Bangalore to Chennai - From Hosur

Travelling on long weekends becomes extremely difficult if you do not have a ticket reserved well in advance. I have earlier blogged on travelling from Bangalore to Chennai & from Chennai to Bangalore during normal occasions in Unreserved buses. But, the situation is completely different on long week-ends or during festival seasons. This long weekend (Easter), i had to go to Hosur and get a bus for Chennai. I was surprised to see the frequency of buses for chennai from Hosur - It is really very high. Lemme share some info about Hosur now. Hosur is located in Tamil Nadu in close proximity to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. It is one of the main entry/exit point to Bangalore. It is one of the industrial hubs in Tamil Nadu bordering Karnataka. Apart from climate, the nearness to Bangalore has also helped in Hosur's development. I did find lot of buses to Vellore that has very very high frequency of buses to Chennai . Vellore is one of the main cities that lies between Chennai and Bangalore. It is on the banks of the Palar river. So, if you do not find Chennai with vacant seats even in Hosur, then catch on a bus to Vellore. In Vellore, you can get Chennai buses with vacant seats. Vellore also operates buses that that start from Vellore and depart to Chennai round the clock !

Hosur seems to be one of the best alternative places to get buses to Chennai quickly if you have not reserved tickets for your travel to Chennai from Bangalore. Happy Journey !!

SETC & KSRTC ticket reservation - Unreserved Busses

Few of the earlier posts would have given you some view of the booking systems of SETC and KSRTC. I came across another system that is really very helpful - 'Token System'. The 'Token' system is a kind of reservation for the buses that arrive with vacant seats or completely un-reserved in bus-stand(Koyambedu/Shanthi-Nagar). 'Token' system is a way for getting ticket if you have not reserved any ticket at all . It is very helpful for last-minute travellers and also for guys who are lazy to reserve the ticket earlier itself :-) Another system that is similar to this is 'Conductor-system' that helps a last minute traveller to get a ticket in an unreserved bus or in a bus with vacant seats :-) . Ok, lemme share few analysis done so far.

Token system is very very popular for booking tickets between chennai to bangalore in SETC. It is also becoming famous while booking tickets from bangalore to chennai in SETC. In Chennai, SETC booking counter has a very well organized 'Q' that helps commuters to get the tokens without any mix-up. The counter seems to open around 8.30 pm and might be open till very late in the night . On few peak days, it will be open almost till it can support most of the passengers. In Bangalore, SETC booking counter does not seem to be providing you the 'Q' facility in a strict manner and leads to some kind of mixup or thrashing of one-another to get the token. Another point is that during certain times in bangalore, there is no need to get a token, people just squeeze themselves to get into the bus to get the seat as there is no 'Q'. It is a FIGS(First In, Gets Seat) concept which in turn leads to some mix-up as there is no 'Q' to get into bus :-(
So, Chennai SETC adds value to the SETC bus booking system while the bangalore SETC seems to reduce some value of SETC bus booking system.

KSRTC has a good online booking system, but KSRTC in bangalore seems to lack this mechanism of 'Token' system for booking tickets. Instead, the tickets are given by conductors standing near the respective busses. Though this conductor-system provides good oppurtunity for the person who comes in touch with the correct bus conductor with vacant tickets , it makes one person to run between different busses in the stand. It makes the person toil for a single ticket alot as he needs to check with almost every bus-conductor . There is also some mix-up while getting tickets as there is no proper 'Q'.

So, KSRTC seems to lag behind SETC in providing tickets in an organized way to last minute travellers in both Bangalore and Chennai. Though SETC token system is fine in chennai, the bangalore token system has to come up with a proper 'Q' system to provide even more comfort to night travellers.

Also check my blog on 'KSRTC vs SETC' !

KSRTC vs SETC booking concessions :-)

It is diwali time and whole India would be returning to home :-) There would be lot of buses in pipeline to meet the demands for the chennai-bangalore commuters. No wonder, the cost of the private bus tickets would be rocketing up like a diwali rocket !

Ok, Lemme come to the SETC vs KSRTC review. It is about the concessions provided for the customers. I browsed through their website and found some interesting stuff about travel concessions that many would not be aware .

KSRTC :-
Group Booking discount
Return Journey discount
Free travel in City Services
Monthly passes
Weekly Freedom tickets
Daily ticket
Suvarna Karnataka tickets
Reference -> http://ksrtc.in/Concession1.html , http://ksrtc.in/Pass2.html

SETC:-
Concessional Annual Ticket Scheme
Weekly Travel Card Scheme
Travel Regularly and earn an addiitional (free) trip scheme
Monthly Season Tickets
Travel as you Please Tickets
- Daily - Weekly - Monthly
Reference -> http://www.tn.gov.in/citizen/trans-e-2005.htm

I find that SETC provides more beneficial concessions compared to KSRTC and is very very attractive. SETC schemes are targeted at the real possible scenarios.

While browsing these websites, i find that SETC website needs improvement on various fronts like Design and Speed . The SETC Online booking facitlity is still not up.

The competition is going tougher and tougher between these two bus services, but it is a healthy competition as there is tremendous improvement in the customer services from both of these bus services. It is good to see such healthy competition !

Auto walas - Chennai

I have earlier written some tactics and counter-tactics for negotiation with auto walas in Bangalore. In Chennai, the situation is completely different. It is very tough as there is no auto rickshaw meter concept. In Chennai, 'positional negotiation' is the trademark of auto walas and they will say some rough values irrespective of the distance. We will be able to negotiate only if we know the actual distance or have an idea about the area.

The best tactic is - 'Walk Away' philosophy if you find it to be an unresanoble amount. Do not stand and get into negotiation. Do not haste as there are many autos .

If you are boarding from Chennai railway station or Koyambedu bus stand, there is a 'prepaid auto rickshaw counter' that provides the best deal.

I got one prepaid autorickshaw fare pdf from 'The Hindu' newspaper that gives you info about the fares related to Chennai Central Railway station. Refer to http://www.hindu.com/nic/centralprepaidauto.pdf

The same pdf can also be correlated with a small chennai map along with some area knowledge to get an overall idea about the possible fare between the two places, so that it would be handy during negotiation.

SETC vs KSRTC bus

எச்டேர்டே, நான் பெங்களுருல இருந்து சென்னைக்கு SETC'ல வந்தேன். KSRTC'கு போட்டியா சாதாரண Non-A/C பஸ்'ல வீடியோ சிஸ்டம் கொண்டு வந்து, பில் கேட்ஸ் ஸ்டைல்'ல Trial version போட்டு தூள் கிளப்புறாங்க. I was thrilled on seeing the quality of picture. This feature provides a definite edge over KSRTC. The bus fare is around Rs 225 to Rs 240 ஒன்லி and it is resonable compared to KSRTC buses. SETC continues to pose a healthy competition with KSRTC by progressive improvement in all frontiers to get a large share of the pie of frequent commuters between Chennai & Bangalore round the clock. Though improvements are there, SETC does not have an online booking/reservation system and hence is unable to reach easily to all the highly educated masses/internet savvy people. People have to go in person to make the reservations. But, KSRTC has an efficient online booking system that attracts many people easily & some people opt for it as it saves lot of time in this growingly busy world.

Auto walas - Bangalore

Auto rickshaw business is an excellent business , but the person has to really toil in the roads & dust. With good negotiation tactics, they can triple their income. Here, i am sharing some of the good counter-tactics for those negotiation tactics that will give you a complete win solution or a win-win solution.

Before going ahead, i would like to clarify certain terms that i would be using in this post :-
'Auto rickshaw' is also termed as 'Auto'.
'Auto wala' is a term from Hindi language for representing the driver of the auto.

In the past few weeks, i have been commuting by auto whenever possible to save time. I know the exact distance between Koramangala & ITPL and hence the cost. But sometimes, i found that the meter showed an extra amount of 25 rupees. Initially i did not mind about it, later thought of applying some negotiation tactics in those scenarios to enhance my negotiation skills . Lets see some of the scenarios.

1. While getting down, if the amount is extra(Consider here, the extra amount is 25 rupees), i would say 'Yaar, yeh tho bahud thez cheltha hei, actually 6o or 65 hoga'. Then, he will put down his head as it is the true fact or will say some traffic reason etc.., but finally he would refund atleast the 15 rupees. So, by just telling that the meter is running fast without arguing or negotiating in a high tone , i was able to win 15 rupees back. If you are arguing and getting down in the middle, he is sure to make some noise. To avoid chaos, be patient till you reach the destination and tell the fact in a soft manner. Do not talk much or drag him into negotiation/micro stuffs. It should surely help.

2.Some auto wala's will blindly say some amount. I ensured that i follow the 'Walk Away' principle immediately without further negotiation. They will finally come running behind to our expectation of driving with meter enabled. By this method, i need not put efforts for oral negotiation.

3.Some auto wala's follow the method of getting us into the auto with a wide smile and later while dropping they will not give back 25 rupees stating that he has only 100 rupee notes and does not have lower currency notes/coins. So, i ensure that i have some coins/change before boarding the auto.

4. Some auto wala's realize our intention by checking our sharp eyes on the meter while driving. They will give back the extra money even before we negotiate for it. I used to feel pity and get back only half/quarter of the money from them. But, later i realized that as one of the tactics they follow to win our sympathy and thereby they avoid the negotiation and use us by overriding our consciousness to give them the extra money which we initially hesitated while seeing the fast running meter. So, nowadays i dont fall into that trap :-)

5. Few guys follow the tactics of getting us into the auto and in the middle of the path to the destination, they may halt at a signal and grudge/cribb regarding the traffic and the loss due to it and raise the amount instantly. The best way to deal this situation is to ask the autowala to wait until the traffic clears and to see if it is really so drastic that he is unable to proceed ahead for more than 20 minutes. Few of the new travellers might not be able to judge the situation (It may be the usual traffic in that route) and they may give up to the autowala by accepting his deal. But, after reading this , you should never allow an autowala to exploit you unnecessarily.

General comment - Always, ensure that the auto has the digital meter because the probability of tampered digital meter is very very less.

Itz always an interesting ride in an auto !!

A Stylish Motorcycle

Harley Davidson is opening an indian division of its unit by tomorrow. I checked out their US website to get a feel about the models. It is simply fantastic. I find it very stylish . I like the 'cvo ultra classic electric glide' .The specifications look very interesting. It has a Radio system, Heated hand grips for riding in cool climate(Much suitable for places like Bangalore,Hosur) and i am really carried away with the heat adjustments in the rider & passenger seats. It has 6 gears & passenger backrest (Made of leather and it looks like a mini-sofa). This motorcyle model costs around $35,000 as of today (From their US website).

Now, there are lot of questions in Mind :-
- The entry price in India
- Will it support all the features or the models will be downscaled while selling in India
- What kind of models will be available in India
- Will it be successful among people of India
- Will it be able to adjust to the Indian Road/Traffic conditions
- Will it be popular in North/South/East/ West part of India

Lets wait and watch in http://www.harley-davidson.in/ !!