Online Food Distribution Services for Travelers has high potential in Indian Markets .We have around 10 billion people are travelling in train in each day . They are looking for hygienic ,variety and quality food but not many good option are there in Indian railways . Long distance train passengers face the problem of not getting the food of their choice while on the move.
Online Solutions seeks to address these issues by letting train passengers order the food of their choice online.
- Online Paltform for a rail traveler for buying food and other items
- Delivers hygienic & quality food for the 10 Billion Indian train travelers on the move
- Ties up local and reputed partner restaurants to deliver food to the traveler in his coach and on his seat
Current Scenario
In 2010, the catering of Indian Railways was taken away from Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation. Currently, a little over 30,000 catering units take care of food in the trains and at stations. More than 3 million food items are consumed by the long-distance train travelers in every month .But, access to food inside train coaches is a major challenge. Supplying food in trains are limited to Food vendors empanelled by the Indian Railways . Pantry Services offer a limited choice of poor quality, un-hygienic and overpriced food.
Dinesh Trivedi, who was railway minister in early 2012, had announced he'd start a similar 'book a meal policy', where people could book a meal of their choice before boarding. There have been success stories earlier, too. For instance, Comesum, a vendor for IRCTC, has about 20 outlets at railway stations and serves 70-80 trains but its reach is limited. It's here that the online model can perhaps fill the gaps.
Forecast
Passenger train traffic is expected to grow at approximately 8-10% per year until 2020 (International Transport Forum)and more than 10 million food items including meals (on a monthly basis) are consumed on board long distance trains.(ibef report)
Online Food Distribution Business Model
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Quality vegetarian food at your seat while traveling in train
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Online Food Distribution Platform connects train travellers with restaurants on the Indian Railways network . first they have to ensure the food quality, hygiene, packaging, delivery and service parameters restaurants . Once the partner vendor is approved , they can uploaded necessary information (menus, rates, etc) to the portal .
Online Platform collect the orders and routed to concern partner restaurants who in turn prepares and delivers the food as required
The travelers can select among the extensive choice of meal types and high quality food provided by selected partner restaurants on the rail network. Online ordered food items will be delivered at the right time, at the right seat by the restaurants staff in concerned stations .
Revenue model
Platform earns revenue through commissions charged from the partner restaurants and service charge from customers
Advantages of Model
A traveler who wants food to be delivered to her as she travels and when the train stops at a station uses such services
- Customers can easily place orders via website, phone, SMS, or mobile app
- Solves the problem of lack of choices and poor quality food for travellers on the Indian Railways.
Challenges
These models have complex logistical problem: to deliver food orders correctly to a moving target (the train traveler), having only a limited time to complete the delivery (you can not accepts the order where the train stops for less than 5 minutes at the station).
- They have do proper tracking of Indian Train times and delivery should be synchronized with the train departure and arrival timings in real time.
- Due to the workflow cost they have to fix minimum order value .
- Wide research should be conducted to ensuring quality ,Hygienity of kitchen and ability to service in a given time frame and packing quality of restaurants
Revolutionizing Food Delivery in Indian Trains
Indian Train Travelers are looking for healthy ,homely style and fit to pocket food items . Some are already started supplying foods to train passengers Travelkhana.com and Merafoodchoice.com are among the leading players in this space . Both have a tie-up with over 200 restaurants spread across 100 cities, where they can serve meals for individuals or groups.
TravelKhana
Travelkhana.com is a meal booking platform that connects train travellers with restaurants on the Indian rail network and enables train travelers to easily place orders via website, phone, SMS, or mobile app. Travelkhana’s platform tracks train running information to insure meal delivery at the right time.
USP : Food and service quality
Travelkhana platform collects PNR number, mobile number and customer’s name .Travelkhana platform retrieves the details of the train and display to the customer . Customer selects his/her preference of station/time for food delivery. After the customer selects the location/time, the operator lists the available vendors (with whom Travelkhana have a tie-up) and choices of food, with prices.Finally The customer places the order, and platform provides an order confirmation number.
The Travelkhana contacts each customer between 1 and 3 hours after the scheduled food delivery to verify that the delivery had happened, collect feedback on food and service quality. Travelkhana use the data to measure the accuracy of the deliveries, to improve service quality, and to track vendors’ performance.
USP : Quality vegetarian food at your seat while traveling in train
Mera Food Choice is working for basically making tie up and chain link and does becoming platform between consumer/food lovers and veg food providers. Thus they are a platform and link for such persons who are in need of standard veg food and the standard veg food providers, be anywhere either on train-track, road or at office, home or other places.
Potential Locations in Kerala
Potential locations identified in Kerala are Trivandrum ,Kollam ,Kottayam ,Ernakulam ,Thrissur and Kozhikode
Are you more interested in such business models then ping me
Potential locations identified in Kerala are Trivandrum ,Kollam ,Kottayam ,Ernakulam ,Thrissur and Kozhikode
Are you more interested in such business models then ping me
“An Opportunity is waiting for you, don’t waste time and connect today...Hurry!”
Latest News
------------------- June 5 2014 - Today I find a start-up company ( 11th Hour Innovations (P) Ltd ) from Kerala , implemented the similar concept (YatraChef .com ) ,their tag line is " Get your favorite Food in Train" . Congratulation to YatraChef Team .
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