Side hustle turns sour for Bengaluru techies as transport authority cracks down on private car rentals

BENGALURU: Instead of letting their swanky cars gather dust in basements while they worked from home, many techies in the city have hitched their vehicles to self-drive rental apps for a quick buck.

But the wheels came off this side hustle this week when the transport department swooped in, stating it was illegal to rent out white-board cars!In a surprise crackdown, the Kasturinagar RTO (regional transport office) hauled away 21 private cars that were attached to Zoomcar, a self-drive car rental app. Transport officials maintained that these cars, some of them high-end SUVs, were being run commercially without valid permits.

Regional transport officer (East) GP Krishnananda said his enforcement team of six carried out the drive across the city after repeated warnings were ignored. This was the first major crackdown by the department against white-board vehicles being run as rental cars in the last two years. Earlier, the Karnataka Transport Authority had pointed out that Zoomcar held a rent-a-motorcab licence, which expired in Jan last year.

The allegation against the company is that it was hiring white-board vehicles in violation of motor vehicle rules. The Times of India tried reaching out to Zoomcar for comments, but in vain. In fact, Krishnananda and team carried out a special operation to identify such white-board cars by posing as customers. It all began Wednesday when officials approached the owners as regular customers and booked vehicles, claiming they were heading out on trips with friends.

Once the booking was confirmed, they went to the owner's location, picked up the car to check if it bore a white board, and then drove it straight to the Kasturinagar RTO office.When the owners tracked the GPS and noticed their vehicles were at an unusual location, they called to find out what was happening. That's when officials dropped the bomb — the cars had been seized.Krishnananda told TOI: "Zoomcar still hasn't renewed its aggregator licence.

Private vehicles cannot be used commercially — it's a clear loss to the govt 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."The owners have been booked under Section 200 of the Motor Vehicles Act. Among the car models seized were Baleno, Glanza, Safari, Dzire, Kia, Tata, and Hyundai.Private cars only for personal useDuring the seizures, officials faced resistance from vehicle owners. The RTO stressed that anyone wanting to run a transport business must register their vehicle with a yellow board; only then can it be rented out legally.Officials confirmed that stringent measures would continue against such violations to curb the misuse of private registration for commercial purposes. "This is our second such drive: about six months ago, we issued notice after finding 15 vehicles, but despite warnings, people continued these activities," Krishnananda said.