LAS VEGAS Sooooooooooooo, whats on the mind of motorcoach operators these days?

Although there were hundreds of them touring the exhibit hall at last months United Motorcoach Association Motorcoach Expo, it wasnt readily apparent that many of them are facing very difficult business challenges.

Instead, they were busy renewing acquaintances, soaking up wisdom imparted during educational forums, listening to pitches from vendors, and getting up-close looks at the new and used coaches, and other gear and services being offered on the show floor.

But pull them aside and theyll readily share what theyre thinking. Heres what a handful had to say:

James Brown Sr. of Magic Carpet Tours Bus Service in Richmond, Va., worries about customers who are playing one coach company off another, and competitors who are playing along by cutting their rates below actual costs to land charter jobs.

"The customers are causing a price war by using my prices to get a bid from other operators. We have not been involved in it, so if someone beats our price then we just let it go because we know the customers will come back when they find out the service the others have is not very good. And besides, those lowballers only will be around for a short time," said Brown.

The high price of new coaches, coupled with the reduced value of buses he has in his fleet that he might want to trade for something new, also has him concerned.

"With new coaches going for $500,000 plus, a lot of operators dont have the money to make their monthly payments. And it gets very hard to deal because there have been a lot of repossessions and the banks will not lend. Overall, though, I think we will overcome all of this, although Joe Public has to realize what s happening and theyll be seeing older buses."

Jeff Greteman, president of WindStar Lines in Carrol, Iowa, said lowballers are also creating problems for his family-owned company.

"We had a three-year contract that we lost because another company undercut our price by 40 percent and, at that price, our good service did not matter to the customer. They asked us to match their price, but we refused. But we are going to have to re-evaluate what were doing," said Greteman.

"Were trying to do more sales and working hard to close each sale. We also paid to move higher up on some Internet search engines, and now are going to have to get a little more involved with our local transit agencies and see about getting some contracts."

Trenton L. Drew, chief operating officer of ACE Charter Service in Surry, Va., is troubled by a variety of problems confronting his company, as well as the motorcoach industry as a whole.

"The price of a new bus is out of a lot of companies reach now and the banks are looking for larger upfront money. It used to be they would ask for just one months payment, but now they want two or more months and some people dont have it."

Drew said competition is widening, too, because the pie is getting smaller and everybody is trying to get a piece of it.

"And seatbelts, well I agree with them because safety is always a good thing, but we hope the government offers some grants or other assistance for retrofitting our buses.

Still, he remains optimistic and predicts customers will be coming back.

"But right now we all have to be patient and deal with it."

Ralph Young of Young Transportation in Asheville, N.C., is another coach company owner who worries about operators that undercut the competition, as well as what impact the federal governments pending mandate that motorcoaches have seatbelts will have on his company and other operators.

"Up to a point we try to be competitive with lowballers and lower our prices, but we wont go to the point that they do. They seem to be willing to do anything so they can meet their payments, but if they keep it up, theyll all go bankrupt," said Young.

He said he does not expect federal regulators to require retrofitting of seatbelts on existing coaches when they announce their seatbelt mandate. But, he believes motorcoach riders probably will.

"If our customers get a coach that has seatbelts on it, theyll demand that they get one with belts the next time they ride. Nobody is going to want to spend $60,000 to retrofit a bus worth $75,000, but if you only have one coach with a seatbelt, youre going to be in big trouble."

The financial pinch he and most other carriers are in now has made him shy away from buying new coaches, and hes OK with that for now.

"If the buses are clean and well maintained, customers really cant tell the year they were built."

Jerry Rosenbaum, co-owner of El PasoLos Angeles Limousine Express in El Paso, Texas, finds the bottom feeders a constant problem with his line company, which runs in Texas, Arizona, California, Colorado and Mexico.

"Weve got some bottom feeders, but we have been dealing with them for a long time. Plus, the economy is hurting us, too, and our business is down because people arent traveling as much as they have in the past. The flu scare also affected our business."

Jim Weber of Personalized Coaches in Waldo, Wis., also is concerned about the seatbelt issue, especially the possibility that customer demands may pressure operators to retrofit some of their coaches if the federal mandate only covers new coaches.

"If we retrofit any of our coaches, who will be liable if there is an accident, me or the persons who did the retrofit? There are a lot of questions here.

"We have not had much trouble with bottom feeders in our area and our charter business is up, while our tour business is down some. Our charters are up because we have a lot of college charters."

Barbara Bayer, manager of Woodlawn Motor Coach Inc. in Baltimore, Md., sees the down economy cutting into her charter business and two huge winter storms on the East Coach this year piled on top her losses.

"We are lucky, though, because we run both charters and school buses. Our charter business is down some and it was just starting to come back when we were hit by big back-to-back snow storms. Our March and April reservations and even into May are looking real good now."

She shrugs off competitors that undercut her rates and believes she eventually will win back any business she might lose to them.

"Bottom feeders are giving us some problems. I would rather lose the business than run for free, so I tell people if they dont have a good trip, then call us the next time."