In a populous country like India, crores of people travel through various modes of transport every day. And buses have an important contribution to these transport modes, especially in carrying passengers from one place to another.
While earlier there was a severe shortage of roads in rural areas of India, now work is being done to connect almost all rural areas with roads under the Prime Minister’s Road Scheme. In which the government has almost succeeded.
In today’s time, it has become easier to reach the cities from the rural areas, because the rural areas have also been connected to the main roads. Generally, a common man uses the bus more while traveling from one place to another.
This is due to the fact that not all of India is connected by train, and the average person cannot afford alternative forms of transportation like cabs. The majority of Indians prefer to travel small distances in buses in such circumstances.
In such a situation, if you are thinking of starting a business related to transport, then you can start your own bus service business. How will you do this? Today we are going to tell this through our article.
How to Start Bus Service Business in India?
However, many people do not make any kind of plan to start their own bus business. That is, when they feel that they have money available to buy a bus, or they will get money from a bank or finance company to buy a bus, then they decide to start such a business without thinking about anything.
But if you want to reduce the risk coming forward in this business, then you should start your bus business well-planned and use your discretion. That is so that the possibility of failure of this business can be reduced.
Select a Business Model
Many people think that starting a bus business means buying your own bus and running it regularly on a route by keeping yourself or a driver/conductor. But here we are talking about the bus service business, and it is not necessary to buy a bus for this.
That is to say, any interested person who wants to start his own business has two business models to do so. The first business model is for entrepreneurs to open their own small offices in crowded place where there is a high demand for buses.
Meet people who have their own buses and get in touch with them and tie up with them. As soon as any person needs a bus for any work tour, for marriage, for religious travel, he will come to your office.
And you will book that bus for the customer by knowing about the availability of the bus from the owners of the bus. In this process, you are earning money through commission.
The second model we all know is that in this you have to buy your own bus, you can also buy one or more buses for your business according to your spending capacity.
This is the reason why an entrepreneur starting a bus business first needs to choose its business model. People who lack the money to start this kind of business can start this business through the first model.
But those who are a driver themselves and have enough money to start their own bus business or think that they will manage the money, then the second option is good for them.
Prepare a project plan
Now whatever business model you have selected for this, you should prepare a practical project report for it. There are many basic elements of a project report. But the estimated cost and estimated earnings are one of the most important points of this project report.
However, it includes the business model of the bus, how many buses to buy, where to keep the office, and where to arrange money to buy buses. On which route do the buses have to be installed in the beginning?
What will be the main source of earnings from buses? The estimated cost of commissioning the project and the estimated profit to be made in a year should also be given.
If you prepare a practical project report, then another advantage of this can be that you can easily get a loan from banks or non-banking financial institutions to start your own business.
Manage finances
Any business needs finance to change from idea to reality. It is a different matter that to start all types of business, different amounts of finance are required according to their size, nature, etc.
How much finance will be required to start this business (bus service business) will depend on which business model and how many buses the entrepreneur wants to start this business by buying.
By the way, if the entrepreneur has no prior experience of such a business, then he is advised to start this kind of business by just buying a bus.
But if the entrepreneur wants to make his investment more secure, then he should first do this business by adopting the first business model. And when he has experience, then he should buy his own bus.
If the entrepreneur wants to start this business by buying only one bus then he may need ₹ 17 – 35 lakhs. However, if the entrepreneur himself is a driver and has about 10-12 lakh rupees of his savings, then he can also do the rest of the amount by financing the bus.
The advantage of this will be that the entrepreneur will start his business from that bus and since he himself is a driver, he can give the salary given to the driver to the finance company every month as an instalment of bash.
Buy buses needed for business
After managing the finances, the entrepreneur’s next step should be to buy the buses needed for the business. At present, many companies in India such as Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors, Eicher Motors, BharatBenz, Mahindra & Mahindra etc. manufacture buses.
You should choose the bus company based on the services of the bus companies available in your area. A bus company that does not have any service center in your area nor any good showroom can cause trouble for you to buy a bus of that company.
That is to say, the design of buses of different companies can be different and the design of auto parts installed in them can also be different. In such a situation, if you buy a bus of a company whose service center or auto parts are not available in your area. Then how do you fix it?
Therefore, to start a bus business, decide which company’s bus to buy carefully. While selecting a bus, keep in mind how you are going to use that bus.
For example, if an entrepreneur wants to use his bus only to bring and deliver passengers to the tourist destination, then Volvo can be a good option for this.
Get necessary licenses/permits etc.
The entrepreneur can also register his business as a proprietorship firm and get PAN card and GST registration in the name of the business. But its inevitability will depend on the business turnover of the entrepreneur. Apart from this, many documents are required to run a bus on the road, some of which are listed as follows.
- The registration certificate of the bus is usually applied for by the bus showroom at the time of buying the bus from the local RTO office.
- Until your registration certificate comes, you can use the bus bill as a document. However, a fixed time of one month or 15 days is given for this.
- The insurance certificate of the bus is required.
- The fitness certificate of the bus is required.
- Pollution certificate of the bus is required.
- A bus permit is also required.
Some of these necessary licenses such as bus registration certificate and insurance are applied for by the bus showroom at the time of buying the bus. While the rest of the licenses and permits have to be done by you yourself.
Select the route for the bus service
There are many areas where there is a need to run buses from the time table. In such a situation, there is a committee or organization of people providing bus service at the local level.
The entrepreneur can become a part of this committee and organization if he wants. But in the rest of the areas where there are no such organizations or committees, it is the entrepreneur’s own decision on which route to run the bus.
In such a situation, a route where there is a possibility of getting more passengers, the entrepreneur can run his bus regularly on that cry. However, there is no doubt that government vehicles are also present to transport passengers from one place to another.
But the demand for transport in India is so high that the transport service provided by the government here seems inadequate. In such a situation, any interested person can start his own bus business and run his bus on a profitable route.
Appoint a driver/conductor
If you’re driving your own bus you may need to have just one conductor. But if you want to do any other work, then you have to hire a driver/ conductor to drive the bus. Conductors may need to be appointed.
The appointment of driver and conductor should be done only after deciding the route. Because often drivers and conductors want to know about the route first. In such a situation, if the route is already decided by the entrepreneur, then it will be easier to talk about salary etc. while appointing the driver and conductor.
Provide service and earn
You can also use a ride bus on many other occasions. For example, buses can also be used to carry marriage processions in marriages, political rallies, religious trips, etc.
Although the bus can also be used as a school bus if needed, school buses are usually painted with yellow paint. Therefore, there may be some difficulty in using passenger buses as school buses.
It is entirely up to the entrepreneur to decide what he wants to send his bus for booking other than the regular route.
Cost of starting a bus business
The cost of starting a bus business will depend on the business model under which the entrepreneur is starting this business.
If he wants to start this business by connecting other people’s buses with his bus service company, then he needs money to set up an office in a good place. For this, he will need to spend about 75-90 thousand rupees in the initial phase.
But even if the entrepreneur wants to start this business by buying his own new bus, the cost will depend on how many buses the entrepreneur wants to start this business with. But if you start this business with just one bus, then you may need to spend Rs.17-35 lakh for this.
Earning from bus service business
It can be very difficult for anyone to give an accurate answer to how much money will be earned from the bus service business. Because which entrepreneur is adopting what methods to earn by bus, these affect his earnings.
For example, many entrepreneurs are making money by using advertisements outside their bus, so most people’s source of income from this business is the fare taken from the passengers.
Apart from this, the owners of the bus also keep sending their buses on trips during various programs according to the needs of the people. The regular earnings from passengers depend on the number of passengers travelling. But according to statistics, a bus can earn a gross income of Rs 8500-9500 a day.
How to make your business successful?
To make your bus business successful, you can follow the following things.
- If you are hiring a driver/conductor for your business, give priority to experienced and addictive people.
- Drive the bus on a route that is crowded, and there is a possibility of getting more passengers.
- Always be ready for bookings such as weddings, weddings or any other event. If possible in the wedding season, book the bus in advance.
- Do not leave the bus only and only to the driver / conductor, sometimes travel in your own bus to understand this business well.
- At present, the trend of booking buses online is also increasing among people, to take advantage of this trend, register your bus on MakeMyTrip, Red Bus and other popular online platforms.