As an increasing number of state and municipal corporations move towards electric buses in their fleets, Chartered Speed Ltd. is currently developing its own EV buses and is mulling cooperation with state and municipal corporations across India. Rajesh Rajgor has the details
Chartered Speed Ltd. is currently developing its own EV buses to provide maximum comfort, safety and provide mobility at affordable cost to people longing for sustainable public transportation. The company also has a bus body designing and fabrication facility at Ahmedabad which is approved by the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI). “Our bus body fabrication facility enables our operations to be backward integrated, which we believe helps us in reducing the cost of our vehicles, increase their life and reduce operational costs,” informs Sanyam Gandhi, Director, Chartered Speed Ltd.
“It also allows us to cater to the precise and specific requirements of our customers in a timely fashion in terms of the size, shape and seating capacity of the buses. We are expecting a collaborative effort from state and municipal corporations. We launched 40 electric buses in FY20 and operated them with Indore Municipal Corporation to create Indore’s first EV fleet from Chartered Speed (CSL). Clean Indore needs clean vehicles and we believe that it is achievable by 2025,” he adds. Established in 2009, CSL is one of India’s leading passenger mobility companies with a presence in 10 states, daily helping 3,00,000 people to get to their destinations in more than 70 cities.
Widespread Mobility Services
Currently, the company is engaged in the business of providing passenger mobility solutions across various modes of surface transport in India with an operational fleet of over 1,200 passenger vehicles. “We are one of the leading fleet bus operators in India for inter-city and intra-city passenger mobility operations. We also provide inter-city passenger mobility solutions through our bus operations largely focused in central and western India with an expanding footprint in north eastern India. We provide services to intra-city passenger mobility operations for city buses and bus rapid transport system (BRTS) for state transport undertakings (STUs),” Gandhi elaborates.
“In addition, we also provide passenger mobility solutions in three other business segments, which are (a) school buses and staff buses for corporate customers, (b) automated public bicycle (smart bikes) sharing system and (c) rental and self-drive cars. As of today, our fleet comprise over 120 buses and over 5,000 smart bikes,” he adds. Chartered Bus, a subsidiary of CSL, has a fleet of over 1,000 buses and operates on some of the renowned routes like Ahmadabad BRTS, Surat and Indore. Furthermore, it operates through more than 500 city buses in Ahmedabad, Surat and Indore, including 40 electric buses.
Chartered Bus plies more than 125 premium Volvo inter-city coaches for GSRTC, BCLL, ASTC and AICTSL in Assam, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. It is synonymous with affordable long and short distance travel in central, western and north eastern India. The company services approximately 4.2 million passengers through its inter-city division every year. “We run Volvo buses for GSRTC across Gujarat and one can book GSRTC bus tickets at our branch offices. We have also partnered with other STUs such as Atal Indore City Transport Services Limited (AICTSL), Bhopal City Link Limited (BCLL) and Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) for providing government-approved stage carriage buses,” states Gandhi.
Operational Safety and Expansion
As per the pandemic-driven guidelines, the company is taking care of all the rules and regulations laid down by the government such as maintaining social distance through alternate seat occupancy and providing sanitisers and masks. Says Gandhi: “We have been following all the protocols related to the safety of our passengers, drivers and other staff. In addition, we have been making sure that our buses are well-equipped with safety instructions and equipment such as CCTV cameras and GPS tracking services.” With a CAGR of 57%, Chartered Speed is looking to expand its service offering across India and is looking to convert 30% of its fleet into EVs by 2025.
“We are in talks to raise Rs 100-125 million through equity to strengthen our inter-city business across major routes in South India. We are also looking to get EV intra-city bus projects of major Tier I cities,” Gandhi states. For the school and staff buses the company offers services to Ahmedabad. Majority of the school buses are air-conditioned and come with in-bus classroom environment that includes LCD, speakers and mixers so that the students can learn new things on their journey to school. Also, all the school buses have a female attendant who takes care of the children. “We also provide staff bus services for corporates. Small necessities like daily newspapers, water bottles and light snacks are provided to the employees to make the journey comfortable,” informs Gandhi.
The company believes in strengthening the public mobility needs and understands that it can be done with a robust maintenance structure for buses. It has invested in EV charging stations to keep the operational cost to the minimum. “Even though the operational costs are minimal, the capital cost is cumbersome. CSL is the only mobility player in the country running EV buses in Indore and will soon extend to other cities. We have also started an in-house bus electrification process and an IP is being built that will further unlock a revenue source for the company,” Gandhi reveals.
Focus on Serviceability
The mobility player from Ahmedabad vouches for speed but with safety and services. It performs periodic preventive and remedial maintenance of the buses at its facility. “By virtue of our in-house bus fabrication capabilities, we are also able to provide buses with the bodies customised as per the technical requirements of our customers. We believe that this gives us an edge over our competitors in the passenger mobility industry since most of them supply standard built buses. In the last three years, we have taken care of our vehicles by giving a unique service sheet and assigning a maintenance team that checks the bus thoroughly before each ride and after the ride while parking,” Gandhi informs.
“Our board members believe that if you take care of your vehicle, it will take care of you forever. Needless to say, we have a negligible number of breakdowns and zero number of accidents. That is what makes CSL unique. We are thus known for safety, speed and on time service,” he adds. The efforts invested in preventive maintenance and service enable CSL to make optimum utilisation of the assets. Its robust reporting capabilities and fleet management software enables managers to analyse a variety of vehicle maintenance reports to refine processes. “Tracking fleet maintenance through centralised software gives us a comprehensive view of our assets to improve a fleet’s success. Because each fleet is unique, it’s important to use configurable software to track the metrics that matter to our fleet. It helps generate vehicle maintenance reports to view detailed parts and labour costs, track average service duration and monitor cost trends,” Gandhi explains.
Strengthening the Mobility Ecosystem
Chartered Bike is also a subsidiary of CSL. It has close to 5,000 bikes in their public bike sharing operations in Surat (Gujarat), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Kolkata (West Bengal), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) and Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh). “The battery capacity of our chartered smart e-bike is 14.4 Ah and it boasts a 50 km ride with a fully charged battery. We have partnered with Adani Electricity to provide a unique solution to delivery partners who can use these bikes without a driving license at a restricted speed of 25 km per hour. Currently, we have launched 50 such e-bikes in the eastern suburb of Powai, Mumbai,” Gandhi informs.
The company also offers rental cabs for hire or for events. Its fleet includes SUVs, sedans, commuter vans and tourist buses. Some of these cars can also be used for self-drive purposes. CSL has a secured mobile application for every ticket booking. It also has an online portal that is made for desktop users. “Due to the spread of the corona virus and also the guidelines by the government, we are currently not providing offline services at bus stations for tickets or pre-booking at bus stations although passengers can get a ticket while boarding the bus. Our company has a mobile application that does more business than our online bus portal,” Gandhi says.
“Our inter-city revenue is 70% of our total revenue and it comes from our own channel,” he adds. Talking especially about the time period related to the pandemic, Gandhi states that CSL has placed emphasis on mental health and physiological counselling for its workforce, especially drivers. “We counselled our staff especially drivers and have been very cautious about their physical, mental and behavioural health, work-life balance and time for family and personal hygiene. In addition, we initiated ESI, PF and bank insurance facilities from the human resource team for all our employees to guard themselves from the pandemic and cover their families in case of any loss or hospitalisation.”