STAR brings Android app to Victory Liner first-class passengers

Photos by Fernan Nebres

MANILA, Philippines - For 68 years, Victory Liner Inc. has been the leader in transporting people from Manila to many destinations across Northern Luzon. Its most recent innovation, the First-Class Bus, carrying passengers from Manila to Baguio and Cagayan Valley, offers the most luxurious and fastest land transport in the industry.

Last December, The Philippine STAR partnered with Victory Liner in providing copies of the newspaper to its first-class passengers. Today that partnership goes even further with the introduction of Android tablets, free to use and exclusive to Victory Liner’s first-class riders, pre-loaded with the digital version of The STAR.

Marivic del Pilar, treasury and marketing head of Victory Liner Inc., says, “We at Victory Liner want to be able to provide freebies to our passengers. Our first-class buses carry copies of The Philippine STAR. Plus, our Baguio-bound first class buses have Android tablets — and The STAR has put its app on the tablets so passengers can browse the newspaper electronically. We distribute and lend the tablets to passengers for free.”

Available only to the Baguio-bound first-class fleet, the Android tablets come pre-loaded with The STAR’s newspaper app and various games (Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, etc.). First-class passengers may also check their e-mail, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking accounts via the free Wi-Fi installed on each and every first-class bus with two routers powered by Sun Cellular Broadband. After the trip, all Android tablets are collected to be used by the next batch of first-class passengers.

“Because our buses have Wi-Fi we have gone a little bit further. For the Baguio first-class buses only, we have sockets for people to charge their laptops and devices,” says Del Pilar.

Victory Liner’s first-class service has become increasingly popular not just because of the Wi-Fi capability, but also for having a comfort room, relaxing La-Z-Boy type seats, non-stop travel, and a stewardess who serves water and snacks. The fare for Baguio-bound first-class buses is P715 per person.

Del Pilar explains that having these innovations was a direct response to the needs of their market, especially for those going to Baguio. She says, “We noticed that the Baguio market is made up of the young crowd. Most of these young people now are really into using these gadgets and devices. You really need to make it comfortable for them and what you find at the home or the office should also be found in our buses.” Overall, the feedback has been tremendously positive. “The market was delighted with what we have done.”

As an innovator and the first transport company to introduce the “TV with Betamax” concept of in-ride entertainment, Victory Liner continues with its plans of innovating and modernizing its existing fleet. Del Pilar continues: “We are a 68-year-old company, we have to innovate or else we will be left behind. We want to provide more innovations inside the bus to make the traveling experience happy and enjoyable (for our passengers).”

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For more information on schedules and fares, go to the Victory Liner website at http://www.victoryliner.com. Follow Victory Liner on Twitter at @VictoryLinerInc. Search “Philippine STAR” at the Google Play store.