TBM Staff - Mumbai According to a report in The Hindu, travel aggregator redBus has urged state-owned bus operators to make their services available on booking apps, arguing that this move could significantly boost revenue for state road transport corporations (RTCs).
States such as Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka, which manage some of the largest inter- and intra-state bus networks in India, have recently pulled back their online booking options.
“Online penetration for RTCs is hovering between 5–30%,” said Prakash Sangam, CEO, redBus. “There is clearly an opportunity” to improve the portion of their businesses that is available for online purchase, Sangam said.
He added that 23 firms had tied up with redBus, but there remained a lot of digitisation potential. For RTC bookings, the firm makes money through commissions that are comparable with other travel and ticketing agents with whom RTCs work. . Sangam outlined two reasons why RTCs were not completely distributing online.
“One is, their technology systems may not be able to handle an external integration.” The second reason is that some RTCs may not provide commercial terms to online booking sites that make the exercise worthwhile.
There was also a large portion of services where RTCs could improvise — for instance, on some routes, two separate bus services scheduled to leave in short succession may combine the services into one ride due to lower-than-usual demand.
