In the latter 1990s when the 1st low-fare bus service from Chinatown in NY to Chinatown in Boston started running, few would have predicted the impact it would have had on the bus industry as a whole. This was not a service that was marketed to the general public. It was meant to appeal to a specific group of people–recent Chinese immigrants–who needed a cheap way to travel between the 2 cities to visit family, shop, or work. The growth of this phenomenon was organic. The general public heard about the’Chinatown bus’ thru personal recommendation. It caught on quickly and soon the market was flooded with other corporations offering similar service on a variety 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 that the service the conventional bus carriers was offering was ripe for competition. In truth were the ‘full service’ offerings of the standard bus firms worth a premium? Barely. Shopper service lacked on every level, bus stations didn’t provide a snug waiting area, buses were regularly tacky and service was tormented 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 evolve as a whole. Overall, it kind of feels like the independent companies and the traditional carriers are meeting somewhere in the middle. Independent carriers have had to give more facilities, adhere to more closely to safety standards and rules, and increase fares. At the same time, the traditional carriers have been made to offer ferociously competitive pricing and usually tighten up their operations. Greyhound and its partners tend to offer the most competitive pricing on the favored New York-Boston and Big Apple -DC routes. Further, these routes are the only ones for which online shoppers don’t have to pay the big $4 online booking surcharge generally imposed at Greyhound’s website. They heavily promote this discounted pricing and it sometimes needs customers to book in advance online ( purchasing tickets at the time of departure can be almost twice as pricey as thru their site ).
What about safety standards? This is the most contentious point of discussion in the industry. There are numerous reports of safety violations and certainly anecdotal accounts of poor safety practices. However , it does not appear the real safety records of these firms are truly worse than other bus carriers that are dependent on the same Fed regulations. Thanks to intense lobbying efforts, in 2004 a special task force was set up by the Fed. 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 kinds of carriers under her agency’s authority3. This may be a sign that unsafe operators have either stopped running or have improved their level of safety.
Happily bus travel is in general an intensely safe mode of transportation, with an average annual death rate of only 22 for the past ten years. No bus deaths 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 suggested that Chinatown bus firms have a higher prevalence of issues than other operators.
it’s important to notice that what was once a little niche of the bus industry is now a crowded segment. To pile all carriers following this inexpensive model in the same group would be badly judged. The standard of the service offered by the numerous corporations varies greatly. Some are fly-by-night concerns while others have transitioned into sizable companies with many employees and fleets of buses.
Another development is that Chinese immigrants are now not the sole players in this segment of the bus industry. Several so-called’Chinatown’ bus companies are the property of Hassidic Jews. Additionally many charter bus firms have entered the line-run business employing the same low cost 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 development 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 in the segment increases, the poorly run operators will probably be forced out of the game. The traditional carriers will have to continue to offer competitive fares and will also have to find new techniques compete. What is extravagantly clear is that customers are more than pleased to forgo plenty of the services offered by traditional carriers to save cash.
1Police : Driver fatigue likely allow 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 4th in five weeks
No riders are hurt ; officers seek cause
By Lucas Wall, Boston world October 6, 2005
3 affidavit of Annette Sandberg, FMCSA director, given before the House panel on transport and Infrastructure Subcommittee on highways, Transit and Pipelines. Washington DC, March second, 2006.
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