The delivery of five 2024 MCI J4500 Clean Diesel motorcoaches to Hale Transportation marks the company’s largest single acquisition of new buses.
The purchase grows the fleet to 53 vehicles for the upstate New York company, located between Syracuse and Albany. It also transitions Hale’s full size motorcoach fleet to all MCI coaches.
Shifting to one motorcoach brand will streamline maintenance operations, said Ryan Bane, operations manager.
“All five of our techs are new, and MCI was willing to send some trainers out for us for three days to go through those new coaches in depth. So we got some in-house training directly from MCI, which was invaluable for the techs.”
Stephen Hale started the company in 2006. Based in Clinton, just outside Utica, the company has since grown to three locations and over 100 employees. The other two New York locations are in Oneonta and Watertown. The latter expansion came with the 2022 acquisition of Clarence Henry Coach.
Career change
Bane joined the company in 2019 as a part-time driver. The move to transportation was a career shift for Bane, who worked as a middle and high school arts teacher for five years.
“I had always had an interest in transportation,” Bane said. “The school district trained me to drive a bus and paid for my CDL. I was teaching and driving a school bus when I came on with Hale part time in 2019. I discovered I loved it. I loved the industry and operational stuff, so I switched over full time with Hale in 2022.”
His teaching career turned out to be good preparation for the transportation business.
“The creative elements have weaseled their way into my work day, but the teaching piece is huge,” Bane said. “I work with a lot of drivers directly on a daily basis. I make sure that they’re up to speed and they’re getting what they need. I’ve developed some teaching resources in house for them.
“It’s a different set of roles and responsibilities, but there’s a lot from the teaching that can be applied to this.”
Some of Hale Transportation’s biggest clients include a multitude of area colleges, universities and AHL hockey teams. But that is supplemented with a broad spectrum of work.
“In the spring, summer and fall, we’re doing a lot of wedding transportation, retail trips,” Bane said. “Part of our mission is to support other businesses. We work directly with local tour agencies. We do airport moves with airlines and Amtrak.”
