RTC cargo wing to start door delivery service from Sept. 1

To augment the dropping revenues in the pandemic times, the A.P. State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) plans to increase the volume of cargo business by starting door delivery service from September 1.

The officials of the public transport giant always had in their minds the door delivery and pick-up services, but shortage of staff prevented them from materialising their plans.

With COVID-19 hitting the cash-starved corporation’s revenues hard, the officials thought this to be the right time to increase the volume of business in the cargo sector, which has been earning a decent income for the organisation even in hardest of times.

Not leaving anything to chance, the corporation conducted a survey in July, which showed that 66% of the customers wanted door delivery of their parcels.

The RTC currently runs its cargo services through 120 pick-up and booking counters set up in bus stations across the State.

“We have realised that nearly 45% of the parcels are being collected from our bus stations by persons other than those who booked them. To increase the last minute connectivity, we have started experimenting with the delivery services,” said Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the corporation Dwaraka Tirumala Rao. He said it would take some more time to start the ‘pick-up’ service.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Rao said an exercise of studying the rates of private courier services and discussing other key factors preceded before arriving at the decision to start the courier delivery service from 16 places in the State. “The trial run will be done in Vijayawada, Tirupati and Rajamahendravaram,” he added.

Initially, parcels with a weight of only up to 10 kg will be delivered in a radius of 10 km.

“Depending on the public response, we will increase the distance and weight of the packages,” he said.

Nearly 200 buses will be used for cargo services. Currently, the RTC handles nearly 18,000 parcels daily, which earn a revenue of ₹35 lakh to the corporation.

“We are hopeful that people will choose RTC for their cargo needs as our rates will be much lesser than what the private courier services charge,” said Mr. Rao.