A full-stack technology-enabled intercity bus ticketing platform that offers a bouquet of services and is committed to ease the lives of all stakeholders. Sarada Vishnubhatla interacts with Amit Gupta, Co-Founder, gogoBus to find out how he and his partner are democratizing access to the ubiquitous bus ticketing platform for passengers and operators alike
gogoBus takes away your travel apprehensions. Whether you are a single passenger or travelling with family and kids, gogoBus offers a seamless end-to-end travel experience with bus as the chosen mode of transport. As a full-stack technology-enabled intercity bus ticketing platform, gogoBus pits itself against a segment that is choc-a-bloc with service providers. Founders of gogoBus – Amit Gupta and Avinash Singh Bagri – launched the platform in January 2020 to help fleet operators, drivers and attendants of the bus, besides the booking agents – all of whom together have a stake in creating a harmonious travel experience for passengers. The company offers technology developed inhouse with comprehensive booking, tracking and safety-in-transit features.
Amit Gupta, Co-Founder, gogoBus shares: “Soon after launching the company, COVID pandemic struck. We utilized that time to realign our product and market strategy in building a unique pan-India technology platform to connect every nook and corner of the country. Despite lockdowns and later as the economy eventual opened up, we have been receiving positive response from the platform. The curated bus services are benefitting both the operators and the consumers also.”
gogoBus has roughly 200 buses on board and offers consumers a unique standardized service by branding the buses under their own name.
Amit agrees: “We take the buses from the operator, brand them, put it on our platform, and we offer those buses for the consumers to book their tickets on. This way we bring everything under one umbrella. This way consumers receive a standard service wherever they are in India.”
Such standardization is definitely an uphill task which gogoBus has undertaken especially considering the fact that it is a highly unorganized sector.
Amit says: “There are more than 4.5 lakh buses plying across India, out of which a mere 5-6% of the market is organized. Today, the consumer wants a curated inventory where service levels are maintained and we share with the operators a 50-point checklist before any bus is on-boarded on to our system.”
Customer-Centric Apps
gogoBus boasts of customer-friendly applications developed to serve targeted purposes.
Amit explains each application: “Swami is meant for operators who can use this application to check the live location of the bus, total number of passengers at any given point in time and if the driver is onboard. Mitr is designed for the attendants on the bus to facilitate seamless and contactless onboarding passengers. Then comes Sarthi which is an application for the drivers to help them with route tracking and keep a check on the number of passengers especially during planned stoppages. The application for the agents to help consumers book tickets is called Sathi and Sanchalak helps admin to track the live location of the bus which also monitors customer safety.”
Standing head and shoulders above the extremely crowded bus ticketing segment is a major challenge. But gogoBus’ Amit is clear: “Our point of departure from the competition lies in the seamless mobility platform that we offer. When a passenger books a bus on gogoBus, we cover his first, middle and last mile. While in transit, the passenger can track all the details using the mobile app.”
All the buses on gogoBus platform are connected to a central command center located in Delhi where they are continuously monitored using an alert-based system.
Amit adds further: “We have clear end-to-end visibility of the buses from their point of origin to their destination just like how it is done in any airlines for example. Also, the same is available with regards to the passengers, so that if any concern is raised, our app can trigger an SOS. And that is also our USP.”
Fulfilling A Wide ‘Service’ Chasm
Bus transportation today in India is one segment which is witnessing increased use of technology to offer passengers choice. Yet, the gap in experience still exists. gogoBus feels motivated to continuously work and fine-tune their approach towards product and the market they are playing in – both in the demand and the supply side of business.
He says: “Bus transportation is a huge complex system. Avinash and I wish to use technology to create smart and intelligent solution that can facilitate a seamless system where both operators and consumers are on the same page and the information is available on a real time basis.”
Keeping in mind the consumer definition of ‘comfortable’ travel experience, Amit and Avinash have worked on a number of parameters. He shares: “We quantify ‘discomfort’ factors which are generally subjective in nature. For example, we measure the sound levels of the cabin when the engine is on and keep it below 75 decibels.”
One of the advantages with gogoBus that operators acknowledge is that since the platform provides an omni-channel approach, they are able to integrate with other digital platforms too – size of the fleet no bar. And it is proving to be quite a motivating point for the operators.
gogoBus uses AI tools to help operators by identifying the top 100 routes and time in a day to give operators the benefit of maximum occupancy.
He explains: “We bring in value-addition by way of solving information asymmetry which is part of the bus transportation ecosystem in our country. We provide this information at the touch of a button and we are passing on this advantage to both operators and consumers.”
Success Strategy
Perhaps, the single most winning strategy of Amit and Avinash is to build a gogoBus community across India that will have operators focused on giving satisfactory customer experience, ticketing agents who are hunting for buses, or even the OEMs to bring out better quality buses on the road.
Amit feels: “Bus transportation needs a favourable ecosystem for which all stakeholders must synergize to build a collaborative system. Ultimately, buses are the fundamental blocks of sustainable mobility and we are working aggressively towards making people consider buses as an important mode of travel, secondary only after cars.”
In the next couple of years, gogoBus is targeting 2-3% of the market share in offering tech-based ticketing service, besides entering the international market further ahead.
gogoBus is also working on introducing EVs on their platform going forward. Amit shares: “We are already in talks with a couple of OEMs to get electric buses on board. Some of the OEMs have products that can run 250-300 kilometers. As the product and the market mature, we will be looking at improving mileage of EVs on our platform. This, we feel, will give us an edge and push us forward on our path to build sustainable future in transportation ecosystem.” The company is targeting roughly 1000 electric buses on board in the next 5 years.