel. I think this statement is only made to scare me off from driving too much.  I logged 950kms in 4 days… Going by their rate, I should have paid another 9k, which no customer will pay, after having paid Rs 2500 per day for the car and fuel extra. During collection, I was prepared for a debate should he demand money, but the guy collected the car without any demand for extra money. So this possible dispute got resolved peacefully
Other points	Delivery and collection was perfectly on time I had booked to take delivery from Madgaon, but I was offered pickup and delivery at KTC Panjim at no extra cost. This saved me some travel, though didn’t eliminate it completely.

I read in a TOI report that Goan taxi industry is heavily unionized and it is very difficult for an outside to setup and run taxi business in Goa. Probably this is the reason why Carzonrent had to go with a local partner instead of having their own staff and cars. I have not tried other selfdrive operators in Goa, hence not in a position to compare.

Goa has more self-drive vehicles than any other state. Ideally they should be setting standards for self-drive process simplification etc. But the process isn’t very simple. Except the restriction on cross border movement, I didn’t have any other issues, but you never know. Without proper process, paperwork and checks in place, when things go wrong, resolving the situation could get tricky and may lead to exploitation of customers. 

Detailed review of Thar is published here.

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