Suggestion to lift restricted hours on private car rental scheme

The Singapore Vehicle Rental Association said the government can consider lifting the restricted hours currently placed on the private car rental scheme.

This comes as the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced at the recent Committee of Supply, that it is studying the liberalisation of this scheme.

The Private Car Rental Scheme was introduced in 1996 to allow non-car owners to have access to private transport on weekends and public holidays.

Under this scheme, private car owners are allowed to rent out their cars from Friday, 7pm, to the following Monday, 7am; and from 7pm on the eve of the public holiday to 7am on the 1st working day following the public holiday.

Interested parties can rent out their cars through advertisements in the newspapers or other forms of media.

Currently, chauffeur-driven rentals are not allowed.

The Association said the scheme could be expanded to include rental on week days as well.

And as private car owners do not have to register with the LTA when using the scheme, the Association also feels there must be some form of control as this could affect taxi operators and car rental companies.

Honorary secretary of the Singapore Vehicle Rental Association Joseph Poh said: "One of the way is to allow them to go to car rental companies to transact all this rental transactions. If not properly controlled, these cars could be used for limousine services and ferrying. If that is the case, it'd interfere with taxi operations."

SOURCE

Well, good news for car owners looking to supplement their car loan with some rental income, just like how people do it to housing, but on a temporary basis. It is a good idea to rent one's car out for added income, until conflict arises with insurance issues. Currently, a rented car will need to have an additional form of insurance during the rental period. Failure to do so means breaking the law, thus do not try doing it or you'll risk fines.

As a private car owner, would you bear to rent out your own car? You never know how the car will get abused when not in your care.