Building The Largest Online Bus Ticketing Company in India: redBus.in Co-founder and CEO Phanindra Sama (Part 2)

Sramana: What led you to leave a job that you loved at TI to start redBus?

Phanindra Sama: One holiday in 2005 I planned my trip home to see my parents very late because I had been busy with work. I was very accustomed to traveling by bus, and I used to take several buses in order to get home to see my parents. When I went to my regular travel agent to get a bus ticket, he told me that he did not have a seat on the bus for me and recommended that I try another travel agent. That was the first time he was not able to get me a seat. I could have understood it if he had told me that all the buses were full, but he told me that another travel agent might have a seat.

The first question that came to my mind was, “Why does this travel agent not have a seat when another travel agent has a seat?” I went to the other travel agent and he told me that he did not have a seat. I asked him if another travel agent might have a seat and he told me that it was possible. He gave me a few other travel agents, but overall, getting the names and numbers of the other travel agents was difficult.

I went home and went to sleep. The next morning I was the only person in my flat because all of the other bachelors had gone home. I was doubting myself and was not sure that I had tried hard enough. I thought that there might be some travel agent who had a seat available still. That actually pushed me to go ask a travel agent exactly how the business works to understand why I could not get a seat.

Sramana: How does the travel agency business for buses work? Do the bus companies allocate a certain number of seats to each travel agent?

Phanindra Sama: Yes. The next morning I went back to see the travel agent and asked him how it worked. He explained to me that travel agents who sell regularly have quota allocations. If they sell those seats, they can call the bus manager and get more seats allocated to them. Other travel agents who do not sell that frequently receive no allocation. Any time a traveler walks into their office they have to call the bus manager and ask for a seat. That is how it was happening.

Typically a travel agent makes eight calls to sell one seat. If they get a seat after one call, they have just been really lucky. There are other problems as well. Whatever price is written on the ticket becomes the price. I am a regular travel to Bangalore so I know the price. If I had decided to go to another city, then whatever the price the travel agent likes would become the price for me. There are no published fares anywhere.

Another set of problems comes around preferences. Travelers have preferences for front seats, rear seats, and some don’t want to sit behind the driver. Naturally, even I have preferences. I need a window seat when I travel. Every time I ask a travel agent to give me a window seat he would give me a seat number, like 4, which looks like it is a window seat because it is an even numbered seat. To my surprise, when I get in the bus, I may find that it is not a window seat in the front of the bus, but the very last seat on the bus because that bus operator decided to number the bus from back to front because he knows he can’t sell seat number 31. Bus operators can take consumers for a ride when they sell the seats.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Building The Largest Online Bus Ticketing Company in India: redBus.in Co-founder and CEO Phanindra Sama
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