Matthew Strack, CEO of Strack Ground Transportation based in Southern California, got into luxury transportation by accident, but into motorcoaches by intention.
In 2005, he was working to support a new business venture and decided to start driving limousines to help supplement his income. Not long after, the owner of the company offered Strack the chance to buy the business.
As the company grew, Strack found he needed the services of buses to move larger groups. He used local bus companies, but their service levels didn’t match what his company offered, and he was already developing core values drawing from successful companies like Disney an GM.
So Strack decided to buy a motorcoach and run it with the luxury of a limousine. Other limo companies have done the same, upping the service bar industry-wide.
Read more at Bus & Motorcoach News online: Limo companies expanding their fleets with motorcoaches
“We offer boutique-style, high-level service,” says Strack. “The bus is premium, with leather seats, all of the latest technology.”
Moving to Motorcoaches
Reston Limousine, another company that added motorcoaches to its limousine service, got started in 1990 in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., with two limousines, a sedan, one van and one minibus.
Over its first 10 years, the company grew to $5 million in revenue by bidding on and winning shuttle bus government contracts. After that it was no longer a small business, and it diversified into university and hospital shuttles, school and corporate shuttles, embassy transportation, sports team, wine and wedding tourism and more.
When in 2005 the company won a contract to transport a large group from Reston to Fort Benning, Georgia every weekend, the company had to buy a motorcoach, says Kristina Bouweiri, president and CEO. It proved a fortunate move.
“We bought our first coach bus and noticed it worked seven days a week,” shares Bouweiri. “A year later, we bought another coach bus and noticed it, too, worked seven days a week. A year later we bought one more.”
The benefits are many, but include the ability to fulfill all client needs with one-stop shopping.
“You don’t have to depend on affiliates that too often tend to give less service than you do,” she notes. “And customers like the fact that we are able to provide all forms of ground transportation, from sedans to motorcoaches.”
Rose Chauffeured Transportation
For H.A. Thompson, president of Rose Chauffeured Transportation in Pineville, N.C., evolution into motorcoach business was a form of survival after stretch limos went out of favor in the wake of the recession of 2008. They initially booked motorcoaches with other regional companies for their customers and often got bad service from coach drivers.
They bought their own used motorcoach and the business “took off,” Thompson said, and for one key reason—limo-style customer service.
“We out-served the competition, and today we’re a major player in the motorcoach market in Charlotte,” he says.
Unique Challenges
As Reston Limousine has continued and grown in its motorcoach business, Bouweiri has noticed a couple challenges that are unique from limo service. The first is cost.
“Coach buses are more expensive in every way, so you need to be prepared for every occurrence,” she shares. “Breakdowns, local and out-of-town, need to be covered for service, tows and the backup companies to get the passengers, not to mention the refunds, which are significant due to the higher charges to contract a coach bus.”
Parts need to be available and easily accessible to keep the bus on the road to avoid extended times out of service, which Bouweiri says can be devastating, with lost revenue and the large monthly payments a company needs to cover.
Another challenge comes from the good—the exponential level of growth a limousine service experiences when providing motorcoaches. Once word gets out that a company has a coach, they often get more business than they can handle. That means the need to find solid partners to handle the overflow.
“The challenge is that not all coach companies share your same ‘chauffeured’ transportation approach, so you need to find the right partners and train them on your way,” Bouweiri explains.
Finding and retaining drivers is another challenge, notes Strack. Most come from a transit background, so they have to be trained on the company’s chauffeur service expectations. They also need to be able to drive everything—sedans, vans, mini buses. While it can be a downside, it’s also an upside for drivers who can stay busier and as a result make more money.
“The bus business ebbs and flows,” he points out. “Right now is the tourist season, but we’re not a tour operator. We offer transit. The motorcoach business we have is more on the corporate side, in-town, corporate groups needing transportation or entertaining people in Disneyland, going to Del Mar.”
The Service Difference
The way a company treats its employees is the way the employee will treat the customer, notes Thompson of Rose Chauffeured Transportation.
“Coach drivers lead a team of fifty people,” he says. “They have to know how to turn on the charm. Be helpful and safe getting the customers to and from their destinations. Your product is not the machine, the bus. It’s only a tool to deliver service by well-trained employees.”
Thompson believes that too often coach drivers are treated like truck drivers, which he says is a big mistake.
“They are uniformed, and well-trained, professional chauffeurs,” he says.
In the final analysis, adding motorcoaches to a limo fleet, complete with that level of luxury and service, works—without a doubt.
“We’re not looking to get 50 motorcoaches,” says Strack, “but who knows what the future will bring?”
—Matt Poe
