Various options for Car Rentals / Taxi in Bangalore.
For commuting inside Bangalore City, there are essentially three different modes of transportation available. 1) Public Buses, 2) Auto Rickshaw and 3) Taxi Cars.
Taxi Cars or Car Rentals are essentially of three categories based on their Tariff packaging.
1) City Taxi 2) Car Rental Services 3) Self –driven Cars.
1) City Taxi- When you need to travel from one particular point to another point in Bangalore City, and if you dont have any plan to visit several locations in city with waiting time in between, then City Taxi may be suitable for your requirement. You call a City Taxi, to either a Mobile phone number or a Control office phone number, a few minutes in advance to book them. The control office manager, then, identifies, which City Taxi from their company is close to your location and direct the driver to come to your place and pick you up. The City Taxi meter starts running when you actually board the Taxi and you should ask the driver to put the meter. And you pay only for the traveled distance and pay according to the meter. City Taxis in Bangalore charge Rs. 12/- per KM (some new brands of luxury cars charge more). City Taxi operates only inside the City and are not meant for outstation trips.
2) Car Rental/Car Hire Service- Car Rental Services have relatively lower per KM Tariff, almost half the price compared to City Taxi. However Car Rental Services operate according to minimum Tariff packages. You either book a Car Rental for a package of "4 Hours and 40Km" or "8 Hours and 80 Km". Car Rental Service, charge you a minimum amount, irrespective of what ever your Km/hourly usage is. Thus this type of Taxi Service is suitable when you need to visit several places in one single day (Not just pick up and drop) and also when there is a long period of waiting necessary. Car Rentals’ starting point & closing point and the starting time & ending time are calculated from and to the Car Rental operator office. Thus it is always better for you to book a Car Rental Service, from a closer to where you are located. This is not relevant in case of City Taxi.
For outstation travel, there is an entirely different Tariff system for Car Rentals. Whether you use or not, you need to pay for a minimum of 250km for the Out station Car Rental Service. For outstation services, there is no minimum time limit. For each brand of Car, there are different prices.
3) A third option is self-driven Cars-
However unlike in the west, this is not popular in India. There are a few companies offering this service, but the charges are relatively higher and more hassles involved to get a Self-driven Car Rental than to hire a chauffeur driven car.