Car Travel

Car Rental Shortage and How to Avoid Them

Car Rentals are slowly becoming the new trend during Uganda road trips and when it comes to the peak travel season, getting a perfect car for your safari sometimes seems to be a challenge. In some circumstances, the demand for Uganda car rental services is higher than expected hence causing shortage in several places in the country.

Each year, the car hire agencies become busiest during the months of January, February, June, July, August, September and December but most travelers don’t expect demand to be so high. Surprisingly, the Car Rental sector sometimes fails to meet this demand.

For some reason, the demand for Car Rental services leads to increase in prices, especially in Cities/Towns. Therefore, this article brings you some of the easiest ways to avoid Car Rental shortage.

Book for your Car Rental in advance

While it sometimes looks obvious, booking for your Car rental in advance is important to get your perfect ride. Most travelers make the mistake of booking Car Rentals on the day of use and if your wish to enjoy discounted rates, then you might want to book early enough. Booking your perfect car some days in advance is viable and you stand a higher chance of getting a perfect ride and a nice deal.

Opt for the car-sharing option

With the increased demand for Car Rental services in Uganda, most travelers are now opting for car sharing as a way of avoiding Car Rental shortage. For instance, if you wish to use the Car for half a day and someone you know also needs a car by sunset, you can just hire the car for a full day and share. The good news is that you will just have to pay for part of the Car Rental and in so doing, the cost of renting it is divided, in addition to increasing accessibility of the Car.

Rent the Car during off-season

Another way to avoid Shortage while renting a Car for your road trip or Uganda safari is by opting for off-season. Rental Cars tend to be scarce during peak seasons yet their demand is also high hence to avoid being disappointed, it is advisable to rent during off-season. We always advise our travelers to rent cars during low/off season, especially the ones that wish to enjoy discounted rates.

Ensure flexibility with when and where you rent the Car

You can save more money during your trip by planning a number of activities close to the accommodation facility and instead of opting for Car Rentals close to the Airport, you can decide to try those in the suburbs that might offer wide range of options at reasonable rates.

Compare Car rental options and rates between companies

Car Rental Companies offer different options and it pays a lot to check them out before making the final decision because you don’t know what you could be missing.  You will be amazed and surprised by how prices significantly vary across different Companies and another thing that you might not know is that Companies use these differences to control you. For this reason, first searching for different Company options and comparing their rates will be crucial in avoiding shortages as well as resultant price increases.

Extend Car Rental period to several days, weeks or months

You can avoid Car Rental shortage by choosing to rent for extended period of time-days, weeks or time and in so doing, you will be able to complete all your tasks or touring places you had planned to. Look at it this way; you can opt for rent the Car for a week or month instead of visiting the Company on different days in a week.

What to Note When Hiring a Car in Uganda?

The trends of hiring a car in Uganda for a road trip has become so admirable by many travelers, this traveling style suggest a comfortable a privacy way of enjoying an adventure or even a business trip at a tensionless pace of drive. Though sometimes self-drive Road trip trails seems to be complicated, we are tips to comprehend its complicity. But don’t hesitate renting a car to let you through the busy towns and the remote countryside of the pearl of Africa.

When decided to rent a car for the privacy admired safari, can decide to either rent a car a self-drive or renting a car with a driver.  Have you made your car rental choice? There is nothing which empowers a traveler liking seating behind the wheels of the car rental and dictate on where to go, which time to drive, where to make a stopover. There’re varieties of car rental fleets that one can choice from. All car rental agencies around the country can suggest that reliable model of the vehicle to make your trip colorful. The fleet arrangements go with questions of how people are traveling. Where to go? And the purpose of your traveling, but should know that besides advice by car hire agencies the first priority is the customer desires.

After knowing all the above statement, it fixes the suitable and comfortable vehicle. When renting a car in Uganda there are ranges of fleets of 4×4 including the cheapest RAV4 fitting for 3 people, 4×4 (safari land cruiser TX and V8, Nisan patron, land cruiser JX) are all fit for a group of 4 travelers, lands cruiser hard top and Toyota hiace (Omni bus) fit for 5 to 9 people, and for the larger group consider hiring the coaster.

Thing to note when hiring a car in Uganda

Terms and condition

An interesting part to consider when opt to hiring a car in Uganda is looking at the terms and conditions agreement which dictate on everything concerning the car hire. This is always signed at the hour of picking up the vehicle but it elaborates everything to follow when seated in the car rental. It’s important you first read through not to follow in traps of innocence, actually at the time of booking can ask to know the terms and conditions of a car hire agency before wiring you money to secure a car. Whatever happens on the car rental in your hands is well prescribed in the agreement and signing on it, this discloses the actual gist of the agreement.

Eligibility to hiring a car

First and foremost one must be at the age of 18 and above to kick on the roads of Uganda and drive. In additional it’s important to keep your valid driving license at hand whenever asked for it, in actual sense it also difficult for any car rental company to hire out their vehicle to a person who is not legible to drive according to Uganda traffic laws. Whenever on an adventurous self-drive in Uganda expect to encounter road blocks where you can be stopped and asked to present both identification documents and driving license which must always be at hand to avoid uncalled for circumstances which can include impounding your car or even arrest you if you don’t have them.

Safety and security

Is Uganda a safe country for one opting to hiring a car and take on a self-drive road trip adventure to the remotest part of the country? Yes, with no hesitations I remain firm to write that Uganda is a safe country for a private road trip even to the remotest part of the country. Though the previous civil wars and drops of political unrests, this is not scarily many traveler both on private self-drive trips and those on guided trips have experience a successful moment when explore the fabulous beauty of this tiny east African interior. The long stories of Kony rebels, and ADF has vanished, so deciding to go for comfortable self-drive road trip is safe in Uganda. However, when driving in Uganda should not go beyond the recommended hours from 6am to 6pm to avoid possible night robbers, and driving through the streets of Kampala should keep your door mirror raised.

Traffic guide line

In Uganda we drive on the left, if you’re not used to this rent a car with a driver, adhere to the road signs across the country. Also should know this, when driving within the city center be careful with other drivers, most of the taxi drivers and bodaboda bikers in the city center drive recklessly and whenever driving should be alert of them to avoid uncalled for situations including misfortunes.

What are the different Car Rental Services Operating in Uganda?

The transport industry in Uganda has been evolving in the recent years. Different means of transport have cropped out to suit the travellers with different purposes of travel. One of the biggest revelation in the transport sector of Uganda is the car rental services. Car rental services are exclusive and private means of traveling. A person solely hires a vehicle for lone travel. Within the car rental world, there are different types of services offered to serve different reasons or purposes of traveling. The different car rental services are created to reach out to specific niche or market of people. Below are the different types of car rental types offered in Uganda: 

Online and Structured Car Rental Services

These have a very well organised working system. They operate both online and on ground in an office establishment. Their main market is well streamlined and planned travel.  They have professional personnel right from the reservation team to the drivers. They appeal to people traveling from 3 days and more. They have a big fleet of cars and offer different types of cars from sedan, crossovers to SUVs. They provide services like self drive traveling and car hire with a driver. Travellers who normally use Uganda car rental services are ones who are traveling for long distances or to further places than their usual ones for instance tourist and usually traveling for a number of days. These services come with a higher price compared to other services due to the purpose they serve and this is why the biggest demand comes from foreign travellers.  They charge on a per day basis with unlimited mileage, and sometimes long term rental discounts are applied by the operators in case the hirer is going for a reasonable number of days.  

App and metered car hire services

They are normally known as online taxis or cabs. They have just graced the transport sector of Uganda due to the technological advancement. Their booking is done through an app which is only compatible to smartphones with ios and android systems. These are normally used for short distance traveling less than 30kms. They are very popular in urban cities like Kampala, Entebbe, Jinja, Gulu and Mbarara. They charge basing on the distance travelled or time. Some of these services include uber, premium taxi, specio hire, quick taxi and bolt. They are popularly known as city cabs.  

Local Special hire or Special Taxi

These are cabs that are owned by the local drivers. They are so informal and rudimentary. They were the first car hire services in Uganda. They have no structure; the traveller deals directly with the driver who is in most cases the boss. The traveller negotiates with the driver the fare. More to that, there is no specific or fixed fees for their services, the fare entirely depends on the traveller’s bargaining power and the mood of the driver. There are no protocols followed in this business, the driver sets his/her rules.  Most of the cars used by special hire are old and not in very sound mechanical conditions. They operate in urban areas of Uganda.  

Event Car hire services

These are car hire services that reach out to people in need of transport services for wedding, birthday parties, conference events and other events not mentioned above. They normally offer executive cars like Mercedes Benz, Range Rover, Jaguar, limousines and latest land cruiser models. The vehicles are always clean and very classy thus commanding a very high price. Due to the high expenses to start and maintain these kind of services. There are few companies in Uganda that offer such kind of services. They operate both online and on ground.  

Before choosing any of the above car rental service, the hirer is tasked with knowing the purpose of travel and then opt for the most suitable means to go for. For instance if going to an expedition around Uganda for quite a number of days, there is need to opt for the structured system, and if you are only wanting to go from point a to point b with a maximum travel time of an hour, then it would make much more sense opting for a special taxi or metered car hire service.

Road Tripping Uganda – Flashing your Headlights While on Safari

“Is this done in the Uganda at all, or will it just confuse other drivers, or worse, insult them in some way? Where I grew up (rural Lyantonde Town) flashing the headlights was a warning that there was a policeman nearby trying to catch people speeding! Or may be a symbol that the road is clear, its normally followed with a sign of the finger to show you how the flow of traffic goes I don’t know if that is true other places in the US, but I would consider someone flashing their lights a warning but in most cases, if you want to allow someone to merge in front of you, slow down and give them the space to do so. If you want another vehicle to turn in front of you at an intersection where everyone stops, you can either just sit and wait for them to do so, or make a polite hand gesture (using all your fingers 🙂 ) for them to do so. As also said above, in many places someone flashing headlights at an oncoming vehicle would be seen to be warning the driver about something.

On another side, here, too– flashing lights to warn of a police car sitting with a radar gun.

Also, people will do it around here — coming up behind you — as a signal to get out of the way, you are going too slow! I am tempted often to do this…. but actually do not. I find it rude, so exercise patience instead behind a slow driver and wait for a place to pass. I will flash lights at the car in front of me when passing in low light just as I begin the pass to let them know I am passing.

Another point with respect to lights……you will see a good number of cars that appear to be driving during the day with their headlights on.. A good number of cars (but not all) on the road in respect to too much rain they will put the lights on and are equipped with DRL (daytime running lights). Basically, it’s the main headlight with just a lower intensity. During the day, it looks like the headlights are actually on. Some people also drive with headlights on as a good measure of safety. I have also seen roads that rand I have the same experience in that a flash is used to alert oncoming drivers of a hazard (wildlife or rocks in the road)/law enforcement. Of course, I am driving mainly on 2 lane roads so if someone is overtaking it is quick and done require headlights to be on if your windshield

I use flashes to signify things are okay, or “you go first” or as thanks. I don’t think there’s a lot of confusion. Repeating the flashes however – flash-flash-flash – pause – flash-flash usually is taken as a warning or a complaint (lower your high beams, etc.)

As to road etiquette, I conventionally flash for truckers wishing to switch to my lane and if I am not in a terrible hurry make room by slowing and subsequently flashing – especially when the trucker needs to get to the right [slow] lane relieving backed up traffic behind him; but also I’m sure to do this if coming to a split and it appears he needs to be in my lane.

For other cars, it’s a little different because you’re as likely to confuse car drivers who might think you are flashing to tell them to stay out of your way. If however, we are merging because of a traffic backup, maybe a creeping stop and go movement, I might blink to tell the guy to move over in front of me especially if he seems timid or confused.

In some states it is the law to turn on headlights when windshield wipers are in use; law or not, it’s probably a good idea; many newer cars do it automatically. On some routes where multi-lane roads merge to one on one against oncoming traffic you may see signs recommending turning on lights – it’s not a bad idea anyhow.

In rural areas it is clearly an extremely helpful thing to flash lights on and off several times to give warning to on-coming traffic about animals near the road, flooding on the road, an accident, or any hazard or risk. Frankly as a visitor I suggest you mind your own business when it comes to police with speed traps; warning others maybe illegal, it isn’t necessary or expected so leave it to the locals to do or not.

Uganda /Africa mostly consider it extremely rude for drivers in fast lanes to flash lights on and off trying to push slower traffic out of the way. It is acceptable to pass on the right in the slow lane. Be aware of this while on a self drive in Uganda, other cars could be overtaking you from the right.

In many states, when driving in the far right lane, on multi-lane roads, if coming upon a police car with flashing lights [generally having pulled over some vehicle] it is now a legal requirement to shift to over a lane provided it is safe with little traffic. A ticket is a low risk for this law, but it’s also a wise thing to do.

Always use the flashlights where necessary

Benefits of Booking Online a Self-Drive Car in Uganda

Booking online is one of the most used methods of hiring a car not only in Uganda but also in the entire world. To many, booking direct through an office is a bit very difficult and it requires getting direct to the office, that’s why many resort booking online which is a very convenient method of reservation. Traveling with big sums of money is considered unsafe and booking on arrival is a bit perilous. You may end up booking a wrong car which will not work for you. But remember since you have no option you may get a wrong deal hence over charged. Once you book your Uganda car rental online, you get the best deal and you find the car already booked for you and well serviced and paying online is regarded as the best method to use. Below are some of the benefits of booking online.

Selecting from a variety:

You should know that there are very many car hire companies offering the same service, a number of them have websites on which they can put their car hire fleet and other services they offer. so on the website you are free to select the type of the car which they can reserve for you. You are advised to select the type of the car that can fit your budget, the number of people you are travelling with and your budget plan. Once you select the car hire company to book the car with among the many, you can go ahead and write to them after confirming they will book the car for you.

Saves time:

Booking online saves time, in that there is no need of visiting the offices direct everything is done through online. After choosing the car hire company to reserve the car for you, they will go ahead with the arrangement. They will send you the bank account details for the money wire transfers. You either pay a half of the money and the rest you can pay on arrival or you can pay full amount, the car will be reserved for you. You can still pay through credit cards, master card, pespal  so all these methods saves you from travelling with big sums of money since everything is finished online, you send the money before arrival and once you arrive at the airport the car will be met at any agreed upon point.  it’s a bit costly in terms of time spent looking for a car hire agency in a strange country, choosing the best car and also  making payment in office all these can consume you a lot of time.

Bargaining power:

Booking online gives you chance to bargain with different car hire companies until when you get the best price possible. There are very many car hire companies offering the same services but on different price rate. So online booking gives a chance to bargain until when you get a fair price, so this can help you to avoid over charged hence you may end up saving a lot of money you would have not saved if used another method. Many car rental companies’ offers discounts on their charges which you would miss if you book on arrival or on last minute booking.  if you hire a car for many days, you are entitled to receive a discount, and remember during low season months  many car rental companies offers a  low price compared to high season. However, all this information can best be got when communicating with the travel agency direct through online, so getting a car at a cheaper price can help you to use the reserved money on anything else.

Getting enough information:

Online booking gives you more chance to get enough information on each car hire company until you choose the one most suitable for you. You can get to know their location, the car types, through online and you can also get more testimonies from earlier travelers on trip advisors so all these sources can give you confidence about the car you are making the reservation with. In case you want to know more about the company and their services, you can just write to them directly the staff will get back to you swiftly in accordance to what you want to know. For example any questions regarding to the car, routes, safety or an itinerary, they can help. So this will built trust about the company you are to book with.

Liberty to inquire from very many car rental companies:

Online booking offers an opportunity to inquire from very many car hire companies about the same service at the same time since you have the authority to send the same massage to more than 20 companies. From here you will get the best company offering you the best service at a lower price possible. You have the chance to choose from a variety of car rental companies for the best service; this will help you to choose the car that will work for you. Otherwise it’s very difficult to do it on arrival. Online booking is the best way for securing your car and getting the best choice so, we are always at your disposal to give you the best service. For quick search you can contact us on info@carhireinuganda.com

Tips to Help You Save on Uganda Car Rental

Car rental in Uganda is an impressive and considerably Budget friendly option for traveling through Uganda especially for independent travelers with personal interests like a safari vacation, business tour and a family trip.

However, it can come to be very expensive if you aren’t careful enough with the basics and tips or things to avoid when hiring a car for either self drive safaris or guided trips through the beautiful lands. Much recommended taking precaution of the extra charges and try avoiding them as much as possible. Make sure you pay what you were quoted in the price catalogue.

One of the mistakes people do is taking up extra insurance. Most car rental companies in Uganda provide comprehensive insurance for the car however, some people want extra insurance to also keep their belongings and themselves at no risk. This is hefty expensive for you. It is commendable to first check from your insurance company whether your personal insurance can be carried onto your car rental travel. This makes one compensate for the extra insurance you are supposed to pay for your own safety. Most car rental companies if not all extend their insurance only to their rental cars and if you prefer zero pay for risk or zero deductible, then this will be a little expensive for you.

Avoid returning the rental car without fuel. In most case car rental agencies Uganda provide cars to their customers with half or quarter a tank or a full fuel tank so that one can start his/her journey easily without first going to the fuel station. However, some customers return the car with no fuel or less fuel after their expedition in Uganda and this is violation on one of the common terms in the car rental agreement considering; violation of contracted terms comes with a penalty of a paying a premium fine that is more costly than refueling the car.

Minimize paying for extra services. For instance, car rental companies in Uganda charge for extra baby seats and GPS and yet these can be acquired on a personal basis. So make sure when you need any of these facilities acquire them from your home country; buy a baby seat and also download or update Google maps on your smart phones which can act as a gps for your navigation on trip so that you can save the money meant for these extra services. However if you do not want to pack a lot, consider saving enough more for the extra services provided.

Consider checking the car before your expedition. Most recommended to do a thorough inspection of the car with main enfaces on looking for any damages that are physical and mechanical. Also go an extra mile and take photos of the car before driving it. This is done to avoid the car rental agency apportioning the blame for the damages that may have already been on the car even before driving it. Put in mind that any damage caused on the car when you are driving it, the cost for amendments is on your bill.

Avoid returning the rental car later than the date or Time proposed. There is always a premium fine on any un-communicated late car returns for travelers who return rental cars later than the due date. This is usually because the rental car is a commercial car that any day not paid for is a loss and the car rental agency cannot bare with you in that regard. So you have to make sure you have to make sure that you have confirmed the drop off point so that you can deliver the car on time.