An observation of the Speed Limit set on Self-Drive Car Rentals

Understanding roads and road sense in India is quite complicated as many of the laws concerning driving motor vehicles are too twisted to comprehend. For example, for more than 25 years in the country, you could not drive your car at more than 80 kilometers per hour on National Highways, even if your car could catch up a speed of 200 kilometers per hour! Just a couple of years ago, the government woke up from its dormancy and enhanced the speed limit for cars up to 100 kilometers per hour. Even now the new speed limit is too less for modern cars that can pick-up a speed of 80-90 kmph in just a matter of seconds, forget reach their actual potential.

Although the Indian roads do not have many expressways, the ones present in the country are not well-equipped to handle high-speed cars, and neither the cars are capable enough to ply on these roads. People in the country do not bother to learn the basics of their vehicle and the basic road sense, which causes several minor and major road mishaps even on expressways.

Speed limit for Self-Drive Car Rentals

The restriction of the speed limit was earlier self-imposed for the customers renting Self-Drive Cars, which meant if the driver drives the car beyond 80-100 kmph, they will have to face the cops and pay the fine on their own, sometimes to the car rental company as well. However, now the government has stepped in this industry as well to set up the speed limit for Self-Drive Car Rentals. The authorities have asked the car rental companies to equip their cars with devices to detect the speed of the car in real time and do not let the driver exceed the speed of 100 kmph.

A couple of car rental companies in India have already fixed an OBD device (On-board diagnostics device) in their vehicles that collects data on various parameters. This OBD device is a tiny gadget that provides updates in real time about the location of the car, fuel consumption, tire pressure, g-force on the car's suspension, etc. The device sends the recorded data to the company's server using the cellular mobile network. And it is up to the car rental company to reward the good drivers in different forms or penalize the unruly drivers. When a disobedient driver exceeds the speed limit, an SMS is sent to the registered mobile number of the customer conveying that they have been penalized for exceeding the speed limit.

Is the speed limit practical?

Earlier, it was the client’s duty to return the car as they got it; now it has become mandatory for them to follow the restriction of speed, at least while obliging their duty to use the car as if it is their own. Although most companies fit out their cars with as modern gadgets as possible, many cars are still left out, especially the hatchbacks. Some users find the restrictions on speed as impractical because it inhibits them to use the car up to its potential. On the other hand, the proponents of this decision state that 100 kmph is enough of speed to have the fun of driving as well as keep the car under control. Like all other major government decisions that impact the common man, this declaration has got its share of arguments as well. We are yet to see how it affects the Self-Drive Car Rental industry and the outlook of potential customers.

The Expressways in India

The highest class of highways of the Indian Road Network is known as the expressways, which comprise of 4-6 lanes. Although they are meant to let the vehicles drive at more than the designated speed, the reality is that you cannot do that most of the times because of several reasons. For instance, the Mumbai-Pune expressway is the longest expressway in the country, spread over a stretch of more than 93 kilometers. It lets you commute between the two cities in your Self Drive Car Rental Pune in under two hours, but how do we judge that our car is healthy enough to drive at an enormous speed?

The most recent example of bad vehicle health in North India came on the Yamuna Expressway. In just a span of 4-5 years, this amazing stretch of road has witnessed over 4,000 accidents, which is not a small number. Now even when the speed limit is 100 kmph on this expressway at present, the number of accidents is so high. A strange piece of news that has its pros and cons is that the Ministry of Road Transport is planning to increase the speed limit on Indian Expressways to 140 kmph. When the Indian cars are already incompetent to drive at 100 kmph, how are they supposed to comply with an increase of 40% in the speed limit on the Expressways? Therefore, in a way, it is good for the Indian drivers to comply with the speed limit imposed by the government for our safety.

I, Manoj Upadhyay, a digital marketer by profession, believe in just that! I cherish each aspect of life, which has driven me to the idea of my blogging website, namely Wandererfoodie.