- Details
- Category: Industry News
Des Plaines, Ill. —Motor Coach Industries (MCI) has delivered six new MCI J4500 coaches to long-time customer Anchor Transportation.
Based in the upcoming 2020 UMA Motorcoach Expo hometown of Nashville (January 19-23), Anchor recently inaugurated the J4500 model into its fleet, adding a total of 13 amenity-filled J4500s over the past two years, increasing its fleet size and capacity.
“We’ve introducing the J4500, which is a new model for us, to better meet the demands of our clients,” said Ancor Vice President and General Manager Jared Stancil. “We like the luxurious wow factor the model offers our passengers, and both our university and tour clients are pleased with the large luggage bays, the unique stairwell entry, and the spacious seating and good-looking interior.”
Anchor’s newest J4500s carry full entertainment systems, in-cabin Wi-Fi and power outlets at every seat, woodgrain flooring, and backup cameras.
Anchor, with over 90 motor coaches and minibuses, is a Top 50 passenger carrier as ranked by METRO Magazine. The company was founded in 1989 by Drs. John and Yullie Stancil in Murfreesboro, Tenn. They applied their set of core values to start a business with a single coach so area church groups could travel where they’d like. More coaches followed, as did a move to Nashville. Their nephew Jared joined the growing company in 1999, learning the business from the ground up and paving a future path by continuing his relatives’ passion for service while expanding into surrounding states.
This customer- and employee-centric company works with students, churches, military personnel, and with shuttle system clients at airports, convention centers, hotels, special events and park-and-ride locations. It now employs 175 employees in multiple office locations including a 10-acre headquarters site and facilities in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama.
Its fleet include a mix of newer and older coaches to maximize fleet productivity and profitability and a significant number of those coaches have been built by MCI.
“We learned very early that investing in quality is essential to building a company,” said Stancil, “You’re not only transporting people. Investing in the best equipment gives you a reputation for reliability, too.”
Safety is a high priority. Anchor has won the President’s Circle Award for Risk Control from TRAX Insurance for three consecutive years. The TRAX Award is given to only a few operators for their safety procedures, policies and facilities, participation in risk management and safety workshops, compliance with OSHA regulations and overall accident record.
In other news, Royal Coach Tour of San Jose, Calif., is marking its upcoming 60th anniversary year with a recent delivery of a 2020 MCI J4500 coach.
Royal Coach has served the Bay Area since 1960 and now operates a fleet of 97 vehicles. In 1999, Royal Coach pioneered now-common employee transportation coach service in the Silicon Valley to help a major employer cut the use of cars. Royal Coach Tours gives daily rides to thousands of this client’s employees from several pick-up locations around the Bay Area, dedicating 50 of its 97 coaches to the service.
And befitting the technology industry, this client’s employees can track the on-time performance of their coach by app.
And Royal Coach is expanding, recently opening a second location in Las Vegas. Its new Nevada base serves the tourism and entertainment capital and nearby destinations including the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, and Red Rock Canyon.
“We want to be a strong, regionally based presence in both our Bay Area and Las Vegas locations,” said Royal Coach President Sandy Allen, who is the second generation to run the family business with her brother Dan Smith. “We’ll offer the same services in both cities, including corporate shuttles, special events, weddings, airport transfers and expanded excursions to popular nearby destinations.”
In the Bay Area, Royal offers trips to several Northern California destinations, such as Napa Valley, the Monterey Bay Area, Santa Cruz, and the Central Coast, as well as longer trips to Sacramento, Los Angeles, Reno, Lake Tahoe, and, of course, Las Vegas.
Allen’s team ordered its newest J4500 for its industry- leading legroom and all the latest features. The 2020 J4500 offers the new, next-generation, lighter weight Cummins X12 engine and a new e-Fan system for even greater gains in fuel economy. Royal added such optional amenities as power outlets at every seat, customized interior lighting for groups and special branding and MCI’s latest Advance Driver Assistance System (ADAS) package to assist drivers on the road with the most advanced collision mitigation technology available in today’s motor coach industry.
“We waited for the new Cummins engine and we like the direction MCI is taking with the improvements they have made to the J4500,” said Allen. For most of its history, Royal Coach has bought MCI models with the luxurious J4500 used exclusively on its employee transportation routes.
“We’re very proud to serve Royal,” said MCI Vice President of New Coach Sales Patricia Ziska. “And like all current and future MCI customers, we’re dedicated to serving Royal reliably. MCI’s history with Sandy Allen and Dan Smith extends back to the 80s, and we are thrilled to celebrate their 60th anniversary with the delivery of their latest new high-end J4500 for operation in their Las Vegas office.”
Visit mcicoach.com for more information.
[CD1119]
- Details
- Category: Industry News
Marlton, N.J. —The NLA is proud to share that the op-ed "Uber Must Stop Veering From the Truth" by NLA President Gary Buffo has been featured by the San Francisco Chronicle—the largest newspaper in northern California and the second largest on the West Coast.
The article questions Uber's main arguments against CA AB-5 and request Uber to corroborate its position with proof. “Uber claims its drivers don’t want Assembly Bill 5, even though every other sign points otherwise, so it’s time for Uber to show us the receipts," stated Buffo.
The full article can also be accessed here, and is also included below:
“Uber claims its drivers don’t want Assembly Bill 5, even though every other sign points otherwise, so it’s time for Uber to show us the receipts.
For context, a little over a month ago AB5, also known as the Gig Economy Workers Bill, was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to the applause of workers’ organizations and business owners around the country. The bill was one of the most definitive actions yet by a state government to protect vulnerable workers against companies that have actively worked to misclassify them as independent contractors.
Of these companies, the most prominent among them has been Uber, which spent millions of dollars lobbying against the legislation, launched targeted misinformation campaigns toward its drivers and the public, and is still working to weasel out of the law’s jurisdiction.
Behind this maneuvering, Uber maintains two arguments: the first is that the law doesn’t apply to its business because it’s a technology platform rather than a ride-hailing service, and by extension that its “drivers’ work is outside the usual course of Uber’s business.”
This positioning not only runs counter to the obvious truth, but also to Uber’s boilerplate response to any negative story on its labor record: “Drivers are at the heart of our service — we can’t succeed without them.” Uber today is rapidly diversifying and integrating the various parts of its business to demonstrate its lack of a “heart,” as seen by its grocery acquisition, new inefficient helicopter service, expansion into a hiring business, Uber Freight expansion, and recent app overhaul and integration between Uber and Uber Eats.
The second and even more dubious argument Uber maintains is that, while the law does not apply to its model, if it did, its drivers still ultimately do not wish to be classified as employees.
This argument flies in the face of the massive nationwide protests by ride-hail drivers demanding employee classification. In fact, this audacious claim is supported only by official Uber statements and Uber-funded groups.
One of the most recent of these claims was when Uber purported that its drivers expressed, “through focus groups and surveys, that they don’t want to be employees.”
The company makes this claim in the context of having been bribing a Florida politician, hiding massive user data breaches in 2017, and being widely accredited with inspiring AB5 by its inability to protect and properly pay its workers. This is a transportation company that has so poorly protected its passengers that it opted to add a panic button to the app rather than adopt comprehensive fingerprint-based background checks nationwide.
We call upon Uber to simply release the focus group footage and survey questions, along with their associated contexts. We believe it will be immediately evident how exactly it manipulated its workers and subsequently shaped their responses.
It is plainly obvious that while drivers are at the core of Uber’s business model, truth and righteousness are not.
So, Uber, show us your receipts.”
Visit limo.org for more information.
[CD1119]
- Details
- Category: Industry News
Greensboro, N.C. — Prevost is pleased to announce Mitch Guralnick as director of pre-owned coach sales. Guralnick joins the Prevost family with more than 40 years of experience in the transportation industry.
His professional experience includes a year at CCW as director of business development and a stint at MCI as vice president of pre-owned coach sales from 1999 until his retirement. Guralnick was also the president of White Bus Company—a tour, charter and contract operator—until 1998 when he sold the company.
As director of pre-owned coach sales, Guralnick will provide a high level of expertise in his new role at Prevost and will be responsible for leading and supporting the pre-owned sales force while exploring new business avenues to further the Prevost brand.
“We are thrilled to welcome Mitch to the Prevost family,” says Director of Pre-Owned Business Guillaume Charron Sr. “This is well in line with the plan we put in place a year ago to ensure Prevost can offer our customers a host of quality pre-owned products in every region and deliver on their specific requests.”
Guralnick not only brings a wealth of industry knowledge to the Prevost organization, but will also be a great motivator to the sales team. With his extensive background, the company anticipates that he will help exceed customer expectations for Prevost, a manufacturer of premium intercity touring coaches and leader in the production of conversion coaches.
“I am thrilled to start this new chapter with Prevost and am excited to join this prestigious sales team,” says Guralnick. “My goal as director of pre-owned coach sales is to help assist the sales team in reaching our highest potential and to deepen relationships with our customers, whether they are first-time buyers or standing customers.”
Visit prevostcar.com for more information.
[CD1119]