[Rahul Rao]

Originally Posted by Frostbite

I'm not at all related to the field of transport, but I always look for new business opportunities. The idea of starting an intercity bus service came to me recently after pathetic service by a top operator. It really doesn't help when there aren't many bus operators around, at least in my state.

Been there done that and I will only suggest that you do not consider that business. I sold my fleet in 2012, and was lucky that I had 5 year 17.5 Lakh km per bus run without accident and breakdowns, with all buses on road close to 18 Hrs and 1000 km per day. Even then it was barely break even, and only profit was what I got from vehicle sale.
Not wise to Buy a 1 Cr+ bus, keep it on unsafe streets in hands of salaried drivers, and and then recover your investment selling Rs 500 tickets.

Even today as a Bus Ac and Truck refrigeration unit manufacturer, I meet fleet owners daily, and just yesterday saw a bus that had a 8 pillar hit at 80 kph when a container swerved RH to save two bikers who crashed into each other in his path. The bus is barely 4 months old and had its first service at 1.1 Lakh km a fortnight ago. Loan is more than 90 lakhs, and EMI is about 3 lakhs,
Instead of waiting for insurance owner is spending 8 Lakhs for full RHS side change, and keeping all lower skirt panels as spares for his other buses.
Luckily his fleet is identical.

Then is corruption, and harassment. A bus is something on the street and free target for goondas, govt officials and all.
Lastly the rates are too low to be viable, and booking aggregates will not let rates pickup.
So please do not think of this business at all.

Originally Posted by hserus

Corruption is a significant cost that you haven’t factored in especially if you adopt the usual “saving” mechanism tourist bus operators use of registering your vehicle in the north east states to save on road tax

North east registrations do not save tax, you have to pay tax of states the bus traverses.
NE States follow dimension rules the day the parliament passes them, ie 13.5M length was cleared in March 2020, but states like MH, KA, MP, GA, RJ, UP etc discussed this in their own legislative assemblies, and cleared the registration in 2022.
SO NE states give first mover advantage.
States like ML, AR and MN allow modification of old buses to current permissible dimensions.
Eg A 6.2 M wheel base bus was allowed a rear overhang of 3.4 M. This was increased to 3.72M in Mar 2020. If a bus is undergoing accident repair, and owner desires to rebuild body to new dimensions from old, NE states allow that, but states like MH, MP, GJ do not allow it.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by Frostbite

The cost of bus alone (thinking VOLVO Multi-Axle Sleeper) is something to think about. Then there is also an option of leasing buses from other operators, but don't know how they maintain their buses so kinda risky imo.

Do the opposite. Buy a new or pre-owned bus and look to lease it to an existing operator initially.

Advantages:

- Relatively low risk foot-in-the-door entry into passenger transport business. Your expenses are limited to maintenance and insurance. Your worst case scenario is depreciation loss.

- No overheads (salaries, office rentals, marketing/advertising expenses, commissions etc)

- You can start with just one bus and expand fleet later.

- You get a first-hand insight into the passenger transport business, since you will be dealing with bus operators all the time.

- Once you are confident that this business makes sense, you can then start running the buses under your own brand.

[Voodooblaster]

Which state do you intend to operate from ?

1) In the initial stage, decide on an intra- state route

2) Travel in said route with all operators. Do cabin rides with different crew sets , and get friendly with crew to understand tricks of the trade related to the operation side. Also try chit chatting with passengers regarding their expectations

3) While cargo does bring in revenue, strictly speaking using a contract carriage for cargo is illegal. Loading on top of bus will endanger safety further (smaller parcels in the underside should be better)

4) I would suggest that you buy a BS3/ BS4 bus initially. You can refurbish seats at any reputed body builder. You won't have to bother about Adblue and higher BS6 maintanence costs. Downside is that EMI will be higher

5) Many contract carriage bus owners in Kerala were doing distress sale till Aprill 2022. COVID lockdown has made EMI pending for many owners and Finance companies are also selling off a few buses

7) Initially operate bus only on weekends and on festive/holiday season in high demand routes. Weekdays can be skipped initially

8) If you finally do start operation travel in the bus in both up and down direction to prevent crew from pulling a fast one over you

Most importantly work at least 6 months as GTO said in all roles (operations / booking/ dealing with RTO) etc

[RGK]

Originally Posted by balenoed_

don't you need at least 3 buses

Yes, logically, one needs a spare, but since the capital investment is substantial, this is typically sourced from other larger operators if required.

[Imran.Syed]

Sorry to add to the list of hurdles but here's one I saw when I traveled by bus from Hyd-Mum back in 2014 or so.

The drivers picking up passengers every possible chance they got!
The bus had quite a few empty seats left and good money was being made. At one point I overheard both drivers complaining endlessly but stopping midway to appreciate how the owner doesn't mind the drivers making additional revenues (I doubt they knows this happens)

In the end, it got so bad that the full trip paying passengers had to yell at the drivers to not stop the bus so frequently.

I am guessing this directly effects the travel time, fuel expenses and the business owner's eventual bottom line.