Imagine a world where you can get on a bus (in Sri Lanka) knowing that you will be guaranteed a seat? Well, this is now a reality. BusSeat.lk is a tech start-up offering a full-fledged online bus booking platform to buy and sell bus seats. The service facilitates a system where both parties, the passenger and the bus operator, can benefit.  Here, passengers can purchase bus tickets online and will be sent a reservation confirmation via text with all relevant details. They will also be updated on any delays with the bus schedule, providing a full-coverage essential service for travellers. In turn, the bus operators will be able to maximise their reach to customers and streamline bookings and management of capacity and pricing.  [caption id="attachment_160441" align="alignleft" width="405"] BusSeat.lk Founder Prasanth Subendran[/caption] Founded by Prasanth Subendran, he shared with us his inspiration behind the initiative, stating that being a resident of Jaffna, when he was selected to go to university in Colombo, he would often have to utilise long-distance bus services regularly to commute from his home town to Colombo and back. “There were many roadblocks when it came to interprovincial travel and travel bookings, so many steps and things were largely done manually,” he said, adding also that “there was a lot of uncertainty in these processes. There are agents involved, and these agents would only be working with some buses, so they did not have all the information – there was no single platform to acquire the bus schedule or the number of seats available, and some bus operators would take multiple reservations for one seat, and whenever there are schedule changes or delays, much of that information took time to reach the passenger”.  He stated that he developed BusSeat.lk as an innovative online bus ticket booking platform to bypass many of those issues; he envisioned a hassle-free and enhanced public transportation system for the country.  Much like Subendran’s own experience, there are many of us who rely on these interprovincial buses for our travel, which has resulted in public transportation via bus becoming a large, growing business in Sri Lanka which consequently gives rise to the need to implement innovative mechanisms to efficiently access and use this service.  An innovative and accessible bus ticket booking system is imperative to adequately provide a user-friendly interface for the passenger to reserve a seat on a journey and an effective compilation and maintenance of individual records for bus companies and regulatory bodies. Subendran explained that in the Sri Lankan context, almost all aspects of information relating to bus transport have been traditionally operated manually. This includes the publishing of schedules, bookings, and reservations, and the individual data relevant to each bus in the system. This leads to a tremendous backlog, and with the continually growing demand for public transport, it is essential that an all-encompassing system is implemented. This is where BusSeat.lk comes in.  Since its inception in late 2015, the website and application has become the largest bus booking software provider governing all aspects of bus transportation in Sri Lanka, for an effective and productive transportation system. An efficient transport system is key for the betterment of a country. Although the transport system in Sri Lanka has seen many improvements over time, its “pen and paper” ticket booking mechanism is unable to cope with the massive booking requests from passengers all over the island. Additionally, as Sri Lanka develops its infrastructure to become one of South Asia's emerging hotspots, even in its recovery from the effects of the pandemic, it is imperative that its transport and technological infrastructure is developed.  Subendran stated that at the initial stages of their product, they really put in the legwork to create an effective network. He said that during the time they first launched the service, applications like Uber and PickMe were just emerging in the market and were not as widely used. Therefore, at the time, there was a slight resistance in the industry due to the unfamiliarity of a transportation service operating online. However, they were able to bring on board a number of bus operators who understood its potential. “At first, we had only the website, and on the backend we conducted everything manually. People would place an order online, as on the frontend it was a digitised system, but we would then take that booking information and make calls to place it and confirm it.” However, as things progressed, they were able to develop and launch a user application which was accessible to the passenger along with a corresponding application to be handled by the bus operators. This two-way street created a clear communication line between the service seeker and service provider.  Subendran also shared that in the pre-existing ecosystem of cross-provincial public transport via bus, agents were an integral part of the process. He shared that often, the agents would work with one or a number of bus operators and work as the mediator who would reach the customer and communicate the availability of seats and carry out bookings. He stated that since the process still remains largely manual and cash-based, with Lankans not yet entirely assimilated to fully online operations, the BusSeat.lk initiative has chosen to empower these agents as well by incorporating them into their network. “We provided the agents with an app as well, which they can use to access the bus information, which they would then communicate to customers who wish to access the service manually,” he said.  Subendran stated that up until the very beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, which was when they had to halt their services due to lockdowns and the inter-provincial travel bans, he said they received payments in cash, as Lankans were not yet used to making payments online. He said that they had even provided a hotline for tech support in case of any confusion and if customers required guidance on how to make the payments. He shared that he is hopeful things would be a lot different post-pandemic, as a large part of the population have turned to online means to go about their daily activities and have familiarised themselves with ecommerce. “I believe that things would be a lot simpler for us as well in providing our online service,” he said.  Prior to the pandemic, BusSeat.lk had an impressive repertoire of 100 bus operators on board, thereby handling 150 buses x 40 seats on a daily basis. He shared that while it was unfortunate that they had to halt their progress in this way, they have done the groundwork necessary to simply pick up where they left off, once inter-provincial travel is allowed in the country once again.  As for when they come back, Subendran stated that they have some new developments in the works. “We conducted a user survey for the application and analysed that data, and one thing we came across, as a recommendation and a request from our users, was that they wanted the ability to track their bus, which was not a service that is currently available in our application.” He said that it was widely requested that the users of the app be able to track the bus in real time, much like the regular transport apps, and they have looked into this and will be launching the new service element when transportation services are cleared for travel and things are a lot more stable in the island. When asked about the potential collaboration with the Ministry of Transport and Highways, to integrate BusSeat.lk’s already fully functional system to a national transport line, Subendran said that they are certainly open to collaborating if the Government is looking to work with them. Considering that they do in fact have a five-year-long field-tested service with user analytics, he believes BusSeat.lk could be effectively integrated to a wider islandwide national network.  With the bus reservation system from BusSeat.lk, travellers can plan their journey early, save time when buying bus tickets, avoid waiting in long queues, find their boarding place easily, and board their bus without any doubts. The app is available on both iOS and Android, for free. You can also visit their website https://busseat.lk/.