‘The Travel Experience Is Undergoing A Massive Shift’

With players from Europe and China studying the Indian market for a possible entry in the surface transport segment, Volvo India readies itself for further expansion. Akash Passey, VP, Volvo Bus Division, speaks to Vyas Sivanand about how the company plans to increase its turnover of Rs 600 crore that it clocked in 2004 .

The entry of several LCCs might threaten the viability of surface transport. How do you plan to counter this?

Of course, the travel experience is undergoing a massive shift. But the costs of flying are still high with a problem of connectivity. Besides, the experience of travelling by bus is completely different from flying. Previously, there was a question of status when one travelled by bus but now people are beginning to associate Volvo with high status symbol too.

What do you think of the surface transport scenario in the country?

The volume of surface transport is high in terms of inter-city travel. Also, we have a satisfactory highway network, which has seen considerable development since the last couple of years especially, the Delhi-Jaipur, Delhi-Pune and the Mumbai-Pune circuit. And it helped when the Ministry of Surface Transport increased the bus length from 11.25 m to the global standards of 12 m and 15 m. The commercial vehicle industry is all set to change now. But there is still a lot that needs to be done.

How has Volvo strategised its growth in the country?

Three years ago, one could not imagine travelling to say Tirupathi in perfect comfort. But with Volvo the travelling time has come down drastically. We have initiated interactions with tour operators, we have imported trial coaches and started mailer campaigns before launching Volvo buses in the country. We have now completed the cycle of process building.

Today, we cover every region in the country expect the east even though we have a strong presence in Bangladesh. So our focus right now is to cover the entire North East segment. We have already initiated the process three months ago with a private-public partnership and we currently operate only from Guwahati. The Bhubaneswar-Puri and Kolkata-Siliguri circuit is in the pipeline. We are also looking at connecting Dhaka-Kolkata, Nepal-Delhi and Nepal-Kolkata.

What about your plans to enter the city bus segment?

Yes, we will be starting the Volvo Public Transportation system in Bangalore soon, which will of course be 15 to 20 per cent more expensive than the other buses. The average run of buses on Indian roads is about 8 to 10 km and we intend to increase it to 18 to 20 km.

How do you check on the standards maintained by your tour operators?

We basically built the chassis and then send it to the body builder. From then on, it depends upon the tour operator as to what he wants regarding the interiors and other accessories. But we do not have a monitoring module with us through which we can find out if all tour operators adhere to the basic standards that are part of the brand.