A lot of my friends have been complaining about "unreasonable" fare hike in ultradeluxe buses. Lot of them acknowledge that this is because of the re-branding of deluxe as ultra deluxe. Having said that, many also complain that there has been no increase in comfort. To quote one of my friend "they just repainted the bus and changed the seats - they claim there are pushback seats, but they are uncomfortable". It is true that the "rebranding" exercise involved repainting and changing the earlier static seats to "pushback" seats with a 15° incline (super luxury and garuda buses have a higher incline angle) . I also agree this does not mean any increase in comfort. but why did they do that ? The corporation says it did so because it wanted to deliver a better "product". but, is that true?
The argument I am going to make might not make any sense but, that is the only argument that sounds plausible to me at this moment.
Initial investment on an Express bus and a Deluxe bus are similar . Express has 50+ seats and Deluxe has 30+ seats . Operating costs too are similar for both the brands . But, considering the little price difference between two brands, it does not make sense for the corporation to operate deluxe buses with such a low fare when that can add more seats and earn much more per a bus.
If that is possible, they could have done it . What is the reason they did not do it ?
On short distance routes where the corporation operates aggressively at frequencies less than 15 minutes, deluxe buses have been a hit. Express buses on such routes have not been received at the same scale. So, it makes sense for the corporation to operate deluxe buses given that passengers are looking for comfort.
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| A.P.S.R.T.C New ULTRA DELUXE Bus. |
Now, coming back to the question of re-branding
If the corporation has to continue to operate deluxe buses for the reasons said before, it makes sense only if they increase the earnings per bus. They could not have increased the fares as it could have gone down wrong among the passengers. Now the easiest way to do it was to just re-brand.
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| A.P.S.R.T.C New ULTRA DELUXE Bus. |
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| A.P.S.R.T.C New ULTRA DELUXE Bus. |
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| An Ultra Deluxe Bus Glowing in Defiyance... |
There is a longer history to the attempts at re-branding deluxe buses. I will tell that story sometime else.
Re-branding was to increase earnings per bus and nothing else.
