SINGAPORE - Car-sharing platform Drive lah can continue matching private car owners to hirers until March 31, 2024.
The company received the extension from the Land Transport Authority (LTA) just days before its current permit was set to expire on Thursday.
Predominantly a peer-to-peer concept, Drive lah rents out cars that belong to private individuals looking to make some extra money when they are not driving them.
This is unlike other car-sharing services that rely on dedicated vehicles sourced from fleet owners.
Drive lah cars can be rented on weekdays, weekends and public holidays, and hence need permission from the LTA to operate.
Under the law, private cars can be rented only on weekends and public holidays. The latest extension granted is Drive lah’s fourth since the first exemption was given on Oct 1, 2019.
The LTA confirmed that this is the only company to have applied for such an exemption. Car-sharing operators such as GetGo and Shariot do not need such an exemption because the cars they use are registered as private-hire cars.
Drive lah said that it has more than 225,000 registered users and around 1,000 vehicle owners on the platform.
LTA’s exemption allows Drive lah to deploy up to 800 private cars. The remaining 500 or so cars and vans on the platform are made up of non-private vehicles, bringing the total tally to around 1,300 units. They include dedicated rental vehicles from fleet leasing companies, as well as cars registered to be used for ride-hailing jobs.
Drive lah said it does not own any cars on its platform.
The vehicle owners set their rental rates and terms, which can include whether the cars can be driven into Malaysia. The cars will be covered by insurance arranged by Drive lah during the rental period.
Without giving the exact calculation for its commission, the company said it has seen owners receive $600 to $700 from renting their cars out for “a few days a month”.
The owners are free to decide when and how long they want their cars to be listed for rent.
For the hirer, the rental rate is said to be between 30 per cent and 40 per cent cheaper than car-sharing services that use cars from commercial fleet owners, which tend to need higher returns to justify the cost of keeping dedicated rental cars.
One of the cheapest rental rates listed on Drive lah was a Suzuki Swift hatchback that was available for $4 an hour.
For comparison, GetGo, which is one of the largest car-sharing outfits in Singapore, lists small family cars like the Mitsubishi Attrage for between $3 and $7 per hour – depending on whether it is for peak or off-peak hours – and capped at $80 per day.
In addition, it charges 39 cents for each kilometre travelled. Fuel is included in the rental.
In March, Drive lah launched a subscription service for hirers to rent cars for extended periods.
An owner needs to make available the vehicle for at least four days a month to be part of the programme. If the owner wants the car back before the hirer is ready to end the rental, Drive lah will find a replacement car for the hirer.
Mr Gaurav Singhal, Drive lah’s co-founder, said that hirers are free to rent a car for “as long as they want” but they have to give one month’s notice to end the rental.
The service is said to be 25 per cent to 30 per cent cheaper than renting a car from conventional rental companies. Drive lah quoted a rate of $1,288 a month for a 2018 Mazda 3. Checks with rental companies showed that the market rate would be between $1,600 and $1,800 a month for a similar car.
In November 2022, Transport Minister S. Iswaran told delegates at the Singapore International Transport Congress and Exhibition that the LTA is looking at how car-sharing can be further encouraged in the light of the policy of zero growth in the car population that has been in place since 2018.
Additionally, Mr Singhal believes that besides cost savings for hirers, his company’s offer has another advantage in the market, saying: “People get really clean and well-maintained personal cars compared to those from commercial car-sharing”.
