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Stratified BMTC service & Making profits with deficient service
Written By Vasanthkumar Mysoremath - 2 April, 2009
Bangalore BMTC Bus Complaint public transport
BMTC has of late adopted a highly stratified approach in discharging its social obligation in providing efficient service at economical rates to the commuters; its profits have soared because the most of the time the engines of the fully loaded or overloaded buses are switched off at most of the traffic hold ups - their failure and inefficiency in keeping up the running time and fulfilling the prescribed running schedules are open to examination and must be subjected to an indepth audit to reveal the anotomy of BMTC's profit making methods.
Ordinary Buses:
Most of the ordinary buses catering to the majority of the commuters are unkempt,
window glasses are either broken or dirty and untouchable with dried vomit sticking on the glass panels, on the floor and outside the windows,
floors are not swept and lots of dirt keeps circulating inside the bus endangering the health of commuters and creating allergic conditions,
drivers seat and his area of operation are despicable,
first aid box does not exist or if it exists, is either empty or god knows what is inside,
poor visibility of name boards, front board shows a destination and the back board shows some other destination,
name board does not have a proper light,
lighting inside the bus is very dim and we have seen conductor struggling to remove proper change from his bag or to make entries,
most of red board buses running on mofusil routes are old rickety buses that rattle and make horrible sounds,
they are withdrawn periodically to the workshop to get a fresh coat of paint over the peeling paint only in the interiors,
those who are sitting in the front seats have to breath the unhealthy hot air that escapes through the poorly fitted rickety covers of the engine bonnet,
the list could be long.
Pushpaks: They are an apology to the name; only difference between ordinary and pushpak is their color is different but seats are almost the same - torn and patched here and there. They also suffer from maladies -
Pushpak's 2+3 seating arrangement has no place for standing commuters, but most of them are run on busy routes to capacity and ordinary buses are drastically reduced - clever examples: trips to Bannerghatta National Park - it is either volvo or pushpaks or other semi-luxury type buses charging higher fares,
commuters are paying for maximum inconvenience and deficient service; one cannot be sure whether they will be able to keep up an appointment.
Heavy investments are being made to satisfy the higher strata of our stratified society; Volvos are still running to less than half their capacity and reports keep appearing that the daily loss from Volvos is reaching a peak.
Big 10 is the most stupid service ever introduced by a service provider in the social sector without proper planning and survey. These buses are supposed to cater to hi-end customers who have not even glanced at these ornamental toys provided to them at the cost of sweat and blood of the common commuter who is languishing to get back home as early as possible but there are no buses.
Enough is enough. Stop pampering the hi-end customers with Volvos etc., because they would prefer to travel in their fleet of cars even if it matters that they will be behind a Volvo to the same destination. It is a matter of egoism for these 'haves'. Given an opportunity, all of them blah, blah, blah on public platforms but does not bother to practice what they preach. Their vehicles are the guzzlers of most of the fuel and they are the culprits who emit maximum per capita CO2 and create carbon footprints of the highest order.
In the name of reducing vehicles on the road, achieving fuel economy, control of green house gases, climate change, global warming or global dimming, the common man is being put to maximum hardship with minimum services.
It is time for BMTC to go back to basics, look at the common man as their bread and butter earner, fulfil his needs and aspirations of efficient and economical travel, do not show off empty ornamental buses that makes you bleed, try to give maximum comfortable travel facilities to all without stratification between 'haves' and 'have nots'. Give him proper bus shelters with enough information system through LED boards, do not encourage, even if it is PPP, A/C bus shelters, instead, use the money to provide some drinking water facility etc. at bus stands.
I have a travelling experience of more than 50 years in BTS/BMTC and that is my qualification for this postmartem.
- Vasanthkumar Mysoremath, 9845950440
COMMENTS
Naveen - 4 April, 2009 - 03:52
Assuming an investment of 70 lakhs per bus, & overheads (viz. running costs, maintenance, staff salaries, spares, etc.) at about 50,000 rs per month, & a revenue of about 2.16 lakhs per month (assumed average only 25 passengers per hour for daily 12-hour operation X 25 days X 20 rs. average fare per passenger per hour), the net profit would be abt 1.30 lakhs.
Thus, it would require 54 months to recover the principal invested & probably another 18 months to recover interests. That is 72 months or 6 years, after which the service can commence subsidising ordinary services to the tune of abt 1 lakh per month, assuming some increase in maintenenace costs.
Now, assuming ticket prices are slashed to 5 rs with 75 passengers (with obvious rubbing of shoulders), the revenue would be - 75 X 12 X 30 X 5 = 1.35 lakhs.
After deducting running costs of 50k, net would be 0.85 lakhs. Recovery of this will take 82 months & a further period of appx 35 months for interests (ie. about 10 years !). By then, the bus would be old & maintenance costs will flatten profits, which may now have become meagre with increasing running costs.
Now, would the pricing strategy in the 1st case help better to serve society or will the 2nd case help better ?
It is obvious that with the profits during the 4-year period (after the first 6 years) in the 1st case, ordinary services can be subsidised or out of the profits, benefits can be given to ordinary passengers, such as better quality of buses, better seats, lower fares, etc. Further, those passengers that might consider using the bus instead of cars will have the option of a higher quality service & it might lead to decreased congestion, though this may be difficult to quantify.
And last, but not the least important aspect, authorities will have more teeth to enforce traffic restraints & TDM measures (such as heavy parking charges & congestion pricing), which can assist in controlling traffic growth.
What do we gain in the 2nd case ? No revenues for profit generation to speak of, more irritation for car users as they will detest over crowded buses, a lot more cars on the streets, highly crowded roads & more expenditure on maintaining & increasing road infrastructure ! - Exactly where we are today - Total & complete chaos !!
I also do not subscribe to new flyovers & new facilities for cars unless proper PT is in place to cater to all sections. All new transport & road infrastructure MUST be with the single focus on mass transport, be these ordinary trains, Metro, Buses or Monorail. If 10,000 buses have to be run on Bangalore's roads, so be it - drive the cars out, if need be, but give differential services to cater to all groups of commuters first - tomorrow, they should not have reason to complain about poor & low quality transport or overcrowded & uncomfortable buses with a strong lobby & demand more road infrastructure - this can only be possible if proper services are in place first.
I rest my case for differential services, as also recommended by National urban transport Policy.
idontspam - 20 April, 2009 - 06:54
bifurcating the bus with grill work with an aisle for conductor only and men should not move over to the other side reserved for ladies
Wow, You make swat valley sound like a liberal democracy.
Common man is everyones priority
Rithesh - 2 April, 2009 - 16:14
Vasanthkumar Sir,
Thanks for the feedback. Your observations are very valid and true also.
But let us make this clear, we are not just pushing for better Volvo services, we want a better transportation infrastructure and that is what we aim to do with these exercises.
I completely agree with your point - common man should be the priority and will be the priority. We are working on that - please join us in these efforts. There is no point in shooting down one service just because another service is not functioning well. We will need to fix all problems.
We are in this mess because people havent raised their voices consistently, apart from cribbing and whining about it for hours with friends, how many of us have have tried to engage with the BMTC or the Transport minister - hardly any and yet we all want the best services. If we need things to change we need to change - we need to demand things in an organized and civilized manner - and consistently.
Why dont we start an email campaign and write to out transport minister and BMTC. Lets go and pester the minister and BMTC for better services every week - please take the lead, I will assure you every support that i can give and i will join you.
Rithesh
At least one statement there is ...
silkboard - 2 April, 2009 - 15:18
... untrue.
Saying that
"Stop pampering the hi-end customers with Volvos etc., because they would prefer to travel in their fleet of cars even if it matters that they will be behind a Volvo to the same destination."
Is a stretch. May not be true for those who have fleets of cars, but most of us with a car or two simply hate the headache of driving, managing drivers and wasting needless hours every morning. What you said is the biggest "false assumption" doing the rounds. But yes, its your word against mine.
Its not like we don't know what you have said above. Who is praising BMTC for their excellent services here? Sir, we too have eyes and ears (and nose!), and see the condition of buses everyday. Not the best (my bars are certainly high), but you went a bit overboard there - the quality of buses has gotten better. You may have ridden the buses for 50 years, but I ride them these days, and the quality of ride now is better than what it was in BTS days.
Why can't our goal be to have all of Bengaluru, regardless of their class and creed, travel in nicer buses. Are you saying that Bangaloreans don't desrve comfortable bus rides? Why is your benchmark low?
What are your ideas on fixing all of what you mentioned above?
We have talked this a lot, in fact, even had a poll here for this. Most of us said (via that poll), that we don't care that much for A/c. Just provide neat and clean and comfortable ride, and end to end connectivity. BTW, I should tell you the reason for why I ride the Volvo - their acceleration. Whitefield to city - Volvo does it faster because it has better pick up and speed on slopes etc.
Notice huge difference of Profit per km - P is reduced to 50%
Vasanthkumar Mysoremath - 13 May, 2009 - 14:19
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