At Tickato, we believe that the urge to travel—to visit family in another city, to chase a career opportunity, or simply to explore the stunning landscapes of India—should never be stifled by fear.
We know the reality. For millions of women in India, booking an intercity bus trip often involves a complex mental calculus: Is this operator safe? Will the pick-up point be well-lit? Is it okay to travel alone at night on this route?
We hear you. And we decided it was time to change that narrative.
When we built Tickato, we didn’t just want to build the fastest booking engine; we wanted to build the most trusted one. We recognized that for women travelers, safety isn’t an “add-on” feature or a luxury – it is a fundamental right.
Here is how Tickato is moving beyond lip service to implement real, tangible measures aimed at making bus travel safer for women across India.
1. Curated Operators: We Vetting Before You Board
The first step in safety is ensuring the bus operator itself is reliable. We don’t just onboard any bus with four wheels. Tickato employs a rigorous vetting process for our 4,500+ operator network.
We prioritize partners who have maintained high standards of service, professional crew behavior, and well-maintained vehicles. If an operator consistently receives poor feedback regarding safety or crew conduct, especially from female travelers, they are removed from our platform. We curate so you can travel with confidence.
2. The Power of the “Ladies Seat” Filter
Privacy and personal space are major components of feeling safe. One of our most utilized features is the dedicated “Ladies Seat” filter during the booking process.
Many of our partner operators reserve specific seats – usually in the front rows or adjacent to other female passengers – exclusively for women. On sleeper buses, we ensure that solo women travelers are not booked into double berths with male strangers. Tickato’s interface makes finding and selecting these reserved seats seamless, ensuring you know exactly where you are sitting before you pay.
3. Real-Time “Track My Bus” & Ride Sharing
Uncertainty breeds anxiety. Waiting at a dark bus stop wondering when your ride will arrive is a thing of the past.
Tickato’s “Track My Bus” feature uses GPS technology to give you real-time visibility on your bus’s location before and during the journey. More importantly, our app allows you to share this live tracking link via WhatsApp or SMS with family or friends.
This means your loved ones know exactly where you are on the highway, when you’ve stopped for a break, and when you are about to arrive. It’s peace of mind for you, and for them.
4. Intelligent Route and Boarding Point Information
Safety isn’t just on the bus; it’s also about where you board and alight.
We are constantly enriching our route data to provide better context. When you search on Tickato, we aim to highlight major, well-populated boarding points (like major transit hubs or well-lit areas) over obscure highway stops. Our smart guides for popular routes (like Bangalore-Chennai or Delhi-Jaipur) are designed to give you as much information as possible about the journey environment.
5. 24/7 Support: Your Always-On Lifeline
Technology is great, but sometimes you need a human being. If you ever feel uncomfortable during a journey booked through Tickato – whether it’s an issue with a co-passenger, an unprofessional crew member, or a bus breakdown in an unfamiliar locationc – our support team is active 24/7.
We prioritize calls related to on-trip safety issues. We are just a tap away in the app to escalate issues with the operator immediately.
Our Ongoing Pledge
We aren’t claiming to have solved every challenge on Indian roads overnight. But we are promising that every update we make to the Tickato platform is viewed through the lens of passenger safety.
We want you to take that job interview in another city. We want you to go on that solo trip to the hills. We want you to travel freely.
Your journey matters. And at Tickato, your safety is our priority.
Book your next safe journey today on the Tickato at www.tickato.in