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As companies look ahead to the future of business, the United Motorcoach Association (UMA) has created a major online training event to guide motorcoach owners and team members as they prepare to restart following an unprecedented shutdown. The Bus & Motorcoach Virtual Summit: Ready. Aim. RESTART—scheduled for June 17-19—will bring expert business consultants together with motorcoach operators to help each participant build their own roadmap forward. A unique aspect of this event will be expert-led follow-up sessions at four-, eight-, and 12-week intervals so participants can stay engaged and on track as they move through the stages of restarting their businesses.
“This event is going to empower and motivate operators in a way that is just what they need right now as they prepare for what’s next,” says UMA President and CEO Larry Killingsworth. “Our Summit is laser-focused on providing the tools and strategies every company will need moving forward.”
Bruce Heinrich of PAX Training
The sessions will take place in three-hour blocks beginning at 1 p.m. ET each day. The Virtual Summit will provide a combination of expert presentations, panel discussions, and breakout sessions. Participants will come away knowing the information and strategies they need to create their roadmap to the future.
Among the speakers are Bruce Heinrich and James Blain of PAX Training, who also spoke at the 2020 CD/NLA Show in Las Vegas this past February, as well as UMA Town Hall frequent contributor Jim McCann of Spader Business Management.
The Virtual Summit is $99 per individual for members ($169 for non-members). To encourage teams to participate, UMA members can register a team of up to five people from the same company for $199.
Visit uma.org/summit for more information and to register.
[06.08.20]
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With the COVID-19 epidemic wreaking havoc on the chauffeured transportation industry, it’s not only operators and builders dealing with the effects. Vendors who work closely and even tangentially with the industry have also been devastated by the shutdown caused by the pandemic.
Arthur Messina of Create-A-Card
Virtually overnight, Create-A-Card founders Arthur and Kathy Messina, who built a career by supplying business cards and marketing materials to the industry, found themselves without clients to service.
“With no one traveling or conducting business, our clients didn’t need business cards or mailers,” says Arthur.
Like so many other businesses struggling to stay afloat, Create-A-Card shifted gears to provide safety and sanitization products for their client base. Arthur says he took the cue after seeing local distilleries distributing hand sanitizer instead of spirits. With hand sanitizer, gloves, and especially masks high in demand, particularly for the service industry, the Messinas saw a way they could help.
“Different companies that lost revenue had to retool their businesses. These days we’re all into this “re” concept—RE-brand, RE-start, RE-fresh,” says Arthur. “We could have sat on our laurels, closed the office, and not answered the phones. But our clients were looking for safety products for their employees and customers, and we chose to stay active and help them.”
The Messinas worked with local vendors to provide a selection of masks and mini hand sanitizers that could be branded with a company logo. Safety kits for passengers and employees containing masks, sanitizers, wipes, and gloves, have been increasingly popular for Create-A-Card clients. However, with peak demand, providing the items was challenging in the early days of the pandemic.
“It was like the precious metals market: each day the price would change,” laughs Messina. “We’d quote a client, and by the time the order was processed, we’d be out of stock. Fortunately, now that it’s June, the stuff that was coming from overseas is hitting our shores. Prices are finally dropping.”
Create-A-Card has continued to expand their safety product line by offering Safe & Sealed labels to their customers. These labels are removable, tamper-evident seals that can be affixed between the door and the body of a vehicle. When the seal is pulled free, it reveals a “void” text on both sides of the sticker, ensuring the passenger that the car has been unoccupied after being cleaned or sanitized. Messina says the labels can be customized with your logo and any desired text to create peace of mind for your clients.
Like Create-A-Card, their sister company Driving Results peer groups had to change with the times. Traditionally, the Spinning Wheels and Going Global groups would be traveling to cities across the country for peer-to-peer education, networking, and fun. Unfortunately, the travel restrictions (and business decline) currently in effect have put the Going Global affiliate manager groups on hold until 2021. Meanwhile, however, Spinning Wheels members have continued to meet regularly via Zoom meetings. Not only do these events allow the members to keep up with news and commiserate, they also provide the education that Driving Results is known for.
“We’ve been able to bring some speakers on, including CD Publisher Chris Weiss and Kristen Carroll of The LMC Groups, along with other guests to educate the members,” says Arthur. “We recently had Matt Daus of Windels Marx and IATR speak to the group. By doing these Zoom meetings, I’m staying in front of my clients. To me, that’s important. The group environment is a plus—they offer support for each other.”
While COVID-19 has presented the ground transportation industry, and its associates, with an unprecedented set of challenges, the Messinas are confident that the storm will pass and the industry will survive. At the very least, Arthur believes that recent events will serve as a learning experience for operators to strategize.
“We’ve been in business for more than 30 years through the ups and downs. This is the craziest of the ups and downs, but it’s not going to devastate us. Fortunately, we’ve always run our business with the right mindset. If you plan and strategize, you’ll be able to survive.”
Visit createacardinc.com for more information.
[06.09.20]
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Alliance Bus Group, one of the nation’s leading supplier of bus transportation products, is now offering an extensive line of products designed specifically to enable operators to protect their passengers and drivers from COVID-19 within their vehicles.
Alliance’s comprehensive protection plan covers all high-contact areas involved with transporting passengers in an effort to provide the safest possible transportation environment.
"Whether you’re concerned about decontaminating all contact areas within the bus, protecting the driver, reducing passenger exposure via contact points and re-circulating air, or all of the above, we have tools available to assist you in safely running your operation," said Executive Vice President Andy Rolfe.
He continues, “A big part of our ‘Along for the Whole Ride’ philosophy is anticipating our customers’ needs and reacting accordingly. We hope these safety systems can help passengers and drivers see the commitment all operators place on health and safety and ultimately lead to improved ridership levels and more transportation across the country in these unprecedented times.”
According to Alliance, their system utilizes a four-step ‘Green Light’ methodology that begins with a thorough decontamination of the vehicle using a true gas that is most effective in penetrating all areas. Step two is ensuring the driver is protected utilizing an adaptable and customizable enclosure. The passenger area is also retro-fitted to ensure social distancing as well as making obvious recommended best practices. Finally, A/C purification systems make sure air that is re-circulated is as clean and safe as possible in the current operating environment.
These solutions are applicable to all types of vehicles—including mobility vans, shuttle buses, tour coaches, and paratransit buses—and across all industries.
Alliance continues to stay on top of the latest emerging trends and technologies in transportation and will be updating the website busstopcoronavirus.com in real time as more information becomes available.
Visit busstopcoronavirus.com or call 855.791.0060 for more information.
[06.05.20]