[johannskaria]

Indus Motors, one of the top Maruti dealers have now launched Indus Go which is their foray into the self-drive rental market in the country.

With about 40 touch points across Kerala, the company has covered major cities, towns, airports and railway stations. And has a fleet of cars ranging from the Maruti Suzuki Wagon R to the Toyota Fortuner.

Home delivery services are available at an additional Rs 500, while fuel is not part of the package offered.

The company already have plans in the pipeline to expand their business to reach metros in India.

Website :- https://indusgo.in/

[Rajeevraj]

Good initiative. Currently the availability seems limited to few locations. Some are listed as home delivery, but not clear on the delivery radius.

The range of cars looks good. From the Celerio to the Crysta and XUV. Both manual and automatic options available. Rates seem to be 1500-2000 per day for the entry level to the C segmenters.

[Speed.Demon]

Listed cars include the Ignis diesel and the Scross 1.6. Clever way to move some unsold inventory from the yard?

[mallumowgli]

This is good news

Checked the website. They cover the state from the three big cities of Kochi, Calicut and Trivandrum. Rest of the states you need to opt for the home delivery option. Even in Kochi, Trivandrum and Calicut pick up points are fixed. Rates seem quite reasonable.

[johannskaria]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Currently the availability seems limited to few locations. Some are listed as home delivery, but not clear on the delivery radius.

The range of cars looks good. From the Celerio to the Crysta and XUV. Both manual and automatic options available.

The range of cars and the pricing shows a level of commitment from the group which looks pretty promising IMHO.

For eg Thrissur only has a home delivery option, which makes me believe that the delivery radius is much larger.

Originally Posted by Speed.Demon

Listed cars include the Ignis diesel and the Scross 1.6. Clever way to move some unsold inventory from the yard?

Looks that way, but the variety of cars made available id very encouraging

Originally Posted by mallumowgli

This is good news

They cover the state from the three big cities of Kochi, Calicut and Trivandrum. Rest of the states you need to opt for the home delivery option. Even in Kochi, Trivandrum and Calicut pick up points are fixed. Rates seem quite reasonable.

Yeah, an organised player was much necessary for this market as NRI's and self-drive enthusiasts used to hire private vehicles on their vacations. And the risk factor associated was really high along with lot of unprofessional behavior.

[naveen.raju]

A very good initiative. Seeing a lot of "rent a car" players in Cochin now. Let more companies establish here so that we get very competitive rates and good selection of cars.

As for Indus, they should introduce more pickup points and eliminate the additional charge soon since some of them are right in the center of the city.

[mpksuhas]

Good to have more players in the field. Hope they are able to keep prices competitive compared to other operators.

Apart from the tourist / outstation drive customers, KL has huge market for long duration rentals thanks to huge NRI population who visits the state during their yearly vacation. For catering to that, there is a well established (illegal) private vehicle rental companies across KL. If Indus manages to break in that category, they will have their work easy.

[shibujp]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Good to have more players in the field. Hope they are able to keep prices competitive compared to other operators.

Apart from the tourist / outstation drive customers, KL has huge market for long duration rentals thanks to huge NRI population who visits the state during their yearly vacation. For catering to that, there is a well established (illegal) private vehicle rental companies across KL. If Indus manages to break in that category, they will have their work easy.

That is going to be very difficult. Reason being that the rates offered by these illegal players is very good. Further more Indus allows you only 60km per day free. Anything more and they charge 7 bucks for every km over that. Most NRIs on holiday do anything between 150 - 300 km in a day, visiting relatives etc. I think their km restriction has to be increased or completely done away with to eat into market share.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by shibujp

That is going to be very difficult. Reason being that the rates offered by these illegal players is very good.

Yes. Cochin (tourist, IT crowd, popular railhead and airport for Munnar) and to an extent Trivandrum may get good short rental crowd. However, Calicut will be interesting to watch.

[R-Six]

Good to see some organized set up for such self-drive rentals in Kerela. While the rates might be competitive compared to Zoom car and the likes, I think the local (illegal) rent-a-car guys might offer a better package.

Also, most of the Dubai folks would rather prefer to get their car without any documentation in place. With such an organized setup, I don't think the folks on vacation from the Middle East would prefer this over their next door rent-a-car guy.

Also, another advantage of the illegal rent-a-car guys in Kerala is the flexibility to change cars if you don't like it. Also, the local players often have brand new cars at their disposal for those who keep the cars for an entire month. Indus might not be able to offer that.

[mpksuhas]

My brother send this picture of Indus Go's Calicut yard.

Looks like they are parking non rental vehicles also over there.



In the meantime, Zoom cars have started operations at Calicut.

[rajesh1868]

Recently used Indusgo in Kochi for 3 days. I was actually planning to book Zoomcar as they were having some good discount offers. I wanted door delivery and pickup back. Though Zoom was offering it, I was unable to select it once I gave my address.


So tried Indusgo. Their rates were competitive with Zoom but with no offers. But they were having delivery and pickup from any location. I wanted to confirm if they would deliver at 6am. So called their customer care and I was told that they would do 24/7. I asked if they have any offers and they didnt have any. I delayed booking for some hours and fb understood that I am interested in Indusgo. There was an ad with 10% discount offer when i logged into fb next.



Booked a Brezza Automatic without fuel. We need to pay the booking amount and also a refundable security deposit of 5k. It was delivered at around 5.45 am. The person who delivered marked in his doc where all there were scratches. I took a video of the car in his presence, This proved helpful later.


The fuel indicator showed that it was half full. I was supposed to fill it back to the same level when returning. If it is less, they will deduct an equivalent amount. If it is more, they will refund us the same. En route while having a stop over I observed that the rear bumper had a big dent. I had missed spotting this in the early morning hours when it was delivered nor the guy who delivered it mentioned any thing about it. I hoped that my video had some evidence.



I had booked the car for 3 days and the pick up was scheduled at 7pm. A different person came and he told I had filled the tank upto 55% and will get a refund for that. He spotted the dent and told me that it was not marked when delivering the car to me. Fortunately the video I took had captured it. I showed it to him and that settled the issue.


Altogether it was a positive experience.
One con I felt was that while booking, none of the cars shows the variant. I got the mid variant. Not sure if they provide higher variant.


Refund of security deposit and the extra fuel got credited in about 3-4 days. I had booked using credit card. As per them if it was wallet, then refund would be faster than this and for netbanking, slower.

[Ragavsr]

Originally Posted by rajesh1868

So tried Indusgo. Their rates were competitive with Zoom but with no offers.

Do they hold the original DL or any other ID proof as collateral?

This is a disgusting and illegal requirement most unorganised self drive companies and even some organized players require. This usually puts me off from hiring bikes in Shimla and Leh.

[rajesh1868]

Originally Posted by Ragavsr

Do they hold the original DL or any other ID proof as collateral?

.

You need to upload a soft copy of your license while booking and produce the original for verification on delivery. You need not hand over your license. There is a refundable security of 5k you need to pay.

[mpp19]

Seems to be a good initiative, but with a higher security deposit and lesser free km per day, would it work out for the company?

How is the insurance coverage (i.e. inclusions, exclusions etc.) and is the onus of responsibility on the customer?