The Transporter

I stumbled onto a new career opportunity today. It's a mix of everything I love - people, roads, driving, travel, storytelling and more. It solves a very evident pain point - albeit for a small number of people. Here it is!

The service proposition
If you are moving cities / states and you have a car to ship, rather than sending it via train/truck/transport, allow me to drive it from Mumbai to your new home!

In other words, say you are moving from Mumbai to Delhi and you have a car in Mumbai that you want to take with you to Delhi, how about letting me drive the 1600 odd KMs?


Why am I doing this?
I love the roads. And I love to drive. My ideal holiday is a great clean car with great music that I can sing along with and a road that takes me away. Takes me away. Not take me to. Takes me away from where I am become I dont know where I want to be. And I wish the road never ends.

However, Earth is flat and the roads are limited after all. So what do you do? You keep on driving on the same routes. Till the dhabas become familiar, the various handymen that you find at pit-stops become friends, the monotony of the road sets in and you start the journey within. And so much more!

Lemme not ramble. The point is, if you have a car that needs transporting, I want to drive it to your new destination.


Who am I?
I am Saurabh. 33, M, Mumbai. Been driving since 2010 I think. In all these years I have had one accident (I know it doesnt inspire trust but I ought to be honest). Have driven, if not more, at least a lakh KMs (did the East-Delhi to Gurgaon and back routine for close to 3 years. That's 100 KMs a day for 1000 days).

Apart from that I have driven in India and abroad. I've driven by myself and with others. I've made roadtrips as inane as Mumbai to Goa and back and as exciting as SF to Vegas. I've driven for 24 hours straight and I've been pissed off with just a 10-min commute. In all, I believe I am pretty ok driver and I want to make my passion my second third profession. My first is running AWSL and C4. Second is writing.

References available on request.


What do you get should you choose to hire me?

• A guarantee that I will take care of your car as if it were my own. I will keep it clean, not stress the engine too much by overspeeding or using wrong gears. I will check the tyres at all stops and strive to keep the car in the same condition that I get in. 
• Commitment on time. If I say that I will take, say 3 days to reach Delhi (ex-Mum), I will reach in three days! 

What do you pay?
You pay for the fuel and on-road incidentals (tolls etc).

And in some cases, a flight ticket from the city of drop to Mumbai. Of course this is negotiable. I am not doing this for money. In fact, in an ideal world, I ought to be paying for this!

Pros

• Your car gets to feature on my Roadtrips thru India blog (which is non-existent right now).
• The peace of mind that your car is being taken care of well.
• An autographed copy of my book! Lol! 
• Probably some saving on the transport costs.

Cons

• Probably more time consuming than sending it via transport. Not sure though. 
• May not be safe. Should there be an incident, you will have to bear the cost of repairs. Of course I will take every care while driving. 
• I am not too much into cars. So I can't really rattle names of the parts and do quick-fixes should there be a problem. But then Indian highways are full of mechanics that know a car better than even Henry Elon himself! 

That's it. I can't wait to get started. I am on saurabh.garg@gmail.com and / or @saurabh should you want to hire me! 

Thank you!