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Chitra Phadnis

BANGALORE, March 6

THE Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has implemented a pilot project on its Bangalore-Mumbai route that promises improved efficiency and punctuality.

In fact, KSRTC is willing to return 10 per cent of the ticket amount to customers if a bus leaves a place or reaches its destination 10 minutes late.

The technology that makes this confidence possible is from MobiApps, which is offering a vehicle tracking and driver compliance system. The company uses GPS (geographical positioning systems) to track the vehicle. A device installed in the vehicle picks up signals from a satellite through an antenna. The system records the exact time that the vehicle passes a certain place, the speed at which it moves, the number of stops it makes, breakdowns if any, the fuel efficiency of each driver based on individual driving patterns and so on, said Mr Satish Kulkarni, Director - Sales and Marketing, MobiApps.

The system shows immediate results, with driver behaviour improving the minute they know they are being monitored, Mr Kulkarni said. "There is a partly psychological pressure on them to stick to schedules."

The pilot in Karnataka only covers 50 buses in Bangalore and Mangalore. However, the Karnataka experiment has led to interest in other States, Mr Kulkarni said. The Delhi Transport Corporation is running a pilot and so is the APSRTC. The Maharashtra, Goa and Kerala Governments have shown interest. Mr Kulkarni expects at least seven more orders from various State Transport Corporations to come in before the close of the current financial year.

There is a huge pressure on RTCs to improve their bottomlines, he said. "One way to do it is through cost control," he said. RTCs also lose out on some of their largest customers in rural areas, where the roads are not very good. "Drivers tend to skip the interiors and people are often left waiting indefinitely. Not picking up all the passengers also hits the revenues of the RTC directly," he said.

Investments could be anywhere between Rs 8 - 35,000 per vehicle, depending on the complexity of the system. Return on investment is as quickly as two to three months, according to him.

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