Carzonrent, the only car rental company to have three largest Global/Indian PE funds-SIDBI, Sequoia/West Bridge AND BTS Advisors. Ever since then there has been no looking back said Mr. Rajiv Vij. Excerpts:
1. Could you tell us about your journey of creating a brand Carzonrent?
A brainchild of Mr. Rajiv K. Vij, CEO, CIPL (COR India Pvt. Ltd.) was launched in the year 2000 with a short-term objective of offering a safe and reliable medium of travel to customers and a long-term vision of giving form and structure to the unorganized Indian personal ground transportation industry and helping the industry gets its due recognition.
CIPL was the first company to receive PE investment in the year 2005 and the only car rental company to have three largest Global/ Indian PE funds-SIDBI, Sequoia/West Bridge & BTS Advisors. Ever since then there has been no looking back.
The company was the pioneer in India in launching online booking system, car credit card payment system, mobile application for making bookings, knowing the status of booked cab and the real-time tracking of traffic on the way through the easy mobile application suite and point to point Limo services with Wi-Fi facility.
Today, the company has over 800+ employees, over 8500+ drivers – the most experienced, professional and versatile in the industry. It has the presence in 39 cities with over 102 locations, 10 Airports, Major Railway Stations and prominent hotels and malls. With its fleet of 10000+ cars CIPL does 25000 trips daily clocking 100000 km every day to satisfy 6000000 customers annually. Operating on a 4T matrix – Technology, Training, Timely delivery & Transparency.
2. How is Carzonrent different from any other services provider?
CIPL today is the largest Urban Mobility Solutions provider in the country. Believes and delivers on the philosophy, you don’t need to buy a car. Be it Self-drive, Carpooling, Radio Taxi, Corporate Car Rental, Intra-city, Outstation, Luxury Car Rental Hire and International Car Hire, CIPL delivers 360° mobility solutions.
With the gamut of services under the stable, CIPL provides a car for as short as 20 minutes to as long as the life-cycle of the car. Our number 088 222 2222 & the website www.carzonrent.com provides an opportunity for a consumer to transact for any of our services.
The CIPL portfolio strength lets it create product differentiation in all the segments – budget, economy and premium, and acquire larger share of the markets that it enters. The company has association with car rental providers across the globe covering over 145 countries. “Our wide network base and the largest fleet size ensure that we are able to cater to every customer’s need at any given point in time”.
CIPL is the India’s 1st company to launch a self-drive car service in a full-fledged manner across the country. The service under the brand name Myles was launched with just 14 cars in Delhi, Mumbai & Bangalore. Within a year, CIPL has expanded its self-drive network to 21 cities with 1200 cars already.
One can choose from any of the 32 car models starting from a Nano Twist, Swift, Polo, Innova, XUV500, Fortuner to a Mercedes E Class. The rental starts from Rs.75/hour (inclusive fuel), Rs.399/day to Rs.9500/day.
As a leader in the category we want to create a wholesome value proposition, keeping the consumer in the center. We have always focused on setting industry standards in India. In the coming financial year, we will be focusing on retail, through the largest network of self-drive and chauffer driven services along with more tie-ups with the airports.
3. Global presence of Carzonrent?
CIPL has an extensive global footprints stretching to 145 countries across the globe. Indian travelers are assisted to pre book their travels through our portal through this large number of associate network built successfully over a period of time. It is a comfortable scenario for an Indian traveler to book a car for an International Destination in the Indian currency. We have successfully forged alliances with leading international service providers such as auto europe and rentalcars.com. In times to come we are determined to expand this network.
4. Can you elucidate the concept – Self Driven Cars?
Myles the self-drive service allows everyone to have a car without the burden of owning one.
With Myles self-drive cars, there is no EMIs, insurance payment, maintenance costs, etc. When you own a vehicle you will use it for less than 200 days in a year, on an average, so the cost of not using it for 165 days is also something the owner has to bear. With the changing scenario, Myles self- drive is getting very popular in India, which still follows the tradition of owning a personal car and travelling in it while people outside are very open to self-drive culture.
The service allows the consumers to have an extra seat & the option of picking up a car by an hour/day/week or a month. Our 32 car models, allows our consumers to choose basis their need & moods. The service is highly acknowledged by the customers and the company is already observing a utilization of 75 percent for its fleet of 1200 cars.
To cater to the growing demand, the company is ramping up its fleet to 5,000 Myles cars at an investment of Rs.400 crore over the next 3 years. This is in addition to the Rs.50-crore invested in Myles over the last 12 months; CIPL focus is to grow Myles as the global self-drive brand in India.
This phenomenon is well-practiced in the western part of the world which is rapidly catching up in India as well. The same has contributed to the Myles growth trajectory & thus making it the fastest growing self-drive brand in the country.
5. What techniques are used to manage the traffic snarls in a country like India?
Road conjunction due to the trend of buying cars is becoming a matter of debate in India. Ownership of vehicles is a topic being debated globally. Data reveals that for every single car that is added to a car sharing network, there are 41 cars that can be eliminated from the ownership network. Myles, a self-drive service believes in the benefit of Car Sharing/Self driving services in the decongestion of cities leading to less traffic and subsequently the opportunity of introducing cleaner fuel to the Indian cities.
The Indian Car Sharing and Self Driving regulations are fairly old and therefore, we are working closely with the Municipal, state and Central governments as well as the regulatory bodies to make positive contributions to the cities networks. With the initiation of the Smart city initiatives in all major Indian cities we continue to work on primarily the following needs:
- Treatment of Self-drive fleets visibly closer to private vehicles.
- Engaging on the process of Toll and Registration payment processes for Self drive vehicles making it hassle free for consumers.
- Initiating last mile mobility through provision of Car-sharing services at Subway stations, Airports, Railway stations.
While we work with the authorities to make the regulations simpler for the Car sharing community, we also work with Airport and Subway parking authorities to make Car sharing vehicles available at these points along with all around the city. As shared above, we work with Airport, Subway and Parking management authorities and parking provision agencies to create network of car availability. With the introduction of key-less technology for Car sharing, we also work on Fuel and Parking cards to ease the driving experience of our Car sharing community
In order to provide another innovative product offering and with the aim of easing road conjunction, CIPL recently acquired Ridingo. Ridingo is A Mobile and Cloud based solution provider of ride sharing. Ridingo was rated by “Forbes” as one of the “Hottest Startups” in 2013. A peer-to-peer car-pooling community has over 10,000+ registered users on the platform.
6. We see lot of new rental service providers, how competitive the market has been?
The Indian car rental market is witnessing a remarkable growth in the organized car rental segment. In the last decade, many international brands have entered the Indian market, but had to wind up because of their lack of knowledge about the market and their inability to manage the challenges here.
On the other hand the small /unorganized players face a challenge to offer a professional rental service to the customers. With this changing scenario, the small businesses have very few options left but to join hands with the larger organizations like CIPL. We offer various opportunities to such small players to attach their cars with us in terms of franchise /partnerships.
On the other hand, CIPL enjoys the competitive strength to be the only provider in the country providing 360° mobility solutions. Be it Self-drive, Radio Taxi, Corporate Car Rental, Intra-city, Outstation, Luxury Car Rental Hire and International Car Hire, CIPL has it all.
7. Forward looking what is the scope of cab rental service industry?
The Indian cab rental industry is entering an exciting phase and has witnessed a remarkable growth in the organized car rental segment. The drastic change in the economic scenario of the country, growth of the tourism and aviation industries, the improvement in infrastructure (roads and highways) and fast technological development in recent years has fueled the growth of the car rental industry. Technology is an integral part of this changing scenario.
Self-drive is the next engine of growth for travel in India. With the growing individualism and my space phenomena, self-drive will be leading most of the ground transportation travel. Owing to this fact, CIPL will be ramping up its fleet to 40,000 Myles cars at an investment of Rs.400 crore over the next 5 years.
Considering the education & adoption of carpooling as a concept, CIPL acquired Ridingo. Ridingo is a Mobile and Cloud based solution provider of ride sharing was rated by “Forbes” as one of the “Hottest Startups” in 2013. Apeer-to-peer car-pooling community has over 10,000+ registered users on the platform. In chauffer drive segment, owing to the growing demand, CIPL will take the fleet size of the chauffeur driven cabs to 100,000.This includes both EasyCabs as well as corporate car rental fleet.
CIPL is planning to foray into 50 cities with EasyCabs & Carzonrent services. The premium car services will also see a huge expansion in the next three years with the introduction of state-of-the-art technology systems to the corporate and institutional users in the county. The Company plans to grow its fleet in the luxury car services segment to 10,000 cars in the next one year.
CIPL is also planning to invest INR 100 crores over next 5 years setting up a Research & Technology Development Lab in Bengaluru for all the services that fall under CIPL namely Easy Cabs, Carzonrent, MYLES and Ridingo. This technology infrastructure is a part of the strategy to set new industry standards and to build a robust ecosystem for shared economy in the transportation sector.
In the given macro business scenario, the increasing demand and the lighter business model we are ready to grow manifolds.
