{"id":92605,"date":"2020-04-16T17:15:41","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T00:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=92605"},"modified":"2020-04-16T17:16:20","modified_gmt":"2020-04-17T00:16:20","slug":"op-ed-california-motorcoach-industry-decimated-by-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2020\/04\/16\/op-ed-california-motorcoach-industry-decimated-by-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-ed: California motorcoach industry decimated by COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

An Open Letter to California Congressional Delegation:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We are California\u2019s motorcoach industry. We are family and independently-owned businesses you represent, transporting 24 million residents and tourists annually across the region. From our national parks to city centers, we are visible in every community and vital to America\u2019s transportation network.<\/p>\n

Before COVID-19, we employed 9,367 hardworking individuals across California and contributed $1.7 billion in economic revenue.<\/p>\n

Like many transportation industries, that has all changed and virtually every bus company across America has stopped operating. We support the public health restrictions put in place to help flatten the spread of COVID-19, but when people emerge from this crisis, we want our employees to have jobs and bring visitors back here. But today, our future is very uncertain.<\/p>\n

Before Congress left Washington, DC for a one-month hiatus they passed a $2 trillion aid package to help large and small business. That package included nearly $100 billion for every mode of passenger transportation (airlines, Amtrak, transit) except for private buses.<\/p>\n

Our voice in Congress was ignored, leaving our industry and our employees on the side of the road.<\/p>\n

As the federal government focuses on recovery, we urge you to remember that we bring your constituents to work; your kids on school trips; evacuate your citizens during natural disasters; and we drive tourism in our state\u2026literally.<\/p>\n

We connect America. If we go away, those experiences go away. We need your support now.<\/p>\n

Sueng Kim, LA Coach Inc<\/p>\n

Melissa Romero, Bay Area Charters<\/p>\n

Phil Rudnick, Valet Express<\/p>\n

Chris Riddington, Classic Charter, Inc.<\/p>\n

Richard Dorr, Discovery Charters<\/p>\n

Linn Li, Gary Express Inc.<\/p>\n

John Neumann, Neumann Transportation<\/p>\n

Vyacheslav Panchenko, SIV Transport LLC<\/p>\n

Shiloh Foust, Delta Charter Bus<\/p>\n

Tom Giddens, Pacific Coachways Charter Services, Inc<\/p>\n

Victoria Cole, American Stage Tours<\/p>\n

Xavier Valls, Julia Group<\/p>\n

Robert Vaughn, BEST-VIP Chauffeured Worldwide<\/p>\n

Eddie Wong, Fast Deer Bus Charter<\/p>\n

Robert Saucedo, Carreras Tours<\/p>\n

Rigo Gonzalez, San Jose Charters, Inc<\/p>\n

Jodi Merritt, H&L Charter Co, Inc.<\/p>\n

Eric Gregory, Certified Transportation Services, Inc.<\/p>\n

Matthew Strack, StrackGround<\/p>\n

Eduardo Sanchez, Mex-American Entertainment Group Inc<\/p>\n

Nick Weathers, Specialty Coaches<\/p>\n

Mark Wilkerson, Gold Coast Tours<\/p>\n

Curtis Riggs, VIA Adventures Inc<\/p>\n

Nick Benavides, Storm Trooper Coaches<\/p>\n

David Uziel, UrbanBCN Worldwide<\/p>\n

Terry Fischer, Transportation Charter Services Inc<\/p>\n

and the entire California motorcoach industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Open Letter to California Congressional Delegation: We are California\u2019s motorcoach industry. We are family and independently-owned businesses you represent, transporting 24 million residents and tourists annually across the region. From our national parks to city centers, we are visible in every community and vital to America\u2019s transportation network. Before COVID-19, we employed 9,367 hardworking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":92608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1480],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}