One of the disadvantages I’ve found India to deal with is the lack of self-drive car hires such as the Avis and Hertz offerings globally. The traditional preference in India used to be of a chauffeur-driven car, and most fleet owners/operators still offer those options only to their clients.

However, last year, Carzonrent, which is one of India’s oldest car fleet operator, decided to shake things up a bit, and launched a new self-drive offering called Myles which started up from Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, and now is offered across 16 cities in India for the moment. I’d been keeping an eye on them for a while, and I thought now is a good time to talk about them.

 

 

For a newly launched service, the lineup of offerings is very interesting. I notice that there is a large number of car models/types on offer straddling the price spectrum: from a small electric car such as the Mahindra e2o, to various compacts such as Maruti Swift & Volkswagen Polo and Economy Sedans such as Toyota Etios, Maruti Swift D’zire. If you want a swankier car, you have the option to pick higher end sedans such as the Nissan Sunny and Volkswagen Vento, or take it up a few notches driving around in a Mercedes E or C class car. For the sporty kinds, there is the XUV500 and Duster amongst other models.

Now, for any car rental service to be able to get traction, availability has to be widespread and this is another thing I liked about Myles. There are 16 cities across India where cars are available, and there are multiple pick-up & drop points in some of these cities. The following cities are covered at the moment:

• Delhi (including Noida & Gurgaon)
• Bangalore
• Mumbai
• Hyderabad
• Goa
• Chennai
• Pune
• Ahmedabad
• Jaipur
• Chandigarh
• Vishakhapatnam
• Amritsar
• Manesar
• Bhubaneshwar

The rental model is customised to suit Indian conditions as well. You could hire a car for a few hours in a day, or hire for a day, or few days at a go. In case you hire a car for a few hours, the rates quoted are on a per hour basis (inclusive of a number of kilometres). Which means, you don’t have to return the car with a full tank. They just check how many kilometres you drove, and bill you accordingly.

For example, if you choose to rent out a Fortuner in Delhi, you’d be charged INR 599 plus taxes per hour, but you do get 25 kilometres inclusive in those rates. You need to be taking it on rent for a minimum of two hours, and no security deposit is required. Take a look, when I looked up to hire a car in Delhi for 3 hours on a random date:

If you need a car for renting for a few days, then the rates quoted are only for the car, ex-fuel, and you do need to be able to provide a security deposit for the car (via a guarantee on your credit card, just like at the hotels). The security deposit, I am told, gets knocked off after the invoice is settled, within a few days, and varies according to the car type. You do need to return the car tanked up fully, otherwise you get charged for the fuel shortfall and a service charge as well. And you don’t need to buy insurance separately, because comprehensive insurance comes as a part of the rental.

What do you need to hire a car? A passport/voter ID as proof of ID, Driving license and a credit card.

With Myles around, I can finally think of renting a car on my holiday travels rather than just having to depend on a chauffeur driven ride or public transport. And while I will try out the service sooner than later, I was looking for reviews and I found this on the internet.

In fact, I liked this concept so much that I am right now in the midst of working a giveaway with the team that runs Myles, and do check back soon to be able to participate.

Have you tried out their services? What has been your experience so far?

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