Local Bus Charter Service

According to 2009 statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, 1,300 establishments operated in this category in 2007. Industry-wide employment totaled approximately 31,343 workers receiving a payroll of more than $737 million. Companies in this industry tended to be smaller in size, with about 89 percent employing fewer than 100 workers. The 2008 industry leader was Coach USA Inc. of Houston, Texas, with more than $783 million in operating revenue and about 5,000 employees. MV Transportation Inc. of Fairfield, California, was second with $646 million in revenue and 6,100 employees. Overland Park, Kansas-based Laidlaw Transit Services Inc. was third with $212 million in 2005 revenue and 9,000 employees. SuperShuttle International Inc. of Scottsdale, Arizona, specialized in shared-ride door-to-door transportation, and placed fourth with $43 million in 2008 revenue and 1,320 employees.

The local bus charter service industry, whose primary business is in local sightseeing tours and airport shuttle service, grew rapidly after 1982. The number of employees increased from 3,781 in 1982 to 8,782 in 1997, and the number of establishments in the industry grew from 163 to 503 during those years. The average salary for all employees in 1997 was $16,094. By 2001, there were 1,395 establishments, with 33,406 employees and a payroll of $660 million. The number of establishments decreased by 2004 to 1,265, and the number of workers decreased 11 percent, although annual payroll was stable. The mean annual salary for charter bus industry employees in May 2005 was $26,540 with the mean hourly wage at $12.76. Meanwhile, the 18,940 employees who were only bus drivers in the industry received an hourly mean wage of $11.75 with a $24,440 annual mean wage. As of 2007, there were approximately 1,300 establishments operating in this industry, which employed 31,343 employees who earned more than $737 million in pay and generated just under $2.45 billion in revenue.

According to the Motorcoach Census 2005, a report commissioned by the American Bus Association (ABA) to study both American and Canadian charter bus services, about 47 percent of motorcoach mileage was for charter service, 27.4 percent for scheduled service, and 2.1 percent for both sightseeing tours and airport service.

Affiliates of the Denver-based Gray Line Worldwide (a subsidiary of Coach USA), a sightseeing and tour operator association with a global membership of 150 companies, provided charter services and airport transfers across the country to accommodate local niches in more than 50 cities in the United States. For example, Gray Line of San Francisco offered sightseeing expeditions around the city, as well as tours to nearby attractions such as the Napa Valley wine country. It also offered tours in about 10 foreign languages to accommodate international tourists. Gray Line of Alaska offered land tours of Anchorage, Fairbanks, Ketchikan, Skagway, Valdez, and the state's capital of Juneau, some lasting as long as 10 days. In addition to its 27 daily sightseeing tours, Gray Line of Las Vegas did a high volume of business in airport shuttle service.

According to the American Bus Association (ABA), motorcoach transportation is "the safest, most fuel efficient, and least energy intensive" of all types of transportation. The industry also serves as a vital go-between for airport and cruise ship travelers and is often the most affordable option of travel. The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks put a strain on the economy and exacerbated declines that the charter bus industry had already been experiencing, but the ABA indicated that industry outputs began rebounding in 2003, a trend that has continued through the mid-2000s.