Can't see the Forrest for the trees
Forrest Gump is one of my heroes…
What a guy… heroic when necessary, and while not stylish, he was courageous without swagger and wise without being glib… there when you needed him.
Has it occurred to you that we, as an industry are a bit like Forrest? Since the 1914 WWI Battle of the Marne, when the French used 600 taxis to rush troops to the front… and save Paris from a German onslaught… there have been few significant events in Western Civilization that haven’t involved buses.
This may be stretching a bit… but back then taxi’s and buses were sort of overlapping technologies, and they stuffed more than 8 soldiers in each vehicle. That ain’t a cab, it’s a minibus, and without them the French would be speaking German.
SACRE BLEU!!
In case you’re facing an invading army… the total bill to move 5,000 soldiers was about $300,000 in today’s dollars. Wonder if they tipped?
When improved roads made it possible, buses became active in virtually every event that has impacted society.
We moved troops during wartime. We contributed mightily to the Civil Rights Movement. Many who heard Martin Luther King Jr’s transformative “Dream” speech got there by bus. The Freedom Riders rode Greyhound and Trailways, and the Negro baseball leagues traveled by bus, as did the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.
We are a hidden treasure, an emergency national strategic reserve that costs the public nothing except when it is used. Indeed, during normal times we pay taxes and more than carry our weight.
When a hurricane is imminent do they bring in fleets of trains? Nah… buses. During 9/11 airplanes were grounded, but buses carried on. Want to get firefighters to a forest fire, crews get there by bus.
Highway coaches are the only viable rescue mode in many situations. During Hurricane Katrina New Orlean’s transit fleet sat underwater, while private sector coaches helped evacuate.
As transit fleets move towards new technology that makes them more “green” they become less useful as rescue vehicles. There is little infrastructure for CNG vehicles outside cities, and battery buses have short range, take hours to charge and are useless during power outages (as California discovered when they shut down power to mitigate brush fires)
There was a recent National Geographic documentary called “World Without Humans”… but a world without coaches is almost as difficult to imagine. Good grief… if highway buses disappear we’d have no casinos.
Just like Forrest Gump… whenever anything is happening, we’re there, even folks who sneer at riding buses benefit from our contribution to reducing traffic, and cleaner air. We’re the ones who can get them out of harms’ way.
All too often we succumb to the perception that we’re transportation’s lowest common denominator… when in fact, without us, none of the rest of it would work.
When you’re having a bad day, remember that without you roads would be congested, air would be nasty, many people wouldn’t be at work or school, and slot machines would remain silent. Ballparks would be deserted, and pro athletes and entertainers would have to take real jobs. The skies would be empty, because aircrews couldn’t reach their planes.
The movements that continue to shape our democracy like the Women’s March on Washington, the Million Man March and Make America Great Again would shrivel. If that’s not enough… remember Elvis had a bus… and he loved it.
We really are the Forrest Gump of transportation. We’re everywhere. Trustworthy, grounded (a pesky pun) and in our quiet way making a major contribution to society’s well-being, and safety. We aren’t pretty, but we safely transport more people more places than anyone. Maybe we’re victims of our own success, so consistently reliable that we’re virtually invisible.
That has to change. There are just over 32,000 coaches in this country, and by many accounts 31,000 are sitting idle because of the coronavirus. Over the years we have never looked for handouts, and paid a ton of taxes. Most of our efforts have been aimed at asking the government to leave us alone.
It would be understating to say that the pandemic has decimated the private sector coach business. “Decimate” implies 10%, when it is possible that we will lose more than 50% of our operators.
We can’t afford to be the Rodney Dangerfield of industries. It is in the best interest of our country to pay us the respect that is due.
If the government doesn’t grant significant relief, and soon… at the next major disaster we won’t be there to help. Hundreds, maybe thousands may die.
Perhaps worse, without a healthy private sector motorcoach industry, when society reboots more people will be forced to travel by car. That adds to pollution and congestion, automobiles are not nearly as safe as a buses. More people will die, or be injured, in highway accidents.
We need immediate aid to rescue belabored operators… and when this is over, we need to do a much better job of making sure the nation knows how important we are.
Life IS like a box of chocolates… you never know what you’re gonna get. BUT we can be sure that there will be future catastrophes, but if Congress doesn’t act… we may not have a bus fleet to help rescue folks.
