Metro Magazine, December 2020

8 METRO MAGAZINE COM FACT BOOK 2021 things today and there is still great interest We get about 300 people for each of our Town Halls on average so those have really been essential in helping our members stay connected And it is not just our members we are not exclusive in that regard Our Chairman Jeff Polzien and the board were very prescient and decided early on to make our operator member dues complimentary for the balance of 2020 which has been appreciated by our members and has helped expand our membership by about 15 to 20 percent Getting back to your question about our members painfully the industry is still functioning at about 10 percent of its typical volume and that is spiking up and down currently Some people in our industry have had to mothball their company for now and plan to reactivate when the time comes Others are handling onesie twosie requests while some are doing better than that depending on the segment like moving sports teams for instance But overall across the board we are still at about 10 of our normal level of business which is just devastating So is the steadier business right now involve sports and military moves What about those operators that provide commuter services Some commuter services are staying steady Hurricane relief has been something we have done But consistently I would say military and sports as well as a few church and family events where they felt safe moving with less density on the motorcoach We have been encouraging our operators to move beyond just charter and become more proactive in exploring tours if they have not looked at that possibility before We have been telling them that because we believe when business is back that there will be more domestic travel than ever before at least for the initial couple of years Initially there was a lot of fight and encouragement from operators to move forward after the pandemic Are you sensing any discouragement from your members or the industry today Well first it is very frustrating that Congress could not get together enough to create a second CARES Act especially since 62 percent of the House and 60 percent of the Senate have signed on to support our CERTS legislation We have the broadest support ever in our industry and we feel that the 10 billion that the motorcoach school bus and U S based vessel industries are asking for is a much smaller number than other industries have sought or received but it needs to be attached to another piece of legislation Because of the Congressional support we are cautiously optimistic that something can get done during this lame duck session There is also broad agreement on both sides that there needs to be another round of PPP which helped about 85 percent of our members the first time around You said cautiously optimistic about the CERTS Act Can you elaborate a bit on that Sure I am cautiously optimistic that Congress can get something done during the lame duck session which is about seven weeks from today It will ultimately be up to them to find the wherewithal to get something done Yet if I can shift gears a bit while I am cautiously optimistic that the CERTS Act will be passed I am very optimistic that there will be a second round of relief and that the motorcoach industry will be included in it It is just a matter of timing because for many of our operators it is a week to week battle right now We have had a lot of support from the lenders insurance companies and vendors who have all pulled together to help our industry get through this but now we need Congress to step up as well One of the silver linings of this whole thing if there is one is that the industry has grown closer together and become more like family than ever before I could not agree more When I first got involved in the industry in May 2004 my consulting firm was brought in to help MCI sustain and grow its market share During that process I interviewed Pat Ziska who told me that the industry is like one big happy family and I thought sure most people think their industry is like one big happy family But you know what it is true I have told her many times that she was so right because this is a very connected group of people that have gone to battle with each other and won some of those battles But despite that they are even more connected today than they have ever been How do you feel President Elect Biden could impact the industry Well I think a lot will depend on what happens in the Senate which as of now is still up in the air But the number one positive is just getting the elections behind us With all that was going on many politicians were more concerned with their own survival rather than thinking about what is right for our country Now that the elections are behind us I think we will see movement toward a second CARES Act and more of a priority on getting the virus under control and moving our economy forward So not to get political but I think just having the elections over will bring some better decision making to the forefront What do you think are the biggest lessons learned by the industry from the pandemic First I think they have learned to prepare their companies for the unknown and have contingency plans in place so they can survive a major crisis Second I think our operators have learned that they must diversify their businesses and broaden their customer base so they are not just sitting around waiting for charter customers to call Lastly we learned that as an industry we need to educate the public and our elected officials about the critical role our industry plays in everything from evacuations to military moves And we need to emphasize that todays motorcoaches are among the cleanest greenest and safest modes of transportation What has it been like to lead the UMA during this difficult time Well it has been very fulfilling to be able to give back to this industry My career in both consulting and leading companies has prepared me for crisis management In some cases crises that I wish I did not have SPECIAL REPORT MOTORCOACH FlixBus Like the airline industry scheduled services like Greyhound Megabus and FlixBus are currently operating at about 25 capacity