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COMPARATIVE STUDY ON USAGE OF COMMERCIAL VEHICLES BEST AND INDIAN RAILWAYS

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UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI NCRDS

STERLING COLLEGE OF ARTS, COMMERCE &SCIENCE NERUL, NAVI MUMBAI COLLEGE CODE: 331 PROJECT REPORT ON COMPARATIVE STUDY ON USAGE OF COMMERCIAL VEHICLES BEST AND INDIAN RAILWAYS SUBMITTED BY RAVISHANKAR AGNIHOTRI PROJECT GUIDE PROF. K. PRASUNA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE COURSE OF BACHELOR OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES (B.M.S) T.Y.B.M.S. (SEMESTER V) ACADEMIC YEAR 2013-14

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am thankful to STERLING INSTITUTE OF ARTS, COMMERCE AND SCIENCE for giving me an opportunity to work on the project of the analysis of emotional quotient from employees perspective. I am highly thankful to my esteemed guide Mrs. Prasuna for her support throughout the completion of this project.

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DECLARATION

I RAVISHANKAR AGNIHOTRI Student of NCRDS STERLING COLLEGE OF ARTS, COMMERCE & SCIENCE, studying in B.M.S (Semester V) hereby declare that I have completed this project report on COMPARATIVE STUDY ON USAGE OF COMMERCIAL VEHICLE AND INDAIN RAILWAYS And has not been submitted to any other University of Institute for the award of any degree, diploma etc. The information is submitted by me is true and original to the best of my knowledge.

Date: _________ Place: Nerul Navi Mumbai

___________________ (RAVISHANKAR AGNIHOTRI)

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Index
SR. NO 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 CONTENTS Executive summary HISTORY OF BEST History of Indian railways An overview Pest analysis Market segmentation 4 Is for BEST and Indian railways 7 Ps for BEST and Indian railways Quality dimension (RATERS) Comparative study for BEST and Indian Railways Critical Incidents case study Complaint handlings Fish Bone case study Future of Roadways and Railways Conclusion Bibliography PAGE NO. 6 7 9 12 14 28 32 42 59 67 96 99 102 104 112 113

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The project is a detailed comparative study of usage of commercial vehicle, best and the Indian railways. It contains a wide study on PESTEnvironment (Political, economy, social and technology environment). A SWOT analysis is also made on commercial vehicles. History of both BEST and the Indian railways is explained in the project with the help of various books and interview from employees of the Indian railway and BEST, suitable examples are also given.

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HISTORY OF BEST UNDERTAKING The Bombay Tramway Company Limited was formally set up in 1873. The Mumbai Municipality was given the right to buy up the concern after the first 25 years or after every period of 7 years thereafter. After this contract was entered into between the Bombay Tramway Company and the Municipality, the Government of Mumbai enacted the Bombay Tramways Act, 1874, under which the Company was licensed to run a tramway service in the city. The tram-cars were of two kinds-those drawn by one horse and those drawn by two. In 1905, a newly formed concern, the Bombay Electric Supply & Tramways Company Limited bought the Bombay Tramway Company and the first electrically operated tram-car appeared on Mumbai roads in 1907. The passing years aggravated the problem of rush-hour traffic and to ease the situation, double Decker trams were introduced in September, 1920. Mumbai saw its first bus run on 15th July, 1926. The people of Mumbai received the bus with enthusiasm, but it took quite sometime before this means of conveyance really established itself. For several years, it was looked upon as transport for the upper middle classes. Those were the days when the tram was the poor mans transport, carried one all the way from Sassoon Dock to Dadar for a mere Anna and a half, that was nine paise. The bus fare for the same journey was four Annas that are 25 paisa. In response to the pleas made by the Government and the Brihan Mumbai Mahanagarpalika, the Company extended its services to the

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northern part of the city in 1934. Double deck buses were introduced in 1937 in order to cope better with the growing traffic. The first Limited Bus service in Mumbai, and probably the first in the country as well, started running in 1940 between Colaba and Mahim. Pursuant to the option given to it under the Deed of Concession granted to the Bombay Electric Supply and Tramways Co. Ltd, the Brihan Mumbai Mahanagarpalika acquired on 7th August, 1947, the assets of the combined Undertaking, namely the operation of tramways and distribution of electricity in the city of Mumbai as a going concern. By mutual agreement, the Corporation also took over the operation of the bus services, which was run by the B.E.S & T Company Ltd. Thus, the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport Company was municipalized and came to be known as Bombay Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking. The Undertaking has completed 50 years of its municipalization on 7th August, 1997. The intricacies of Mumbai transport system can easily baffle any new comer from the countryside. To use a figure of speech, the city inhales and exhales through the BEST bus services. The changeover from horse-driven trams to buses has been spectacular. When the Corporation took over the Company in 1947, there were 242 buses in operation on 23 routes and these buses carried 2.38 lakh passengers per day. At present, there are 3380 buses carrying 45 lakhs passengers daily on 335 routes.

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HISTORY OF INDIAN RAILWAYS The history of Indian Railways dates back to the British Raj. The idea of establishing a rail network in India was first mooted by the British authority in consideration of the huge size of the country, not unmixed with political, strategic and economic expediencies. Britain needed a fast and reliable transport system for troop movement (to counter armed rebellion) and for exploitation of the vast resources of India. The idea of a railway to connect Bombay with Thane, Kalyan and with the Thal and Bhore Ghats inclines first occurred to Mr. George Clark, the chief Engineer of the Bombay Government during a visit to Bhandup in 1843. Thus the first railways in the sub-continent came into being on 16th April, 1853. It ran over a stretch 21 miles from Bombay to Thane amidst the loud applause of a vast multitude and the salute of 21 guns. Shortly after, the first passenger train steamed out of Howrah station destined for Hooghly, a distance of 24 miles on 15th August, 1854. Thus the first section of the East Indian Railway was opened to public traffic, inauguration the beginning of railway transport on the Eastern side for the Sub-continent. In south the first line was opened on 1 st July, 1856 by the Madras Railway company. It ran between Veyasarpandy and Walajah Road (Arcot), a distance of 63 miles. In the north a length of 119 miles of line was laid from Allahabad to Kanpur on 3rd March, 1959. The first section from Hathras Road to Mathura Cantonment was opened to traffic on 19 th October
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1875. Since then the Indian railways has not looked back and made impressive strides in shouldering a major share of transportation needs in the country. In a short period, the Indian Railways has earned the distinction of being the largest railway network in the world. Operating on more than 1, 07,000 track kilometers, it carries more than 11 million passengers in a day and transport 40% of the freight. Now, the Indian Railways system is divided into 9 zonal railways, a metro railway, Calcutta and Delhi, the production units, construction organizations, and other railway establishments. Each division presented in the table below, is usually headed by a general manager. Sr.No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Zones in the Indian Railways Central Eastern Northern North Eastern North East Frontier Southern South Central South Eastern Western Headquarters Mumbai Calcutta New Delhi Gorakhpur Maligaon(Guwahati) Chennai Secunderabad Calcutta Mumbai

There are around 11,000 trains running in India out of which 7,000 are passenger trains.

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AN OVERWIEW

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The figure above shows the main factors influencing the process of Marketing Management in any commercial organization. The single most important factor is the wants and needs of the organizations target customers, and hence these are shown at the epicenter of the diagram. The wants and needs of the target customers determine the significations of the marketing mix, which is embodied in the marketing management system (comprising systems of marketing planning, organization/implementation and control), as illustrated in the third innermost ring of the diagram. However, marketing management in developing a strategy to satisfy the needs of its target market must also adapt to a microenvironment, as shown in the corners of the rectangle in the diagram, consisting of market intermediaries (or distribution channels), suppliers, competitors and public (including shareholders). It must further adapt to a macro environment, shown at the outer extremities of the diagram, consisting of demographic and economic forces, political and legal forces, technological/physical forces, and social and cultural forces. Thus marketing management must take into account all the factors and forces in the marketing environment in developing its strategy to serve the target market. This applies as much in the case of a global corporation as it does in the case of small domestic business and within this range certainly applies to railway and roadway organizations.

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PEST ANALYSIS -BEST UNDERTAKING POLITICAL

The political situation of any country strongly influences any industry that wishes to flourish in the framework of the country. The Heavy Motor Vehicle Industry is also affected strongly by the action and decisions taken by the men with authority. The government is instrumental in the passing of the various laws and acts, which govern the working of the industry and has a very strong bearing on the success of the industry. The clause of disallowing the use of old vehicles would have led to an increased demand for the Heavy Motor Vehicles. For e.g. it has been estimated that the recent Supreme Court verdict to pull off any vehicle more than 15 years from the road is expected to increase the demand by about 15000 units. Buses for State Transport Undertakings: the buses used by the STUs account for almost 90% of the bus sales. The budget of how many buses are to be ordered is dependent on each state government. If the government is hard pressed for funds the number of replacement units for buses ordered will be low. This will have a great influence in the demand and the profitability of companies in the manufacture of buses.

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PERMITS:

There are basically three types of permits that are required to be taken by any transporter. They are: National permit: This is the permit issued by the transporter, permitting him to move in minimum 5 states. If more states are to be covered than respectively the permit fees has to be paid. Hence the government takes a consolidated tax payment at the time of issue of permits and thereafter the transporter does not require paying tax at each and every permitted state. It is renewed every six months. State permit: This is a permit allowing the transporter to move freely within a particular state. The tax payments and the privileges enjoyed are same as National Permit but the only distinguishing factor is that it can move only within one particular state. It is renewed every six months. Temporary permit: This is similar to National Permit but instead of the period of 6 months it is allowed only for 15 days for all the states but the transporter here has to pay individual taxes for each state unlike Consolidated in National Permit.

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Depreciation policy: The government decides the amount of depreciation that can be charged on the use of Heavy Motor Vehicles. Since corporate and institutional customers normally purchase the Heavy Motor Vehicles, they rely heavily on the depreciation that can be provided for tax shelters since it helps show a lower net profit and higher notional expenses. The increase in depreciation rates therefore can help push the sales since it will spur more Heavy Motor Vehicle buying on account of the tax shelters received. In the past, the GOI changed the depreciation norms to control the tax collection from corporation. For example: the decrease in depreciation rates from 33% in 1989-90 to 20% in 1990-91 led to drop in Heavy Motor Vehicles. Infrastructure development: All the vehicles according to their weight have to pay a fixed amount of tax known as toll tax. The government uses this money for the development of roads, maintenance etc. SOCIAL Strikes/war/communal riots: These incidents directly affect the service delivery process. This may result in low demand, loss of property and many cases injury to the people customers and employees. Festivals: In case of festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi, Holi, Diwali etc the demand for road transport goes down and there can be damage to the vehicle.

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Holidays/vacations: This is another time of the year when the road transporter can face low or high demand depending on the sector he is catering to. Even, some companies have purchase buses for picking up the employees and dropping them back home e.g. Larsen and Tubro Fiat, UTI etc.

A/C luxury buses: In an honest effort to attract the private vehicle owners to BEST buses and thereby reduce the congestion to some extent on Mumbai city roads which affect the mobility of vehicles, BEST has introduced 51 air conditioned buses. These buses have: Luxury seats with soft fabric, carpeted flooring jack-knife doors at entrance and exit, wide corridor for easy movement, etc.

Low floor buses: BEST has received demands from various sections of the society who are working for the welfare of the physically handicapped, regarding need for introducing low floor buses in the city. In response to these demands and suggestions, BEST has launched the trial run of low floor buses provided by TELCO and Ashok Leyland. This trial is for 6 months.

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Special transport arrangements are made and extra buses under various Action Plans are operated during the year on various social/ religious occasions. The Undertakings also pays special attention to operate extra buses to clear the stranded passenger traffic on account of dislocation of Railways, heavy rains and similar such events. The Undertaking also operates extra buses on Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays to clear the excursion traffic at various picnic points.

There are special buses started for ladies and disabled persons. Even students up to 12th standard get concessions on the fares known as student concession. The Undertaking has a well-equipped Training Center for the traffic staff and designed program to re-educate them on such relevant topics as fuel conservation, safety measures, behaviour with the public etc. Training is also imparted in Refresher Courses to improve driving habits of the drivers under which officers check the habits of drivers constantly and as a result of which there is a great reduction in accidents. In the Refresher Courses, the stress is on an image revamp from a mere BEST employee to a concerned individual who cares for passenger comfort.

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ECONOMIC It is a known paradox that the economic condition really affects the economic condition. This is shown by the fact that all the industries in any economy are interconnected and an increase or decrease in the activity of any one industry has a direct or indirect bearing on the activity of the other industries. Trade cycles: Trade cycles such as recession or prosperity have a direct impact on road transport services. When there is recession or slowdown in the economy and other industries such as travel and tourism, exportsimports, the level of economic activities are low as a result there is low demand for transportation services such as passenger transport. This has a direct impact on the operations and profitability of this industry. It is during this time that the transporters need to effectively manage demand and supply and market their services to retain their customers. Pricing: The fair prices for passenger transport is directly regulated by government incase of public transport like BEST and indirectly incase of private such as cargo or private bus contractors. In case of private transporters the government fixes the minimum and maximum limits for the prices. So it has a direct impact on the price mix of road transport. Fuel prices: Earlier government regulated and directly controlled the prices of the fuel- diesel and petrol- and thereby had a direct impact on the fuel
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prices which determined the cost. Thus the price offered by the road transporters was directly influenced by the government pricing policy. TECHNOLOGICAL Age of the vehicle: P.U.C. under the RTO regulations all vehicles over 15 years of age are to stop running on road, taking into consideration the environmental and pollution factors. The emission of gases from these vehicles is hazardous to the environment. However it has been noticed that the emission factors not only depends on the age but also the distance traveled by the buses and the maintenance of such vehicles over their life. This aspect is completely ignored by the RTO authorities. IT: Just as integration of IT in all business activities, transportation sector has not been an exception to it. More and more logistical software are being used for jobs like keeping track of the vehicles on the move, organizing database of the customers, maintaining relations with the customers etc. CNG Natural Gas Bus Articulated Single Deck Bus (Vestibule Bus) Automated Fare Collection System System Concept

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PEST ANALYSIS- INDIAN RAILWAYS POLITICAL Railways are owned and managed by the Government of India and thus profit is not the main motive. It is meant to serve all the sections of the society, more so the economically and social backward class. The government lays down policies to be followed by the employees. The GOI decides the fares but has decentralized certain powers such as the General Managers of Zonal Railways are given to finalize tenders and contracts up to a value of 15 crores at their own level. The GOI has adopted proactive strategies for railways aimed at income generation and cutting costs. Passenger awareness programmes are also being taken up through public announcements, posters, films etc. For income generation, one example could be of the various ads and posters displayed in the stations. The public sector undertaking of Indian Railways such as IRCON, CONCOR, Konkan Railways Corporation has helped to create an international corporate image.

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Privatization: the GOI was deciding to privatize the Indian Railways but did not, since the general public started protesting against the decision to privatize, because if the private companies entered the consumers would suffer because the would levy high transportation costs.

SOCIAL Railways have played a very important role in social revolution as it is gradually wiping out the socio-economic disparities and bringing the people of various regions close to each other. Mahatma Gandhi traveled through the 3rd class compartment to unite the people of India fight against the British. For e.g. People belonging to various classes travel in one single local train everyday. Railways are an environment-friendly mode of transport as it uses the energy more efficiently than road transport. Mostly all the trains run on electricity hence it saves fuel. There is no pollution. Its share in total transportation has declined from 89% to 40% in freight and from 70% to 20% in passenger transport. Safety: a non-lapsable Special Railways Safety Fund of Rs.17, 000 crores is created to wipe out the backlog of replacement of over-aged assets and safety enhancement within the next 15 years. For e.g. the seating arrangement of the railways have been changed from previous trains for better utilization of the space available and comfort.

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Social status: It plays a very important role because people choose to go by train which suits their status. E.g.: the middle class would prefer super fast trains like Shatabdi, Rajdhani Express while the poor class will have to travel by the local trains which will take days together to reach the destination. Social obligation and care for weaker section, senior citizen, students, disabled persons etc enjoy concession benefit from railways. New initiative in this area during the last three years include reduction of age limits for special concession to senior women citizens from 65 to 60 years, blind and mentally challenged persons can now travel in AC classes on concessional rates. Free second class monthly season tickets for school going children up to 10th standard for travel between home and school was also introduced. Even tickets and coupons at concessional rates are provided to student classes. Even patients suffering from diseases like cancer are given tickets at half rates and also preferred in waiting lists. ECONOMICAL Conserves foreign exchange: Indian Railways have a number of production units spread all over the country, with modern electric and diesel locomotives and other equipments which they are able to export through aggressive marketing and foreign tie-ups which help to conserve the much needed Foreign Exchange. Indirectly affecting the economy: The Government is not generating revenue from the Indian Railways since it cannot increase the fares and so has to resort to other measures of earning revenue and has to mainly cut

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down its expenses, only then will it be able to contribute something to the economy. Growing economic burden: To fulfill the demands of growing population, new stations and platforms are built which increases the cost of infrastructure and its maintenance. Thus, it can reduce the economic burden by earning revenue through other sources. TECHONOLOGICAL The reservation systems have been computerized which helps people to book the tickets from any station. People can also book tickets on the internet, but people face problems while buying season passes if the computer fails. There are coupon validating machines on most of the railways stations. Super fast and express trains have been introduced. There are also metro rains in many cities like Kolkata and Delhi. The Konkan Railways have developed the anti-collision devices on intensive field trial basis through GPS. Even the sky bus metro is another innovative and economic and eco-friendly mass rapid transportation solution devised by Konkan Railway. SST (self stabilizing track) devised by Konkan railway corporation will enable trains to run at a higher speed and prevent them from accidents. Better and improved signaling systems (one of the best in the world). There is a train every 3 minutes in peak hours (local).

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Palace on wheels in Jaipur can be taken as the best example for technological advancement or innovation. Now, the Indian railways have the best of facilities, improved engines, machines and technology.

Railways have established their own intra-net Rail net. It provides networking between railway board, zonal headquarters, divisional headquarters, production units, training centres etc. Telecommunication new trends: To give improved telecommunication systems on railways, optical fibre based communication system has been adopted and laying OFC has increased to 7,700 routes kms this year. Rail Tel Corporation has been created to make a nationwide broadband multimedia network by laying optical fibre cable along the rail tracks. This system will provide better operational and passenger amenities and additional revenue to railways.

Automatic Ticketing: Delhi Metro has introduced, for the first time in the country, ticketing and passenger control through a completely Automatic Fare Collection system.

The ticket, which could be a card or a token, is purchased from the Ticket Counter. The passenger then proceeds to one of several gates that
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separate the Paid Area from the Unpaid Area. Here, the passenger will hold the ticket close to the machine to the right of the gate. If valid, the gates will open automatically, and the passenger can pass to the Paid Area. If not valid, the message 'GO TO OFFICE' will be displayed on the machine and the passenger will need to contact the Customer Service Staff.

Ticket Options:

Travel Card: Most convenient for the frequent commuter. Stored value cards, Travel Cards are available in the denominations of Rs. 100, 200 and 500. - Refundable Deposit: Rs.100 only - Validity: One Year - Renewal: No extra charge - Facility to check balance on Card: Ticket Reading Machines at all Metro Stations.

Tourist Card: For unlimited travel over short periods. There are two kinds of cards 1 day and 3 day. - Value of 1-Day Card: Rs 50 - Value of 3-Day Card: Rs 150 - Refundable Deposit: Rs 100

Token: - Single-Journey Token: For one way journey

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- Value will depend on the destination. Valid only on the day of purchase.

How to use your Travel Card / Tourist Card / Token:

Travel Card/ Tourist Card: Hold your card close to the machine for the gates to open.
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Tokens: For entry just hold it close to the machine. At exit, drop a SingleJourney token into the slot.

MARKET SEGMENTATION Markets consist of buyers and buyers are not homogeneous in terms of their demographic profiles, wants, purchasing power, geographical location, buying attitudes, and buying practices. Therefore it is unlikely that a broad marketing strategy applied across the entire spectrum of customers will succeed, because the needs of some customers will not be met in this process. By contrast, separate marketing strategies focused on individual customer groups, each consisting of customers with similar characteristics and needs, are more likely to succeed. These customer groups are called market segments and the process of identifying and separating these groups for the purposes of developing marketing plans and strategies and of managing sales force activities are called market segmentation. BEST UNDERTAKING Basis of segmentation Income or comfort wise Speed wise Sex wise Segments Without AC & AC bus. Unlimited bus, limited bus, super fast bus, non stop bus Ladies special bus.
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Distance wise

Short distance, Medium distance,

Long distance. Special busses for physically challenged people Income or Comfort wise: This segment includes people who are quiet rich and can afford to pay for the kind of luxuries provided. There are Air Conditioned busses being made to cater to people who want to travel very comfortably. Also in this kind of busses very less people are allowed to stand so as to avoid the congestion. Also once the bus gets full bus stops only at those stops where passengers wants to alight, hence avoiding unwanted stops thereby saving the customers time and making service delivery quicker. Also there are busses without Air Conditions for those who cant afford or for those who dont want to travel by the Air Condition busses. In India majority of the population travels by these kind of buses. Speed Wise: These kind of busses that differ on the time taken to each the destination, the number of places at which the bus stops, etc. The customers are also being charged accordingly. Cost and Time are inversely related, i.e., lesser the time higher the cost of travel and more the time lesser the cost of travel. Sex Wise: Similar to railways, specials busses for womens are being run during peak hours in order to make travel more comfortable.

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Distance Wise: Even buses are being segmented according to the distance the customers want to travel, i.e., long distance, medium distance and short distance.

RAILWAYS Basis of segmentation Class wise / income wise Segments 1 class ac sleeper class,
st

Ac 2 tier class car, Ac 3 tier sleeper class, Ac chair car, First class ordinary, Sleeper class ordinary, Chair car ordinary, General class ordinary Ladies special trains Mail, Express, Ordinary fast, Super fast, Luxury, Special. Long distance,

Sex wise Speed wise

Distance wise

Medium distance, Short distance.

Indian Railways differentiates its markets according to above categories. The type of facilities provided in each and every segment varies according to the needs of the customers or the ways the segment are being framed. It can be the quality of services provided by the personnel, the kind of materials provided like shawls, pillows, etc. to the customers, the kind of
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seats made for sitting, the kind of food provided, and so on. The kind of service experience customers get is also different in each and every segment.

Class Wise or Income Wise: This segment has been framed taking into consideration the purchasing power or the classes of services the passengers want to experience. Better the services higher the price paid for it. There are trains, like PALACE OF WHEELS, where world-class services are being provided like best quality of food, best personnel catering to the passengers, the kind of bedding, no delay in the service delivery, customization in various services, etc. but also the cost of such experience is high. There are even various trains that provide low quality of services and charge low cost. These are for the weaker sections of the society who cannot pay for the luxurious services. Sex Wise: These kinds of trains are being run only in the local railways. No long distance trains are being made ladies special. This segment is being made to cater to womens during the peak hours in order to make the travel more comfortable. Speed Wise: This segment is being made to distinguish the time it takes to deliver the service. Fast trains are able to make passengers reach their destination at the least possible time, so as to save the time of passengers. Due to which the cost of traveling in such kind of trains is quiet high. Business class people prefer traveling in these trains.

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Distance Wise: This segment includes trains that run over long, medium and short distances. The kinds of facilities that are provided in all three trains differ according to the distance they cover like, bedding services that are being provided in long distance trains only. 4 Is OF SERVICE MARKETING

4 Is are distinctive characteristics of services which create special marketing challenges and opportunities.

FEATURE

MARKETING PROBLEMS Cannot be easily displayed

MARKETING STRATEGY Provide tangible clues Stimulate word of mouth Use personal sources Use post-purchase

INTANGIBILITY

Cannot be patented

communications Standardization hard Stress standardization INCONSISTENCY to achieve control and performance training Hard to setup quality Focus on employee

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Can only predict quality or determine it after service if performed

programmes, performance evaluation

Harder to mass INSEPARABILITY produce product Less efficient than goods production Customer must be present Value can be short INVENTORY lived Capacity is infinite Time period may be limited Cannot be inventoried

Needs strong training programmes, incentives Focus on personal attention Focus on convenience, saving time and fast service Extended hours Focus on competence and service Predict fluctuations in demand Manage capacity to balance supply and demand
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INTANGIBILITY Intangibility is a characteristic of a service indicating that it has no physical attributes and as a result, impossible for a customer to taste, feel, hear or smell before they buy it. Therefore the customers for many, services, has to buy them 'on trust' since they cannot be inspected before use. However, before purchasing a traditional product, a consumer can touch, taste and sample the product. The intangible nature of services makes consumers concerned about their providers. For example; some major scandal of stocks left many people uneasy about the financial instability of National Stock Exchange and investor's trust was shaken. Many people lost faith in the system. "In fact people are getting greatly concerned now about the service providers, their back ground, their qualifications and, this is why there is need for 'license to practice' for barbers, beauticians, and estate agents. Service products are mostly intangible; they have to be marketed with tangible evidence. This is what is referred to as "tangibilizing the intangibles". For example: A lawn care firm might place a small sign on the lawn indicating that fertilizer has been applied. A seal on the electric meter provides tangible evidence that competent authority has tested it.
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A certificate issued by pollution control agency is a tangible evidence of pollution under control. The degrees printed on your visiting card is the tangible evidence of the pollution under control. INCONSISTENCY Inconsistency is also referred to as variability or heterogeneity. The inconsistency occurs largely because of: Different service providers perform a given service on different occasions. The service performed by an individual provider may differ over a time. Interaction between customer and provider may vary by customer. Every time a service is performed, the process and the customer experience is different. Services that are provided by individuals (rather than machines) will vary, depending upon which individual performs the service, and these will even vary with the same service provider from one job to the next. The service will also vary according to the degree to which customers or clients are involved in the production of the service. The degree to which the service organization designs the service delivery system to control variability will influence the heterogeneity (or quality) of the service experienced by the customer. If customer uncertainty must be lessened, mechanizing, automating, standardizing and rationalizing available options can reduce heterogeneity

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in services. However, heterogeneity may be desired by those customers who want customized service, rather than standard approaches that are less than optimal for their individual situation (say, in engineering design or in factory layout). The existence of inconsistency problem is more in services than products. Tangible products can be good or bad but with modern production lines, the quality can be achieved to a reasonable extent of standardizations. But it is impossible to standardize service industry output. For examples: Indian airlines, for example, do not give the same quality of service on its each flight. The performance of an artist in a theatre is not of same standard in each performance. . The front office manager of a hotel does not provide same quality of the service to each customer he deals. In order to provide consistent services the companies should pay special attention to a product planning stage of their marketing programmes. Companies that are highly equipment based or less people based are able to reduce inconsistency in services. For example: Companies, which have installed automatic car wash facilities, are providing consistent services.(Mechanizations). Banks that have installed ATM are providing consistent services. (Automation)

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Mc Donald's have been able to achieve consistency in service delivery by following a production line approach to services". They have been able to standardize every aspect of service operation down to the width of smile that each customer should be greeted with.

INSEPARABILITY Inseparability is a characteristic of a service indicating that it cannot be separated from the creator-seller of the product. Many services are created, delivered and consumed simultaneously through interaction between customers and service producers. Whereas goods generally, are produced first and consumed later on. For example , a dentist creates, delivers all his services simultaneously and the presence of the consumer is required during the performance of the service. This means that in most of cases, people are involved concurrently in the production and marketing efforts of service organizations. In most of the cases the consumer receives and consumes the services at the service producers premises 'so called service factory'. Since inseparability characteristic generally means the direct interaction between the creator-sellers, it requires shortest channel of distribution i.e. direct selling. Service cannot be stocked by distribution chain. This concept has a major limitation. For example, one-person say one auto mechanic can only repair so many vehicles in a day. Thus individual service seller's services cannot be sold in very many markets. This characteristic limits the scale of operation of a service organization.
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There arc some services, which can be sold by a representative of the main service producer e.g., travel agent, insurance, broker, but at the final point of service delivery the creator-seller presence is unavoidable. Institutions producing them generally sell such services.

INVENTORY The inventory relates to perish-ability characteristic in services marketing. The services cannot be easily saved, stored or inventoried. Inventory problem exists with services because of its perishable nature. For example: A tax consultant who is available only nine to five, Monday through Friday cannot serve the many people who work during those hours. Empty seats in a stadium for a football game cannot be carried over to provide more seating in the next. Empty seat in a 10 A.M. flight to Bombay cannot be carried over to provide more seating in next flights. In a bank hours when tellers are idle, cannot be used to provide quicker service at noon on Saturday when long lines are forming An Indian Airline plane that leaves Delhi on way to Bangalore with thirty empty seats forever loses the opportunity to sell those thirty seats though the expenses for the flight are same as they would have been had the plane been full (less only a few rupees for the thirty meals).

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The inventory is always associated with the cost of carrying the inventory. With services, inventory costs are more subjective and are related to capacity utilization i.e. when a service is available but there is no demand. In idle service production environment, the inventory cost relates to reimbursing staff along with any needed equipment e.g. if a doctor is available but there is no patient during that period, the fixed cost of the idle physician's salary is a high inventory carrying cost. Another characteristic of many services is that demand for them fluctuates considerably by season and by day of the week and even hour of the day. As an example consider long distance telephone services for which the demand fluctuates according to time and period (say Diwali season), public transportation has maximum traffic during peak hours i.e. morning and evening office hours or a holiday traffic (Durgapuja days) or a special event (Trade fair), and a restaurant with their lunch and dinner peaks. The demand for banking services also fluctuates by day and hour. The day before the holiday, weak end, most Mondays and Saturdays, pension and salary days are heavier than normal banking hours. The combination of perishability and fluctuating demand present challenges for marketers engaged in product planning, pricing, promotion and distribution of services. Service industries e.g. telephone companies try to spread out demand for their services by pricing off peak hours to make them more attractive to callers.

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Restaurants offer "happy hour" rates to off load traffic to earlier dinner hours Mc Donald use part time employees (counter persons) to meet the peak hour rush.

Strategies used in order to tackle this challenges (4 IS):

INTANGIBILITY Since services are intangibles various tangible clues are required to be provided in order to make customers feel that some kind of service has being provided and there has been increase in the value. Railways and Bus Services: Better booking or ticketing arrangements. Better lightings on the railway stations or bus stops also inside the trains or busses. Clean and well built railway stations or bus stop. Proper urinal facilities at the railway stations or bus depots.

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Cushioned seats inside the trains or busses. Proper display of reservation charts in case of trains or time schedule of busses. Drinking water facilities at railway stations or bus stops. Well-trained personnel for complaint handling or grievances. Thus a service provider need to see to it that the customer is delighted with overall service experience INCONSISTENCY One can always expect inconsistency in the service delivery, as customer himself is involved in the service production also various other factors lead to inconsistency. Railways and Bus Services: Better-trained and motivated employees (both frontline and backoffice). Maintenance of equipments, i.e., busses and trains. Planning and organizing the procedures. Decreasing the use of manpower or using more of automated procedure. INSEPERABILITY In service delivery, both the producer and the consumer are inseparable, i.e., both are required to be together Railways and Bus Services:

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Decreasing the interactions between the producer and consumers Proper training of the employees. Proper maintenance of service factory. Trying to segment the consumers. INVENTORY Services cannot be overproduced and stored so as to deliver at a future date. Both production and consumption at the same time. Railways and Bus Services: Prediction of fluctuation in demand. Balancing demand and supply using modern techniques to do so. Understanding the consumer behavior. 7 Ps OF TRANSPORT PRODUCT PRODUCT LEVELS: Core Benefit: It is the main or core reason why the customer will buy the service of the service provider. More like the basic purpose or necessity.

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EXP ECT ED

AUGMENTED

BASIC

POTENTIAL

Basic Product: The core benefit is converted into a basic product. That is the service that can use by the customer in order to fulfill his/her needs. Expected Product: It refers to the set of attributes and conditions expected by the customers when they purchase the service.

Augmented Product: It is the additional features that the bank provides which exceeds the customers expectations. Potential Product:

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Innovations and product differential is the bases of a Potential Product. If the buses and railways alter their services according to the requirements of the individual customers they reach this level. BEST The product-service is the bus transportation service. The service is the same whether you travel by BEST or by a private transporter. Thus BEST has a well-recognized brand name. Its quality in providing the service is legendary. The three product levels in BEST are: The basic product: of the bus industry is transportation of the people from one place to another. The expected Product: 1. Timeliness 2. Safety of passengers 3. Brand name of provider 4. Proper ticket dispensation and checking 5. Proper planning of structure of bus for easy entry and exit. 6. Cleanliness

The Augmented Product: 1. Reservation of ticket 2. Softer seats and air condition bus

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3. Concessions for certain sector of society like freedom fighters, military men. 4. Permanent Reserved seat for ladies, old people and handicapped people 5. Automatic ticket fare collection The potential product : 1. Providing separate line to BEST bus on maximum number of route 2. Less waiting plan 3. Disaster management 4. 24 hour service on maximum route RAILWAYS For railways, this is the service offered to customers, both existing and prospective. However, the term also implies some notion of the attributes of a service its basic design, or its essential features; its presentation, or how it is packaged; its associated support level (which is usually related to the capacity of the organization to deliver an acceptable standard of support for the product, or service); and its branding, or its association with a particular image or identity. The core products of railway organizations are transportation services, but increasingly railway organizations are diversifying their activities in fields which are not wholly related to their core business, such as commercial property, or real estate, development. For a railway passenger service, the design and presentation characteristics of the product are generally: the route covered; the service

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frequency; the achieved transit time (or interval between departure and arrival); the carriage seating standard and configuration; the decor, cleanliness and riding comfort of the rolling stock; the nature and standard of meals provided enroute; the comfort, cleanliness and convenience of station or terminal facilities; And the convenience of connections with other rail services or with other transport modes. Mumbai suburb railway - In case of suburban RAILWAY BASIC and EXPECTED product is same as BEST. However AUGMENTED product of RAILWAY, some features are same as expected product and many times below the expected product. For e.g. one may expect timeliness, cleanliness, and safety, while traveling in train which usually lacking. But RAILWAY taking steps for providing better product for e.g. RAILWAY encouraged suggestion by commuters who used the new three coach Mumbai rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) train on western RAILWAY. MRVC is planning to bring new local to the city. PLACE Place, means not just the locations of producer facilities, but the locations of all points of sale at which customers may have access to the product or service. Place refers to the contact point between the service provider and the customer. Two main issues considered regarding the decision of the place are accessibility and availability of the service to the customer. BEST

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The buses travel the required destinations as per the scheduled timetable. The buses are able to reach the remote areas. IN the case of BEST it has a wide network of buses that help to transport the commuters from one place to another. The BEST try cover almost each place in the city. BEST has bus stop after every 500 900metres. As BEST is public utility it is also operated in remote area in spite of loss on that particular route due fewer commuters. The aim of BEST is to provide service to each and every person city in spite of loss. RAILWAYS In the case of railways, these will include not only passenger stations and freight terminals, but corporate/regional/divisional headquarters, centralized railway reservations offices, hotels, travel agents, and freight forwarders offices and terminals. With more than 38,500 miles (62,000 kilometers) of track length, India's rail system, entirely government-owned, is the sixth longest in the world. As on 31 March 1999, there were 62,809 route kilometers, and 6896 stations. RAILWAY also tries to cover maximum area to facilitate service to people. In Mumbai suburban RAILWAY around 65 station with more than 140 km of track length i.e. after 2-3 km there is one station .in Mumbai station are in central place of area so it is easy to reach and accessible to the commuter It is observe that commuter in Mumbai prefer BEST for short distance say 2-5 km and RAILWAY for long distance say more than 5 km. PRICE
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Price is one element in the marketing mix that produces revenue; all the other elements produce costs. Prices are easiest marketing mix elements to adjust; product features, channels and even promotion take more time. Price also communicates to the market the companys intended value positioning of its product or brand. Pricing decisions occupy a place of outstanding significance, especially in a utility undertaking. Making available the public transportation facilities to the masses and strengthening the infrastructure base for an all-round development of the country cant be possible unless public transport contribute substantially to the development process. This necessitates due attention on the financial health of Indian railways and BEST for this, one cant underestimate the pricing decisions. BEST For tickets of BEST, the pricing model used is the cost oriented method, where all direct costs (drivers charges, conductors charges) and indirect charges (maintenance of busses, depreciation on busses etc) are added up with the profit margin to arrive at a price. Price of normally depends upon 1. Fixed cost: it refers to the interest on capital, depreciation costs, registration and insurance expense, taxes to be paid, expenses on general upkeep of vehicles, administrative expenses 2. Semi fixed costs; it refers to the salaries of drivers, cleaners, and conductor, miscellaneous expenses that vary with the running of the vehicles.

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3. Variable cost: this includes cost of fuel, oil, which are incurred when the vehicles are on the move and maintenance costs that are directly attractable to a particular journey. The variable costs are generally directly proportional to the distance moved. 4. Vehicle utilization: BEST would be interested in getting maximum mileage out of his vehicle. The BEST prefer to move it at the maximum possible and permissible speed so that transit time would be less and he can have a better utilization of bus 5. Government policy: apart from above cost government can issue legislation, frame guideline, issue directives regarding price. The pricing of tickets of BEST are quiet flexible, they rise with any major rise in the cost of diesel or oil. They also have different price levels for the same service. Students below 12th standard, freedom fighters and military men are offered concessions in all BEST busses. RAILWAYS Being a public utility undertaking, the Indian Railways dont have any freedom to adjust it fare and freight structure corresponding to an increase in the prices of various inputs used in the process of offering the services. The policy of price restraint followed by the Indian Railways on socio-economic considerations is the root and branch cause of containing financial constraint. This makes it essential that the pricing decisions are made rational. The pricing strategies need to establish a fair match between the social and commercial considerations.

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The pricing policy is not uniform. Some of the commodities used as industrial raw materials, some of the articles transported to face the natural calamities, some of the materials transported for welfare purposes and some of the users experiencing it difficult to pay even the cost-based or subsidized fare and freight rates. On the other hand, affluent business houses also use Indian railways. If the railways start the process of offering concessional services to all, the process of expansion and development would hardly be activated. Hence the railways are marked based on 5 principles Cost of service principle the transport charges are based on the actual costs incurred on the services Value of service principle fixation of rates on the value of service Principle of differential charging Allow different charges on different commodities for same distance Principal principle of zonal charging Division of area into several zones and discourages short hauls and encourages longer ones The suitability of a particular principle depends upon the prevailing conditions vis--vis emerging trends.

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Concessions are given in passenger train also to a variety of segments some of which are: 1. Orthopaedically Handicapped/ Paraplegic persons along with an escort (for both) traveling for any purpose. 2. War Widows. - Traveling for any purpose 3. (a) Bonafide students: i. ii. Up to the age of 25 years and Up to the age of 27 years in the case of SC/ST students. - For going to hometown and educational tours. (b) Students - Girls up to 12th class and boys up to 10th class travel between home & school 4. Teachers of Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools - for educational tours. 5. Bharat Scouts & Guides - for scouting duty. Senior citizens, students, disabled persons etc. enjoy concessional benefits from Railways. New initiatives in this area during the last three years include reduction of age limits for special concession to senior women citizen from 65 to 60 years, blind and mentally challenged persons can now travel in AC classes on concessional rates. Free second class Monthly Season Tickets (MSTs) for school going children up to tenth standard for travel between home and school was also introduced. In this way, social obligation towards society is also discharged. Handy information pamphlets in local languages containing details of different types of concessions to which passengers are eligible and other relevant passenger information will be made available at Book Stalls and RAILWAY Counters on payment of nominal charges.
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Railways recently decreased its passenger fare in Mumbai by 1 Rs. In Mumbai BEST is economical for short distance and for long distance train is economical. BEST also takes more time in long distance journey compare to railway. So people prefer train for long distance and BEST for short distance.

PROMOTION Promotion is nothing but making the customer more and more aware of the services and benefits provided Promotion is a descriptive term for the mix of communication activities, which a service organization carries out in order to influence the public on whom their sales depend. It is an element in an organizations marketing mix that serves to inform, persuade, or/ and remind people about an organization or individual goods, service, image, ideas, community involvement or impact on the society. Marketing is the result of all activities aimed at enhancing customer awareness of, and stimulating demand for, products or services. Typically, these activities include: advertising in all of its forms (point-of-sale, direct mailing, print media and broadcast media); sales force representation; and PR (public relations). Mumbai suburban RAILWAY and BEST do not normally undertake aggressive promotion.

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Reason for not undertaking aggressive transport: 1. Monopoly: suburban RAILWAY and BEST as being public utility enjoying monopoly in public transport. So they do not have any competition from other service provider 2. Prices: suburban RAILWAY and BEST have cost oriented pricing method .due to this they keep very nominal price for service. Due to this reason BEST and RAILWAY have advantage over other service provider like rickshaw and taxi. 3. Place: commuter can access RAILWAY station and bus stop very easily because after every 2-3 km there is one station and after every 500-900 meters there is one bus stop. BEST BEST also started promoting its service as environment friendly. In order to decrease pollution in Mumbai, government insists that people use public transport system. So BEST is now focusing on this issue to encourage more and more people to travel by its bus. Also the BEST is planning to increase the strength of CNG buses in its fleet. CNG is a clear burning fuel, with no black smoke and very low particulate emissions. Thus CNG engine is environmental friendly. Low noise level of the engine. This will add to passenger comfort.

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RAILWAYS Of the different forms of promotion, sales representation has been the most widely used in railway business. However, railway sales forces have mainly had a passive or reactive, rather than a proactive, role, servicing existing customers rather than seeking out and securing new customers, order taking rather than order generating. Furthermore, these sales forces have not been organized in a way, which would assist them to actively promote railway services and secure new business. But in recent year, because of tough competition of from airlines industry, RAILWAY now promoting its luxury trains like Rajdhani express, Shatabdi express, and air condition 1st class services of other express train. For example recently they introduce new imported coach from Germany in Rajdhani express and also provide best services in catering, cleanliness, in special and luxury train etc. RAILWAY has also started educating and advertising new services like reservation of ticket through Internet, SMS, and holiday special train during rush to traffic during holidays and festival seasons. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE Physical Evidence is the environment in which the service is delivered with physical or tangible commodities and where the service provider and the customer interact. Physical evidence makes a huge impact on the customer. Physical evidence provides customers means of evaluating the service.

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BEST The Bus Stops and Bus Depots play a vital role in enhancing Physical Evidence of the Service. They are usually kept neat and clean. Again the flexes on the bus stops, which are put up for advertisements play a role. Now, more and more bus stops are having seating facilities or a rooftop. Again the interiors of the buses are kept simple and user-friendly; seats are in good conditions, which all add up to make the journey of the customer a happy journey. Buses are always clean. There is only one backdrop in case of BEST is that appearance of ticket is not good and it is very difficult to understand for commuter as it does not show place, date, time, etc. ticket just show the price. So there is great chance of cheating from both parties. RAILWAYS Physical evidence contains all the visible features of a service. These have to be carefully designed for each segment of market. Physical Evidence refers to the physical evidence available to customers in the layout and presentation of railway facilities that their needs are actually being met. The design, layout and signage of passenger stations, for example, must be such as to convey the impression to travelers that the railway really wants their business. This it will do by ensuring that platforms, concourses, ticket/reservations offices, waiting rooms, toilets, baggage lockers, bus interchange and transfer facilities, etc, will be comfortable and convenient for all categories of travelers to use. These facilities also have a critical influence on customer acceptance of the railway product.

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It can be of the following: Train: The engine of the train, the color of the train the interiors of the train all form a part of physical evidence. The announcements warnings and cautions written on the walls of the train also form an integral part of the physical evidence. Different features are provided for different class of passengers. Like the second class had wooden planks for seating. Sleeper class has leaner seats than the two-tier class. The first class people are given a cabin of their own sometimes with an inbuilt toilet and cooking facilities. Also the lighting and the fans form a part of the physical evidence. The fan grill is seldom clean. It is always full of spider webs. Also the differentiation between the compartments is made. For example in the Mumbai Suburban RAILWAY System first class is marked by red and cream lines where as the ladies compartment is marked by green and cream lines. Also some types of trains are distinctive than others. Like the Rajdhani train is always red and yellow and the Shatabdi train is always blue. Also the tourist trains like Palace On Wheels have facilities like lounge, bar, library, restaurants, etc. Station: The station is mostly the platform, which is made of concrete. The ticket window, the advertisements and the FOBs form a part of the physical evidence. Also the indicators, the tone in which the announcements are made, the tea stalls and the bookstalls, ticket-validating machines, weighing machines and the billboards showing various fares or train names and/or timings all form a part of it. Also the uniforms of the coolies may form a part of the physical evidence.

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Tracks: The tracks, the signals on the way and the appearance of the motorman and the signal giver, the cleanliness of the surroundings all form a part of the physical evidence. Others: Other type of physical evidence would include the ticket, Goods shed/Container Freight Station (CFS), the website, uniforms of the ticket checkers, the reservation forms, seasonal passes, the identity cards, food provided, the bedding which includes the pillows and sheets, the water and drinks provided and the packing of the food and other amenities. Overall physical evidence of RAILWAY is not satisfactory. Colour of train and engine, colour of interior is not good, fans and light many time not working, quality of light and fan also inferior, bathroom and toilet are usually dirty, many seats are unclean and broken, station are always dirty, public address system is inaudible, etc. PROCESS The process mix constitutes the overall procedure involved in using the services offered. It is very necessary that the process is very customer friendly. In other words a process should be such that the customer is easily able to understand and easy to follow. BEST BEST has been successful in developing a process of boarding the buses and alighting the buses. People generally get down from the front gate and board the bus from the rear gate. When the commuters get in from the rear gate and there is nobody else left to board, the conductor will send an
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alarm bell to the driver, which is audible. Driver will drive only when all the passengers who want to get down will do so, irrespective of the bell. RAILWAYS In suburban RAILWAY commuter has to take ticket or pass to travel, after that he travel to destination. According to the need of the different commuter there are different train for different destination and there are also fast wheel train and slow wheel train. There is same gate for boarding and gate down so daily commuter make their own system and way. Train stop for 30 seconds at each stop. In case of long distance train, one have to fill up reservation form in which one have to provide information regarding number of train, date of journey, destination, no. Of people etc. it is very simple form. Submitting this form on the reservation counter one can get reservation and ticket which give all information about train, seat no., departure time, no. of person, PNR no., fare, action the date of journey person have to get the seat shown on ticket and have to show ticket to ticket checker. PEOPLE People play a major role in service organizations. It is their responsibility to see that the customers needs and wants are satisfied. This requires the employees to be well motivated & focused about their job. The providers have to be in the highest state of readiness and also in the highest level of skill. PEOPLE - in service marketing includes EMPLOYEES OTHER CUSTOMERS
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EMPLOYEES They are the representatives of the company. Their performance can create a positive as well as negative impact of the service process and the image of the company. Keeping people factor healthy is one of the prime concerns of the company. BEST In case bus transport, driver, conductor, cleaner, mechanical engineer, worker at depot are part of people mix. Driver and conductor have to be polite and commuter friendly. They are actually come into contact with people so they have take care of need of people for ex drive bus safely, allow passenger to board and get down safely, etc. on other hand cleaner, engineer, and worker of depot should also be accurate as condition of bus and safety of passenger depend upon them. RAILWAYS Railways are a service industry; hence the railway employees responsible for delivery of service are conspicuous to users and indeed are directly accountable to users for service quality. It almost goes without saying that people are a railway organizations most important resource. So it is that a railways people resources will be vitally important to the realization of its marketing goals. It will not matter how advanced and sophisticated are a railway. Organizations management systems if the railways existing and potential customers do not feel that railway staff are listening and responding to their needs. What is required, therefore, is total customer awareness from the very top to the lowest levels of staff in the railway
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organization. Inevitably, this in turn will require that a customer awareness culture be instilled throughout the railway organization by its senior management, who in most cases must first make the mental transition themselves, In RAILWAY, driver, motorman, guard, ticket checker, employee at reservation counter, employee at station, catering people, RAILWAY engineer, station manager, RAILWAY police, etc are part of people mix of the RAILWAY. Driver, motorman, guard, RAILWAY engineer, stationmaster, RAILWAY police should be efficient and accurate as safety of passenger depend upon them. Employee at reservation counter, employee at station, and ticket checker should talk politely and with empathy with passenger as there are consumer who gives them revenue and profit. Catering people should keep them clean and dress well. They should also prepare healthy and tasty food. Customer: People mix not only includes employees but also customers. The customers are to be treated with respect and courtesy. For ex if a vegetarian Jain female traveling in train and male passenger beside her is non-vegetarian eating non-vegetarian food. Certainly that lady does not like to travel by train again.

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QUALITY DIMENSIONS (RATER) Since the services are intangible, multifaceted in nature it becomes hard to evaluate the quality of service operation in comparison to goods. Customers are often involved in service production, particularly in people processing services therefore a distinction needs to be drawn between the process of service delivery and the actual output of service. Gronroos and others also suggested that the perceived quality of service will be the result of an evaluation process in which customer compare their perception of service delivery and its outcome against what they expected. The most extensive research into service quality is strongly user oriented. Hence Zeithaml, Beery, and Parasuraman identified ten criterias used by consumers in evaluating service quality (Credibility, Security, Access, Communication, Understanding the customer, Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Competence, Courtesy) But many of them were overlapping and hence they prepared a 5 Dimension model known as RATER.. Now the service quality is pooled into five dimensions likely Reliability Assurance Tangibility Empathy Responsiveness

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It is basically the five parts of the stars. RELIABILITY

TABGIBILITY

ASSURANCE

EMPATHY

RESPONSIVENESS

RELIABILITY Reliability means the ability to perform the promised service dependable and accurately. It is also known as the No Excuses service delivery. The customer must develop a feeling that they can depend on that particular service provider for their problem. ASSURANCE Assurance is the knowledge, courtesy and the accuracy of employees and their ability to develop trust and confidence among their customers that they would be provided with the best of services. TANGIBLITY

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Tangibles are appearances of physical facilities, equipments, personnel and communication materials. The things that a person can touch or see. EMPATHY Empathy is the ability to provide caring and if possible individualized attention to the customer. RESPONSIVENESS Responsiveness is the willingness to help the customer and provide him with immediate and fast service. BEST RELIABILITY- Thousands of people regularly travel by Best buses to reach their destinations. In peek hours many of the commuters depend on these buses to reach their offices, workplace, etc. It is also one of the cheapest modes of transport as during peek hours the Taxis, Auto rickshaws, and even private vehicles may prove costly due to heavy traffic jams at most places in Mumbai. The facility of these Best buses is available at almost all the parts of Mumbai, and also the frequency of this buses and the customer carrying capacity is quite good. Though its a bite slow in transporting people but still its quite reliable. ASSURANCE- The commuters traveling by the best buses are quite assured of reaching the correct destination as the correct and quite visible transport route of the bus is displayed on front side and also on the left hand side of the bus. Also the conductors and drivers of these buses are quite polite and helpful to the passengers in guiding them to the right destinations. (Of course there are some exceptions to this.) BEST do have a

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good amount of credibility among the passengers as their slogan says Safety is our Motto and they also market themselves as the Safest mode of Transport.

TANGIBLES- In case of BEST the tangibles which the passengers can see or touch are the Seats, Cleanliness maintained in buses, Uniformity of the uniforms, Tickets, etc. Seats provided by the Best buses are quite comfortable and also separate seats are provided for Ladies and also the Physically Handicapped people. Expect few bits of tickets lying on the floor good quality of cleanliness is maintained in these buses as they are washed every single day. Uniforms of the conductor are clean and different from the commuters so they are not misunderstood as fellow passengers and there is uniformity in their uniforms. E.g. - Khaki uniform for the conductors and Blue uniforms for the Ticket checkers. Tickets are also simple showing the fare rate on it and quite easy to carry. EMPATHY- As Empathy is the ability to provide caring and if possible individualized attention to the customer, but in case of BEST though complete individualized attention is not quite possible but at the same time they are quite approachable and easy to contact as there number of depots located in different parts of the cities. These depots provides with the information on the time schedule of the buses also the routes used by these buses and they also issue Concession bus passes to various school and college students. The staff at the depots and the staff in buses are quite humble, polite, and helpful. RESPONSIVENESS- The BEST is quite responsive to its customers as they try their best to provide immediate solution to the problems of their
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customers For E.g. - If the Best buses while transporting people breakdown due to flat tyre or any other kind of technical problem then the passengers traveling by that bus are shifted in another best bus and they are not charged for it and the ticket of the bus which is punctured is also valid in the new bus in which they are shifted. Another E.g. is the recent floods of 26 July when most of the transport facilities were not working due to heavy rains, the services of BEST was an exception. BEST buses were the only mode of road transport moving on roads filled with waters till there was a traffic jam. The staff of BEST buses showed their responsibility towards their passengers and while the private vehicle owners were leaving their vehicles on roads, the staffs of BEST buses were there with the passengers till the traffic started moving on the next day. Some 647 of BESTs buses were damaged in rains but the BEST didnt wait for the repair of the parts of the buses instead they simply replaced it and the buses were back on road within hours. These show the responsiveness of BEST towards their customers.

RAILWAYS RELIABILITY-Provides safe and dependable train services; Notified standards are set for various services wherever possible; Ensure adequate passenger amenities in trains and at railway stations; Provides courteous and efficient counter services; and

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Responsible and effective grievance redressal machinery is set up, at various levels for time bound resolution of complaints and grievances as far as possible. It is also one of the cheapest modes of transport and its quite fast and also has a good passengers caring capacity and hence its reliable. ASSURANCERailway Time Tables containing details of various trains run by the Railway Administration and other relevant information for passengers are made available at most of the railway stations. Railways also make all endeavors to provide information to passengers on telephone at important stations regarding arrival/departure/reservation status etc. The position of running of trains is updated regularly and the latest available position is announced on the Public Address System at the important stations and it is also made available to passengers on telephone/personal enquiries. Computerized Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) capable of providing information to the public automatically over the phone is provided to facilitate easy access to information at stations handling large volume of passengers. Handy information pamphlets in local languages containing details of different types of concessions to which passengers are eligible and other relevant passenger information is made available at Book Stalls and Railway Counters on payment of nominal charges.

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TANGIBLESOFF-BOARD AMENITIES: The Indian Railway Administration is endeavor to provide Bonafide passengers access to the following minimum facilities:-

AT REGULAR/FLAG STATIONS

Booking arrangements Waiting Hall/Space Branches. Arrangements for lighting. Drinking water Platform Urinals and/or latrine Shady trees/Platform shelters.

AT HALT STATIONS

Booking-cum-waiting shed. A rail level platform. Lighting arrangements, where trains stop at night. Shady trees.

ADDITIONAL FACILITIES AT IMPORTANT STATIONS Additional facilities such as extension of the IInd class waiting halls, platform shelters, raised platforms, piped water supply, refreshment rooms,
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vendor stalls, foot-over-bridges, retiring rooms, seating arrangements, lighting, water coolers, fans, clocks, urinals, lavatories, bathrooms, etc. is also provided depending on the passenger volume and the climatic conditions at different stations.

ON BOARD AMENITIES Passengers, while on board of a train, are provided with the following minimum facilities, including amenities and fittings, which will be maintained in proper condition so as to give comfortable service:

Lighting and fans. Cushioned berths and seats (except where by design not provided) Toilets (except where by design not provided) External fittings such as

Reservation Chart Display plates Destination Boards. Bedding in case of long distance journeys Tea, coffee and other soft drinks Also food is provided if the customer orders for it but in certain trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express breakfast, lunch and dinner are provided to the customers, the cost of which is included in the ticket fare.

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All long distance trains have Conductors/Coach Attendants/Train Superintendents/ TTEs to assist the passengers and for attending their complaints and grievances. Every endeavor is made by the Railway Administration with the active cooperation of users to ensure cleanliness and hygiene at railway stations and in trains. At important stations, safai walas are provided for cleaning of coaches on request. EMPATHY- All stations with a work load of 300 reservation related transactions have computerized reservation facilities, and effort will be made to computerize bulk of reservations. Adequate numbers of counters are opened to ensure that the waiting time for the public is reduced. Satellite Reservation Office is provided in Metropolitan cities and important cities. Reserved Tickets can also be booked through authorized Rail Travel Agents and other sources as published in the Railway Time Tables of the Zonal Railways concerned. In order to accommodate unforeseen changes in travel plans of passengers, pre-ponement or postponement of journeys on confirmed tickets are permitted once subject to confirmed accommodation being available in such trains and the request for such changes being made by the passenger within the time limits as specified.

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Manual ticket booking counters are opened with adequate working hours to facilitate issue of tickets to the public. Such working hours are clearly displayed at such counters for information of the public. CATERING SERVICES For facility of passengers, the Indian Railways provide catering services through mobile and static units ensuring service of hygienic and wholesome food at prescribed tariffs and in pre-determined quantities, the details of which would be displayed for the information of passengers. Pantry car service is provided on selected trains depending on total distance covered, number of halts and their timings and load limitations. RESPONSIVENESSIn case of failure to provide a berth or seat in the class of travel for which a confirmed reservation is held by a passenger, the Railway Administration either offer accommodation in an alternate lower class of travel and refund the difference in fare between the two classes or refund the entire fare and reservation charges if the passenger so desire. In case of failure of air-conditioning equipment on run affected passenger is refunded the difference in Fare between AC and Non-AC class of travel for the portion traveled without air-conditioning. Such refund is granted on Guard/TTes certificate. As far as possible, refunds are made across the counter, provided the ticket is surrendered within the specified time limit. Such refund on tickets can be obtained, either at the originating stations or the ticket issuing station and in the case of computerized tickets at the computerized counter of any
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station provided it is linked with the ticket issuing station and the ticket is presented within the prescribed time limit. The Station Masters of certain important Station/Reservation Offices have been granted special discretionary powers to grant refund on unused tickets, issued from their stations, on which refund is not normally admissible at the station on account of expiry of the time limits prescribed in the rules. The list of stations where this facility is available is published in the respective Zonal Railway Time Tables. In cases where refunds are not permissible across the counter, the Railway Administration provide the passenger with a Ticket Deposit Receipt, on surrender of the ticket, which should be enclosed with an application for refund to the Chief Comml. Manager (Refunds) of ticket issuing railway within 90 days from the date of commencement of his journey as indicated in the ticket. Refunds as admissible in such cases are ordinarily settled within 90 days of submission of the refund claim and in case the same is disallowed the reasons for such rejection will be duly communicated to the passengers. Lost, Torn or mutilated Tickets: No claim for refund is entertained by Indian Railways in case of lost or misplaced tickets. Refund of fare will be granted in respect of a torn or mutilated ticket if its authenticity is verifiable on the basis of the particulars visible on the face of the ticket. However, if such a ticket is reserved/RAC, the Railway may permit the travel on the same reservation on payment of the following charges:25% of total fare, in the case of tickets for journey upto 500 kms.

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10% of total fare, in the case of tickets for journey more than 500 kms., subject to the minimum payment of 25% of total charges for reserved/Reservation Against Cancellation (RC) ticket of 500 kms. and 25% of total fare, irrespective of distance, for tickets of trains which have separate all inclusive fare structure like Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, etc. Cancellation charge when reservation for starting journey is confirmed and onward journey is confirmed or vice-versa. No cancellation charge shall be payable and fare shall be refundable after deducting only the clerk age charge:When the reservation of the starting journey is confirmed but onward journey reservation is not confirmed, if the ticket is cancelled at the starting station up to one day in advance (excluding the day of starting journey). When the reservation of the starting journey is not confirmed but reservation has been confirmed for onward journey, if the ticket is cancelled at the starting station up to one day in advance (excluding the day of starting journey). To cope with rush of traffic during holidays and festival seasons, special trains are run between various locations and additional coaches provided in existing trains to the extent possible. Information in this regard is made available to the public in advance to enable them to plan their travel arrangements more conveniently.

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FIRST AID BOXES First Aid Boxes are available with the Guards of all passenger carrying trains and at railway stations. First aid assistance is provided to passengers getting injured on the train free of charge. If a person falls sick during journey, a doctor can be called at the next stopping station where a Railway Doctor is headquartered on payment of specified charges. ASSISTANCE IN ACCIDENTS Whenever a serious accident occurs, action is taken by Railway Administration as promptly as possible to:

Save life and alleviate suffering; Protect property, including mail; Ascertain the cause of the accident; Restore through communication; Provide succor to passengers at the site of the accident; Transship stranded passengers by providing road vehicles and adequate number of porters; Rushing of medical van or accident relief train; and Arrange to inform the next kin of the deceased or seriously injured.

COMPENSATION Due to train accident and/or untoward incident by terrorist act, robbery, dacoit, rioting and shoot-out or arson, accidental falling of any passenger in train or in Railway premises, Railway Administration, notwithstanding anything contained in any other law, are liable to pay

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compensation to such extent as prescribed under Chapter XIII of the Railways Act., 1989 and the rules framed there under for the loss occasioned by the death of or injury to a passenger as a result of such untoward incident. However, no compensation will be paid in case of death or injury due to suicide, self inflicted injury, passenger. s own criminal act or act committed by him in intoxication or insanity or due to natural cause or disease or medical or surgical treatment unless such treatment becomes necessary due to injury caused by the said untoward incident. Independent Railway Claims Tribunals have been set up to consider, inter alia, Compensation Claims from passengers arising out of the death/injury due to train accidents and other unusual occurrences due to violent attack, robberies, dacoities, rioting, shoot-outs, arson, etc. or accidental falling of any passenger as defined in Sections 124 and 124-A of the Act. Such tribunals shall make suitable awards after considering the claims of passenger in this regard. Compensation in case of death or permanent disability is Rs.4 lakhs and in case of injuries, the minimum compensation is Rs.32, 000/- and the maximum is Rs.3, 60,000/- depending upon the gravity of injury. All this refunds facility, First aid facility, Increase in numbers of trains during vacation seasons, compensations, Assistance in accidents, Quick response to customers in case of any problem faced by the passenger shows the responsiveness of the railways towards their customers. All the five dimensions are basically into serving the best to the customers, giving them quality services and if things were followed as they are demanded, (i.e., according to the customers demand) then there would
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be no problems in facing any type of people. The successful service organizations set up speeds for service standards.

FLOWER OF SERVICE Flower of Services has been greatly divided into seven petals of a flower. It broadly consists of: 1. Information 2. Consultancy 3. Order-taking 4. Hospitality 5. Safe-Keeping 6. Exceptions 7. Billing & Payments Now all these petals will be explained in details with the help of services provided related to each petal. INFORMATION

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Commercial Vehicles

In todays world, public relation development or information dissemination system plays a very crucial role in any kind of organization. Proper information provided to the people can turn them to be your customer. If not proper, then the vice-versa case can also happen. Sometimes a well made plan fails due to lack of proper information flow. But now-a-days, the attitude of many people towards collecting and providing proper information has changed. It has turn out to be an information era. Therefore, it has become very important for any industry to provide satisfactory information to their customers. These are the following ways in which BEST Buses lend up the required information: The main Bus Depot in Mumbai is at Wadala. There are also 25 Bus Depots in all over Mumbai. So any information can be provided from these depots. There are also internet services provided. People can visit at www.bestundertaking.com. This site provides detail information such as bus schedules, bus routes, bus fares, concessions provided to old age or students etc.

In addition, The Tata Indicom BEST route mobile service will provide extensive information to Tata Indicom customers. Also, the Reliance customers can receive the information through R world .i.e. Reliance world. It acts as an internet in such cellular phones. GPS system is expected to launch in few years. This technology helps the customers to know where is the bus, which bus, what time is going to reach at the bus stop. This will help in lending proper information.

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They have also published a book named THE BEST STORY in the year 1972. The script of this book was written by renowned Marathi novelist & ex-BEST employee Shri S.N. Pendsey. The work of English edition was done by Prof. M.V. Rajadhayaksha. The book narrates a complete history of BEST Undertaking. Apart from the educative information possess some rare photographs of bus models, old street lamps, old electrical installation etc. A second edition of this book with the updated information was published on the occasion of golden jubilee year of the Municipalisation of BEST i.e. 7th August, 1997 this book is also written by Shri Pendsey and work of English edition was looked after by Prof. Rajadhayaksha. These are the following ways in which Indian Railways provide information to their customers:

Information at railway counters could be reliable as the information provider is himself from railways. Also Time-Table at railway stations also helps the customers. Even internet has a great accessibility for the information required. One of the most commonly used site is www.indianrail.gov.in.
its reservation process, its fares, concessions, etc This site provides you with the complete picture of Indian railways,

Now-a-days telephones which includes both cellular as well as MTNL phones. Again through R-World, Tata Indicom mobile services etc. helps in absorbing information. Also, in MTNL, we just need to dial and can receive information. There are many books available giving information about local trains as well as trains departing out of the state.

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Advertisements or some kind of Public Relation Notices in Newspapers, Magazines etc. also helps in lending information. Example could be time table of Virar trains.

CONSULTANCY Consultancy is a kind of suggestions provided to the people when he is interested in gaining more information about a product or a service of a particular industry. This method has become an attractive tool for the industries as it helps in turning people into your customers. Therefore, many industries started adopting this strategy of gaining more and more people. However, in case of BEST Buses, there are as such no special consultancy firms. If a bus traveler has some doubt then the bus conductor helps in clearing those doubts. If a customer is new to some area then the bus conductor can help in suggesting where to get down i.e. which bus stop (especially when customer doesnt know where exactly he has to get down). Even in the case of railways, there are no such special consultancy firms or agencies. Railways are considered to be the lifeline of the nation and Mumbai also. It is the most popular mode of transport. Also the cost of railways is also less as compared to other mode of transport. Therefore people are very much aware of almost all the aspects of railways. So, it hardly needs any kind of consultancy. ORDER-TAKING Order taking refers to the procedure of order given by the customer to the industry for the required services. Following are the ways of order taking in BEST Buses:

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The most common method used for order taking is directly purchasing tickets. The customer can buy tickets directly from the conductor. There is no means of intermediaries. Students and old aged people can get concessions which are issued in the bus depots. This concession helps in getting fifty to seventy five percent discount of the total cost of tickets. Minimum amount for the minimum distance is Rs. 3.50/-. The rate keeps on increasing as the distance gap keeps on increasing. The BEST has reserved 3 seats for handicapped person , 2 seats for Senior Citizens and 6 seats for lady passengers in the Single Decker buses. In the Double Decker buses it has reserved 3 seats each for lady passengers and handicapped persons and 2 seats for Senior Citizens. Following are the ways of order taking procedure conducted by Indian Railways: There are many reservation centers in Mumbai. These centers help in order taking or ticket bookings, ticket cancellation, changing name, etc.

The website www.indianrail.gov.in also helps in providing the facility of order taking in the same manner. Well there are computerized locations at Delhi, and Lucknow where these bookings are done. Then these tickets are sent through courier to the concerned person within a period of time.

Now-a-days special cellular services are provided where the tickets can be booked through SMS, R-World and Tata Indicom services.

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HOSPITALITY Hospitality previews the performance of the services provided or the behavior in which the service provider reacts to their customers. It has always been a kind of ritual in India for offering a warm welcome to their guest. That is, it is basically a service performance. It includes various aspects such as the surrounding, infrastructure, appearance, speaking tone etc. It can either click the customer or flip the customer. Well hospitality in the case of BEST Buses is provided only through Bus drivers and Bus Conductors. These are the front line people or employees whom the customers meet. There are no such proper training programs conducted for this staff. There is some orientation programs specially conducted for them. It all depends upon person to person for their speech, their attitude, their behavior etc. There are some seats specially booked for ladies in Buses, and if in case any male sit on that seat with the female standing in the same bus, then that female has a full right to lodge a complain, and the conductor will make sure that the female gets the seat. In the case of railways,
Railway Staff College is conducting two types of courses for development of managerial skills of Railway officers. They are known as the Management Development Program (MDP) and the Advanced Management Program (AMP). These programs are meant for officers, at different levels of seniority, and cover most of the disciplines. These programs train all the people for their work such as issuing tickets, reservation counterparts, handling finance etc. During the journey, people are offered by various facilities like bedding, food, drinks, tea, coffee, soups etc.

SAFE-KEEPING Safe keeping basically, refers to how much the customer feels safe when he is using the services provided to him. It can also be considered as a

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kind pf protection given to the customers, their belongings, and any other things related to them. In the case of BEST Buses lost property, the conductor deposits the articles left in the bus inadvertently, by the passengers. The articles are then kept in the Centralized Lost Property Section at Wadala. In case the articles bear the name and address of the rightful owner, then intimation is sent informing that the article is stored in the lost property section. Articles are handed over to the rightful owners after proper identification and recovery of the relevant fees. In the case of space in Buses, A double-decker bus was more suitable than a single-decker one, for occupying no more road space than the latter and with only one driver; it carried one and a half times as many passengers. In the case of tickets which are lost or stolen in railways, no refund is permissible against lost/misplaced tickets. Loss of tickets is reported to railways immediately to prevent fraudulent refunds on lost tickets. Refund on torn/mutilated ticket is admissible subject to the deduction of cancellation charges as per rules, provided that the authenticity of such a ticket is verified at the station on the basis of particulars visible on the face of ticket. But duplicate tickets are issued only in case of lost/torn/mutilated/ confirmed/RAC tickets. In the case of lost property in trains, a police complaint is lodged which are generally located nearby railway stations. Then these complaints are implemented. However, in the trains space are provided to keep their luggage. There are also special cupboards given for the luggage in some trains.

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EXCEPTIONS These are certain kind of situations where it cannot be avoided. BUSES there are some different kind of buses available. The standee bus system introduced in 1955 was one attempt in that direction. It was restricted in the beginning to vehicles of a particular type. In these buses, ten standees were allowed in the city, and seven in the suburbs. In 1958, the permission was extended to some double-decker buses; these were allowed to take eight standees. ALL STANDEES BUS Another innovation came in 1967: the "all standee" bus. It has only a few seats, the rest of the space being for strap hanging passengers. These buses were put on short routes. It was hoped that they would reduce the period of waiting in the queue for the passengers. But the passengers were not impressed. Finally, in 1970, the buses had to be withdrawn. ARTICULATED BUS 1967 saw yet another type of bus put on the roads: the articulated bus. There were ten of them. The Undertaking was the first transport organization in the country to use such a bus. The engine was separate from the bus in this vehicle, and the two were joined together. The vehicle was of entirely Indian make, with the Ashok Leyland of Madras manufacturing the tractor-engine, and Mahindra Owen of Poona building the bus part of it. TROLLEY BUS

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In the days of the B.E.S.T. Company, the proposal to run trolley buses was seriously considered. The Undertaking too gave a thought to it. Its tramcars had been ageing fast. Could a convenient substitute be found? So it decided to go in for trolley-buses. Twelve such vehicles were imported, and they replaced the tramcars on the Gowalia Tank-Mazgaon route on 11th June 1962. Somehow, the service did not do well. The trolley buses would go out of order again and again. They were finally withdrawn on 24th March 1971 in favour of ordinary buses. One reason for the failure of the service was that as it passed along very congested roads its speed had to be kept much below its maximum; and the trolley-bus had to run at a good speed in order to be profitable, as experience showed. As such speed is impracticable on any of the old tram-routes, it seems very unlikely that trolley-buses will be tried again in the city. COACH SERVICE The undertaking had eight luxury coaches, and they were open to hire at three rupees per mile, but the demand for them was very limited. Therefore, to put them to profitable use, the Undertaking started a Coach Service in 1966. The service operated every day between Electric House and Sion, and between Dadar and Juhu on Sundays and holidays. There was a special fare for this service: 8 paise per kilometer. Once the novelty of riding in a luxury coach wore out, the higher fares tended to discourage passengers from using it, unless they had no time to wait for the regular service bus. The service lasted for hardly a year. With more limited services introduced on the Sion-Fort route, the Coach Service was patronized even
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less. The income from the service started dwindling, while the operating costs kept rising. Finally, in June 1967, it was discontinued. MINI BUS The idea of using mini-buses was first mooted in March 1969. The vehicle was to be something between a taxi and a bus, and it was to be used for short runs. According to the initial scheme, for a flat charge of 30 paise, mini-buses were to ply on the following routes: Strand Cinema to Nagar Chowk (Bori Bunder) or Ballard Estate or Churchgate; Colaba Bus Station to Churchgate; Museum to Mahatma Phule Market (Crawford Market); and Pydhoni to Dhobi Talao. In addition to using the bus stops, the mini-buses were to set down or pick up passengers on request. The driver was also to act as the conductor. It was intended to use station wagons for this service. A year before the proposal started taking shape, some public bodies approached the Undertaking with the request that it start a mini-bus service on certain routes as between the Ghatkopar Railway Station and the S.G. Barve Nagar, for example. The demand for mini-buses kept growing. Meanwhile, all the aspects of the proposal were under scrutiny. Two points were newly stressed : (1) Some of the undeveloped areas in the suburbs have narrow and Kutcha roads, which cannot take ordinary buses. Mini-buses would be particularly useful in such areas. (2) Mini-buses could be used to provide direct and speedy transport between the suburbs and the central parts of the city. TRAINS:

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EXCLUSIVE ACCOMMODATION FOR LADIES: One compartment of the lowest class of accommodation is earmarked for ladies in every passenger carrying train. Some berths/Seats in sleeper class / second seats are also earmarked for ladies at the train originating station. Any male passenger found occupying or attempting to occupy such a carriage or compartment shall be liable to be prosecuted apart from being removed from the compartment. Boys under 12 years of age may travel in a ladies compartment with relatives or friends. Extension of Tatkal Scheme

The broad features of the revised Tatkal Scheme are as under:To meet the urgent travel requirement of the passengers who plan their journey at short notice, Tatkal reservation facility be provided in the train

The reservation under this scheme can be sought by full fare paying passengers only and no passenger holding concessional ticket may be allowed to avail reservation under this scheme.

The reservation under this scheme will commence at 8 A.M. on the previous day for which the reservation is being sought.

Instead of full coach being presently nominated as Tatkal Coach, there will be Tatkal quota in each train in 2A, 3A, AC Chair Car and sleeper classes as under:-

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2A - 4 berths per coach 3A - 6 berths per coach AC Chair Car - 6 seats per coach and SL - 10% of the accommodation on one coach whichever is less

There will be no separate Tatkal train defined. The unutilized Tatkal quota will get released to waitlisted passengers.

Provision of I/Card has been deleted on an experimental basis for six months after which this will be reviewed. Zonal Railways may send the feedback in this regard three months after implementation of this scheme.

Tatkal charges have been revised as under:Classes ExistingProposed (in Rs.) Non-Peak (in Rs.) (15 2 AC 3 AC AC Chair Car SL 200 150 50 50 July to 15Peak 300 300 150 150 September) 200 200 75 75

The facility of change of name is not permitted on the bookings made under this scheme.

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The reservation under this scheme shall be available only up to the time of preparation of charts.

For the purpose of granting refunds & issuing TDRs, the time limit will be the same as applicable for refund of normal tickets.

The booking under Tatkal Scheme will be done only from originating to terminating point of the train with boarding facility from intermediate station.

BILLING & PAYMENT This part refers to the financial aspect of the customer i.e. the customer is willing to pay the amount for the services provided. It also depends upon the kind of payment he makes. Now in the case of BEST Buses, even after the B.E.S.T. Company was taken over by the Municipal Corporation, the bus fares continued unchanged till 31st March, 1951. For the city the fares were telescopic, that is, as the distance increased the fare per mile came down. For the suburbs, the fare was flat, that is, it remained the same whatever the distance. For one Anna you could go a mile and a half in the city, but only one mile in the suburbs. Then came the changes in the fare-structures. From April 1951, bus travel in the city became even cheaper, with the basic fare of one Anna taking you a mile and three quarters. However, the fractional fares, like 1.1/2 Anna or 2.1/2 Annas and 3.1/2 Annas, for the fare stages were rounded off to the full Anna. In the suburbs too the fare was brought down from one Anna per mile to nine pies that is three quarters of Anna.

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The disparity in the fares for the city and the suburbs was brought to an end in October 1955. The suburbs naturally profited from this. For an Anna you could now travel a mile and three quarters, instead of a mile and a quarter. But the fractional fares were restored. In 1959, with decimal coinage coming into force, except for the 7 paise fare for the first stage, all the fares were multiples of five that is, 10, 15, 20 and so on. These came into effect from 15th January 1959. From 21st April 1963, the minimum fare was raised from 7 paise to 10 paise. The Undertaking revised its bus fares from time to time strictly according to the provision made under Govt. notification. The details of revised bus fares from 1963 onwards are given below:

Fare

Revised

Ordinary Ps. 10 10 15 20 25 30 40 40 50 50 50 70 Kms. 3.6 2.0 2.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 2.0 6.0 4.0 2.0 4.0

Limited Ps. 15 15 20 25 30 35 50 50 50 50 65 95 Kms. 5.5 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 4.0
87

w.e.f. 21-04-1963 07-11-1966 28-05-1974 23-12-1975 21-08-1980 23-03-1981 01-04-1982 01-06-1984 14-09-1984 01-04-1987 22-06-1989 04-05-1990

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16-11-1990 08-01-1991 15-05-1992 11-05-1994 06-08-1996 10-08-1996

95 95 95 140 140 190

3.0 3.0 2.5 2.5 2.0 2.5

95 95 120 165 165 235

2.0 2.0 2.5 2.5 2.0 2.5

The nutrition surcharge is 10 paise on ticket up to Rs.2/- & 15 paise on tickets above two w.e.f. 1.4.1994. Every day the Undertakings buses run about 6.51 lakh km. and carry about 47 lakh passengers. These figures are an index of the vastness of the transport system. It would be wrong to expect that everything will run smoothly in such an organization. Troubles have to be taken for granted; difficulties will arise. The organization has to take them in its stride. A trivial incident touches off a lightning strike. There is hectic running about. The complaint is traced to a misunderstanding. It is set right, and normal working is resumed. In 1950, the Undertaking had a serious problem to face. Conductors in those days carried a ticket-issuing machine, specially designed to print and produce a ticket of the required denomination at the turning of a handle. The machine recorded the amount automatically. At the end of his day, the conductor had to pay in the days takings as recorded. This sounds smooth and foolproof. But some conductors, who were obviously anything but foolish, found a way of so manipulating the machine as to make it record less than the amount collected. How much the Undertaking was fleeced of was anybodys guess. However, the moment the trick was discovered, the Undertaking took swift action, and in twenty-four

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hours the ticket-issuing machine with every conductor was replaced with a ticket-box. These are internal troubles; not all of them cause disturbance to the transport service. But external troubles invariably do, and sometimes they can be serious. The dislocation caused by the first heavy showers of the rainy season is almost a matter of habit. The low-lying parts of the city are flooded, and buses have to be diverted. To make it worse, the railway services too are disrupted. That puts further responsibility on the bus service. The buses, of course, do their best, but the best in such circumstances can never be good enough. Then there are the railway accidents, and man-made troubles like strikes, riots and hartals (or bandhs). They put a heavy strain on the bus service, but it has not been found wanting. Strikes and political agitations usually aim, among other things, at disrupting communications. Buses, on such occasions, are exposed to the risk of being damaged; the drivers cabin has to be fitted with wire meshes to protect him from different types of flying missiles. On some of these occasions not many people move out. Should the bus service be suspended then? The Undertaking does not opt for it; it owes a duty to the community. There is always a limit to the number of buses a transport organization can run, and to its efficiency as well, for there is a limit to what the city roads can carry. Other means of conveyance too keep increasing in number. In Mumbai, for instance, in 1951, the number of vehicles, leaving out buses, was 45,000. In 1961 it was 85,000, and in 1971 it reached 1, 80,000. Today there are over 6 lakh vehicles on Mumbai roads. The number
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continues to grow; but over the years the roads have been the same, except for a few additions, and some widening here and there. In such a situation, the vehicles have to move slower and slower. The average speed of our buses has been falling down. At present it is 12 to 15 km. per hour. In the congested localities it is as low as 6km. per hour. TRAINS: PAYMENT THROUGH CREDIT CARDS: Payment through credit cards for issue of reserved tickets is accepted on some nominated counters of computerized locations in India. In Northern Railway these counters are at IRCA, Reservation Office, New Delhi, and Delhi Jn. RESERVATION FEE AND SUPPLEMENTARY CHARGES ON

SUPERFAST TRAINS: The reservation fee and supplementary charge on super fast train are as under :SUPPLEMENTARY CLASS RESERVATION FEE CHARGES FOR SUPERFAST TRAINS Rs. 50 Rs. 30 Rs. 30 -Rs. 30 Rs. 30 Rs. 20 Rs. 10 -90

AC Ist Rs. 35 AC 2 Tier Rs. 25 Ist (Mail/Express) Rs. 25 Ist (Ordinary) Rs. 25 AC - 3 Tier Rs. 25 AC Chair Car Rs. 25 Sleeper (Mail/Express) Rs. 20 Second Sitting Rs. 15 (Mail/Express) Sleeper (Ordinary) Rs. 20

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Second

-(Ordinary) 1. Military Officers traveling on free warrants, officers and staff of the Railway and P&T department traveling on Railway passes and MPs traveling on Identity Card are exempted from payment of reservation fee. 2. The supplementary charge is not recoverable from MPs traveling on Identity Card, tourist holding Indrail passes, Railway Staff traveling on duty passes, privilege passes and PTOs. REFUND RULES

Sitting Rs. 15

UNUSED TICKETS ON WHICH NO RESERVATION HAS BEEN MADE : If a ticket on which no reservation of a seat or berth has been made is

presented for cancellation within three hours after the actual departure of the train for which the ticket is issued or for any ticket valid for the whole day, within three hours after the actual departure of the last train of the day for the destination station, refund of fare shall be made on every such ticket after deducting Rs. 10/- per passenger as clerkage.

UNUSED TICKETS ON WHICH RESERVATION HAS BEEN MADE :

( 1) Subject to the provision of these rules, if a ticket on which reservation of a seat or berth has been made, is presented for cancellation, refund of fare shall be made after deducting cancellation charge from the fare as follows :-

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(a) If a ticket is presented for cancellation more than one day in advance of the scheduled departure of the train (excluding the day of journey) cancellation charge shall be deducted at the flat rate of Rs. 50/- for A.C First Class/Executive Class, Rs. 30/- for A.C. 2 Tier sleeper class/ A.C. 3 Tier sleeper class/ First class/A.C Chair Car, Rs. 20/- for Sleeper class and Rs. 10/- for Second class. (b) If the ticket is presented for cancellation within one day in advance (excluding the day of journey) and up to four hours before the scheduled departure of the train, cancellation charges shall be 25% of the fare subject to the min. flat rate mentioned in clause (a). (c) If the ticket is presented for cancellation within four hours before the scheduled departure of the train and up to (i) Three hours, when the ticket is for a destination station up to 200 KM. (ii) Six hours, when the ticket is for a destination station of more than 200 KM but up to 500 KM., and (iii) Twelve hours, when the ticket is for a destination station of more than 500 KM. after the actual departure of the train, cancellation charges shall be 50 % of the fare subject to the min. flat rate mentioned in clause (a). Provided that for night train leaving between 21:00 hours and 06:00 hours (actual departures), refunds shall be admissible at the station within the time limit specified above or within two hours after the opening of reservation office, whichever is later.

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(2) No refunds shall be granted at the station if the ticket is surrendered for cancellation after the expiry of the period mentioned under clause (c) of sub rule (1). Note: (1) In the case of tickets issued for travel from some other stations refunds shall be admissible at the ticket issuing station provided that the ticket is surrendered before the schedule departure of the train from the station from where the ticket is valid. (2) On a party/family ticket issued for more than one person, where some persons have confirmed reservations and others are on waiting list, full refund less clerkage charges is admissible for confirmed passengers provided that the entire ticket is surrendered for cancellation at the journey commencing station within four hours before the scheduled departure of the train and up to three hours after actual departure of the train.

UNUSED WAIT LISTED OR RAC TICKETS

(1A) Subject to provisions of sub rule (2), no cancellation charges shall be payable if a wait-listed or RAC ticket is presented for cancellation up to (i) Three hours, when the ticket is for a destination station up to 200 KM. (ii) Six hours, when the ticket is for a destination station of more than 200 KM but up to 500 KM., and (iii) Twelve hours, when the ticket is for a destination station of more than 500 KM. after the actual departure of the train except for a deduction of a clerkage charge of Rs. 10/- per passenger.

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Provided that for night train leaving between 21:00 hours and 06:00 hours (actual departures), refunds shall be admissible at the station within the time limit specified above or within two hours after the opening of reservation office, whichever is later. (2A) Where confirmed reservation has been provided to RAC or wait-listed ticket holder at any time up to the final preparation of reservation chart, such ticket shall be treated as a reserved ticket and cancellation charges shall be payable in accordance with rules mentioned above.

CANCELLATION TICKETS :

CHARGES

ON

MULTIPLE

JOURNEY

With effect from 1st March 2000, when an unused ticket involving more than one journey is surrendered for cancellation, the entire ticket shall be treated as one single journey ticket and refund of fare of entire ticket shall be granted as per rules (1) and (2) above, according to the reservation status of the first lap of journey, i.e. if reservation status of first lap of journey is confirmed, refund shall be granted in accordance with the rule (1) and (2) above and if the reservation status of first lap of journey is RAC/Wait-list, refund shall be granted in accordance with the rule (1A) and (2A) above. The cancellation charges or clerkage charge as the case may be, shall be levied only once on the entire amount of the ticket, irrespective of the reservation status of different laps of journey, and not separately for each lap of journey.

REFUND OF TICKETS WHERE RAILWAY ADMINISTRATION IS UNABLE TO PROVIDE ACCOMMODATION

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Full refund of fares shall be granted in case the railway administration is not able to provide accommodation for any reason whatsoever to passengers holding reserved tickets, provided such tickets are cancelled within three hours of the actual departure of the trains. In case a train is cancelled due to accidents, breaches or floods, the full refund of fare is granted within three days excluding the scheduled day of departure of the train.

REFUND ON LOST/TORN/MUTILATED TICKETS No refund is permissible against lost/misplaced tickets. Loss of

tickets is reported to railways immediately to prevent fraudulent refunds on lost tickets. Refund on torn/mutilated ticket is admissible subject to the deduction of cancellation charges as per rules, provided that the authenticity of such a ticket is verified at the station on the basis of particulars visible on the face of ticket.

ISSUE

OF

DUPLICATE

TICKET

IN

LIEU

OF

LOST/TORN/MUTILATED TICKETS Duplicate ticket can be issued only in case of confirmed/RAC tickets. The duplicate ticket can be issued against lost/torn/mutilated ticket if it is reported to the railway and the passenger can travel on the accommodation lost/torn/mutilated

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reserved by him, by making payment and getting a duplicate ticket as per following table :A) Before the chart preparation

CONDITIONS

DISTANCE FARE TO BE PAID 1) Up-to 500 1) 25% of the total fare

a) trains

Lost/Torn/Mutilated KM other

confirmed/RAC tickets for than 2) More than 2) 10% of the total fare subject to min. of 25% of the fare for 500 RAJDHANI/SHATABDI 500 KM KM b) For RAJDHANI /

SHATABDI point to point All distances 3) 25% of the total fare fixed fare trains

B) After the chart preparation

CONDITIONS c) Confirmed lost tickets d)

DISTANCES All distances Up-to 500

FARE TO BE PAID 50% of the total fare 25% of the total fare

Confirmed 1) KM

torn/mutilated tickets

2) More than 10% of the total fare subject

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500 KM e) tickets Note: RAC/Torn/mutilated

to min. of 25% of the fare for 500 KM 25% of the total fare

All distances

1) No duplicate ticket against lost RAC ticket is permitted after the chart preparation. 2) No duplicate ticket is issued against Wait List lost/torn/mutilated tickets.

CRITICAL INCIDENTS Critical incidents are those which highly satisfied or dissatisfied the customer through the services provided to the customer. It leads to customer loyalty or disloyalty. This can be better explained with the help of case studies. BEST UNLAWFUL ASSAULT BY BEST EMPLOYEE Inspite of numerous ways of commuting available in Mumbai; I am a regular commuter of my most preferred mode of transport i.e. by BEST buses which I am doing so for the last 15 years regularly. However I would

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like to bring to the kind notice an act of goondaism performed by BEST employees in who had donned the official dress of your organization and have brought it to shame. I am working in the Marketing department of my organization and have to commute the length and breadth of the city; for which I normally prefer BEST buses than to rickshaw or other modes. Today morning I had to travel to Andheri so decided to board Bus No.340 from Ghatkopar at around 8.20 a.m. During the peek hours bus no. 340 attracts huge commuters so there are two types of queue for the passengers; one who would like to go sitting and the other who dont mind traveling standing and are allowed to enter after the people get into the bus from the first type of queue. I appreciate the system and follow the provisions made. Today maybe because of the first working day of the week or traffic jam due to ensuing rains there was only a single 340 bus and the roads were also over packed. I approached the official in one stared blue color dress at the Ghatkopar bus station stop ( there was no identification on him as to his name or employee no.) as to ask him when would the next bus would come in as I had a meeting to attend. Instead of replying me he yelled at me that; if I want to travel get into the line. I replied to him coolly that I am aware and be rest assured and I promise you that until all the line gets cleared I will not even make an attempt to even move at the bus. Looking at the heavy rush and near impossible situation; I stepped aside looking for another bus or rickshaw which would take me to my destination as the road was very congested due to people and traffic. This official did not stop there he started arguing all
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over again and despite me pleading and speaking in all the possible gentle ways of assuring him that I would not get into the bus he kept on yelling and in the mean time another official in blue dress and one-star (again no identification) approached me and started threatening me that you try getting in the bus and I will see you.

But I still tried to plead them that I will not break any rules or will I get into the bus unlawfully. But my pleadings fell into deaf ears. After each and every passenger got into the bus from both the queues; there were other people who got into the bus. When I tried getting into the bus I was caught by the collar from behind by the second official and dragged from the bus onto the road in front of the entire public. All this happened in front of a 2 star green dress clad official and even he did not try to intervene. I had to miss the bus and the kind of public shame I had to face that it really hurt me and the official said now you see what it means when I say that lets see how will you get into the bus. What I would like to bring to your kind notice is that the disdain attitude and the in-human treatment meted out to me are really very pathetic. In this world of consumerism where each company tries best to attract and satisfy the customers; I think this another story of appalling attitude of government employees who take everything to be granted whether it be job or customers. I am sure the Management would do something to impart training to its employees how to handle customers because today each and every customer is valuable. I am sure BEST is an

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organization which should be known more for its services and would request to kindly be more human in handling the customers in the future . ANALYSIS: Thus it can be seen from the above case that the encounter of the commuter with the BEST employee determines the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the commuter. Thus the employees should take care of their behaviour with the regular commuters of the BUS. In the above case the encounter of the commuter with the BEST employee was the one that lead to high dissatisfaction to the commuter.

RAILWAYS In this case we can see that the commuter is very happy with the service encounter of the railways. Though the employees of the railways are not involved in this case, other section of the people mix i.e. the customers have lead to high satisfaction to the commuter. COMPLAINT HANDLING BEST Replies to the Complaints/Suggestions: Complaints/suggestions received directly by the department or appeared in the news papers are promptly replied after getting the justification from the concerned department. The
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department has issued 730 clarifications in the current year to the complaints, suggestions, criticism appeared in the news papers and received directly. Where can suggestions/complaints be lodged? They are launched at bus stations and bus chowkies, where the Suggestion/Complaint book is provided. Suggestions/Complaints can also be lodged with the inspecting staff or by writing letter to BEST Officials. How are complaints redressed? They conduct a departmental enquiry against defaulting staff, in which case the complainant is called and necessary legal procedures are adopted. Does BEST provide any assistance / help in case of accidents involving buses? They give hospitalization, monetary assistance and inform close relatives and friends. The whole structure is a clean and neat presentation of ART enriched with quality and commitment of private vehicles by means of implementation measures mentioned above. Traffic management schemes would help in solving to a great extent the problems faced today. These schemes will also require creating public support and strict enforcement.

RAILWAYS PUBLIC GRIEVANCES REDRESSAL

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Periodical surveys will be conducted to ascertain the customer needs in terms of design and level of satisfaction and delivery of services. If any passenger is not satisfied with the service rendered by the Zonal Railways or wants to make any suggestions for improvement, he can do so at Stations, to the Additional Divisional Railway Managers at Divisional headquarters offices, to the Additional General Managers at the Zonal headquarter offices, to the Executive Director Public Grievances in the Ministry of Railways and also record in the complaint book available in trains with the Guard and the Train Superintendent. Railway Administration would ordinarily reply to the complainant within 90 days where detailed enquiries are not required to be made and within 120 days in case of complaints where detailed enquiries are warranted.

PROCEDURE FOR THEFT OF PASSENGERS LUGGAGE A prescribed FIR form in Time Table or with TTEs/Guards or GRP escort. After properly filling up, it may be handed over to one of the officials viz., TTE, Guard or GRP escort for registration of the report at the next Police station. VIGILANCE ORGANIZATION A Vigilance Organization is functioning on each Zonal Railway at the Headquarters under the charge of the Senior Deputy General Manager who

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is also the Chief Vigilance Officer of that Railway. Complaints relating to bribery and corruption can be sent directly by mail to the Chief Vigilance Officer of the Railway or to

The Vigilance Directorate, Ministry of Railways (Railway Board), New Delhi-110001. The names, addresses and telephone nos. of Vigilance Officers of Zonal Railways are given in the Time Table of the concerned Zonal Railways while those of the Vigilance Dept. of the Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) are given in the Trains at a Glance publication of the Indian Railways. Railway employees who have direct public interface will wear a name badge.

FISHBONE

CUSTOMER

EQUIPMENT

FRONT

PROCEDURE

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DELAY IN SERVICE

OTHERS

MATERIAL

SUPPORTING

INFORMATION

CUSTOMERS: The customers i.e. the disabled demanded a concession in the rates of the bus fare. However the BEST authorities have not agreed to it as they say they are facing a financial problem. However the customers are not satisfied with this argument as the BEST Undertaking is going to invest a wholesome amount of Rs. 60 lakhs in buying buses with plush interiors. MATERIALS/ EQUIPMENT/ PROCEDURE: The BEST authorities deny the request of the disabled i.e. to provide them with a concession in the bus fares. The authorities give various reasons for the same which are however not readily acceptable by the customers. They also complain about the procedure i.e. the person on the wheel-chair has to wait for the conductor to the platform so that the wheel-chair can enter the bus. Also this is time-consuming as well as requires a lot of effort on the part of the conductor as well as the customer. The disabled also complain that the concessional bus fares are offered to only those who are traveling for an

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educational purpose. The others are asked to either pay the whole fare or alight from the bus. OTHERS: The reasons other than the customer complaints which lead to service failure are the claims of the BEST authorities that they are facing financial problems and thus they need sponsorships from people so that they can provide the disabled group concessional rates. FRONT-LINE: The front-line staff includes the drivers and the conductors. Though the BEST authorities have come up with a nice way to help the disabled they have not been able to satisfy their target customers. Though the conductor helps the disabled traveling by the bus they are forced to do their job i.e. bluntly tell the persons not traveling for an educational purpose to either pay the whole fare or just alight the bus. This kind of an attitude could reverse the whole purpose of introducing such buses. BACK-OFFICE: The BEST standing committee chairman Surendra Bagalkar says that he wanted to offer financial concessions but BEST has been facing financial problems and that it requires sponsorship. The entire World Bank fund for Mumbai Urban Transport project is being used to buy 30 new such buses for the disabled. Thus we can see the various reasons that are causing a service failure. Attempts to provide better services to the customers but without having a reasonable future outlook can lead to such service failures wherein the target audience in completely dissatisfied.

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FUTURE PROSPECTS BEST Compressed Natural Gas Bus: The demand for petroleum products in India has been increasing at a rate higher than the increase in the domestic availability. At the same time, there is continuous pressure on emission control through periodically tightened regulations particularly for metropolitan cities. In the wake of this situation, there is an urgent need to promote use of alternative fuels as substitute for petroleum. Among the options CNG has received a great deal of attention and has been already applied successfully to some of the BEST buses (first time in India). The BEST is planning to increase the strength of CNG buses in its fleet. CNG available in abundance. It is a clear burning fuel with no black smoke and very little particulate emission. Thus CNG engines are environmentally friendly. CNG being lighter than air diffuses upwards. It has low noise level of the engine. This will add to passenger comfort. Articulated Single Deck Bus (vestibule Bus): BEST has introduced these buses to have economical bus operation and different modes of transport to carry more passengers particularly in peak hours. More buses would be introduced in a phased manner. Since these buses carry about 110 passengers each, they clear the passenger traffic faster, particularly during the peak hours. Overall length would be increased to 16 meters from 15.485 meters.
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Automatic fare collection (smart card Go Mumbai): In a move to aid commuters convenience, and to mitigate its cash handling pains, BEST has adopted a new alternative method of paying for bus fares. From 19 th November 2004 route special 8 plying from Churchgate to World Trade centre have started accepting contact less smart card for automatic fare collection in BEST buses. The multi-application card system is called Go Mumbai. The Phase 1 of the system will cover about 760 buses by middle of 2005. Hong Kongs octopus system implemented by ERG Transit systems is the worlds largest AFC system with 8 million cards in active use and 8-10 million transactions performed every day (RFID Technology) Fare collection Devices will be installed at the entry and exit doors of BEST buses. The cardholder will present the GO card to this device at the start of the journey by touching it to the device or bringing it within a few centimeters of the device. The card can even be kept in the wallet and the wallet can be touched to the device. The proximity between the card and the device is to be maintained fro less than half a second. If the card is valid and has balance, the device will give a audible beep, a green light and a display entry valid sign and show the present balance on the card. The same process will have to be repeated at the end of the journey at the exit. The fare will be calculated automatically, deducted from the balance, and after that it will be displayed to the user. The stage changes for automatic and accurate computation of the bus location will be carried out automatically in this high-tech system through the satellite based Global Position System, which is implemented in each bus carrying the GO system. In addition, a wireless system automatically downloads the bus data carrying the daily payment details to the depot computer when the bus enters the depot at the end of the shift. This cashless
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ticket payment system will reduce BESTs costs of printing paper tickets and handling literally tonnes of small coins and notes everyday. The system will reduce the load on overworked conductors and provide BEST greater flexibility in fare structuring in the future. For commuters, it provides a clear value of everyday convenience of not having to deal with small notes and coins or not having exact change to pay for a bus ticket. System concept: this system is designed to accept the money from the conductors across the counter. In the beginning of the day the conductor is issued a pre-printed ticket memo. The opening serial members of the ticket blocks are printed on the respective conductors ticket memo. At the end of the day the amount of sale of ticket is accepted at the counter after processing the closing serial numbers. The transaction data is updated accordingly. A pilot project for issuing monthly and quarterly season tickets through ATM has been launched in Mumbai this year and has been found very successful. Another pilot project for purchasing tickets including monthly and quarterly season tickets through Smart Card has also been launched. Future plans: Intranet will be used to connect all the depots and major bus stations. Interactive voice response systems will be installed at the major bus stations. Electronic display systems will be installed at major bus stops. RAILWAYS
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The railways White Paper, The Future of Rail, sets out the conclusion of the rail review announced by the Secretary of State for Transport in January 2004. The key priorities for the rail industry are to improve performance and get a grip on costs, whilst maintaining a high standard of safety. The changes set out in the White Paper will enable the different sides of the industry to work together more effectively to provide a better, more reliable service for passengers. And they will ensure that each sector concentrates on what it does best: Government setting the strategic direction, and the private sector taking charge of delivery. The structure and organization of the railway will be streamlined, and bureaucracy reduced. There will be simple, unambiguous lines of responsibility. Network Rail will be clearly accountable for the network's performance, and front-line staff from train and track companies will be able to work in partnership to meet their customers' needs. What we are going to do This White Paper outlines a new blueprint for the railways, which the Government has worked closely with the industry to develop. The diagram below shows how it will operate for passenger services:

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It is built on the principle of public and private partnership, and it recognizes rail's status as a public service, specified by Government and delivered by the private sector. This new structure will be based on six key changes: The Government will take charge of setting the strategy for the railways It must be for Ministers, accountable to Parliament and the electorate, to set the national strategy for the railways, but in the current industry structure this is not the case. Under the new arrangements, the Government will set the level of public expenditure, and take the strategic decisions on what this should buy. This means that the SRA will be wound up, and its
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strategic responsibilities and financial obligations will pass to the Secretary of State. There will continue to be a crucial role for the independent economic regulator, who will protect the rights of investors and customers, and ensure the Government pays the proper price for what it is buying. New regulatory and contractual arrangements will be put in place between Network Rail and Government, to run alongside, and provide the context for, the franchise contracts with train companies. Combined with more robust information, this will enable the Government to act as a strong client to the private sector industry, protecting the interests of taxpayers and fare payers alike. Network Rail will be given clear responsibility for operating the network and for its performance With no one organization clearly in charge, improvements in reliability have been sluggish, and the railway has not delivered the performance that passengers expect. Network Rail will be given a strengthened role as operator of the network, with overall responsibility for its performance. Government will set out what Network Rail it is expected to deliver for the public money it receives, and on that basis Network Rail will lead industry planning, set timetables and direct service recovery. Too often under the current system, companies have been able to pass the buck for poor performance. Under the new structure, Network Rail will be held accountable for ensuring that the network delivers a reliable service for its customers through an agreement with Government. Track and train companies will work more closely together

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The new structure will deliver more efficient working between Network Rail and the train companies at the front line, bringing track and train closer together operationally. The roles and responsibilities of each part of the industry will be clarified through new local agreements, and their incentives brought into line with one another. The number of franchises will be reduced and they will be aligned more closely with Network Rail's regional structure. The industry has made it clear that it is committed to ensuring that these new arrangements drive more effective working between Network Rail and the train companies in the interests of passengers. They will replace the current confrontational relationship with one based on aligned interests - and will create the scope for even closer working in future where all parties agree to it. There will be an increased role for the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly Government and the London Mayor, and more local decision-making in England Central Government is not always best placed to take decisions on the transport needs of different communities. In future, the devolved administrations will take on increased responsibilities for passenger services and, where appropriate, infrastructure. In England, the Passenger Transport Authorities (which manage transport provision in some of the main metropolitan areas) will be able to buy additional services, and to transfer funding between rail and other transport modes. Transport for London will also have an increased role with regard to rail services in the capital. And the Government will promote the role of Community Rail Partnerships in improving the management of local branch lines.

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The Office of Rail Regulation will cover safety, performance and cost Bringing regulation of all aspects of the rail industry - safety, reliability and efficiency - together under a single public regulator will streamline the regulatory system, reduce bureaucracy, and ensure that these issues are looked at as a whole, and not in isolation from one another. This means responsibility for safety regulation will pass from the Health and Safety Executive to the Office of Rail Regulation, and will remain independent of Government and the industry. A better deal for freight will enable the industry and its customers to invest for the long-term Because of the high up-front investment costs for rail freight, businesses using these services need to be sure about their access to the network. But this has to be balanced with the fact that freight users only pay for the cost of operating their services and not for the costs of the underlying infrastructure. Freight operators will be given greater certainty about their rights on the national network, and a group of key routes will be identified on which freight will enjoy and pay for more assured rights of access.

CONCLUSION

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The project is a detailed comparative study of usage of commercial vehicle, BEST and the Indian railways. History of both BEST and the Indian railways is explained in the project with the help of various books and interview from employees of the Indian railway and BEST, suitable examples are also given. Hence in conclusion we can state that with the rapid growth in the world economy, transports play an important role. Commercial vehicles have allowed the world to operate effectively and efficiently.

BIBLOGRAPHY 1: The basics of BEST

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Publishing house - BEST 2: Book Book title: Logistics and supply chain management Author name: D. K. Agarwal Edition number: Second edition Pages of citation: 1, 2, 3,46,49,78 3: Other books Book title : Fundamentals of logistics management Author name : James r. stock Edition number: third edition Pages of citation : 99,102,115 4: Interview with Manager of BEST MR. Pradeep sawant, and Mr. Ravi krishnamoorthy (driver of BEST) , Mrs. Lajvanti Deshmukh (conductor of best) Webliography www.best.com www.indianrailways.com www.google.com

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www.indianrailways.com

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