By Karen Crabtree

CROSBY, Texas - After 12 years of watching bus companies come and go in Houston, Daryl Johnson has grown weary of quality operators having to close their doors.
Johnson's father founded the family motorcoach company, J&J Charters, in Crosby a dozen years ago to compete in the Houston market. The business even retains the 1979 MC-9 with which the company started.
Now the second-largest charter and tour operator in the market, with 17 coaches, J&J Charters is struggling like much of the rest of the coach industry.
"Sometimes I come to work and I think, have I lost my mind?'" Johnson said in a recent interview. Like other operators, Johnson faces a litany of challenges: High fuel costs, staggering insurance premiums, low-balling competitors, weak demand, skittish customers, and too many buses sitting idle in the yard each day.
Yet, Johnson remains optimistic.
He's convinced the industry is starting to make a slow turn toward brighter days. Meanwhile, he's willing to share what he's doing to keep the wolves at bay and what he thinks other operators should be doing.
"Most operators in Houston are saying I've got to slash my prices' and I'm telling them No, you don't,'" says Johnson. "Low-balling prices just to get a coach on the road doesn't help anybody."
According to Johnson, operators that price trips too low - just to get business - are pricing themselves right out of business. Additionally, they won't have the reserves to pay for unexpected but inevitable costs or repairs, and they won't have enough cash for preventative maintenance.
This is not the time to take rates back to what they were years ago, says Johnson. "It's hard to get (operators) to understand that if we all stick to prices (that earn a profit), then we all make money," he argues.
Johnson says the way to compete with operators that continue to drop prices below the level of profitability is to stress service, dependability and reputation. "Show your proof of insurance, list the benefits of being a member of UMA and ABA, and emphasize your DOT safety rating," he says.
Johnson was elected a director of the United Motorcoach Association last year.
Callers to J&J Charters get a 10-point checklist of questions to ask before purchasing motorcoach services, and Johnson urges customers to visit the coach operators they are considering hiring. "If we can get them to visit, we are going to sell them . . . whether we are higher in cost or not," he says.
Keeping everything - from the landscaping to the stationary - immaculate and professional is critical to securing business, Johnson says, noting that in today's operating environment, everything is about survival. "Success right now is avoiding bankruptcy."
Johnson also is an advocate of keeping communication lines open - even when the message you have to deliver isn't what the listener wants to hear. For example, finance companies are calling more often to get an update. "They don't want the equipment back," he says, but they do want to know what you're doing to keep the business afloat.
There are more options than many operators might think when it comes to working with finance companies, says Johnson. He suggests asking for a reduced payment schedule through the lean months, requesting current payments be moved to the end of the note or looking at a complete restructuring of the loan.
Let them know what you're doing to increase bookings, or that next month's bookings look good, and that you've got a future revenue stream coming. Develop a plan that both of you can live with, and let your finance company know what you can pay and when.
"Most finance companies are willing to work with you as long as you talk to them," says Johnson. "When they can't reach you and you don't return their calls . . . you don't want to go there."
He also advises against taking cost-cutting shortcuts because they'll come back to haunt you. Those companies that operate without insurance, or are underinsured, will be stripped bare when the inevitable accident happens, he says.
There have been days when too many, or even all, of Johnson's coaches were sitting in the yard. He has considered downsizing his fleet, the majority of which are 1997 or newer coaches, but he's working hard to avoid that step.
"It's a tough industry," he says. "You just have to decide, Hey I'm going to be here' and we'll suffer through the bad times. Those that hang in there are those that will do pretty good when things turn around."