Millennial owners inch toward for the future of buses
Bus travel is undergoing an evolution, as are the companies that provide the service. Charter bus owners are dealing with a driver shortage while wondering how soon autonomous vehicle technology will be a viable option.
These three millennials are embracing this uncertain future. Like many in their generation, they’ve grown up with technology, and they’re eager to bring their family businesses into the modern age with software and social media.
In part 1 of this three-part series, Bethany Schubert is engaging customers with a Facebook video series, while former college basketball star Chanel Spriggs’ out-of-the-box thinking includes a tracking app and traffic reports. Michael Giddens, meanwhile, is working with his family’s business to experiment with a new long-haul, fixed-route bus geared toward millennials.
Located across the U.S., these next-generation leaders are excited about the future of busing. While the jury is out on whether their demographic will embrace motorcoach tours like their parents and grandparents have, these three (profiled over the next few issues) are busy finding new ways to draw in and engage new customers.
Engaging millennials through video chats—and driving demos
Bethany Schubert knows first-hand that you can lure young people into a career in the motorcoach industry—if you can just get them in the door.
Schubert’s plans to be a nurse took a detour during a college break when she took a temporary job as a bus cleaner with her family’s business, Trobec’s Bus Service Inc. She stayed, she said, because she enjoyed the camaraderie of the close-knit workforce and eventually moved on to other positions at Trobec’s: driver, dispatcher, and director of sales.
A decade later, at 28, she is vice president of the Saint Stephen, Minnesota-based company of which her father, Tim Schubert, is president, overseeing payroll, human resources, marketing, sales, and some of the day-to-day operations.
Schubert says she loves the endless opportunities her position offers but she is glad she had the opportunity to try nearly every position at the company. Paying her dues earned her the respect of her co-workers who saw her working hard and not having anything handed to her.
In the past several years under her leadership, the company transitioned from paper to software and added a social media presence. She and her youngest sister, Becca, recently launched a regular Facebook series called “View from the Driver’s Seat.” These videos range from one to eight minutes and feature the inside scoop on the business or practical matters (covered in a fun way), such as where the next tours will be headed.
Usually, the sisters are sitting at the front of an empty bus across the aisle from each other, chatting conversationally with viewers as they film with their phone. But in the case of a promotion for an upcoming job fair for drivers, they went all out, standing outside the bus in bus costumes.
One episode showed Becca digging in a bus toilet in hopes of finding a customer’s missing phone. It’s important for customers to get to know all about a business, including what lengths Trobec’s goes to find passengers’ lost items. The weekly videos are garnering between 1,000 to 3,000 views.
The company is also expanding beyond traditional tours into school bus transportation. With a fleet of 68 school buses and 14 motor coaches, 60 percent of revenues are generated from contracts with three St. Cloud area school districts.
Schubert, the oldest of four, and Becca, who works as a dispatcher, are the next generation to follow their dad into the family-owned business.
This year marks Trobec’s 80th year. Tim Schubert joined the business 36 years ago as an 18-year-old driver before moving up the ranks. He took over the business when the previous owner died.
In February, Schubert and her father picked up the Small Operator Vision Award for the business at the UMA Motorcoach Expo’s annual Leadership Awards Celebration in San Antonio, TX.
As the industry struggles with a driver shortage, Schubert has found some success in putting the next generation behind the wheel.
Millennials who are drawn to Motorcoach driving see it as an opportunity to travel the country while getting paid. She said she’s found this as she recruits online with social media finding old methods like newspaper ads aren’t working like they perhaps once did. Trobec’s also offers competitive wages, a 401(k) match and paid time off. Everyone from office staff to mechanics, cleaners and drivers are eligible for the retirement plan.
One hurdle to recruiting drivers is that potential applicants are intimidated by the idea of driving such a large vehicle. When Schubert heard that was an issue, she came up with the idea of giving potential applicants a chance to get behind the wheel at a job fair. With a trainer next to them, prospects can drive a bus through a course set up in the company’s parking lot. It has proven to be a viable recruiting tool.
To make buses more appealing to millennial riders who want to stay plugged in while they travel, the company outfits buses with wifi and outlets to charge devices. Buses with digital signs or colorful lights to represent teams or organizations are often requested for requested for business or college trips.
At this point, Schubert says, millennials are more interested in getting from point A to point B as fast as possible, rather than in tours. But that may change as they get older.
“We need to be able to understand who our customers are, what they need and how to get that to them,” she says.
