Self Drive Rental Vehicles - An assessment of its legitimateness under the

law of Indemnity and Bailment.

Self-drive Rental Vehicles is an as of late created business idea

where individuals enlist vehicles and drive it off their own. This can be seen all the more
common in metropolitan and traveller territories where a parcel of guests come from outside.
This particular research area intrigued me as it is a lately formed business and there would be
a lot of legal discrepancies although the law of indemnity and law of bailment covers the
legitimateness of this business. Bailment as in the hirer hires the vehicle for a particular time,
utilizes it and should restore the vehicle in a similar condition as given to him. Furthermore,
indemnity as in the hirer ought to indemnify the hiree(indemnified) for the damages caused to
the vehicle assuming any. Accordingly, our examination will spin around different parts of
the indemnity and bailment and it's inadequacies with regards to Self Drive Cars and how we
can sort them.

Chapterizations:
 Application of Bailment in Self drive Rental Cars
 Application of Indemnity in Self drive Rental Cars
 Analysis of the Terms and Conditions of well-known Self-drive vehicle Rental
companies.
 Contractual Obligations of a customer and the company.
 Case Laws related to Self drive Rental Vehicles.
s
Terrence Byrd v. United States of America:
This was a US Supreme Court case that held that drivers of rental cars
have rights protecting them from unconstitutional searches by police, even if the drivers are
not listed on the rental agreement. The researcher has extracted the concept of the ‘privacy of
the bailor’ which within itself includes the privacy of his associate who drove the car even
without being the actual bailee.1
Zoomcar Self Drive Car Policy:
This is a piece of policy for member agreement in one of the famous
self-drive rental car company Zoomcar. The researcher has taken the crux of the policy which
relates to the law of bailment and the law of indemnity that the bailor has to oblige by and the
indemnification that the bailor is ought to perform if the contract is breached.(damage caused
to the car).2
Indian Contract Act, section 125:

1
584 U.S. ___138 S. Ct. 1518; 200 L. Ed. 2d 805
2
Zoomcar Self Drive Car Fees Policy in Bangalore | Zoomcar Zoomcar.com,
https://www.zoomcar.com/bangalore/policy#member (last visited Sep 27, 2020)
 This provision(section 125) in the Indian Contract Act specifically
speaks about the rights of the indemnity holder. In the researcher’s context it is the owner
who is bound to be indemnified by the customer if any damage is caused to the car. Thus, the
rearcher has shown the parallel line of similarity between the enactment and the commercial
application of the law of indemnity in the game of self-drive rental vehicles.3
Basics of Product Liability, Sales, and Contracts. Don Mayer, Daniel M. Warner (Book):
In this book chapter 21 speaks about Bailments and the Storage, Shipment, and
Leasing of Goods. It tells about the duties of a bailee that is to be performed while using the
goods of a bailee. This researcher from the book extracted the bailment law which is a
relevant area of to the obligations of the customer who hires a self drive rental car.4

3
Indian Contract Act, section 125, Acts of Parliament, 1872
4
1.0 DON MAYER, DANIEL M. WARNER, Basics Of Product Liability, Sales, And Contracts, 824-828,
(December 29, 2012,)