Shuttl, India’s largest bus-aggregating platform, aims to make daily commute more convenient for urban intrarcity travellers using the latest in technology which is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Smart City mission. Based out of Gurgaon, the company through its tech-enabled platform currently operates on 50+ long routes with more than 400+ buses on the platform and 10,000 daily ridership in Delhi-NCR. It may be recalled that Shuttl, owned by Super Highway Labs Pvt. Ltd., was founded by Mr. Amit Singh and Mr. Deepanshu Malviya in April 2015 and has been funded by Sequoia Capital, Times Internet and Lightspeed Ventures. Unlike a typical transport operator, Shuttl’s objective is to build a transport option that fits between the bottom of the public transport pyramid (trains and buses) and the top of the pyramid (cabs and taxis). The venture, which started as an inter-city transport idea, pivoted to tackling intra-city commutes in the capital city and collects ticketing revenue from customers and charges bus operators for its services.
In a freewheeling conversation with MOTORINDIA, Mr. Amit Singh, Chief Executive and Co-founder of Shuttl, stated: “There’s a huge gap and an opportunity to build a product for people who can’t afford cabs and don’t want the hassle of a train or a bus. A bus is the safest and most cost-efficient way of moving people around cities and we have added a layer of technology and analytics to what used to be a disorganised space. We initially started with inter-city commute and later switched over to intra-city because we saw more pain in intra city commuting. Our platform offers services such as good buses, air-conditioned environment, assured seats, flexibility in timing and economic feasibility. To put it the other way, we are targeting the segment of commuters that would like to avoid both high-priced taxi services and unreliable and crowded public transport. So our shuttle bus service fills the white space, which is slightly pricier than the bus but much cheaper than the taxi or cabs. Our effort is to address the daily commute problem faced by working professionals. Since it is an underserved demand, the possibility to grow is immense in this segment.”
It is to be mentioned that bus pooling for daily commute or intra-city transport is a relatively new concept in India. Just like Shuttl, a bunch of other tech start-ups have started aggregating buses or mini-buses in recent months. These ventures are asset-light in nature and do not own vehicles themselves but come across as a booking platform similar to taxi hailing apps Ola and Uber. “We are proud to bring smart mobility that is reliable, affordable and environment-friendly. We plan to introduce new routes to help people commute long distances at affordable prices. With these low-cost options, we are facilitating our customers to get a lot more within the same budget. The move will help commuters reduce their carbon footprint by successfully leveraging technology,” highlighted Mr. Singh.
Talking about the USP of its business, Mr. Singh further added: “Over the last year, we have been quite successful in ironing out problems related to daily commute by leveraging on state-of-the-art technologies. We are the pioneer in the segment globally and building a high-end technology platform to offer our services. As the platform becomes more high-tech and mature, we’ll become more formidable in the segment. The good part is that the technology exists in terms of framework in our phones. All you need is someone who can stitch the two and this is what we are trying to do. We are probably the largest in the world and not just in India in terms of offering daily commute solutions in terms of app-based technology.”
Talking about its association with various transport operators in the city, Mr. Singh mentioned: “We have tied up with 250 bus operators who would be owning about 1 to 30 buses. We would be using one or three or five of them from their fleet. On our part, we are ensuring service levels through technology. However, the buses are run by them and the drivers are on their payroll. We pay them on a pay per km basis. If we succeed in our business model, there will be many more operators. The partners (bus operators) who have worked with us have grown very fast. People with just one bus are now having 7-8 buses. We have infact created opportunities for them.”
Talking about the kind of buses used by Shuttl, Mr. Singh stated: “Our configurations are typically 20, 28 and 41 seater buses. For 20-seaters, it is Force Tempo Travellers, for 28 and 41 seater buses, we have SML, Tata Motors. We don’t worry about the brand as long as the bus is good. We need to ensure that they are well maintained and are not very old (average age limit 0-3 years). We also make sure these buses have the right certification and permits and the seating is as per our requirement. We also handhold our operators for driver training in terms of behaviour, route navigation, etc. Going forward, we are also open to have deluxe buses with a higher farer on a pilot basis.”
Sharing his perspective on the bus industry, Mr. Singh stated: “I think the Govt. will start encouraging buses and the market will suddenly switch past. Having said that, we need better quality and international standard buses and there are few players which are working on that direction. In the CNG space, the no of players is even less. We need new players to come in with alternate fuel variants or existing players to come up with some ground breaking solutions. In overseas nations, the buses are sleeker, comfortable, environment-friendly and there is a lot of thought given to customer experience. That needs to come to India too at a price point which our consumers can afford. If that happens, the industry has a very bright future.”
Talking about its future course of action, Mr. Singh affirmed: “We have global ambitions and are just trying to get better at the product. Once that is sorted, we will go all over India and the world. We are not going to compete with an operator who is running a specific route. They can in fact use our technology and improve their services. We have zero inventory and that will remain our business model. We are relying on more partners and are looking to have 1,000 buses on our platform in the next few years. Currently, there are 6,000 people out of the 3 lakh registered users taking 10,000 rides. These numbers are expected to double in the medium term.”
Spelling out the vision for the company, Mr. Singh concluded by stating: “Anyone going to office should not be taking a cab or car. He will take a ‘Shuttl’ in the top 10 cities of India and a few cities outside also.”