An Idea to increase BMTC revenues
TL;DR Version: BMTC Volvo service has an empty ridership during non-peak hours. Could dynamic reduction in prices add to more revenues and profit? Also could the stage entry sheet be done from their POS ticketing machine?
I have been living in Bengaluru for 18 years and frequently travel by BMTC buses. I find them convenient enough that I haven’t warmed up to learn a bike and am still working on my car driving skills. After 18 years of having seen Bengaluru from my BMTC window seat , you could say that I have some expertise in public transport.
Dynamic Pricing?
BMTC Vajra services on ITPL route (both the 335E and 500CA/NA service from Kempegowda Bus Terminus and Banashankari bus terminus) have almost an empty ridership every weekday between 11.30 and 3.30. As the airplane analogy goes, an empty seat is lost revenue. So are the empty seat(s) in a high maintenance high revenue generating volvo bus route. Unlike the airlines, the bus operating costs are nearly the same for running an empty bus and a full one. The Driver and conductor salaries are the same, the amount of fuel spent on the trip is nearly the same (unless the physicist in you says more mass means more energy required for movement).
Could the BMTC empower it’s staff (through technology in their POS ticket machine) to dynamically reduce fairs when they see ridership fall below a certain mark? For e.g., the conductor could press a button on his internet connected POS ticket machine to request an authorization for slashing the fares for the current trip. A controller could view such requests and take a call (based on number of buses on this route already on special authorization etc) and convey back to the POS with his ruling. Once special fares are enabled, the conductor could announce at stops of ridership at half price and ridership would increase. I am guessing that the POS machines have some kind of connectivity or else they could empower more experienced/ trustworthy conductors to take a call on fair reduction.
Automating stage entry sheet
Sometimes, when the bus gets crowded at a stop and the next stop is a stage change, the conductor whistles for the bus to slowdown/stop so that he could issue the tickets and also make a stage entry in time. These days most of the conductors has a ticketing machine. I wonder why stage entry in a sheet is still necessary as a single button press on the machine should mark a stage entry and be able to create a sheet when connected back to a computer at the terminal. A requirement that the purchase authority at BMTC has to think about, next time they call for tenders to supply POS. Saves time and effort for conductors and Admin staff required to collate the handwritten stage entry sheet.
If you know someone at BMTC do pass these ideas on. Together we can reduce traffic on the streets of Namma Bengaluru.
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