SRM Transports, a prominent operator from the SRM Group, has established its position as a renowned and established player in intercity bus operation. A well-diversified group with presence in educational institutions, super speciality hospitals and media, the SRM brand enters each field with proper homework which has enabled it to reach the top slot in almost all its endeavors.
Continuing our coverage of leading fleet operators in the country, we visited the office of Mr. Vivek Sivaraman, Director and CEO, SRM Transports, to get updates on how the company has evolved over the years and its plan for the future. Apart from handling SRM Transports’ operations, Mr. Sivaraman also heads various other businesses of the group, including Hemadri Cements Ltd., SRM Civil Works, HCL Agro Power Ltd. and SRM Speed Parcel Service.
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Take us back to the beginning of SRM’s journey in the transport sector. How and when did it all begin?
SRM Transports was founded by our Chairman, Mr. Ravi Pachamoothoo, with just two buses in 1999. Now we have more than 500 vehicles in our total fleet, including buses, bulkers, car carriers and trucks, of which 150 vehicles are dedicated for intercity operations. We have various brands like Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Tata and Ashok Leyland buses in our fleet.
What is the average number of departures and destinations covered per day? How many passengers do you carry every month?
We cover about 500 destinations per day with 120 departures, carrying about 1.25 lakh passengers per month. We had crossed the one million passenger mark around two years back.
How is the demand for sleeper buses and how are you tackling the non-issuance of permits for sleeper buses?
Sleeper buses are gaining popularity, and we have a good share of sleeper buses in our fleet. We run sleeper buses on most of the routes and even have Volvo multi-axle sleepers as well. We still go by the system of registering the vehicles in nearby States and running them here as we cannot obtain the permits here. We understand the new transport bill may have one national permit for buses with which we can ply the buses anywhere with one tax policy across the country. This is similar to the national permit for trucks and will help solve a lot of issues such as double taxation, making the transport business much more pleasant than how it is today. With reduced taxation, the benefits are passed on to the customer, so the passengers will enjoy reduced ticket fares.
SRM Transports has won numerous awards in the transport industry. Despite tight competition in this space, SRM has been consistently bagging top honors. Where do you think you make a difference from other operators?
Our approach towards business is customer-centric. We try to corporatize this business unlike the unorganized way in which a major part of the industry has been functioning in. As part of this approach, we start from the passengers and try to understand what they want during booking, travel, why they chose bus travel, how safe our buses are, etc. For the convenience of passengers, we have door delivery of tickets, apart from online booking of tickets. We also have a dedicated SRM bus terminus with proper wash room facilities and periodic announcement of departures. Our fleets are equipped with GPS and customers too have access to them. CCTV is available in our premises to ensure safety of passengers, and we are also on the job of installing CCTV cameras in our fleets as well. With all these measures and processes, we ensure we deliver the best quality for our passenger and that gets us the awards.
What are the new technologies you have adopted and are looking to bring in?
We will soon be offering wi-fi facility in our buses and will start playing educational videos about safety during bus travel. We are in the process of monitoring all our buses 24×7 on their time of arrival and departure and will soon be rolling out our own app for ticket booking which will also double up by giving live data on the bus location to passengers.
Would it be right to say online ticketing portals like redBus have helped your business?
The facilities which we have and they have are the same for ticket booking, but the biggest advantage they have is their reach. They have grown as a conglomerate and their volumes are very high. At the end of the day, we help each other grow bigger.
What are the safety measures and preventive maintenance checks performed on your buses to maintain reliability?
We perform 6-point checks before every bus starts running. All our buses run with two drivers and never with a single driver. We also have cleaners and assist drivers for back-up.
Tell us more about how you study and plan different routes. We know Chennai-Tiruchendur was one of the longest and toughest day-night routes. Could you explain how you operated successfully on these routes?
We focus on day-night routes where the running km are higher and we use the latest buses in our fleet for the same. We have Common Man Chariot, a dedicated budget service, with a fleet of Volvo 9100 buses to offer the same comfort as premium buses but at a slightly lower fare. As you mentioned, the day-night services are tough to operate mainly due to heavy traffic, difficulty in maintaining turnaround time, etc. Though many have tried, we have succeeded in a fairly better way.
Could you share details on your customer care services?
We have channel partners who are incentivized for providing good services for all passengers, no matter whether they book tickets offline or online. We have an exclusive control room which functions 24×7 to address each and every feedback or complaint from passengers and keep them updated on how they are rectified.
There are still a good number of BS II buses in your fleet which are quite well-maintained. How do you manage fleet maintenance?
We have in-house facilities for performing all kinds of repairs and go only with genuine parts from OEMs. Though the parts are expensive, we never compromise on quality. We have placed service vans along our major routes at important hubs such as Ulundurpet to ensure our vehicles remain on-road and deliver quick turnaround time in case of any issues.
We understand that you have recently inducted an Ashok Leyland 12 m RE bus into your fleet. How is its performance? Do you have any plan to induct Scania buses?
The Ashok Leyland 12 m rear engine buses were inducted quite some time back and were built at our facility. They are operating on the Chennai-Udangudi route and are performing well.
We have been in talks with Scania and had done trial runs two years back. We have not placed any order yet and will be doing trial runs again. We are yet to evaluate Mercedes’ new coaches as they are 15 m ones and we might take some more time to finalize them.
SRM has entered into bus body building with SRM Auto Tec. How is the new venture doing?
Having a huge fleet naturally made us invest in a bus body building facility where most of our new buses are built. The venture is driven by a dedicated team of experienced people from the industry. Apart from catering to our requirements, we also do body building for other customers at our premises.
What is the way forward for SRM Transports?
We are planning to enter the logistics business in a big way. We are already present in it through SRM Speed Parcel Service with a fleet of around 20 vehicles and will be expanding our fleet in the coming months. Work is in progress at the back-end for the logistics business, and once everything is set we shall launch it in a big way.