Bengaluru RTO Seizes 20+ Rented Cars: Zoomcar Users In Trouble
Bengaluru is known as the Silicon valley of India, due to its booming IT sector. The city hosts a huge techie crowd. A lot of IT employees don’t prefer to take their cars and SUVs to the respective workplaces. Bengaluru’s infamous traffic is one reason for this. These vehicles often stay unused in their garages for long. With the advent of car lending apps like Zoomcar, it has become a practice for techies to deploy their cars and SUVs as self-drive car rentals via apps and make a quick buck doing so. Bengaluru’s transport department, in a recent crackdown, seized several such cars and SUVs.
According to the law, one cannot rent out a ‘White-board car’. The confiscated vehicles, which include Baleno, Glanza, Safari, Dzire, and various models from Kia, Tata, and Hyundai, were slapped with heavy fines (Rs 30,000-50,000). The owners of these cars were also booked under Section 200 of the Motor Vehicles Act.
The Crackdown: More Details
The surprise crackdown was pulled off by the Kasturinagar RTO (regional transport office). It identified and hauled away 21 private cars (those with White number plates) which were attached to Zoomcar, and deployed as self-drive rentals. The transport officials, later clarified that some of these were high-end SUVs and none of them had the required permits for operating as rented cars.
The enforcement drive was carried out by a team of six, after repeated warnings were ignored- Regional transport officer (East) GP Krishnananda. This is the first time that the department swoops in hard on Zoomcar’s self-drive rentals in the last two years. Zoomcar’s rent-a-motorcab licence had expired in January last year, and the same could make things more difficult for the people affected by the enforcement.
The car-sharing platform allegedly hired white-board vehicles for commercial use, violating the motor vehicle rules here. The enforcement drive was carried out with proper planning and meticulous execution. The team from the transport department, posed as customers and made reservations to identify the violating vehicles.
They approached the owners on the Zoomcar platform, posing as regular customers. They even said that they were embarking on roadtrips with friends and families. Once the bookings were confirmed, they went to the location to collect the vehicle. The cars were then picked up. Just before doing so, the officials reconfirmed that they bore whiteboards. These were then taken straight to the Kasturinagar RTO office.
The car-sharing platform lets the owners track the live location of their vehicles. Using this feature, the owners of the affected vehicles soon found out their cars to be at an unusual location- the RTO! Panicked, they called to find out what was going on. The officials then told them who they were and why the vehicles were seized.
"Zoomcar still hasn't renewed its aggregator licence. Private vehicles cannot be used commercially — it's a clear loss to the government and totally illegal. Of the 25 cars seized, most belonged to software engineers, some were from other states including BH-series, and one was even owned by a defence employee.
Each vehicle now faces a fine of Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000, while out-of-state cars must also pay Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh as lifetime tax. The vehicles will be released only after fines are cleared and the owners give an undertaking not to reattach them."- says Regional transport officer (East) GP Krishnananda.
Commercial Cars And Their Number Plates
Our Motor Vehicle Act clearly defines how vehicles used in the transport business should be. They cannot be registered as private cars. They should have Yellow boards- Yellow board with Black letters for chauffeur driven cabs and Black boards with Yellow letters for self-drive rentals. The tax slabs and other regulations also vary between private and commercial vehicles.
Enforcement drives to find violators of these are expected to intensify in the upcoming months, and will not likely be limited to Bengaluru alone.