IntrCity is on the lookout to converting 5000+ regular buses to Connected SmartBus Network in the coming 5 years. Sets its goal for 2023 to reach $100 million in annualized revenue and maintain EBITDA level profitability.
What new upgrades/new technology are you planning to implement on your booking portal to ease out or cater to the expected growth of traffic for bus bookings?
Our technology platforms are built for scale and hence are ready for much larger scale than what we are currently at. Our fundamental pillars for route-wise growth & scale are dependent on Mobility technology platform, Hub city infrastructure & resources, and Spoke city infrastructure & resources. Our technology platforms are already built for scale and keep going through regular updates at platform and feature level. Our most of the primary hubs which will define next 12 months’ growth are already active and may need some incremental addition of resources & infrastructure.
Are you planning to switch to the asset purchase model from the European smart bus service model/ asset-light model in the forthcoming days for SmartBus? What are your plans to make the customer experience seamless considering the existence of unorganized & non-branded players prevailing today?
IntrCity SmartBus has always focussed on improving the journey experience of a traveler through an asset-light business model. The SmartBus-enabled operators own the buses and hire a driver and add it to the SmartBus fleet. Simply put, operator (bus, driver, permits, licenses) + IntrCity operating system (technology, IoT, SOPs, lounges, Captain, consumer platform) = high Net Performance Score (NPS) and better fill rate.
In terms of technology, we provide a Crew app, Operator Dashboard, Consumer Platform, and IOT-based Fleet Analytics in our operating system. Our central command center provides CCTV footage 24×7, real-time bus feed and exact driving behavior.
How does the operator registration take place in your system?
We work with limited operator partners and scale the same set of operators across the same route as well as new routes and hence the operator registration is a process where we meet already known operators with our growth demand and agree on terms of operations and commercials. Most of the operators already have a working relationship since our bus marketplace RailYatri has their non IntrCity SmartBus fleet already listed.
‘IntrCity SmartBus has plans to expand to newer routes in the South, North, and West, with plans to begin operations in the East soon. The company aims to have 2000 buses by 2025. Please elaborate?
IntCity has 200+ buses running in the regions of South, North, West and tied up with 50+ operators. Currently we have 45+ pair of Hub and spoke cities active across North, South and West of India. Hence future expansion will happen across a) More buses on existing Hub and Spoke cities, b) Addition of Hub and Spoke cities in South, North & West India and c) New Hub & Spoke cities in East India.
The brand’s goal in the next 12 months is to reach $100 million in annualized revenue and maintain EBITDA level profitability. IntrCity aims to convert 5000+ regular buses to Connected SmartBus Network in the coming 5 years with the help of the Mobility platform technological capabilities. IntrCity has already seen a 200% growth in 2022 with the advanced technological services provided by the IntrCity SmartBus.
Are you also planning to keep the provision of air-conditioned lounges for the offline ticket passengers in the new spots of SmartBus?
IntrCity Lounges & partner boarding points are one of the major services provided by us and we definitely aim to provide it in the coming future also. Both are accessible by both offline and online ticket passengers.
What are your promotional and marketing strategies?
One of the first digital campaigns that IntrCity initiated was ‘Its not a bus, #ItsASmartbus’. Usually buses were considered unhygienic, no washrooms, no tacking time for the buses, these were some of the main concerns for the customers. IntrCity turned this into a marketing campaign by introducing its new services in a bus called SmartBus. IntrCity SmartBus provided Hygienic bus lounges, in-built washrooms in the bus and also IntrCity app in which customers can know the timing of bus arrival and departure and also track the travel of buses. This marketing strategy highlighted the comfortable, convenient and safe journey with SmartBus.
How is the response from the market post pandemic?
As the pandemic wave went down, people started to plan trips. In a month IntrCity mobility platform registered 5 Lakh bookings. There was a 50% increase after the second wave. With ease of travel restriction, people were eager and their travel confidence also developed for leisure and non-leisure travel.
According to the IntrCity data the most traveled bus-routes were Delhi-Amritsar-Delhi, Mumbai-Goa-Mumbai, Delhi-Lucknow-Delhi, Bangalore-Hyderabad-Bangalore, Delhi- Himachal – Delhi and Bangalore-Chennai-Bangalore.
Which are the key spots where you get the maximum transactions for SmartBus and the approx number of bookings per month concerning the region?
The top hotspots for IntrCity SmartBus are Delhi, Amritsar, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Mumbai, Goa and Himachal. IntrCity SmartBus is currently active in 228 cities. We are planning to begin our services in the East soon with expansion in North, south and west regions. IntrCity approximately serves 2 Lakh passengers per month.
