BY ROB SMENTEK
Let’s face it: When it comes to the best of the best that our country has to offer, naturally the men and women of the armed forces come to mind. And when it comes to transporting this cream of the crop, there are few better suited than the professionals of the luxury ground transportation industry.
Government contract work, whether local or federal, is often considered a score because it tends to be steady, regular, and generally straightforward when it comes to expectations. Currently, departments like the United States Department of Defense (DOD) are looking for qualified operators to handle transportation for military personnel through their Defense Travel Management Office, and operators who are taking part in the federal government bus program are seeing benefits.
According to DOD Bus Program Manager Rhonda Russell, there is a whopping $85 million in transportation opportunities nationwide, and this is only increasing. And although bus work is the largest program in the DOD, there are only 400 operators certified and participating. This simply means that there is plenty of work for operators who are willing to go through the process to get certified.
“Our industry operates 24/7, and DOD loves having that access,” says Park Avenue Limousine Vice President Briana Candeub, who is a certified DOD carrier located in the Philadelphia area.
Ready to get started as a DOD carrier? Learn more about the certification process at travel.dod.mil/Programs/DoD-Bus/.By and large, DOD contract work deals with group moves for military personnel, whether it’s Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, or Space Force. Furthermore, the work is available in all corners of the country from metropolitan cities to the most rural areas.
“It’s very much A-to-B type work,” describes Chicago-based Signature Transportation President Kevin Duff. “Their expectations are much different than a corporate client, meaning they’re not going to look at a bus the same way we do. For instance, if a 2005 MCI shows up or a 2024 H3 shows up, it’s no different to them. Not that you’d want to send an old vehicle; the point is, they’re looking for a straight service from A to B. There are no questions, for example, about charging stations or WiFi. The DOD doesn’t ask for any of that.”
Candeub agrees.
“The majority of DOD work we see is taking troops to and from training at the local military base. We also take military bands to and from competitions, which is fun and cool. Then there are day trips, like going to Six Flags for a day out kind of thing,” she says.
“It’s an opportunity for our industry to not just help our armed forces but to fill gaps in business,” says Duff. For those times when you experience lulls in reservations—whether it’s short-term, like a slow month, or long-term, like a usual seasonal dip—performing DOD work gives certified operators the opportunity to get their vehicles on the road again. The work is consistent and reliable, and all operators need to do is bid on it. Perhaps best of all, you control how much work you’re willing to accept at any given time.
“For a long time, our businesses have struggled with utilization and cyclical bookings,” says Duff. “The government’s booking system allows you to bid on certain dates and times that will allow you to fill that gap. So, you could take an order that moves troops from a base to a city, and you might have another job in that city, so you’re able to fit work into that period. It’s something that’s kind of a blessing because it was a secret of sorts within the motorcoach world.”
With the line between “motorcoach company” and “chauffeured services” blurring, not to mention the number of coach companies that didn’t survive the pandemic, Duff says that these supplemental contracts might be vital for everyone involved.
So, with work being plentiful and demand at a high, is it available for anybody willing and able? Sort of, if you meet the conditions.
“... if you don’t have coaches, it’s not to say you can’t do DOD work. If you’re bidding on a job that requires you to move 50 people, but you don’t have a coach, you could bid using a 30-passenger vehicle and a van.” – Briana Candeub, Vice President of Park Avenue LimousineBecause of the secure nature of moving our nation’s servicepeople, and the federal government’s insistence on safety, there is a rigorous, if not downright challenging, process to receive DOD certification.
“The number one thing the government is looking for from operators is a clean safety record, which means having a Satisfactory rating from the Department of Transportation (DOT). But in addition to that, there’s a whole list of requirements; it’s called their Agreement 5, and it details what you need to become a DOD carrier,” says Candeub.
The DOD Bus Agreement details 11 requirements on their application that range from FMCSA qualifications, to software registration, to detailing equipment, to insurance. All in all, Candeub says that the full process to be certified took close to a year. But while the application is arduous, it isn’t loaded with “gotcha” questions or feats that are impossible for the average business to achieve.
“If you’re a safe operator, you’ll have no trouble getting DOD certified,” says Candeub. “Be patient. It’s just a matter of going through a long process.”
Premiere Transportation President David Brown, who operates in Upstate New York, has been DOD certified for the better part of two decades. While he finds the work rewarding in every sense of the word, he understands the frustration that new candidates may experience when attempting to be part of the program.
“You are really opening yourself up to a lot of audits—not just from DOD but also from DOT,” says Brown. “You have to be willing to have everything checked over. They want to look under the proverbial hood and see what’s going on. Also, you should be prepared for them to go through the books. And it’s just not the numbers; they want to go through personnel files and drug testing. Fortunately, we’ve had no problems in the years we’ve been doing this work.”
“You have to get fingerprinted, background checked, and get certain certificates on your computer that allow you to use the database. Because you have access to very sensitive information, they take that very seriously, which is something that I discovered early on. I kind of like it—it filters out any bad actors,” adds Duff.
DOD just doesn’t offer you diversification for your revenue stream and keep your fleet moving through slow periods, it elevates your company in the eyes of the government, your peers, and your clients.
“It makes you a better company,” says Duff.
More than that, it gives you that extra level of credibility.
“If you’re DOD approved, anyone can contact you,” says Premier Transportation Services CEO Kelly Devlin, whose Dallas-based operation became certified shortly after the pandemic. “If you’re certified, potential clients know you’re a ‘legit’ company. Certainly, not everyone is DOD certified, so we use the fact that we are as a selling point in sales pitches. It shows that you’re both safe and reliable.”
Once certified, the work is booked through a government website called GOPAX, which allows you to bid on scheduled transfers. The software is placed by the DOD on a single computer in the office, only accessed by approved users.
“You need a very secure certificate that’s unique to each device and only one person can access it. A bit of advice, the certificate holder should generally be an owner or someone who isn’t expendable. Let’s say a pandemic hits again and you have to lay people off: you’d have to go through the process of getting a new certificate for someone else—and it takes a while,” says Duff.
“Each day I go on GOPAX and see what jobs/bids are in the area,” says Candeub. “You’ll find out if you won a bid two to four weeks in advance. But they do have ASAP or last-minute bids. Through the work, you do develop great relationships with the Transportation Officers (TOs) who are on each base, and if there’s a last-minute bid, they might email me and say, ‘I just put a job in GOPAX. Can you bid on it?’ Operators can develop a nice rapport with the TOs if you show up on time, and your vehicles are safe and well-maintained.”
In addition to keeping vehicles moving, Candeub says the DOD is reliable when it comes to restitution.
“They pay on time and very well. Most of it is by credit card, although there are some checks and ACH. They generally pay within one week of the job, which is great,” she says.
While DOD work is clearly advantageous, it may not appeal to everyone as it requires a great deal of flexibility in rates and scheduling.
“You can’t expect to get the same price for a motorcoach job through the DOD that you would get from a traditional booking. The driver is still going to make great money, and we’re not operating at a loss by any means, but operators need to understand they cannot price their trips as they would in the luxury transportation world,” says Candeub.
Duff concurs. “The policies and procedures don’t align exactly with what we’re used to in our business.Cancellation policies are vastly different; pricing is vastly different. Again, DOD work is going to increase utilization, it’s not going to fund a business and allow it to thrive with huge profit margins,” he says.
That said, Candeub is seeing a steady volume of DOD work, so much so that she has found the need to adapt her business because the vertical revenue stream has become a rewarding one.
“For me, it has become something of a full-time job, and I’m considering looking for an assistant solely to help me with the DOD work. It’s really become its own department,” she says.
And while most of the work is geared toward operators with motorcoaches, this is not exclusively the case.
“The majority is coach work,” says Candeub. “However, if you don’t have coaches, it’s not to say you can’t do DOD work. If you’re bidding on a job that requires you to move 50 people, but you don’t have a coach, you could bid using a 30-passenger vehicle and a van. You can switch the vehicle types around to meet the job requirements. There are certain jobs—there are very detailed notes on each bid—that will say something along the lines of ‘This must be a motorcoach.’ But otherwise, if it doesn’t have that note, you can make it work with what you have in your fleet. There is some flexibility.” [CD0924]