This locally developed platform takes the stress out of ticket purchases and let's you catch a bus with your mobile device.

Malaysians use coaches a lot to travel across the country. One of the inconveniences however is the selection of the right ticket and the need of having to go to the bus terminal to purchase the actual ticket.

"CatchThatBus" is a locally developed application that lets you buy your ticket online via PC or mobile device. We met with Viren Doshi, CEO of Catch That Bus Sd Bhd to find out more about this clever tool.

Why so difficult?
Motivated by his wish to start his own business and inspiration from his travels, Doshi looked at the Malaysian travel market and found that there is room for improvement when it comes to journey management on coaches. "Why does it have to be so complicated? This was the base line for the development of our system" Doshi explains. He has seen similar systems abroad and found that there is a gap in the Malaysian market. He further said "Do you really have to inconvenience your passengers by making an extra trip to the terminal to obtain the actual ticket? We don't think so". From this notion sprang the idea for CatchThatBus and the application was developed from scratch and launched in 2012. Meanwhile, several reputable operators have joined the platform, offering their tickets via this system on www.catchthatbus.com.

Getting it rolling
Essentially, CatchThatBus is acting as a ticketing agent. Just like a travel agent would do, only that there is no brick and mortar shop. "This was challenging at first, because people needed to understand that there is still a lot of work and effort involved in running our application even though there are no people or any outlets". Right now, all transactions are done electronically and the future plans include QR codes to be used to board the buses and to be totally paperless when it comes to the tickets and managing the flow of passengers.

As any other agent, CatchThatBus would be paid a commission. "What is crucial is to be working with operators that are taking good care of their own system and fleet. Since we are the ones selling the ticket, we will also be the ones that receive the complaints. There have been several operators wanting to join our network, but we turned them down as we did not find them suitable" Doshi states. His system will either integrate into the ticketing system that an operator already has or there will be a connection provided to the operator if they don't have a system. From there, the booking works exactly like when you book a flight ticket online. It is therefore important that any other agent or the operator's staff books any seat sold right away to avoid double bookings. In case a booking isn't completed within 15 minutes, the seat will be released.