Self-drive car rental service: Need to tighten legal procedures

(Baonghean) - Currently, self-driving car rental services are growing strongly, meeting people's living needs. However, due to lack of strict management, self-driving car rental centers still operate spontaneously and create loopholes for criminals to take advantage of...

Legal loopholes

Currently, in Vinh City, there are dozens of self-drive car rental establishments with cars of many different types and models from Matiz to Honda Civic, Camry, Innova, Mercedes... Car rental conditions are simple, just need an ID card and driver's license to rent a self-drive car.

Self-drive car rental shop on Tran Hung Dao street (Vinh city).

Following the "car rental" advertising sign at the beginning of Hong Bang Street, we found the address No. 1, Building C8, Quang Trung Ward. Mr. Nguyen Van Tuyen, the owner of the car rental service, happily welcomed customers and introduced the car models and prices. Depending on the car model and the distance, the service owner charged by km or by day. According to Mr. Tuyen's request, we had to have a driver's license, ID card and a motorbike worth 15 million VND or more as collateral to rent a car for 800,000 VND/day, with gas at our own expense. Because we did not have our ID card with us, we begged to rent a car and he agreed. At the Hong Vinh Self-Drive Car Rental Company (No. 217, Nguyen Trai Street, Vinh City), we could easily rent a car with our ID card and driver's license along with a contract.

Self-drive car rental service on Nguyen Trai Street, Quan Bau Ward (Vinh City).

Car rental service is considered a high-income profession, but the risk for the owners of self-drive car rental establishments is not small. At the self-drive car rental address in Ben Thuy ward, Vinh city, Mr. Tran Van Do - the service owner said: Currently, he has 5 used cars of popular types such as Matiz, Kia morning, Hyundai Getz, Zinger. After nearly 5 years of opening the service, he has "got" a few risks in car rental. In 2010, a customer came to rent a car, claiming to be the director of a limited company, asking to rent a Daewoo Lacetti car for a 2-week business trip. He also made a contract and made full agreements as usual. Unexpectedly, nearly half a month later, both the car and the customer "disappeared". Panicked, he reported to the police. It turned out that the 2 cars were at the pawn shop, and the customer was sitting in the temporary detention house of Vinh City Police for gambling. He was still lucky, because there were “customers” who used fake ID cards to rent cars and then pawned them at pawn shops. When everything was exposed, getting the car back was extremely difficult.

The Police Department for the Prevention of Property Crimes, the Department of Investigation of Social Order Crimes - Nghe An Police said: Recently, a series of fraud cases involving the appropriation of many cars at self-drive car rental centers in the city have been handled. On February 10, 2012, Vinh City Police issued a conclusion of the investigation of criminal case No. 96 on the case of Tran Van S (born in 1983), residing in Tan Ky Town, abusing trust to appropriate property. The property that Tran Van S appropriated was a Lacetti car with license plate 37A - 004.27, which the subject rented for self-drive at Hong Minh Company Limited (No. 217, Nguyen Trai Street, Vinh City). According to the conclusion of the investigation, half a year ago, Hong Minh Company Limited signed a self-drive car rental contract with Tran Van S.

Accordingly, the two parties agreed to rent a car for 3 days at a price of 3,700,000 VND. However, after the car rental contract ended, S did not return the car as agreed, but mortgaged the car, borrowed money and then fled. Or on July 1, 2014, the General Investigation Team of Vinh City Police arrested Hoang Xuan P for fraud and property appropriation. Previously, on June 26, Hoang Xuan P (born in 1988), residing in Block 6, Cau Giat Town, Quynh Luu District, went to Vinh City to visit. P went to a self-drive car rental shop in Doi Cung Ward, Vinh City to rent a Kia Forte car with license plate 37A - 016.11 worth about 450 million VND from Mr. Dinh Viet Thanh (born in 1975), residing in Doi Cung Ward. Then, Phong took the car to pawn at hamlet 11, Nghi Hop commune, Nghi Loc district to get money to spend.

With only sketchy rental contracts, many car rental business owners have created loopholes for scoundrels to commit fraud and abuse trust to appropriate property.

Tighten legal procedures

When asked about the car rental procedures, are they too simple? - Mr. T, Hong Minh Company Limited said: "Too simple". To give further evidence, the person in charge of the center said that the renter only needs an ID card, a driver's license and a motorbike worth 10 million VND or more to be able to rent a self-driving car for 300 - 800 thousand VND/day depending on the age of the car. In fact, the self-driving car rental center still operates based on intuition. If the customer seems kind, the procedure will be simpler...

Talking to reporters about the increasing number of businesses and individuals renting self-driving cars and then having their cars pawned, mortgaged and showing signs of fraud and appropriation of property in Nghe An in general and Vinh City in particular, Lieutenant Colonel Duong Van Hoa, Head of the Vinh City Police General Investigation Team, said: In recent years, Vinh City Police have handled a series of fraud and appropriation of property related to self-driving car rental services. In most of the cases, after receiving complaints from the victims, the police have urgently investigated and recovered the property to return to the victims, and the subjects have all been prosecuted before the law.

The reason why this type of crime is increasing is because the management of car rental services is still inadequate. For example: The procedure for renting a self-driving car is quite simple, the renter only needs an ID card, household registration book and a suitable driver's license, or even just a phone call to the car owner (if they are regular customers). Taking advantage of the leniency of car rental owners, in many cases, after the car rental contract ends, the subjects do not return the car as agreed in the contract, but give many different reasons, but in fact, they have pawned the rented car to get money to spend, or fled the locality with the stolen property; Even using money to commit other crimes... One reason that cannot be ignored is that pawnshop owners and individuals who accept mortgages, because they put profit above all else, are willing to accept cars without complying with the legal regulations on pawning and mortgage, such as accepting cars that are not in their name... Because when accepting cars as pawns without knowing the origin of the car, the pawnshop owners also fall into the situation of "losing money and getting sick".

Through these incidents, the lesson learned for self-drive car rental businesses is to be more vigilant against the tricks of criminals and to fully implement procedures and binding measures for car renters to avoid unfortunate risks... For customers, before renting a car, it is necessary to carefully check the car, especially the machinery; need to carefully negotiate with the lessor about damages, review the terms of the contract to avoid unfortunate troubles.

The complexities and consequences surrounding self-drive car rental services here require adjustments to the functions of management agencies, as well as the responsibilities and awareness of service providers.

Article and photos:Pham Ngan