Shuttling folks to the California Mid State Fair has become an annual tradition for AmericanStar Trailways.
Seeing a need, AmericanStar began offering the service in 2011 and has continued annually since. It was launched in a partnership with the fair and a local news station, which promoted the service in exchange for its logos on the buses. The free advertising was priceless, said Julie L. Long, Junior Vice President and Director of Finance and Human Resources for AmericanStar.
“Start-ups are difficult when dependent on the public to be successful, so being able to notify our community via our local news and the fair website was quite the coup,” Long said.
It took some trial and error to make the City-to-City Fair Shuttle a success, but the company’s hard work has proven a success beyond the financial. Fair-goers needed no convincing. They were happy to give up fighting traffic and paying for parking for the ease of being chauffeured to the regional fair, held in Paso Robles during the last half of July.
Over the years, the company streamlined the service to make it more efficient and cost-effective.
At first, AmericanStar ran three buses on three different timetables with different pricing, depending on the pick-up location. Increasing the profit margin meant simplifying. Now, there is one timetable and one price, regardless of which of four locations people board the bus.
“It’s proven less confusing on all ends and made it more customer-friendly,” Long said, adding there is less opportunity for error and, as a result, fewer customer complaints.
Tickets are sold online until 10 a.m. the day of the rides. After that, wristbands may be purchased at each stop if space is available. The rule is never to oversell seats.
“We have found people who have purchased a seat on our bus may find alternate transportation up to the fair via friends, but are counting on that return ride home, so it’s always important to hold a seat for every presale,” Long said.
The service isn’t a profit-maker as much as a brand builder for the Pismo Beach, California-company, which has been serving San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Monterey, as well as Ventura County residents since 1991.
“A moving bus is the best billboard out there,” Long said. “So often in the charter world, we send buses from here to everywhere else. Having a local presence with an audience as big as this keeps us in the minds of people who may not be in tune to the bus world. When it comes time to charter a bus or make a suggestion who to use, they will go with what they know, with what they’ve seen.”
The City-to-City Fair Shuttle is also a source of pride for employees, who like being able to provide a safe way for people to get to and from the fair, she added.
Finding opportunities to offer shuttle service to fairs and other events can give charter bus companies another revenue stream, says Ken Presley, United Motorcoach Association Vice President. He suggests reducing costs by negotiating for parking and taking advantage of free advertising through the event’s promotion and public announcements.
“By not taking advantage of these opportunities, private operators are deferring much of this business to public transit, brokers or, even worse, allowing the public to go unserved,” Presley said.
Long’s advice to others considering shuttles is to be willing to persevere through the trial-and-error part to make the service financially feasible—and to look at the bigger picture.
“It’s easy to get swept up in cost, but make sure to keep your eyes on the prize, on the bigger picture,” she said. “Doing good and getting your name out there is priceless because people will remember.”
