Basic HTML Version
MOTORINDIA
l
September 2012
141
of them boarded redBus within an
year.
Now the country’s largest bus-
ticketing company, redBus is cur-
rently present in 25 States with 26
offices and seven call centres. It
employs around 500 people, offer-
ing close to 19,000+ services every
day. It has 800+ bus operators, 700
of whom use BOSS. Among them
are two government operators,
RSRTC in Rajasthan and Goa Ka-
damba. With many awards already
under its belt, redBus had more than
doubled its revenue last year. With
a turnover of about Rs. 300 crores
last year, the company expects this
year’s growth to be much better.
Apart from redBus and BOSS,
for consumers and bus operators
respectively, SeatSellerTM is the
company’s face for travel agents.
The three brands together provide a
well-knit eco-system for the coun-
try’s bus transportation industry
whose annual worth is $2.5 billion,
with 220 million seats being sold
every year.
Big IT power
With the entry of multinationals,
especially Volvo, and improvement
in road infrastructure, the Indian bus
industry is witnessing rapid growth.
redBus seems to have arrived just
at the right time to catalyse the seg-
ment’s growth by providing a one-
stop portal for bus operators, travel
agents and, most importantly, pas-
sengers. Information technology
seems to stir up a revolution in most
fields, including bus transport. Over
the last decade, the number of bus
operators and bus routes in India
has grown exponentially.
redBus has created a level play-
ing field among
large and small
bus operators,
the quality of
service provid-
ed deciding the
operators’ suc-
cess. The star-
rating feedback
given by trav-
ellers reflects
the bus quality,
punctuality and
staff behaviour.
This comes in
handy for other
customers who
visit the site.
Also, bus op-
erators
have
complete trust
in the genuineness of feedback re-
ceived that drives them to improve
quality standards in order to rope in
more customers. All this has result-
ed in the whole bus industry in the
country moving to a higher level in
terms of quality of service, custom-
er satisfaction, comfort, safety, etc.
Another powerful and interesting
outcome of the IT-based solution is
the identification of potential new
routes. When a customer searches
for buses on a specific route but
fails in his bid, redBus conveys the
information over a period of time
to bus operators. This system could
lead to introduction of new routes,
a boon to bus operators as well
as travellers. Another possibility
through redBus has been to set right
the supply-demand mismatch which
could divert buses from routes that
attract less demand to those which
require more buses. Again, it is ad-
vantageous both to operators and
travellers.
Company statistics reveal that
almost 25 per cent of redBus users
are first-time bus travellers. Even
then the company is expanding the
bus industry consumer base by 25
per cent every year. One third of
the passengers, around 33 per cent,
have switched over to multi-axle
vehicles since their entry into the
Indian market a decade ago.
redBus has a dedicated team
working on new initiatives to im-
prove customer service. One of
the latest additions to the site is the
‘tips’, a feature that helps travellers
to provide simple and valuable in-
formation about the buses to other
users.
On the whole, redBus.in has
brought about an IT revolution in
the Indian bus industry.
w
Why the brand name ‘redBus’?!
• Phani was inspired by Richard Branson’s auto-
biography. The logo of Richard’s company, Vir-
gin Atlantic, is RED.
• The founders wanted a color in the brand name,
so that people could link to the brand whenever
they came across the color! RED was closer to
being chosen!
• Being a website company, the color had to be
short and easy to type - RED was frozen!
• Just ‘red’ was incomplete, so they wanted to
improve upon it. ‘Redline’ was the first choice
adopted from the ‘redline’ buses which oper-
ated on Delhi roads, but the domain redline.in
was unavailable!
• BUS obviously related directly to the industry
which they would operate in. Thus came into ex-
istence the brand ‘redBus’.
innovation