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To make bus travel comfortable for passengers commuting short distances, Shuttl, an app-based office bus service provider, is planning to install more powerful air-conditioners in its next lot of buses. For this, it has places a bulk order with SML Isuzu for the chassis and JCBL for the bus body.
“In the buses used for daily commute, which usually run shorter distances, the doors tend to open and close multiple times; this makes the AC ineffective,” Amit Singh, co-founder Shuttl, told BusinessLine . The new ACs will roughly cost an extra ₹50,000.
Shuttl will also putt in place pneumatic doors that can be controlled by drivers.
The company said it noticed that many passengers open windows and leave them open even when ACs are on. “The new lot of buses will have fused windows of the kind you see in metro trains or fully air-conditioned buses,” said Singh, adding that the buses will also have mobilephone chargers.
Shuttl has also redesigned the bus seats so that they recline “just enough” so as not to make the person sitting behind uncomfortable. The design has been configured so that it does not lead to increase in seats per bus.
The company, which has about 150-200 operators, with 300 buses in its fleet, has placed an order for 500 buses with the new design. While the order will be completed over the next 2-3 years, 50 per cent of these buses will be delivered within the next 6-8 months, Singh said.
“We got these buses at a discount for the operators as we were placing a large assured order. Additionally, they also got cheaper financing, as we provided bus operators with assured passenger revenues,” Singh claimed.
Shuttl now operates in routes that are more than 5 km, and has withdrawn from shorter routes. It sees an average of 10,000 users daily, and expects sharp growth in the home-to-office drop service. The company, which now operates in 10 routes in the National Capital Region, plans to offer services on 14 routes next month and scale up to 20 routes in a few months.
The bus fare ranges ₹50-80 per ride. Singh said Shuttl sees 75-80 per cent occupancy, with 80 per cent in the morning and 75 per cent in the evening, as many passengers tend to stay late in office.
When asked how they ensure that drivers get enough rest, he said the drivers, who are hired after Aadhaar verification, drive for four hours in the morning and four in the evening.
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