SG Startup’s ‘Smarter’ Way to Tour Thailand by Bus

Singaporean start-up aims to make commuting in Thailand more convenient and propulsive with its system that allow users to buy bus tickets straight from their smart devices.

Traveling nowadays has become very integrated. With the advent of modern-day technology, people continually come up with hacks that make traveling much easier. Vastly demonstrated to us by digital applications and startups, we now enjoy interactive maps, talking dictionaries, and gizmos that provide whereabouts, how-to’s, and surreal ideas that are yet to hatch out from shell to reality. All these for seamless traveling.

Being a neophyte commuter in Thailand, distress is so inevitable. I am a customary victim, ridiculously whenever beginner’s luck goes low on the bar during the times when I would definitely wish for it another day not traveling (paper tickets and toilet paper scarce). However, I was lucky enough to have met someone bagging a solution that might just aid passengers’ plights on transportation bookings in Thailand.

Book and buy Thai bus tickets online with 12Go
Singapore travel startup 12Go Asia Pte Ltd. situates its catapult in Thailand to mend the absence of online bus ticketing services in the country. The team steering regional operations is spearheaded by Alexey Abolmasov, CEO and a veteran in software development. Abolmasov is currently driven full-time by his 12Go project apart from doing traveling stints every so often.

12Go, the way it is being fortified and presented, magnifies the team’s effort in combining travel data and smart functions considered essential for modern-day traveling — online booking, electronic payment, and fast information sharing.

According to Abolmasov, ‘real’ smart traveling is to perceive, then take action on probable hassles ahead of time. Hassles are usually met during ticketing — the point where the trip has yet to start. “We want our users’ first step to be smooth and uncomplicated,” he said.

12Go boasts that their users would no longer need to physically connect with ticket providers and manually look for information resources. Booking, payment, and planning; the system got it all covered. Furthermore, they try to resolve the most common barrier a traveler has to deal with when in a foreign country — social and communication.

Provided as a solution, 12Go interchangeably works in 6 languages and convert ticket prices to 14 preferable currencies. The application also suggest nearby hotels, points of interest, and disperse news feeds on a daily basis. It is 12Go hinting that they are not limited in calculating travel time and distance like your ordinary timetable.

In my perspective, the crucial relief for travelers is the system’s grant to handle online bookings and electronic purchase simultaneously. It is advantageous and timely, as online transactions remain obscure to non-flying public transportation in Thailand.

After booking tickets, users can conveniently pay via PayPal or counter services, like 711 and Tesco (both very accessible to anyone in Thailand). Travel seekers may also get the free mobile application on the shelves of the Apple AppStore and Google Play.

Also a B2B; connects and advances operators

Launched just February 2014, Abolmasov explains that certain routes may not be booked at the moment, by reason of some operators’ limited IT resources. This might require his team to make technical adjustments to fully incorporate 12Go system with the operators’ conventional scheme. Major destinations like Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Krabi, Phuket, and other provinces are, nonetheless bookable.

“Very soon we will be listing more routes, re-vamp our interface and add other modes of transportation under our belt, and that’s something to watch out for,” Abolmasov added.

Abolmasov further revealed that in due time, 12Go has hopeful plans of expanding to other SE Asian countries. Their biggest goal is to create a pan-regional avenue that could support most kind of travel transactions from a single source. If that could happen, 12Go should be a serious must-have for all backpackers bound to Southeast Asia. For now, we just have to wait and see how 12Go plans to change the pace of travel startups in SEA.