Bus Operators: Resilience and Rebooting in the times of challenge

The pandemic of COVID-19 has spared no one. Seeing the rapidly changing scenario and the impact of COVID – 19, everyone is adjusting their lives, this being the new normal. As Vladimir Lenin once said, “There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.” We are in a similar situation today, and public transport, including bus transport is no different. In public transport, everyone must abide by rules such as social distancing, wearing mask, using hand sanitizer etc. Not just for their own safety, but also for the safety of fellow passengers. The team at Commercial Vehicle Forum (CVF) explores the challenges, opportunities, and the selfless public service that is being offered by bus operators in these challenging times.

Bus Operators resuming services amidst numerous challenges                   

In efforts to control the spread of Covid-19, there was a total shutdown of transport system. Now as India gradually unlocks, we need a plan for public transport system. Fearing the exposure and crowd infections, the general public does not prefer taking any form of public transport. This is very evident in the cities where bus transport has resumed but has a marginal footfall. This has also presented a unique challenge for restoring consumer confidence. The impact on riders is more psychological than rational, thus requiring substantial measures to gain public’s trust in bus transport.

Passengers continuously struggle to maintain social distance: India mainly relies on buses for passenger transportation. The total number of buses available for transporting passenger is less than one tenth of the actual requirement. Instead of the required 30 lakh buses, India only has ~ 1.7 lakh buses. Further amplifying the challenge are the government guidelines post the unlocking such as social distancing, shortage of vehicles with operators and poor implementation of rules by small operators which has made it very difficult for the bus staff to maintain social distancing. For example, Delhi requires 11,000 buses and they have only 5,554 buses to operate.

Mr. Abhishek Pathak – Managing Director, MP Group shares “Social distancing is the key and to bring in the normalcy people must support the government in maintaining social distance, that’s where the chain will be blocked. City bus operators and authorities are trying to operate as many buses as possible, however that will be possible if everyone is disciplined in following social distancing. Passengers are confident of services provided by the city bus Authorities and operators.” 

Financial Challenges further stress the operations: The ban on operations during lockdown has caused significant financial losses to operators and restarting operations with limited passengers poses existential threat to select few. Government has also not taken any specific measures to support the income of bus operators until demand returns to pre-covid levels. 

For lower and middle-income group, bus is the most efficient means of mobility, in such a scenario, the government needs to look at the ecosystem that caters to the needs of the common man. Unless relevant support is provided, bus operators are staring at imminent default on their financed vehicles. As Mr. Prasanna Patwardhan, CMD, Prasanna Purple Mobility and president of the Bus and Car Operators Confederation of India (BOCI) shares “During the last three months, 95% buses have been off the road and most states have still not allowed. This means 75% of the overall loan portfolio of banks extended for vehicles is in a danger of turning non-performing.”

Layers of existing laws and regulations create further challenges. The laws, regulations, permits to ply and policies already in place make it anyway difficult to provide this service.

Further, Mr. Sunil Savla – Owner, Neeta Travels (Mumbai) shares “COVID 19 has impacted the whole society, but it has had a huge impact on the transport industry. Every person involved in this business has taken huge amount of loans to purchase vehicles but now they are facing a hard time in paying the EMI of banks and other expenses. So, we would like to get some exemption from the Govt. in petrol price, no Tax for the next 6-months, insurance amount should be revised etc.”

Crew and Fleet management related challenges also exist: Operators are losing revenue but still must pay staff salaries. With margins always under pressure, this has further resulted in crew related challenges. Meeting staff expenses is becoming a bigger challenge with each passing day. Traditionally operators were low on adoption of digital technology to manage

the fleet, that must change to understand in detail the asset utilisation with respect to peak demand to determine the level of staggered working hours. Further, social distancing will lead to losses for each trip, impacting the asset utilisation. Safety of crew is another concern for the bus operators since probability of crew getting infected is much higher. To keep them infection free, there is a whole list of SOPs ranging    from   thermal scanning to providing new PPE every day.

Bus operators: critical role in challenging times

Buses have served as a key lifeline in the times of lockdown. The lockdown which stretched from 23.03.2020 till 30.06.2020 due to the ongoing pandemic, had companies such as MP Group extend their support to the local government.

MP Group offered their buses to operate for essential services as per the requirements of the authorities. The local government took over 280 buses with drivers and maintenance staff. Managing Director of the group, Mr. Abhishek Pathak had promised to provide any more help as and when required. These buses were mainly being used for the doctors, nursing staff and MCGM staff, with some of the buses also being operated to distribute food packets all over Mumbai.

Keeping the cities moving after the lockdown was a major priority for the Government. People were also endeavoring to resume their usual routine and have gradually started going to offices which is particularly true for the target audience (low to middle income group) for buses. Buses are cheap and have better network in the city. which is the main reason why the common man counts on buses and that’s why public transport and primarily buses are called the backbone of any city.

To bring the city back to normal, MP Group is also taking all the required measures. At the group, everyone is strictly following the guidelines. Mr. Abhishek Pathak, Managing Director, MP Group shares “BEST has started 3000 buses within the city of Mumbai. MP Group are the operators for the BEST and are ensuring that the drivers are safe and also taking precautions in terms of checking the temperature of the drivers. Also, everyday a new mask is being provided to drivers who go on duty. People must also support the Govt. in terms of maintaining social distance as that is where the spread will be contained.”

Buses are an opportunity to promote sustainable mobility. It is a sustainable option over long term horizon as it has minimal carbon footprint when compared to other modes of transport that ferry equal or a smaller number of passengers. In densely populated cities of India, buses are the only option which solves the equation of space, energy, and emission for mass transportation.

Further, buses are more reliable then metros, as most metro rail projects are awfully expensive and have a limited penetration, given their presence only in Metro cities catering to an extremely limited section of the population. Further, buses are more affordable compared to metro rail.

To create the rail network for metro, the government needs exorbitant budgets and the construction span is much longer in comparison to bus services which can be quickly 

deployed with high degree of flexibility. NOIDA Metro (NMRC) is one of many such projects which have not yielded the results as anticipated and have costed significant amount of money to the ex-chequer. Given limited flexibility in route change its viability is now being questioned.

Bus services are also a huge economic contributor and align perfectly with the recent government policy of “Atmanirbhar Bharat” as most of the buses are manufactured by the companies with operations in India, therefore, helping the nation in many ways like providing employment to all the sections of the society and in turn helping GDP of a country. Whereas the metro rail coaches and technology are imported from other countries.

Mr. Chirag S Raval – General Manager, Shrinath Pvt Ltd. Mentions that “Buses are always better than metro rails because buses provide door to door pickup and drop service to the rider and is less expensive. Even in the time of COVID - 19, buses are running under the guidelines given by the Govt whereas metro rails are closed.”

The bus drivers and support staff have risked their life whenever they are asked to do so and have always come forward for their country, they are the unsung heroes in times like these.