PROFILE

Three decades of experience gathered in passenger mobility and logistics has made Pankaj Gandhi a name to reckon. Strong business ethics, trust and reliability that Chartered Speed Limited has adopted as its doctrine replicates the essence and values of Pankaj himself. The result has been phenomenal for the company he has nurtured, with a steady double digit growth for all nine years since inception.
Pankaj has always sensed out opportunities way ahead of competition, be it strategic PPP tie-ups in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and North East or the eco-friendly bike-sharing projects in MP and Jharkhand, there are successful layers in every vertical of the company. Due to his thirst for business diversification and aim to be a holistic service provider for delivering passenger mobility solutions, Chartered Speed has tapped Premium buses for intercity travel, Public transit services for cities, student and employee transportation, radio cabs, intercity taxis, and even bike sharing; all skill development has been totally in-house with his able guidance.
In fact, he started radio cabs at a time when Ahmedabad only had a single player with fleet of only 25 hatchbacks. He snapped up the scope and rolled in a fleet of around 144 premium sedans and MUVs.
The making of the man himself traces an interesting, experience-laden journey ever since he started his career way back in 1984 when he was only in the tenth standard. It happened with a motor spare parts shop, Raj Automobile in Sirohi, Rajasthan, his native, all by himself. This was a way forward for backward integration to streamline with his family’s business interests that lay in Raj Transport Company, a logistics player dealing in goods transport and trucks. Pankaj believes in being rooted to his past and that is the reason of Raj Automobile was a core part of Chartered Speed with fair share of contribution to the turnover till 2017.
Despite the success achieved in goods transport, he realized his calling lay somewhere else in the passenger transport segment. The seed of starting with his own passenger transport segment project was developed somewhere in 2008. And in the year 2010 the Gandhi brothers amicably decided to diversify into other transport business models and thereby carry forward the family legacy.
While diversifying the business model Pankaj took the onus for a dormant company Chartered Speed Limited that was initially part of his family business and did parcel bookings. Starting a new venture, all alone had its pitfalls too. He immediately had no business in hand and was also amateur in the financial integrities; but as an astute businessman he reversed the disadvantages into favourable deals and since then the business just flourished to great levels.
On December 18, 2010 he acquired Premcall Cab Pvt. Ltd., later renamed as Chartered Cab Pvt. Ltd., now Chartered Bus Pvt. Ltd., with a fleet size of 100 cars. This was a radio cab company based out at Indore. It was a loss-making company, but achieved break-even within three months of takeover. The appetite for acquisition grew and in July, 2011 he took over 'Mahindra Bus Service' with a fleet size of 20 buses hired for Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.
Pankaj's forte lies in backing up all his efforts with a strong inventory and backend readiness. He believes in building in-house capabilities and skills rather than outsourcing the same. With his philosophy of nurturing young and fresh talents he believes in grooming the amateurs to be the experts. His expertise lies in converting loss-making ventures into profitable ones.
Under him, Chartered Speed Limited clocked exponential growth in revenues from about Rs. 4 crore in March 2011 to Rs. 301 crores in March 2019. The company has spun-off multiple subsidiaries to enhance focus on select verticals. These include Chartered Bike Pvt Ltd, providing micro mobility to several cities, Carpluss Chartered Auto Zone, a multi-brand car workshop for servicing and repair of own cars, Chartered Bus Pvt. Ltd. and Chartered NextGen Solutions Pvt Ltd, a safety solutions provider.
Humbled natured Pankaj is led by strong instincts. He is a strong propagator of environmental preservation and his company takes CSR meaningfully. He likes reading and have collection of over 2000 books. A movie buff, he also love to watch television. Driving is both his passion as well as his stress-buster.
With a staff strength of almost 4000, a fleet of almost 1200 buses and cars and low attrition rates, Chartered Speed Group, is on a strong path to achieve many more milestones.