Last fall before the annual Iowa-Iowa State football game, long-time Hawkeye supporter Bill Rieckhoff came up with an idea for a better tailgate party. He envisioned two large specialty motorcoaches each with extravagant amenities and painted in the school colors of the rival teams. He would park them side by side outside the Iowa University’s Kennick Stadium and entertain partying football fans.
KPS Capital Partners, LP (KPS), New York, NY, announced September 20, its completion of a controlling investment in MCII Holdings, Inc., the parent company of MCI.
The Automotive Lift Institute (ALI), a nationally accredited standards development organization, is an association comprised of responsible automotive lifts manufacturers advances the cause of automotive lift safety in the service and repair industry.
Relying on work habits engrained since childhood and working weekend auctions with his father, Royal Excursions founder Shannon Kaser took a calculated gamble on the transportation business in 1998. Seeing his operation as more than a taxi or limo service, Kaser chose the name to denote a more dynamic style of transportation. Twelve years later Kaser believes he has nailed the concept with his most recent purchase of three all black, unmarked motorcoaches, two of which are 2010 Van Hool C2045Es.
As all-electric buses continue to make greater inroads into the motorcoach and transit industries, the terminology is slowly changing from miles-per-gallon to miles-per-kilowatt. Although the Chinese have been using some form of electric bus for years, an increasing number of agencies in the U.S. are accepting and utilizing all-electric transit vehicles. Fleets now sport sleek, all-electric vehicles with the capacity to save thousands of dollars over a vehicle’s lifetime. Also, technology has improved to the point where recharging can be done in minutes.
The convergence of an Academy Award-winning film and a bus tour operator led to one of the more interesting travel tour destinations in South Dakota. Herman Jones, owner of Mount Rushmore Tours and a reminder of the rugged Old West individualism, forged his longtime dream of building a working town square with the remnants of the original movie set for Kevin Costner’s 1989 film, “Dances with Wolves.”
For years while on his way to work Rick Cibik passed by the yellow school bus parked in the yard of someone’s home on the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation northeast of Phoenix, AZ. As general manager of Fort McDowell Adventures, Cibik hit on an idea to put the old bus to use for the company that offers visitors the Wild West experience. Inspired by “The Mexican Bus” he had heard about in San Francisco, Cibik envisioned a moving party bus for corporate events and special occasions.
The American Bus Association (ABA), Washington D.C. today released the list of its Top 100 Events in North America for 2011, naming the July 21-24 commemoration of the Sesquicentennial of the First Battle of Manassas during the U.S. Civil War the Top U.S. Event, and the Montréal Botanical Garden’s “The Magic of Lanterns” Sept. 9-Oct. 30 the Top Canadian Event.
ARBOC Mobility, Middlebury, IN, worked eight years to perfect its concept of the low-floor paratransit bus it calls the Spirit of Mobility, conceived to provide easy and equal access for all passengers. This year ARBOC Mobility is bringing the exclusive features of the Spirit of Mobility to operators in private markets with its introduction of the Spirit LP.
The typical independent school bus contractor essentially has two customers: the contracting school system and the parents of the pupils being transported. This makes the claim process much more complex as the school bus carrier must consider the needs and requirements of both groups.