Holiday Tours

67of their H3-45model buses in our fleet.This way,our mechanics don’t have toworkon 3 or 4 different manufacturers of vehicles.They’re looking at the same type of vehicle day in and dayout,which gives themamore focused knowledge base in order to fixa bus.” Moody reports that HolidayTour buses are well-maintained.“Andwe do several renova- tions on the bus during that time tomake sure it stays up to our standards,”he says.“And that’s really the thing.You take a bus,maintain it,clean it every single time it goes out on the road,and then you have a vehicle you can be proud of. I have peoplewho get on a bus of ours that’s 5-10 years old,and they’re talking about how newit looks it comparison to a competitor that doesn’t do those things,likewaxing the outside of the vehicle every sixmonths tomaintain that gloss,or doesn’t switch out seats tomake sure the fabric still smells new.We’ve got buses that we could parkbeside some of our competitors that are onlya couple of years old,and you would still think that ours is a newer vehicle.” Holidaycontinues to purchase a number of vehicles each year to keep newbuses rolling into the fleet. What actually is newin themotor coachmar- ket,Moodyexplains,is a recent federal mandate requiring the installation of an ELD,an electron- ic logging device,on every single vehicle in the fleet.“Instead of the drivers recording on paper what theydo each day,themiles,the hours,how long each trip took,it is all going to be digitized and linkedwith the GPS tracking unit on the vehicle.So,if a customer ever questions where a bus is at,or what time it will arrive,we’ll have PREFERRED VENDOR n Toyo Tires www.toyotires.com HOLIDAY TOURS better details to answer the questions,as well as to respond if there ever is an issue on the road.We do every step in preventativemaintenance that we can tomake sure theykeep rolling,but parts just fail,occasional- ly.So,when that happens,andwe do have a situation on the road,by that electronic logging device,wewill actuallyknowit as it’s occurring,rather thanwaiting on the driver to call us and alert us of the issue.” In addition,when responding to on-road issues,Moody says the com- panyalso relies on its partnerships with other motor coach companies, via its participation in the UMA(UnitedMotorcoachAssociation),the IMG (International Motorcoach Group),theNorth CarolinaMotor CoachAsso- ciation,as well as other groups.“So,if we’re in themiddle of nowhere,I don’t have to look for a bus company to help.I knowexactlywho to call and I knowwhat their number is.” “We have retained the focus on being the best at customer service,”Moody says.“We have 160-plus,full-time and part-time drivers who treat their groups the best theycan.We have 20 to 30 people in our mechanic and cleaning teams that keep the ve- hiclesmaintained.We also have a ten-member operations team that directlyhandles the details for the drivers.Andwe’re going tomain- tain a focus on safety tomake sure that when you’re out with us, you don’t have toworryabout the vehicle or the details or the driv- ing.You can sit backand relax,and we’ll take care of everything.”