[venki.bala]

Originally Posted by dhandapanik

Yet another great customer service from KPN.
!

Terrible. KPN is going from worst to even worse. Sometime back my friends mom who is about 76 yrs was booked on a Chennai - Madurai sleeper and the bus got cancelled and she was left to fend for herself to be behind the morons in their office to get on to a non ac seater bus. they have not even refunded the difference.

[TKMCE]

It is high time some of the transport operators should stop fooling people about what their priorities are and do some honest advertising.

What I suggest is as follows...


'Let your precious cargo travel in style. We offer your cargo a choice of attractive options - Multi/Single Axle Volvo, Merc, Izuzu Coaches/AC Sleeper/Non AC sleeper/Push Back- you name it , we have it-below deck or above deck the choice is yours!! You will be spoiled for choice and pampered by our generosity! Your cargo has never travelled in such style in India before. We transport your precious consignments in transport vehicles built to the highest global standards and emission norms !! Need multiple pick up points for your luggage - no worries - you ask, we stop- wherever u want- whenever ur want"Caught in a traffic block while coming to collect your cargo?? Just give a call to our friendly crew and they will be happy to hold the bus for you. Your cargo - our life!!!

NB : We also carry some passengers in our vehicles on a strictly space available basis and at our discretion and at our terms. No complaints will be entertained!!!!

There a still a few ocean going freighters who carry a few passengers!!! Now I think the concept has caught on in India in a different way . We are seeing a few cargo carriers who are now carrying some passengers in their passenger cabin!!!

[sbkumar]

Originally Posted by venki.bala

Terrible. KPN is going from worst to even worse. Sometime back my friends mom who is about 76 yrs was booked on a Chennai - Madurai sleeper and the bus got cancelled and she was left to fend for herself to be behind the morons in their office to get on to a non ac seater bus. they have not even refunded the difference.

In my experience ( mostly in and around TN) none of them take customer care seriously. ABT used to be the best of the lot, but I get a feeling that they are lagging too lately. SRS has been a mixed bag for me, they booked me onto other buses and inform by SMS about an hour before the departure. Only good thing is they do inform you :-) unlike some others who let you know after you reach their office. Parveen, Bharathi and Sharma seem to be doing okay, but not traveled more than a few trips in them. Shama sardar, I probably won't try another time. KPN has the worst record probably due to the sheer volume. I have witnessed an argument everytime I have waited at their bommanahalli office. I feel that the probability for a bad experience is more or less the same with all the operators. I still remember my college days where NJK used to be a big operator down south and it used to be a real premium experience compared to SETC !! These days I have lowered my expectations and prepare myself for the worst possible experience whenever I travel .

[a4anurag]

Booked a to and fro ticket of Kesineni travels for Hyderabad - Chennai. VL174 (kesineni's code) a B9R Multi axle.

Had a horid travel last time but still chose to opt for Kesineni. Hope this time it goes on well.

Will post my reviews accordingly!

[venki.bala]

Originally Posted by a4anurag

Booked a to and fro ticket of Kesineni travels for Hyderabad - Chennai. VL174 (kesineni's code) a B9R Multi axle.

Had a horid travel last time but still chose to opt for Kesineni. Hope this time it goes on well.

Will post my reviews accordingly!

All volvo's in this route are now taking more travel time due to bad road conditions/constructions. So expect some delay.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by venki.bala

All volvo's in this route are now taking more travel time due to bad road conditions/constructions. So expect some delay.

The problem I had during my last travel was the front windshield of the volvo broke near outskirts of Hyderabad and the bus was been driven like a BIG bike with the wind hitting the drivers face. Few kms later he borrowed a goggles from a passenger and continued the journey.

Scheduled time of arrival was 6:30 am but the bus reached at 10:10am.

Could not blame the driver but a little skeptical about the maintanence of these buses though it had some 4.5 lakh kms on the odometer.

[TheARUN]

I think this happens because of a sudden change in temperature inside the Bus or outside, like sudden rain etc. The OEM glasses are capable of handling this change, don't know if the Operator, to save money got a cheaper windscreen installed

[venkyhere]

My experiences with roadlink india volvo (blore<->che) have been excellent, well maintained buses, well-organized pick up and drop off points, driving is fast but not suicidal and they deliver as promised on the timings, to the very dot. Yesterday, I was travelling by the roadlink volvo from che -> blore & saw a 'greenline' multi-axle trying to weave its way out of the jam-packed petrol pump near koyambedu omni-bus terminal. At first, looking at the body color I thought it was 'olivea' but it read 'greenline'. I had only a sweeping glance from inside my bus, but it looked like a 2+1 configuration for the seats.
Now, roadlink volvo's are driven fast (this guy for instance was overtaking KPN multi-axles & parveen lalbagh volvo quite smoothly) but somewhere near arcot, the same 'greenline' bus went ripping past at great speed. Wonder if it was an i-shift volvo ? any info, anybody ? and is it the next 2+1 config, after olivea ?

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by TheARUN

I think this happens because of a sudden change in temperature inside the Bus or outside, like sudden rain etc. The OEM glasses are capable of handling this change, don't know if the Operator, to save money got a cheaper windscreen installed

Unfortunately, it is the OEM glasses that tend to break off quicker! Volvo offers free replacement under warranty for windshields that have "air cracks". The cheaper chinese ones cost only around 6K, and they last longer, it seems!!

Volvo has changed the design of the windshield mount - earlier, the glass was bonded to the metal frame. They have replaced this with rubber beading now. It seems that the incidence of air crack has reduced, but could not be eliminated completely. One major operator has been trying out some structural modification in the front portion of the bus (adding additional support beams below the windshield portion, thereby isolating the vibration from the front FRP region from reaching the windshield mount) to reduce the number of windshield cracks. (Sorry, I cannot reveal the name of the operator, since that reinforcement is still on trials, and it is not yet officially confirmed).

This image might show the difference in windshield mounts:

The bus on the left is an old variant, with the bonded windshield, while the bus on the right is a 3-month old bus with rubber beading mounted windshields.

(Apologies if I've used some wrong/unconventional terms)

[a4anurag]

Kesineni Travels! Another name for horror on roads that too with such a big beast in hands!

Hyderabad - - Chennai:
Had taken this ticket on 26th Oct, 18:00 bus. I chose lakdi ka pool as the boarding point where the minivan picks up and drops all the passengers to the last stop in Gachibowli where the main bus waits. The minivan departed from lakdi ka pool at 18:30 and reached gachibowli at 19:10. The Volvo 9400 (VL 174) arrived at 19:20 and boarding was announced, soon passengers boarded the bus and it finally left at 19:40. It was driven nicely all around on the ORR but once it left the ORR and reached the state highway the horror began. I was just not able to sleep throughout the journey. Had a few close calls when the driver was trying to overtake at 100 kmph on turns which were literally blind. The highest I witnessed over the speedometer was the needle hovering near 125kmph. There were couple of occasions when the overtaking was misjudged. At some places the driver went off-road, the bus also skid like as it was over ice and was trying to drift. There were two drivers who drove turn by turn. The first driver was a peaceful character but the second was a horror. The buses were badly abused, ill maintained as it was rattling and squeaking to the core. These guys are going from bad to worse day by day. At Devarkonda village a small dhaba was open so he stopped there for dinner. The bus dropped us at Koyembedu at

The problem with this route is there are no dividers and it is a two lane highway where if a bus is overtaking another the oncoming traffic has to either slowdown or get off the road to save itself from getting run over. These drivers just don't care about small vehicles and bully over them by honking.

This bus had 700281 kms on the odometer on the start of the journey. Marvelous!

One thing I don't understand is while the bus is idling with almost whole of the bus empty, why does it move like a bell (left to right, to and fro) hope you get the point i want to convey! Not seen this in any other bus. Is this something to do with the faulty engine mounts. This movement is sideways while standstill.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chennai - - Hyderabad

AP 16 TB 8000. The same bus I had traveled last time from Hyderabad to Chennai with the broken windshield. The first I checked was the windshield LOL! Coming to the bus journey. I boarded the bus at Koyambedu (Private Omni Bus Stand) at 22:00. The bus stared its journey at 22:10. The driver was a cool and middle aged person with no hurry to reached Hyderabad early. The bus was driven peacefully and not exceeding speeds above 100kmph. This driver was exactly opposite to one I had when traveling from Hyd - Chennai. The bus dropped me at lakdi ka pool at 09:40 in the morning.

The staff at Kesineni love the movie Gabbar Singh (Telugu remake of Dabang) as it was shown both ways and it was my third time. I have the dialogues by-heart. Damn!

Anurag.

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by a4anurag

The staff at Kesineni love the movie Gabbar Singh (Telugu remake of Dabang) as it was shown both ways and it was my third time. I have the dialogues by-heart. Damn!

Good one. I had seen Dabbang on Kesineni's EKM-HYD bus! So, guess it is their de facto favorite movie.

Kesineni's maintenance is going to the dogs now - really poor maintenance of buses. They used to have the best buses on most routes earlier - now the worst.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by binaiks

Good one. I had seen Dabbang on Kesineni's EKM-HYD bus! So, guess it is their de facto favorite movie.

Kesineni's maintenance is going to the dogs now - really poor maintenance of buses. They used to have the best buses on most routes earlier - now the worst.

I guess they are paid to show these movies day in and out.

Just imagine what is the condition of the driver and his helper, If he is asked in sleep he will say all the dialogues faster than the actors.

They are not bothered about maintenance of the bus, as long as it runs they are happy.

The other funny incident that happened was while boarding the bus Belgaum-Goa sleeper was also ON for boarding. The passenger for the sleeper got into our bus so we had to wait for 45 min at the ORR with 3 police fellows to give us company.

To my travel experiences till now I rate VRL (Vijayanand) the best in maintenance, driving habits, movies/entertainment, customer care. Worst is Kesineni! If i travel on the Hyderabad - Bangalore route it is VRL for me. I look no further than them. 10/10. love the all-white buses they have here. Simple and good thing is they don't have any kind of graphics and decals.

[venki.bala]

Originally Posted by a4anurag

Kesineni Travels! Another name for horror on roads that too with such a big beast in hands!

Hyderabad - - Chennai:
. These guys are going from bad to worse day by day. At Devarkonda village a small dhaba was open so he stopped there for dinner. The bus dropped us at Koyembedu at

Anurag.

Anurag, what time did you reach Koyambedu? Does this service have a drop at Chennai central or direct drop only at Koyambedu?

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by venki.bala

Anurag, what time did you reach Koyambedu? Does this service have a drop at Chennai central or direct drop only at Koyambedu?

Venki.bala

I reached Koyembedu at 07:40.

The driver refused to stop anywhere other than Koyembedu. Wall tax road is another dropping point.

[sandeep959]

Originally Posted by binaiks

It is a new service - launched less than a month ago. So haven't heard of any reviews till date. But, please take that 8.30AM arrival with lots of salt - since there are chances for the bus to get delayed further, since it would encounter morning peak time traffic as it enters Kerala.

Reliability wise- Kallada is fairly good. They do have incidences of breakdowns recently, but I would still rate them a good operator. This being a new service, you could expect to get of their new buses.

KALLADA CHENNAI-PALAKKAD REVIEW

I was travelling to Kerala from Assam on a months vacation. Had booked a new service of Kallada, 10 pm Non Stop to EKM till Thrissur on 18th Oct night thru Redbus. The ticket cost me Rs 1200
As Luck would be, got a call from Kallada on 17th evening at 6 pm that the 10 pm bus has been cancelled and I have been readjusted in the 8 pm Kayamkulam bus. I politely informed them that my flight from Kolkatta will land at 815 pm only and no way i can take the earlier bus. The guy on the other side had no answer & he hung up. He didn't attend a single call of mine after that. Since i had booked thru Redbus, i called their customer care and then my ordeal started. The guys in redbus told me that Kallada is still showing the 10pm bus and he cant cancel my ticket for full refund. Kallada wouldn't respond. After lots of fights on phone and mails, Kallada agreed to Redbus to refund.

In the meanwhile I booked the Kallada Kozhikode bus starting at 9pm with a boarding at Perunkalathur at 945pm as I had to reach Kottayam at any cost for a Máge after picking up my wife from Thrissur. I landed at Chennai airport at 845pm, took a taxi and rushed to P'thur. On reaching at 930pm i saw a Kallada ready to depart which was their Kayamkulam service(8pm bus in which they were accomodating me). It was drizzling and we went to their office to wait for the bus. Finally KL-45 D 1800 rolled in at 1045pm as against their 945 pm dep from P'thur. Seatswere full with 3 pax boarding at SRM univ. I settled in A3 seat and slept off as I was tired. At about 12 am, there was a sudden braking and I woke up. A trailer with a container had slipped off the road with the load jutting on to the highway & we were the 1st vehicle behind it. The Driver had braked hard to avoid hitting it. It was raining heavily. Just as we stopped, heard a THUD sound. I got down alongwith the Driver and it was a scene. An Indica had hit the Left rear of our Bus and a bus (SHERIN) had hit the right rear. The Bus and car had their Lt & Rt headlights broken respectively. BUT our monster suffered only a Bent rear bumper which as per the Driver was minor & we drove off. The Sherin bus driver was apologetic, he said "i tried braking hard but couldn't manage".

I slept again and woke up around 230am. the Bus was moving at a slow pace(50-60kmph). i opened the curtain to see what was happening and the driver was constantly rubbing his eyes to avoid sleeping. I got off from the seat, went and sat in the co-drivers seat, told him lets take a break, have a cup of tea, a bio leak and then start. He readily agreed and we stopped short of Chinna Salem. i asked him where's the 2nd driver, he said I'm the only driver and there's no cleaner too. That gave me a and even more when he said that it has been 18 days of continuous single driving on Chen-Kym-Chen-Kollam-Blr-Tvm etc. I lost all my sleep and decided to give the driver company. He was from my dist, Malappuram. We chatted a lot about how he got into Kallada, his training with Volvo, his only accident when he banged a B7R against a static lorry etc. At around 4am, just short of perundhurai, he started feeling sleepy terribly. i asked him to stop if he was very uneasy. He continued till Perundhurai where we had a Diesel fill, a cup of tea and a nice wash of the windscreen. We continued and reached Cbe at 720am and finally my destination Palakkad at 845am. There were 17 pax to get down there as they were all booked for the 10pm(cancelled) bus and had to travel to EKM in other means. I took a KeSRTC SFP till Thrissur in which i slept.

My opinion
1. The bus was a 2yr old one, its odometer display wasn't working. The drive was comfy with normal noise. Blanket and water was provided, but no cleaner to distribute it.
2. Late start out of Chennai is Bad, which kept getting delayed due to various reasons.
3. Very Poor management and utter disregard to safety of PAX by Kallada. Single Dvr for a 750km+ journey. one day or 2 is accepted BUT 18 days on the trot is shocking. The driver was like a Zombie as he hardly had any rest. He would have reached Kozhikode at 1230 pm that day and had to start for Chennai at 5pm same evening, ALL ALONE.
4. If this is the condition of Kallada(suresh group) in Future too, then i would think twice before taking it. The Buses are getting good patronage. All the ones which passed infront of me, Kayamkulam, Kollam were all full.