Travelling by a bus on national highway during the early morning hours can be an enchanting experience and it should be more so for the road travel enthusiasts. The visual treat of the vast verdant stretches interspersed by hillocks under the blanket of fading darkness whizzing past and occasional distant lights breaking that continuity, should immerse the traveller in the ecstasies of the mystical world. However the above experience can change quite fast if the bus is approaching a metro city; and Chennai in this regard can definitely add more colour to the unfolding scenarios. Traffic steadily increases and it’s invariably a crowded affair on the approach to the brightly lit toll plaza for the exit NH towards the city. One cannot miss the high bus (referred herein for Intercity bus/Omni bus/Coach) density during those hours, proximate to the toll plaza; and buses in varied configurations with colorful eye-catching exterior designs hurrying up to meet to the tight trip schedules. Amidst that hustle and bustle, one can definitely spot some buses distinct from the others with resemblance to double decker trains. Upon a closer observation, they can be discerned as sleeper coaches and not to be missed also some carrying the logo SBLT. Yes, the sleeper coach, one of the recent entrants to the segment, is fast gaining commuter acceptance as the preferred mode of transport; and we at MOTORINDIA had an opportunity to interact with one of the popular bus fleet operators focussing on sleeper coaches, Shri Bhagiyalakshmi Travels (SBLT), Chennai.
“Passenger expectations these days are very high and in the fast-paced society, they want every activity connected with travel to be less time consuming 
and smooth. It could start from ease of booking thro’ online or at counters with least waiting time, boarding points close to their stay locations to minimum waiting time for the bus arrival at these locations. While we can meet most of their requirements, in the heavy and often chaotic urban traffic, arrival times at varied pick up locations can get stretched and this can lead to difficult situations for us. We try to understand their changing needs, demands and provide the optimal solutions. Introduction of sleeper coaches with varied options and increasing their fleet size to cover more areas have been done to meet the customer demands. As for sleeper coach choice, we have single and double occupancy cubicles in AC and non-AC versions both in the lower and upper decks. These days if the travel distance is beyond 200 km, people invariably opt for sleeper coaches; and this trend will only continue with the improving road conditions and coach/chassis design,” says Mr. D. Maran, Proprietor, SBLT, also the Joint Treasurer of Bus Operators Confederation of India (BOCI) and Treasurer of Tamilnadu Omni Bus Owners’ Association (TOBOA).
Experience as foundation
SBLT was started by Mr. G. Dayalan, father of Mr. Maran, in 1987 with just a couple of tourist buses. Mr. Dayalan started his journey in the bus lane first as cleaner and then as a driver; and travelled extensively to all parts of India both as truck and tourist bus driver. This rich experience gave him the confidence to begin his next innings as a fleet operator thro’ SBLT. Mr. Maran, a college student then, used to accompany his father during those initial tourist bus days and after couple of years, with other brothers joining him, SBLT expanded its operations. The real break came for the group when they started the staff bus services and steadily they added more companies as customers and expanded their operations. After this came the Omni bus vertical and Mr. Maran took charge of SBLT while his other four brothers under the Bhagiyalakshmi brand ventured into other segments of passenger transport. “All of us work in close association with each other under the tutelage of our father. I focus on heavies in the bus segment, primarily coach and staff segments while others deal in verticals like tourist, cars, vans and accessories. They also cater to bus segment requirements if their customers need it and in such cases they get referred to SBLT; and it’s also the same the other way around,” points out Mr. Maran. The Bhagiyalakshmi Group today has about 700 vehicles in all categories put together to meet most of the requirements in passenger transport domain.
Brand loyalty and service support
SBLT has 160 buses in its fleet and caters to staff and intercity needs of commuters. Staff vertical has a long list of customers and the buses are utilized only for the pickup and drop operations. As for the coach service, they cover all parts of Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and B’lore in Karnataka. Some of the long distance routes covered include services from Chennai to Rameswaram, Udangudi and Nagercoil, a distance of about 700 km. Mr. Maran indicates: “All our services are essentially for one night travel and we do not have any day service. Our buses per day cover over 75,000 km, carry 5,000+ passengers thro’ 250 schedules in all categories. We have about 220 drivers all under direct employment and they drive for about 200 km and after that, the other driver takes over. Friendly service, providing customised solutions, easy accessibility to the top management, safety, comfort, punctuality and providing value for money are our USPs in retaining customers and adding more to the list. All our buses are built on Ashok Leyland chassis, mostly in the 2-axle 222” wheelbase configuration. We started with Leyland and stuck on with the brand because of the good performance of the vehicles and service support provided by the dealer TVS thro’ their well-knit service facility almost every 50 km. Even in the luxury coach category, we have only Leyland chassis.” Mr. Maran adds that body building for their coaches is always done by S.M. Kannappa, Bangalore; but for the staff bus they go thro’ body builders in Namakkal region. SBLT invariably opts for Harita-made seats and JK or Apollo tubeless radial tyres for all their vehicles. For ACs, they go with the various leading brands in the market.
SBLT have their workshop at Poonamallee, Chennai, bordering the national highway. All the routine maintenance and minor/major service works are carried out in the well equipped facility and they have an AMC with TVS for the service. Mr. Maran discloses that after the daily routine checks, buses leave for the pickup of passengers. En route minor service issues if any can be sorted out by their experienced drivers; if not, the 24X7 TVS service centre is approached and they reach the spot within 30 min in a mobile service van to set right the problems.
Challenges ahead
Road taxes paid by us to the Govt. are very much on the higher side, claims Mr. Maran. “After resorting to the legal option, the weekly collection has been 
changed to the monthly route and we end up paying about Rs. 4.5 lakhs per year for a 40 seater bus. If the national permit as being contemplated comes into force, we will be saving on the high cash outflow but the same is being opposed by southern states due to the significant revenue loss to them. Also for the sleeper coach, we have to go to Pondy for registration as it’s not allowed in T.N.; however we pay road taxes for the same in T.N. and this together with Pondy taxes and other charges make the yearly cash outflow very high. With better roads, highways and infrastructure, speeds locked at 80 kmph for BS-IV buses are likely to be revised to 110 kmph shortly and this can cut down the travel time. GST applicable only on AC bus service has increased the ticket price but then this has not affected the travel volume in any manner,” he adds.
Mr. Maran is cautiously optimistic about increasing the fleet size. SBLT closely monitors the customer preferences, competition and viability before embarking on the expansion. Multi-axle coach though is comfortable is not going to be remunerative to the operators at this juncture, he opines. In this regard SBLT can provide a 2-axle luxury coach almost matching the multi-axle bus vis-à-vis comforts but at a much lower ticket price and this approach seems to have gone in their favour. Mr. Dayalan, an octogenarian though not active on the operations front monitors closely the progress of SBLT and other group companies and gives his erudite advice, reveals Mr. Maran. It must have been a thoroughly satisfying life journey for Mr. Dayalan to see Mr. Maran ably leading SBLT, the group playing a significant role in the travel space and contributing to country’s economic growth. SBLT should be having plans to expand their operations pan-India and possibly waiting in the wings for the game-changing policy to act. Will the national permit move trigger that? We will come to know of the same as and when it happens.