Safari Car Rental Scams In Uganda

It is quite an easy thing to find several blogs recommending you on how to go about self drive car rentals in Uganda. The information shared is more or less the same because it is not a common thing for people to share fresh information in fields where they are not hands-on. They often just read other people’s work, rephrase it, and share without necessarily having the experience thereof.

Telling an authentic company is not an easy thing given the common recommendation of looking out for company reviews. An online company can open and close at anytime. When a person gets bad reviews, it is very easy to change the name and find a new one. Sometimes the intention of the company owners is not necessarily to scam but because of lack of accountability, it is very hard for them not to misuse the money you give them.

The biggest car rental scams that have come to our table were due to other companies trying to ride on the 4x4uganda brand. Most of the scams have mainly been related to gorilla trekking permits money. Beyond the online reviews, how do you identify an authentic car rental agency in Uganda?

There are four major ways to identify an authentic car rental agency in Uganda

• The cars should have a blue license sticker from the government of Uganda. This is a sticker issued to all none private vehicles. Most car rental agencies that are not registered do not have these stickers on their cars because they use private cars most of which are not comprehensively insured
• The company should appear in the listed companies of the Uganda registration service bureau (URSB). Every business in Uganda is listed on this portal. Any business that is not listed on the URSB portal is not a registered business in Uganda and chances are high that in case things get out of hand, the company will disappear.
• The company should be a member of one of the Ugandan tour operators associations. Any company that specializes in renting out cars to tourists should be a member of a tourism association like Association of Uganda tour operators (AUTO) among other tourism associations.
•  The company should have a bank account in its names. One of the easiest ways to identify whether the company is legally compliant is having a bank account in its names. The failure to have a bank account in its names signifies two things, either the company is simply evading taxes thus prefers cash transactions or the company does not meet the government requirements to open up a company bank account.

In conclusion, before you confirm any car rental with a “safari car rental agency” in Uganda ensure that it meets the have criteria. If it does not, that does not mean that the company cannot or does not offer car rental services but it means that in case anything such as an accident, over payment or cancellation of the trip; refunds and several other mitigations might not be possible because this would be a company that has hidden out of the reach of the law enforcement arm.

Here are my parting remarks, whichever car rental agency you choose online, the bear minimum should be at least a Uganda registration service bureau certificate or a listing at the URSB portal. If you choose to deal with any company that is not listed on that portal, you do it at your own risk.

In case you intend to have a company reserve gorilla trekking permits and chimpanzee tracking permits for you; that company should have a listing on the explore Uganda website or the Uganda tourism board website. Any company that is not listed on that platform is not allowed to purchase gorilla trekking permits.