We are trying to get a handle on the costs of starting up a small
transportation business. The idea is around bus services for medium to
high income professionals over short distances at a premium over
public transport. A key need is the professional?s ultimate luxury
coach .
1. Can you find a list of other businesses you can find like these
i.e. Luxury bus or other premium transportation services for the
middle ? higher income groups over the short haul (less than 2 hours)?
2. Which are the most comfortable bus models? Where is the best place
to buy/customize them? Are these offered on lease? Is there
significant cost savings to purchasing abroad? (pointers to specifi
information good enough)
4. Can you find a list of services that are being offered/can be
offered? (I am aware of the discussion on generic concierge businesses
on this forum)
5. Who are the top 10 transportation related VCs/private equity firms
in the country and what kinds of companies/services have been recently
funded?
You don't need to answer all the parts. I will tip the researcher up
to the maximum allowed depending on the quality of the answers and
research, especially for any helpful suggestions and insight you
provide.
Thanks in advance for your effort.
Abhijit |
Request for Question Clarification by
czh-ga
on
17 Jul 2005 23:46 PDT
Where do you plan to set up this business? What city, metropolitan
area, country? Thanks.
|
Clarification of Question by
funmoney-ga
on
18 Jul 2005 00:36 PDT
As you can imagine, the best locations would be where there are
sufficient numbers of affluent people- large urban metropolitan areas.
Because this is a public forum, I cannot go into more details.
Feel free to ask more questions to direct your research- I will try to answer.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
czh-ga
on
18 Jul 2005 02:05 PDT
Hello funmoney-ga,
Are you only interested in bus/van services or are you also
considering limousines? What kinds of vehicles do you want to include
in your evaluation? Are you planning on focusing on a particular type
of service, i.e., airport transportation? Are you considering
corporate services or strictly the individual consumer market? Thanks.
http://www.limodigest.com/default.htm
http://www.blslimo.com/vehicles.htm
http://www.amspacific.com/html/fleet.htm
http://www.busexchange.com/types/
~ czh ~
|
Clarification of Question by
funmoney-ga
on
18 Jul 2005 08:24 PDT
Bus services, specifically deluxe motor coaches only - not vans or
limos. Mainly corporate customers, but some consumer as well.
I would be interested in knowing about options for providing internet
connectivity on buses? How much GPRS or satellite bandwidth can be
available, from which service providers and at what cost?
Thanks again.
|
Clarification of Question by
funmoney-ga
on
18 Jul 2005 23:44 PDT
Google Researchers,
Seeing no answer yet...
1. If there is a specific part of the question thats making it hard to
answer, please let me know. I will remove it to make it easier to get
a good rating.
2. If you feel the price is too low, please give me feedback as well.
The lower price +tip for excellent research stratey makes it easier
for me to give you an excellent rating, I thought.
We are a couple of guys working fulltime and going to school and
trying to jumpstart this venture as well. We really appreciate your
help and expertise.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
czh-ga
on
19 Jul 2005 10:51 PDT
Hello funmoney-ga,
I?ve taken a quick look at your question and I want to give you some
feedback and ask for some clarification.
1. Can you find a list of other businesses you can find like these
i.e. Luxury bus or other premium transportation services for the
middle ? higher income groups over the short haul (less than 2 hours)?
--- My preliminary search shows that there are very few of them and
the prospects for them are not good. Here are a couple of links to
give you a starting point.
http://www.limoliner.com/
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2003/09/12/not_your_fathers_magic_bus/
Not your father's magic bus
LimoLiner sets its sights on executive set as it plies Boston-New York route
Henry Harteveldt, an analyst at Forrester Research in San Francisco,
predicted "tough going" for the new luxury venture. "The service may
be great, but you're dealing with the reason that people don't want to
drive in the first place, and that's traffic," he said.
-----------------------------
http://www.busandmotorcoachnews.com/artman/publish/printer_34.shtml
Luxury Bus Services Face Tough Road
Sep 24, 2003, 02:25
From time to time during the past 30 years, motorcoach operators in
the United States have launched luxury commuter bus service without
resounding success.
2. Which are the most comfortable bus models? Where is the best place
to buy/customize them? Are these offered on lease? Is there
significant cost savings to purchasing abroad? (pointers to specific
information good enough)
--- I would post this as a separate question. Researching the luxury
bus industry and how to buy, finance, customize the equipment is a
stand-alone topic.
4. Can you find a list of services that are being offered/can be
offered? (I am aware of the discussion on generic concierge businesses
on this forum)
--- Where is question 3? What kind of ?list of services? are you
referring to? What is the ?discussion on generic concierge businesses
on this forum? referring to? Which forum? Google Answers? There seems
to be something missing here.
5. Who are the top 10 transportation related VCs/private equity firms
in the country and what kinds of companies/services have been recently
funded?
--- I suggest that you post this as a separate question. Researching
VCs is a very different search from researching bus services and
researching buying motor coaches.
I recommend that you close this question and post three separate new
questions asking about the industry, asking about buying/financing the
equipment and finding out about VCs. You might want to get an answer
to the industry overview question first and then ask the other
questions based on whatever you learned from the first answer.
Let me know how you want to proceed.
All the best.
~ czh ~
|
Clarification of Question by
funmoney-ga
on
19 Jul 2005 21:00 PDT
OK. closing this out and opening a separate ones per suggestion from czh-ga
|
