Outstation
Round trips
The car goes out with you and comes back with you, both legs on the odometer, with an allowance for the driver for every calendar day it is held. It is charged for the days it is yours rather than for a minimum number of kilometres a day, so a day the car spends parked at your hotel costs the day and nothing more.
- From
- ₹12.00a kilometre in a sedan, before toll and GST. Every class and every charge is on the rate card.
Three ways to cover the same three days
Say you want to be up in Shimla on Saturday and home on Monday evening. There are three honest ways to do that and they are not the same money, so the arithmetic is worth laying side by side before you pick one.
| Hold the carOne vehicle and one driver for all three days. | Two separate dropsA drop up on Saturday, a fresh car down on Monday. | Drop up, hire locallyA drop from us, then whatever you find at the far end. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What is charged | Both legs on the odometer at the published rate, plus a driver allowance for each of the three calendar days. | Two separate trips, each charged for the kilometres between its own two addresses, with one day of allowance inside each. | One trip from us. Whatever the operator at the far end charges for the days in between is theirs and never reaches our bill. |
| A day the car does not move | The allowance and nothing per kilometre. The vehicle is out of the fleet and the driver is away from his house whether it runs three hundred kilometres or three. | Nothing at all, because there is no car with you on those days. | Nothing from us. What the local car costs is between you and him. |
| Getting about at the far end | The car is outside wherever you are, at five in the morning or at midnight, and the driver already knows the plan. | Yours to arrange for the middle days. | Whatever is available on the day, at whatever the rate turns out to be once you are standing there. |
| Who is driving | One driver for the whole trip. You have his name and his number the evening before you leave and you do not have to explain anything twice. | Two drivers, one for each leg, each confirmed the evening before that leg runs. | Ours going up. After that, somebody neither of us has met. |
| When it actually works out cheaper | When you want the car with you, or the far end is a hill town where nothing passes after dark. | When you genuinely do not need a car in the middle, which is true of most city trips. | Rarely, once the local rate and the bargaining are counted, though it is an honest option in a big city. |
The published per kilometre rate is the same in all three columns. What changes is how many kilometres run and how many calendar days the car is yours.
A three-day trip, hour by hour
One duty as the office writes it on the board. Out on the Saturday, a full day up there on the Sunday and home on the Monday evening, which is the commonest shape this product takes.
- Fri 21:00
The car and the driver are confirmed
His name and his number reach you, with the class and the figure you have already agreed. Nothing about Saturday morning is being decided on Saturday morning.
- Sat 06:00
Pick-up, and the reading is taken
The odometer is read at your gate. That is where the count starts, with no mileage on it from wherever the car came from to reach you.
- Sat 13:00
The state boundary
The green tax is paid on the way in, at actuals, and the receipt goes on the bill. Hill kilometres take longer than plains kilometres, which is worth allowing for when you decide how many days to hold the car.
- Sat 15:30
Arrival, and the car stops running
It waits where you are for as long as you are there. Saturday is a full calendar day of allowance whether the odometer moved two hundred and eighty kilometres or twenty.
- Sat 22:00
Where the driver sleeps
Most hotels of any size keep a driver room and use it, and then there is nothing further to pay. Where the hotel has none a night halt is charged, and you are told which of the two it will be before you leave rather than after you get back.
- Sun 10:00
A day the car does not move
The allowance for Sunday and not one rupee per kilometre. Take it out to Kufri and back in the afternoon and the only thing that changes is the odometer.
- Mon 16:00
The way down
The return leg is charged at the same published rate as the way up. There is no loaded rate for coming home and no separate return charge sitting under it.
- Mon 21:00
Back at your gate
The odometer is read again, the two readings are the kilometres, and the bill carries the toll and the parking at what the driver actually paid, with the FASTag statement behind it.
Three calendar days on that trip: Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The third is charged in full even though the car is home by nine, and the quotation says three before you confirm it.
The cars we send out for several days
The full-size MPV leads here and it is what most of these enquiries are for: four people, several days and a hill road somewhere in the middle. The hatchback is off this list on purpose, because a fine drop car and a car you are sitting in for four days are two different jobs.
Full-size MPV
Toyota Innova Crysta, or similar
- Seats
- 7
- Per km
- ₹19.00
Sedan
Maruti Dzire, Honda Amaze, or similar
- Seats
- 4
- Per km
- ₹12.00
Compact MPV
Maruti Ertiga, Kia Carens, or similar
- Seats
- 6
- Per km
- ₹14.00
Tempo traveller
Force Traveller 12/17/25, Force Maharaja 20, Force Urbania 17, or similar
- Seats
- Up to 25
- Per km
- From ₹26.00
Effective . Driver allowance is charged per calendar day and is on the rate card with everything else.
Two figures worth holding against another quote
Both are on the rate card rather than worked out for your trip, so the figure you are quoted is the figure you were shown.
250 km
the minimum, counted once for the trip and never once a day
9 pm
you know the car and the driver by
What the fare covers
In the quoted fare
- Fuel and running cost
- Whatever the trip burns.
- The chauffeur
- His driving charges for the duty.
- Maintenance, insurance and air conditioning
- The vehicle is insured and serviced, and the AC runs.
- The car staying with you
- It waits where you are. Nobody is finding a taxi outside the temple at five in the morning, or at the wedding hall at midnight, or at a hill hotel where there is nothing passing.
- The return leg at the same rate
- Both legs are charged at the published per kilometre rate for the class. There is no loaded rate for the way back and no separate return charge.
Charged on top
- Toll
- At actuals, and the FASTag statement is shared with the bill.
- Parking
- At actuals, with the receipt.
- State entry tax
- Where the trip crosses a state border. At actuals, and named on the quotation before you confirm.
- Hill entry and green tax
- Levied by the local authority on the way in. At actuals, and named on the quotation before you confirm.
- Driver allowance₹300 to ₹800 a day
- Per calendar day the car is held, including the day it comes back.
- The driver's night halt
- On a multi-day trip where there is no driver accommodation at the hotel. We tell you before the trip which it will be.
- GST5%
- Shown as its own line on the quotation and on the invoice.
Both legs are on the odometer, out and back, counted from your address and finished at your address. Days are counted as calendar days rather than as blocks of twenty-four hours, so a car that leaves on Friday morning and returns on Sunday evening is three days and the quotation says so before you confirm. The 250 kilometre minimum on the card is worked once against the two legs together, not once for each of those days.
The figure on your quotation is the figure you pay. Everything payable at actuals is a named line on it, with a number against it, before you confirm. Nothing is added afterwards.
What people ask about holding a car for days
Why am I charged for a day the car does not move?
Because the car is yours that day and the driver is away from his house for it. He is sleeping where you are, eating there and waiting there, and the vehicle is out of the fleet whether it runs three hundred kilometres or three. That is what the allowance covers, and it is the same amount on the day the car sits at the hotel as on the day it climbs to Shimla.
How exactly are the days counted?
By the calendar, including the day the car comes back. A trip that leaves Friday morning and reaches home Sunday evening is three days, not two and a half and not forty-eight hours. The number of days is written on the quotation before you confirm it, so the multiplication is visible rather than discovered at the end.
Is there a minimum number of kilometres a day?
No, and it is the figure worth checking against any other quote you are holding. The usual model in this trade will not bill a round trip below two hundred and fifty or three hundred kilometres a day whether the car runs them or not. This rate card has no per-day minimum at all, so four days parked in Manali is four days of allowance and the kilometres the car actually ran. The one floor it does carry is 250 kilometres on the trip as a whole, counted once rather than once for each day, and the quotation names which of the two figures it used before you confirm.
Do I hand the driver his bata on the road?
No. The allowance is on the quotation as its own line, quoted with the fare and settled with the office, so there is nothing to negotiate at a dhaba on day two. What he does pay on the road is toll and parking, and those come back to you at actuals on the bill with the receipts.
Where does the driver sleep on a multi-day trip?
Most hotels of any size keep driver accommodation and use it, and where that is the case there is nothing extra to pay. Where the hotel has none, a night halt is charged, and you are told which of the two it will be before the trip rather than after it. If you are booking the hotel yourself it is worth asking them the question at the same time.
Can I add a day once the trip has started?
Yes, and it happens often. Ring the office rather than settling it with the driver: an extra day is that day of allowance plus whatever the car runs, and we will send the revised figure in writing before it is added. The odometer decides the kilometres, so nothing about the extension is estimated.
What do the hills add?
Himachal, Uttarakhand and the Kashmir valley all levy an entry or green tax at the boundary, charged at actuals with the receipt. Hill running also costs kilometres, because two hundred kilometres of Shimla road is a longer day than four hundred of trunk road, which is worth allowing for when you decide how many days to hold the car.
The driver’s night halt, hill and green tax, toll, parking and any state entry tax are payable at actuals and are named on the quotation, with a figure against each, before you confirm. Where the hotel keeps driver accommodation there is no halt to pay, and you are told which of the two it will be before the trip rather than after it.
Sending an enquiry is not a booking and does not hold a vehicle. We price the trip, send you a fixed all-inclusive figure in writing, and nothing is reserved until you confirm that figure.
Give us the days and we will price them.
A fixed, all-in figure and the vehicle class, usually the same day, 9 am to 9 pm.
Written quotes 9 am to 9 pm, seven days. The line itself is answered at any hour.