As one of the older and more reputed transport services in South India, I am shocked at how pathetically inept the company is at responding to a critical situation. I took an AC Sleeper bus from Kochi to Bangalore(Cost: 850 rupees one way). The bus broke down in the middle of Trichur highway because the main fan belt and AC fan belt broke. Due to the extreme heat and humidity in Kerala during the summer, it was impossible to wait on the bus while the staff tried to rectify the problem. I have absolutely no problem that the bus had a technical problem-shit happens! Although, I cannot accept the way in which it was handled by KPN staff and Management.
The bus broke down at 11 pm. We were advised that it would take one hour to fix, when in fact the only way of fixing it was having a mechanic bring a new belt from Coimbatore, which was 120 kilometers away. We were continuously advised that it would take an additional 30 minutes to fix. After 2 hours of waiting outside on the humid, mosquito infested highway, we noticed that the driver had gone to sleep in front of the bus and the conductor was listening to music in the driver’s seat. The passengers had to take matters into their own hands. We insisted that the conductor provide us with all the Managers’ numbers and called each one continuously. Many Managers blatantly hung up on us and most did not know how to handle a situation like this. We received more empty promises, all the while stranded in the middle of no where! Finally after 4 hours, three "mechanics" arrived with about a dozen fan belts. It looked like there was light at the end of the tunnel for the poor sweat-soaked passengers(including women and babies). Boy, were we wrong! They had brought the wrong fan belt! After an hour of trying, they were able to fix the main fan belt, but not the AC. We had to endure another 4 hours of travelling without the AC till be reached their workshop, where they delayed another 45 minutes before finally fixing the bus.
We were supposed to reach Bangalore at 7 am. We reached at 3pm.
KPN is an absolute disgrace to the transport industry. I cannot even begin to understand how a Private enterprise continues to run in such a sub standard manner without being destroyed by competition.