In the latter 1990s when the first low-fare bus service from Chinatown in new york to Chinatown in Boston started running, few would have predicted the impact it would have had on the bus industry as a whole. This wasn’t a service that was sold to the public. It was meant to appeal to a targeted group of people–recent Chinese immigrants–who required an inexpensive way to travel between the two cities to visit family, shop, or work. The expansion of this phenomenon was organic. The general public heard about the’Chinatown bus’ thru word of mouth. It caught on quickly and soon the market was flooded with other companies offering similar service on a range of routes.
it might be wrong to assert that the only reason that these firms succeeded was due to price . Certainly this was the main enticement for travelers. However, it has to be recounted the service the standard bus carriers was offering was ripe for competition. Honestly were the ‘full service’ offerings of the traditional bus firms worth a premium? Hardly. Shopper service lacked on each level, bus stations did not provide a cosy waiting area, buses were regularly tacky and service was plagued by delays.
Years after the arrival of this first New York to Boston route, it is worth examining how it has led to the bus industry to develop as a whole. Overall, it sort of feels like the independent companies and the conventional carriers are meeting somewhere in the middle. Independent carriers have offered more facilities, stick to closer to safety standards and regulations, and increase fares. At the same time, the standard carriers have been made to offer wildly competitive pricing and typically tighten up their operations. Greyhound and its partners have a tendency to offer the most competitive pricing on the popular New York-Boston and New York -DC routes. Further, these routes are the only ones for which online customers don’t have to pay the hefty $4 online booking surcharge usually imposed at Greyhound’s web site. They heavily promote this discounted pricing and it sometimes requires customers to book ahead online ( buying tickets at the time of exit can be nearly twice as costly as via their website ).
What about safety standards? This is the most argumentative point of discussion in the industry. There are numerous reports of safety violations and certainly anecdotal accounts of poor safety practices. it does not appear that the real safety records of these firms are actually worse than other bus carriers that are dependent on the same federal regulations. Thanks to intense lobbying efforts, in 2004 a special task force was set up by the federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ( FMCSA ) to step up inspections of’curbside’ ( Chinatown ) bus firms. Regardless of the increased inspections, the FMCSA said that curbside carriers had about the same rate of violations as other sorts of carriers under her agency’s authority3. This is going to be a sign that dangerous operators have either stopped running or have improved their level of safety.
Fortuitously bus travel is generally an intensely safe style of transportation, with a median yearly fatality rate of only 22 for the past 10 years. No bus fatalities to date have involved Chinatown bus carriers. Accidents are frequently reported for all segments of the industry–municipal buses, line run carriers, charter and tour companies1,2. No concrete research has indicated that Chinatown bus companies have a higher prevalence of Problems than other operators.
It is important to notice that what used to be a small niche of the bus industry is now a crowded segment. To pile all carriers following this low cost model in the same group would be badly judged. The quality of the service offered by the various firms varies greatly. Some are fly-by-night concerns while others have transitioned into sizable corporations with many employees and fleets of buses.
Another development is that Chinese immigrants are not the sole players in this segment of the bus industry. Several supposed’Chinatown’ bus companies are owned by Hassidic Jews. Additionally many charter bus corporations have entered the line-run business employing the same inexpensive model as Chinatown bus lines.
The Chinatown bus industry has grown from a simple, one-man-operation to a longtime segment of the bus industry. In all chance the evolution of the industry is not complete. We will probably see some regulatory changes that will effect the way in which the Chinatown carriers run their operations. Similarly, as competition within the segment increases, the poorly run operators will most likely be forced out of the game. The conventional carriers will have to continue to offer competitive fares and will also need to find new ways compete. What’s extravagantly clear is that consumers are very pleased to forgo lots of the services offered by traditional carriers to economize.
1Police : Driver fatigue likely account for fatal bus crash
Monday, Nov 28, 2005 ; Posted : 7:15 a.m. EST ( 12:15 GMT ) http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/27/california.bus/
2T bus catches fire in Everett ; blaze is fourth in five weeks
No riders are hurt ; officials seek cause
By Lucas Wall, Boston globe October six, 2005
three sworn statement of Annette Sandberg, FMCSA administrator, given before the House panel on transport and Infrastructure Subcommittee on highways, Transit and Pipelines. Washington DC, March second, 2006.
Do you enjoy reading this? If yes, you may also visit famouswonders.com to read more about some of the best places to visit in the world and have a look at The Three Pagodas.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
