Fancy a rental car for R1 a day?

Launched in New Zealand a decade ago, Transfercar is an online platform that assists car rental agencies with relocating cars. Now South Africans can also benefit from this innovative, cheap way of travelling.

- Timothy Rangongo

From as little as R1, South Africans can now hire a car in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London, Margate, Newcastle and Richards Bay for one-way travel to or from these locations. All that is required is that they need to be older than 18 years and in possession of a valid driver’s licence.

Started in New Zealand ten years ago and later rolled out in Australia and North America, Transfercar is a rental car relocation marketplace that connects car rental companies wanting to transfer cars between their branches with customers who happen to be or are interested in, heading in a branch’s direction.

Transfercar co-founder Brian Karlson observed how tourists often flew to New Zealand’s North Island before driving to the South Island and catching a flight home, leaving excess cars on the last-visited island.

This surplus of vehicles available for hire in a particular location points to the headache often experienced by car rental agencies, whereby travellers hire vehicles in one city only to end their journey in another. The hired car is essentially then stuck at that particular lot until another traveller comes along looking for the same type of car. Or, as per the standard industry practice, the rental company would have to get the car delivered back to the destination of origin, incurring costs.