In unyielding market conditions, bus and motorcoach operators are casting a wide net in an effort to strengthen performance and improve the bottom line. One area executives can make improvements is in commercial insurance programs.
Earlier this year Guide Dogs for the Blind, Concord, CA, took its puppies on its annual extracurricular training mission to The County Connection, for further training and practice on the intricacies of exiting transit buses, how to enter and exit using ramps and lifts. As Guide Dogs for the Blind they will learn to assist their partner, board the bus and take a seat while ignoring any distractions from other passengers or vehicle sounds. County Connection community relations director Marie Knutson says the dogs and trainers are one her favorite groups that visit the transit agency.
One stormy day in June in Pinellas County, FL, PSTA bus driver Don Dillon drove by a large palm tree burning after a lightning strike next to a home and immediately pulled over to report the fire to his dispatch. He then ran and knocked on the door, hopped the fence and banged on the back windows.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) uses the word reincarnated to describe out of service operators who have returned in no better shape than when they left to do business under a new identity.
For about a week I had been hearing a high-pitched whistling noise coming from an S-60 engine. I inspected it and drove it personally, but was still unable to locate the source. With a little more probing, I eventually diagnosed the disturbing noise as coming from the air intake system on the engine.
Sofia is a city of around 1.2 million people, situated towards the western end of a country of 7.4 million. Bulgaria became part of the Soviet Bloc in 1946 until it gained independence in 1991. The country and its neighbor Romania were the last two countries to join the European Union in January 2007.
This could easily be the best of times and the worst of times. Change is in the air and so is the way Americans think about public transportation. Transit ridership is up and the demand remains high. The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) reports more than 2.6 billion trips on public transportation in the first quarter of 2009.
It has been almost three years since Bus and Coach International (BCI) debuted the Falcon 45 at the UMA Expo in New Orleans. Now with close to 120 units in the United States accruing more than 5,000,000 fleet miles much of the skepticism surrounding the introduction of this new full-sized motorcoach has ebbed.
Years ago when part-time driver Gene Mitchell was the crew chief for Purdue University Bus Department, he coined the saying, Anyone can get a bus anywhere, but no one can buy the kind of service that comes from someone who truly cares.
Gray Line Washington D.C., a division of the Martz Group, is out with its new tour program, A Taste of D.C. Martz says the product offers extra value in a new format that enables Gray Line customers to see more of the nation’s capitol more cost effectively.