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Happy New Year – See you at Expo! January 1, 2011 New safety system launched Expert: Don’t ignore new system WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor gram will allow it and other enforcement ASHBURN, Va. — The national roll out “Customers may be looking at this data Carrier Safety Administration says it took a agencies to reach more carriers earlier and of the federal government’s new Compli- when deciding which companies to use, es- major step toward improving commercial deploy a range of corrective interventions to ance Safety Accountability program for op- pecially in passenger movements,” warns bus and truck safety last month with the of- address a carrier’s specific safety problems. erators of commercial vehicles may not Matthew A. Daecher of the Daecher Con- ficial launch of its Compliance Safety Ac- “The CSA program will help us more only make the country’s highways safer but sulting Group. countability system. easily identify unsafe commercial truck and could help alert motorcoach operators im- He said operators can lose business to The centerpiece of CSA is the Safety bus companies,” said U.S. Transportation prove their businesses. competitors who have better statistical data. Measurement System, which analyzes safe- Secretary Ray LaHood. “Better data and tar- Operators who pay close attention to the If they don’t monitor their own information, ty-based violations from inspections and geted enforcement will raise the safety bar expanded carrier data that the safety initia- they will not know which issues are affect- crash data to determine a commercial motor for commercial carriers and empower them tive makes available are likely to benefit, ing their scores and they may miss an oppor- carrier’s on-road performance. to take action before safety problems occur.” while those who ignore it could see their tunity to improve them. The FMCSA says the new safety pro- CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 c businesses take a hit. CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 c FTA awards lift grants UMA Motorcoach Expo 2011 to 128 coach companies WASHINGTON — The Feder- comply with federal accessibility al Transit Administration has regulations. awarded $20 million to 128 motor- “Most of us don’t think twice coach companies across the U.S. to about the simple act of getting on a retrofit buses with wheelchair lifts bus,” said U.S. Transportation Sec- or to help offset the cost of lifts on retary Ray LaHood in announcing new coaches. the latest grants. The amount granted this year is “Yet, for millions who use mo- an increase from previous years as bility devices for independence a major deadline looms for large such as wheelchairs, a broken or line-run operators that must have non-existent lift can interrupt a 100 percent of their fleets wheel- commute to work or cause some- chair accessible by Oct. 29, 2012. one to miss a visit with friends or The requirement applies to family. This investment will ensure fixed-route operators having annu- greater mobility for all.” al revenue of $8.6 million or more. While 86 of the 128 grants, or The wheelchair grant program just over two-thirds, were for less Expo sails into Tampa – Jan. 19-23 has been around for a dozen years than $50,000 to pay for a single and has awarded tens of millions of wheelchair lift, Greyhound Lines, Special Preview Inside dollars to operators to help them CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 c New owners pointing MCI down a debt-free highway SCHAUMBURG, Ill. — When tives with KPS say the New York- great pride in their operational and tries, the leading maker of transit erased a pile of debt that for years KPS Partners purchased Motor based investment group isn’t one manufacturing expertise,” notes buses in North America. Less than kept MCI’s balance sheet out of Coach Industries in September, to put a little money into a business company spokesman Mark Semer. two years later it sold the company whack and kept its bottom line red. some in the industry worried the and then sit back and hope for the And getting heavily involved is for $200 million. It then named one of its top work- new owner would be just another best. exactly what the group plans to do Such a remarkable gain — in ing partners, Jay Bernstein, chair- caretaker that would baby sit the Instead, the firm has a reputa- at MCI. the bus industry — could not have man of the board. And, a few weeks company for a while and then sell it. tion of being very hands on with If all goes well, the investment been possible had KPS not gotten later, it made two more manage- After all, MCI has had three its investment properties. firm might even produce results highly involved in all aspects of ment changes, including bringing different owners during the past “The KPS team considers similar to those it got from its last the business and the industry. That in a new president, Rick Heller. three years. themselves industrialists first -- foray into bus manufacturing. approach has been adopted at In the eyes of the KPS execu- Although selling at some point specialists in operations who hap- In 2002, KPS paid $27.5 mil- MCI, as well. tives, the importance of MCI’s is not out of the question, execu- pen to have a fund, and they take lion to acquire New Flyer Indus- KPS’ purchase arrangement CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 c Affordable Luxury Setra Certified To learn more about Setra Certified Pre-Owned please visit: Pre-Owned www.setra-coaches.com ABC & PArtners United in oUr Vision to sUpport operator excellence. Bus & Motorcoach News INDUSTRY NEWS January 1, 2011 3 Initial business seminar Auction set for Berg companies SEATTLE — A federal bank- offer from corporate hospitality could attract other bidders for the called success by UMA ruptcy judge has set Jan. 12 as the entrepreneur H.S. Wright III, who companies, but that is by no means ASHBURN, Va. — Motor- Included were: building a date for a court-supervised auction is seeking to buy four of the com- certain. coach operators got a high-octane business plan, your accountant of the motorcoach companies once panies and keep them running. Berg faces federal fraud charg- infusion of information on im- and you, basic business law, basic owned by Darren Berg. Wright is offering $5.5 million es related to the collapsed funds he proving their businesses at the in- marketing, business ethnics, the U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Karen to buy Berg’s Meridian Transpor- created and managed. He is ac- augural UMA Business Manage- right pricing, safety is good busi- Overstreet had considered shutting tation Resources (MTR) Western cused of operating a decade-long ment Seminar held here last month ness, and cash flow analysis. down the coach companies and liq- bus companies, which operate in Ponzi scheme. at the National Transportation Among the instructors were: uidating their assets to collect the Seattle, Portland and several other A bankruptcy trustee says he Safety Board training center. Chris Ripley, business professor at highest return for creditors, which western U.S. and Canadian cities. diverted about $75 million from And they apparently felt em- the College of Southern Maryland; include investors in Berg’s defunct That is up from Wright’s previ- his Meridian Funds to help finance powered by what they heard. Ted Williford, a certified public ac- “We got very good feedback countant; attorney Dan Mastromar- Meridian investment funds. ous offer of up to $5.25 million. the bus companies. from the people who attended the co; Eric Elliot of BusRates.com; But late last month Overstreet A separate offer has been made Berg has pleaded not guilty to seminar,” said Victor Parra, presi- Mike Denny of Motor Coach Indus- ordered the auction after bids from for Berg’s other company, Oregon the criminal charges. (See Dec. 15, dent and chief executive of the Unit- tries; Robert Crescenzo, vice presi- several companies interested in Coachways. Dec. 1, Nov. 1 and Aug. 15 issues ed Motorcoach Association, which dent of Lancer Insurance, and Ken buying buses came in less than an The bankruptcy court auction of Bus & Motorcoach News.) co-hosted the event with the Bus & Presley, vice president of UMA. Motorcoach Academy and Clarence “The subjects were comprehen- Cornell School of Business. sive and offered real-world applica- Diesel fuel premium to continue He said the two-day seminar, tion for the bus and motorcoach WASHINGTON — Retail die- age for gasoline. The highest diesel Now, USDOE data show, retail which attracted about two-dozen industry from a first-class lineup of sel fuel sold at a premium over premium during 2010 came on Nov. diesel is almost always more ex- motorcoach operators and execu- instructors,” noted Presley. “The in- gasoline throughout 2010, and pe- 29, when diesel was 30.6 cents a gal- pensive than gasoline. tives, went off so well and re- tention was for participants to take troleum analysts say global com- lon more expensive than gasoline. When USDOE began its week- ceived such good reviews from at- away ideas that could increase rev- petition for the motorcoach indus- The gap had not been so pro- ly survey of filling stations in tendees that plans are in the works enue and profitability.” try’s main fuel likely means that nounced since February 2009, ac- 1994, diesel and gas prices tracked for a second seminar in 2011. Each participant received a will not change anytime soon. cording to USDOE data. one another quite closely. It was “It was very successful for our certificate from the academy. “There’s really one reason” for For decades diesel was a refin- not until 1996 that DOE’s weekly first one,” he said.

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