Hatchback
The small car for airport runs and city work
The cheapest class on our card, and the only thing about it that is smaller is the car. The permit, the commercial insurance, the fitness certificate and the driver’s papers are checked against the same list as every other class, so what you are saving on is the size of the cabin and not the standard of it.
- Seats
- 4
- From, per km
- ₹11.00
What we run in this class
These are the models this class is made up of. What is confirmed in writing is the class, and what arrives is one of these or a similar one, because the allotment is made a day or two before the trip.
Maruti Swift
It sits lower and firmer than the tall-boy shapes on this row, so it holds a steadier line at speed on an open stretch, and it is a common enough car that whatever town the day ends in has a workshop that knows it.
- Seats
- 4
- Per km
- ₹11.00
Maruti WagonR
You step into this one rather than drop into it, which is why it tends to be the one allotted when somebody elderly is going to a hospital appointment in Delhi and getting out at the porch matters more than the ride.
- Seats
- 4
- Per km
- ₹11.00
Hyundai Grand i10 Nios
Quieter at a hundred than the rest of this row, which is the thing a passenger actually notices on a half past four departure when nobody wants to hold a conversation over the engine.
- Seats
- Up to 4
- Per km
- From ₹11.00
Tata Tiago
Heavier through the doors and the floor than the others here, and it shows on a bad patch: broken tarmac and a stretch of diversion go underneath it rather than through the cabin.
- Seats
- Up to 4
- Per km
- From ₹11.00
Effective . Models are typical of the class and what arrives is that model or a similar one.
Get a fixed quoteThe size question, answered before you book
Right when it is one or two people and the day is a short one: a drop at T3 before an early flight, a morning of running about Gurugram and south Delhi, somebody met off the train and taken home. It stops being right with the car full and a long way to go, because this is a smaller cabin and a firmer ride than the class above, and on a long run everybody in the back feels both.
When to take the class above
More room in the back and a softer ride over a long stretch, which is what tells on a run to Chandigarh or Jaipur with the car full rather than on a morning round town.
Sedan- Where it will actually get to
- It turns round inside a lane in Old Delhi, it reaches the porch at a nursing home, and it clears the height bar on a basement ramp in Gurugram that a full-size vehicle is waved away from. On a day of city work that is worth more than any amount of size, because the car is parking and pulling out again several times before evening.
Nothing is added at the drop that was not on the quotation.
The quotation carries the per kilometre rate and the driver allowance for every calendar day the car is held, and the hour of the pick-up changes neither of them. Toll, state permit and parking are passed through at the receipt value, and they are named on the quotation too, with the figure filled in once the receipts come back.
In the figure you are quoted
- The per kilometre rate published for the class you booked, applied to the kilometres the trip actually runs once it is past the 250 km minimum. A shorter trip is charged for the minimum.
- The driver allowance for every calendar day the car is held, including the day it comes back, whether it moves that day or not.
- The same per kilometre rate whatever the hour. A pick-up at four in the morning is charged exactly as one at noon.
- GST at the rate applicable to passenger road transport, shown as its own line on the quotation and again on the invoice rather than folded into the fare.
Passed through at the receipt value
- Toll and state entry tax, at the receipt value. We do not mark it up.
- State permit charges where a route crosses into a state the vehicle needs a permit for.
- Parking, where the airport or the hotel charges for it.
- Hill charges and green tax where a state levies one.
If a charge is not on the quotation you were sent, it does not appear on the invoice.
The full tariff pageAsked about this class
The ones the office answers on the phone most days. If yours is not here, ring and ask, and you will get the same answer as you would get on this page.
Why is this the lowest rate on your card? Is the car older?
The rate follows the size of the car and what it costs to run, not its age. A smaller car burns less fuel, and toll is charged the same for it as for a sedan, so the fuel is the whole of the difference. The permit, the commercial insurance, the fitness certificate and the driver’s papers are checked against the same list before anything goes out, and there is no shorter version of that list at the bottom of the card.
Do you put a newer driver on the cheapest class?
No. The roster is not sorted by class. The man who takes a hatchback to T3 before dawn may be on a wedding duty the following evening, and he holds the same commercial licence, the same badge and the same police verification either way. What moves with the class on your quotation is the vehicle and the driver allowance for the day, and both of those are printed on the rate card.
Will I get a CNG car, and will he stop to fill it?
Possibly, and it is worth telling us if it matters to you. A gas queue on an outstation duty costs time he cannot make up afterwards, so on a long run we would rather send a petrol car and say so while you are still looking at the quotation. On a day around town it makes no difference to your day, because he fills before he comes to you and not while you are sitting in the back.
Is a hatchback all right for Chandigarh and back in one day?
Yes. It is a made road nearly the whole way and this class runs it both ways as ordinary work. It is a smaller cabin and a firmer ride than the class above, so a full car makes it a long run rather than an easy one. If the party is elderly, or the day is going to end in the hills, we will quote you something else and tell you why.
If the class I booked is not free, do I end up in this one?
No. If the class you booked cannot run, what comes instead is that class or better at the rate you were quoted, and never the class below it. A hatchback goes out because somebody asked for a hatchback. And if we cannot hold what you booked, you hear it from us the evening before rather than finding it parked at your gate in the morning.
You do not have to pick the vehicle
Send the date, the route and how many are travelling, and the class and the all-in figure come back in writing.
Written quotes 9 am to 9 pm, seven days. The line itself is answered at any hour.