Remember the 1978 American musical comedy film Thank God It’s Friday which told several intertwining stories of the patrons and staff of the fictional Los Angeles club The Zoo?
People travelling by AP State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) buses will soon begin to say something similar, albeit with a slight variation; Thank God it’s Tuesday.
Bringing in innovation in a big way to fill its empty coffers, the Transport Corporation authorities have decided to embrace ‘dynamic pricing’ policy by designing this newfangled concept.
The RTC intends to introduce Thank God It’s Tuesday concept post-Sankranti. “Just like air fares which are reduced on days when there is thin customer traffic, we want to reduce the RTC bus fares on particular days, especially on Tuesday,” says the Corporation’s Vice-Chairman and Managing Director N. Sambasiva Rao. On some week days like Tuesdays and Fridays, people guided by ancient beliefs, do not travel. “People of East and West Godavari districts do not travel at all on these days,” Mr. Rao points out, adding: “The idea is to reduce pricing on these days and have more people travel.”
The Corporation also has other plans like introduction of a lucky dip and a lottery scheme to attract the rural masses. “We want to wean them away from unsafe modes of travelling like auto rickshaws,” says Mr. Rao.
Sources in RTC say that as per statistics, Fridays are most lean days in terms of revenue whereas Tuesdays are the second least revenue days for the public transport giant. Since the authorities did not want to rely on a phrase that was already popular ( Thank God it’s Friday ), they coined their own phrase; Thank God It’s Tuesday
50 per cent hike
Defending 50 per cent hike in RTC bus fares on special occasions like festivals, Mr. Rao says of the nearly 12,000 services operated, additional fares are being collected for not more than 150 buses. “On normal days we operate these 12,000 buses as ordinary services and charge normal fare. But during festivals, we have a skewed traffic flow. The buses may start from a destination fully crowded. But in return trip, they are almost always empty,” he explains.
