It should come as no surprise if a lot of people have either heard or come across Parveen Travels and its experience in the diverse 
segments of the transportation services in south India. Parveen Travels is a well known and popular brand in the domains ranging from intercity buses, speed parcels/general cargo transport, auto rentals to logistics, organised tours, elite charters, corporate transport, aviation services, et al. The company is expanding its reach in many of its core and allied sectors; venturing also into ‘Holidays services’ to organise India/worldwide packaged tours and fast food restaurant chain business under the brand name ‘Pitstop’ to improve both the top and bottom lines. The growth has been rapid in the last decade in sync with the industrial climate in general and auto sector in particular. Hoping to clock a turnover of Rs. 400 crores for the fiscal year 2014, the plans have been drawn out in a meticulous manner for the group to touch Rs. 1,000 crores in about 3 yrs, a modest and a pragmatic estimate as per the confident and exuberant Mr. A. Afzal, Chairman and Managing Director, Parveen Travels (P) Ltd., Chennai.
The group had a humble beginning in the year 1967 when the late Haji Janab Allah Baksh, Founder & Chairman started Parveen Travels thro’ the taxi service and general cargo truck transport routes. The growth during 1970s was steady and essentially via the truck segment; Mr. A. Afzal, his son studying still in college joined the business to assist his father and saw emerging opportunities and growth prospects in the travel sector. During the year 1980 starting off with 2 Ambassador tourist taxis and followed by 2 intercity buses between Chennai and B’lore, the business grew steadily so much so that focus of operations shifted to travels domain; Parveen Travels named after sister of Mr. Afzal proved a lucky charm for the group and the seeds for the wider canvas in travels related services had thus been firmly planted. “The real break came when the automotive sector took off in a big way during mid-nineties. We ventured into operating bus services for the auto companies and later to the IT firms to transport their staff; and there has been no looking back since then and today we have over 850 buses operating only for the corporate sector”, says a beaming Mr. Afzal when we met him at the gleaming, contemporary style corporate office in Chennai to understand the reasons for the popularity of the Parveen brand, their operational plans to get into the fast lane in the transportation services segment and replicate it in other sectors.
“Most know Parveen as a travels firm running intercity buses but the many other business parallels closely linked to it and the services extended thro’ the set-ups are not readily perceived. It’s an advantage and at the same a drawback of having a strong brand following aligned with one particular service in the market place. During the early days when I was in college and while we were still shaping up the travels business, I used to travel in the bus during my holidays to understand the customer reactions and the general market requirements. This has helped us shape-up our business and align it with market needs; and it has become the guiding philosophy in venturing into other related sectors too. Arrival of foreign tourists and the opportunity to cater to their specific needs led to introduction of tourist buses with luxury ambience. During the night service bus operations, various courier companies approached us to deliver the unaccompanied parcels and the increase in volume led to the beginning of dedicated parcel services. The night buses needed to be utilised during the day time for a quicker ROI and this lookout opened up the staff transport services sector. To support the vehicles fleet, the service workshop facilities arose. This chain of related expansion of services led us to the position where we are today”, summarises Mr. Afzal.
“With many related services starting off within a very short time, we had to streamline the operations and give each domain the focus it
needs to meet the customer demands. Separate private ltd. companies were formed and each of four brothers, directors in Parveen Travels, the parent company for which I became the CMD, took charge as MD in the other companies. Mr. A. Aslam, my elder brother became the MD of PT Express Lines (P) Ltd., the express parcel/cargo parallel; Mr. A. Sadiq took charge as MD of Parveen Automobiles (P) Ltd., the fleet service support firm thro’ Motorzone and Mr. A. Aarif became the MD of AB Resorts and Restaurants (P) Ltd., one of its wings being the Pitstop restaurant chain; and I steer the operations of the flagship company Parveen Travels”, briefs Mr. Afzal. The gen-next has also joined to support the expanding divisions and operations. Mr. A. Akram, nephew of Mr. Afzal has taken charge of AB Trucks (P) Ltd., dealership of AMW Trucks while Mr. A. Ameen son of Mr. Afzal is in control of Parveen Holidays (P) Ltd. that organises in/out bound tour packages and event management functions. With many companies and related operations sprouting under each company expanding to greater proportions, the management is actively examining a structure to bring all the diverse operations under a common umbrella, indicates Mr. Afzal. The group has today 4,000 employees in the payroll and recorded a sales turnover Rs. 365 crores for fiscal year ended 2013.
Commenting on the growth milestones, Mr. Afzal points out that the business steadily grew around the tourist taxi rentals, intercity buses and tourist buses thro’ the early eighties till mid-nineties. It also entered into staff transport sector extending its services to EID Parry during 1991. Hyundai which stared its operations during 1996, needed buses for transport of its employees; Parveen saw the opportunity in the sunrise sector and offered the same at competitive rates. The business in the staff transport picked-up and with many auto and auto sector companies starting up in Chennai apart from various IT and ITES MNCs, the staff transport became a big business segment for the firm. “Transporting the staff hassle-free to their workplaces contributes significantly to increasing their productivity and this realisation and need opened up the business opportunities in this new domain. Initially we were utilising out night service buses for the staff transport during the day time but the market demands forced us to introduce dedicated staff transport buses; and today thro’ the diverse vehicles in the fleet transport about 40,000 employees per day in and around Chennai-customers in our fold include industrial giants, MNCs, colleges, BPOs, airlines, et al. The tourist bus segment also grew parallely and today we have buses running all over India; and to places as far as Dhaka and Nepal, catering to tourist contingents arriving from all over the world”, points out Mr. Afzal.
How has been the growth of intercity buses segment? Mr. Afzal is quick to respond that this has been the main driving factor for the group and around which the other business parallels have sprung up. “We have over 100 buses in economy, premium and luxury segments. Around 50% of the fleet are in the luxury class; in the luxury class we have Mercedes, Volvo and Isuzu multi-axle types and soon 4 nos. Scania will join in the fleet. We transport an average 4,000 passengers per day and have an occupancy rate of 70% during lean season; and the same goes up to 95% during the peak season. Average age of the fleet is about 5 yrs with 99.2% accident-free record and the services connect over 600 destinations in south India. We were the first in the segment to provide hi-tech luxury coaches, fully integrated on-line booking service, insurance cover for the travellers and provide own state-of-the-art workshop for service support and upkeep of the vehicles in good running condition. Despite all of above, the success in this segment depends to a great extent on the quality of drivers and in this regard, we take great care to train them periodically in skill enhancements and give them the best of benefits. In the event of a snag developing in the bus en route and the driver is not able to handle it, we make alternative arrangements to shift the passengers to another of our bus in the same route or in the near about zone – the ‘break-down’ rescue service team ensures that the passengers do not get stuck up beyond 45 min and just carry on. We have about 2,200 drivers in all and the experience level ranges from 6 months to 30 yrs. Once they understand the operating culture, they settle down with us and the drop-out rate for greener pastures is minimal”, indicates Mr. Afzal. The buses he points out have GPRS fitment, supported by mobile squads and the movements are tracked to provide service support; and the active customer support cell takes the feedback from travellers 70% of whom are repeat customers, to ensure that the grievances if any are sorted out and improvements in service recommended for implementation.
The tourist service domain of the travels has about 100 buses mainly in the luxury class, apart from vans, SUVs and high-end cars to suit the customer requirements, especially the overseas tourists. Another parallel of the travels is the ‘Elite charters’, a new concept promoted to address the requirements of the MNC customers and high-end market, points out Mr. Afzal. He adds that ‘Konferenz on wheels’ is a typical application wherein the inside of the bus is furnished matching a typical conference room set-up for executives; same provided with 14 swivel chairs, foldable centre table, video/TV display systems, Wi-Fi enabled environment and complete with an attached pantry. Executives during the travel especially for extended periods need not to waste their time and finish off their meetings/discussions; and this has been increasingly sought after by MNCs also to alleviate the unproductive time during long commute hours at various locations. Also the other specialised services like limousine for marriages functions, high-end fully furnished Innova/SUV with 2 stretchable seats for senior executives and caravans with furnished facilities for VIPs, film industry and political rallies are provided thro’ the rental route.
To cater to the express parcel service, Parveen has formed a separate company ‘PT express’ that has become popular with both industries and regular customers; over 100 trucks with payload capacity of around 8 ton cover major destinations in south India and handle about 400 tons per day. “We have not gone in for bigger trucks because their down time due to non-availability during restricted hours. Our smaller trucks are always on the move and enter the cities and towns with ease as there are no restrictions. Yes, we also have the last mile connectivity SCVs to support the central hub and distribute/collect the parcels,” adds Mr. Afzal. ‘Aviation services’ is another sector where the company has ventured. Parveen has obtained the necessary BCAS clearance for handling all services related to aircraft and terminal side operations. The company also provides various types of vehicles for VIP movements and transport of aircraft crew. ‘Parveen Holidays’ is another thrust area for the group; while this wing organises for the travel arrangements of the tourists from all over the world, the Travels Division takes charge of the back-end transportation in India. The Holidays Division has tie-ups with Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the UK-based companies for the travel co-ordination; and plans to start their own office overseas to take care of the tourists at a future date. A separate Forex Division has also been started to support the Holidays wing service the requirements of tourists.
Despite the growth in diverse segments, the travels domain continues to remain the fulcrum of the group. Parveen Travels in all its divisions has about 1,250 vehicles, buses, cars, SUVs, et al put together and to service the same ‘Parveen Automobiles’ was formed. A captive workshop was initially started to cater to their fleet needs; but then later with the addition of various facilities including water washing, electrical/mechanical workshops, body shop, painting facilities, etc., the concept of ‘Motorzone’, viz., integrated service facility for trucks & buses exclusive to each OEM, evolved; OEM’s authorised vehicle and component service dealerships, ALL, AMW, Wheels India, DuPont to name a few, were set-up in a common campus. The model has become a hit as the customers having varied makes of vehicles in their fleet can now get all of it serviced at one location. Mr. Afzal points out that they want to replicate this model every 250 km and are in talks with OEMs for this ambitious exercise. The group has also ventured into multi-brand service centre named ‘The Torque’ for premium and imported cars and run a petrol bunk for its fleet of vehicles and as well for the other end users.
“As regards CSR, we feel it’s an obligation of every successful organisation to give back to the society thro’ various measures; we provide free transport services to doctors under a special program for the health check-up in Govt. run schools and this has been happening regularly for the last 5 yrs. Organising blood donation camps, providing free transport for Haj pilgrims, sponsoring the awards for state rank holders in school 10th &12th standards, providing donations during times of calamities such as Tsunami and planting saplings corresponding to the passengers travelled in specified routes under the ex-President Kalam’s green initiative program are some of the projects undertaken for the cause of society. Yes, we are willing to take all steps to ensure better quality of service for travelling public but would also expect encouraging reciprocal measures from the Govt. The transportation sector has not been accorded the industry status; still viewed as conglomeration of unorganised sectors despite the same forming the backbone of the industrial activities. We would like the Govt. to rationalise the tax structure and simplify the procedures regarding permits to enable hassle free travel to all parts of India. If this happens, then in conjunction with improving infrastructure, the travel sector can take off in a bigger way and strive to provide world class standards in this potentially a high growth domain”, summarises Mr. Afzal.
Parveen Travels with its multifarious business parallels has a come long way in its operations realm since the beginning way back in 1967. It is today one of the largest fleet operators in the country with ISO 9001:2008 certification and positioning itself as the ‘one-stop-shop’ for all the travel needs of general public, tourists and corporates alike. For its innovative and stellar services, several top awards like Apollo CV Awards for India’s ‘Best Fleet Operator 2010’, National Tourism Award for Five Years (2002-2006 & 2007-2008) from Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India, Global Leadership Award 2011 for Travels and Tours Sector have come its way. The group carries its founder’s message that customer satisfaction that boils down to basic hospitality defines the success in travels related organisation; and excelling in the same has been Parveen’s success formula in this domain. Having meticulously followed the dictum in all its operational segments, the group is chalking out ambitious growth plans to treble its turnover in about 3 years. Going by the passion, dedication and focussed approach in all the divisions, we should see Parveen Group envelop many more segments, take the customer experience to a new level and set world-class benchmarks in the travels and allied domains.