RedBus Campaigns for State Bus Companies to Go Online in Ticketing
Private travel aggregator RedBus has urged state-run bus operators across the country to make their services available online and through booking apps, saying that this alone would generate huge surge in revenues for state road transport corporations. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka have recently jumped into this bid by making bus tickets available exclusively on apps. The state road transport corporations in these three states together manage some of the largest inter- and intra-state bus networks in India.
According to Prakash Sangam, CEO of RedBus, online penetration for RTCs is between 5 – 30%, leaving substantial room for them increasing the proportion of services that becomes purchasable online. He also pointed out that even though 23 companies have signed with RedBus, much scope still remains for the digitisation process. RedBus also receives commissions on its RTC bookings, that are comparable to what is received by other agents working on behalf of other travel and ticketing companies.
Sangam identified two primary reasons for the limited online distribution of RTC services. Some RTC technology systems might not be up to the task of external integration. There are also some RTCs that do not provide commercial terms that make these online booking platforms viable.
He added that there are many places where RTCs could still do better. Citing one example, in some cases, two scheduled bus services, which are supposed to leave two minutes apart, are substituted with a single one because RTCs have perceived the demand to be lower than was planned.
