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Cash-on-delivery for online train tickets, a concept launched four months ago, is fast catching up, says bookymytrain.com, which does around 4,000 transactions a month and has been registering about 1,000 users every day.
An initiative by Anduril Technologies for IRCTC, bookmytrain.com sells tickets worth ₹70 lakh a month, of which 65 per cent is cash-on-delivery.
The average ticket booked is valued at ₹1,800.
The company said it has seen over 50,000 App downloads and has 75,000 users so far.
This is despite charging consumers ₹40 extra per ticket for the non-AC segment and ₹60 for the AC segment (over and above IRCTC’s charges).
“In credit/debit card payments, the berth is booked after the payment is done, but in the cash-on-delivery segment, the berth is booked immediately,” said Anurag Bajpai, co-founder, Anduril Technologies.
This is because online payment delivery takes time, which can lead to a reserved train ticket becoming wait-listed.
Also, there are high failure rates in case of e-commerce payment gateway mechanisms.
“It is common knowledge that the failure rate at e-commerce payment gateways is 20 per cent,” Bajpai told BusinessLine .
Expansion plans Due to rising demand, the company plans to expand services to 750 towns from 200 cities at present, and has tied up with a last mile delivery service provider and two-three more service providers. It is also looking to raise funds for expansion.
While bookmytrain does not have an exclusive tie up with IRCTC for cash-on-delivery, Bajpai hopes to cash in on the first mover advantage.
At present, it is the only website in India for buying online train tickets in cash.
In the air travel segment, Jet Airways is the only airlines that has started cash-on-delivery through internal processes.
“Many large online travel agencies are in talks for exploring this option,” Bajpai said.
Bookmytrain, which deals only in the business-to-consumer segment, however, hopes that IRCTC’s booking window will now open up in the 8 a.m-12 noon space.
“At least the B2C space will prevent touts,” he said.
Interestingly, Bajpai said his delivery boys, who collect ₹10,000-15,000 at times, hand over ticket printouts to end-users despite their receiving an SMS, which is considered as a ticket.
“This is because, as per courier regulations, we can only collect money only against physical delivery,” he said.
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