Renting a vehicle from private owners in Senegal

Renting a private owner's car is not the same operation as renting a company's. You are not booking a category: you are booking that particular vehicle, the one whose photographs you see, with its mileage and the neighbourhood where it is collected.

That is paid for in patience — there are two exchanges before you pay anything — and it is gained in price and in certainty about what you will be handed. This page explains both sides of the market, without promising what we cannot deliver.

What you are booking: that particular vehicle

Every listing covers one identified car. The photographs are of that car, not of a catalogue model. Nobody can replace it with another without your agreement — that is the fundamental difference from the professional route, where you book a class of vehicle and the model handed over is decided at handover.

That precision has a price: an owner does not manage a fleet. He cannot guarantee you a replacement if his car is off the road, and that is precisely why we check availability with him before asking you to pay.

In return, you know what you will get. The number of seats, the doors, the gearbox, the fuel and the mileage are on the page; mileage is unlimited across the whole fleet, without exception and without any catch-up clause.

Why this market exists here more than elsewhere: the car is scarce and expensive to run. In the capital region, about one household in seven has a car, and the private car accounts for less than four per cent of journeys according to the latest household travel survey. A vehicle standing idle nevertheless keeps costing — insurance, depreciation, battery. Rented out a few days a month, it earns instead of sleeping, and it is that calculation that feeds the fleet you see on this page. The downside is known and we say it: this fleet is old — an average of around twenty years for private cars in the region — and that is one more reason to look at the photographs before paying.

The two exchanges, and why they exist

Between your request and your payment, two things happen. We call the owner to confirm his vehicle is free on your dates — nobody but he can commit it, and an automatic calendar promising otherwise would be wrong. Then he files a dated walk-around of his vehicle, less than seven days old.

You decide afterwards, and only afterwards. No sum is due before you agree, and nothing is held on your payment method during those exchanges.

This means a last-minute rental is not this route's strong point: allow for the time of our call, then of his answer. If your date is fixed and you cannot wait, the professional route confirms as soon as you pay — that is exactly what it exists for, and the two never mix.

What we check, and what we do not claim to do

A vehicle does not appear because an owner has entered it. It appears once three documents have been received and verified as valid: the Category 8 insurance certificate, the roadworthiness certificate less than twelve months old, and the registration document in the owner's name, with the tax disc up to date.

Let us also say what we do not do. We carry out no mechanical inspection and we never claim that a vehicle is “checked” or “certified”. We state what has been filed, and we date it. The difference between those two wordings is not legal caution: it is the difference between information we can prove and a promise we could not keep.

Category 8 deserves a word, because it rules out most cars. It is the line of the CIMA schedule that covers renting out; almost every private car is insured in category 1, which does not cover making the vehicle available to a third party. An owner who wants to rent out must therefore change policy — and it is that change, not a declaration on his honour, that opens access to this fleet.

The weekend package, which exists only on this side

From Friday 4 pm to Sunday 9 pm, the rental is charged as two days instead of three. It is the only structural price advantage on the site, and it belongs to vehicles from private owners: it does not exist on the professional side.

Two honest points. It applies only with the owners who have adopted it — it is not a site rule, it is an option each one decides to open. And it is read on the offer: we do not calculate it for you on a presentation page.

The resident rate follows the same logic: it exists with the owners who offer one, verification is done just once on your account, and it then applies by itself to the offers concerned, with no code to enter. Being a resident does not depend on your telephone dialling code but on where you live.

Who answers for what

The rental contract binds the renter and the owner. We are party neither to the handover, nor to the condition report, nor to any dispute — we are the intermediary that brought the two together and that keeps the record.

That record counts for more than it seems. We hold the file, the history of the exchanges, the dated walk-around of the vehicle and the condition report drawn up on both sides at handover. In the great majority of disagreements — a disputed scratch, a fuel level, a return time — those documents are enough to settle it without anyone having to arbitrate.

The security deposit follows the same principle. It is optional: many owners ask for none, the practice not being customary in Senegalese peer-to-peer renting. When there is one, it is the owner who sets the amount, collects it and returns it. It never passes through us, it is not part of the 20 % paid online, and its amount is given to you before the keys are handed over — never after.

What you pay, and when

At booking, 20 % of the total amount online, by card, Wave or Orange Money. Those 20 % are made up of 5 % service fee, which comes to us, and 15 % passed on to the owner. The balance is paid when the keys are handed over, directly to him, together with any extras he provides and the security deposit if he asks for one. Nothing else is taken in between.

The price shown is a total price: nothing is added at the next step. What remains at your expense outside the rental is fuel — the vehicle is returned at the level recorded at the start — along with tolls, parking and any fines.

A last word on coverage. The areas offered in the search are those where vehicles are actually available: it is not a list written in advance, it is calculated from the fleet, and a new town appears there by itself as soon as an owner lists a vehicle there. Elsewhere, a handover can be negotiated directly with him. If you are looking in an area not yet covered, tell us: a request expressed is worth more than a desk estimate, and it is what decides the order in which we open towns.