As ridership begins to rebound, motorcoach companies are having a hard time finding drivers for their buses and shuttles because so many left the industry during the pandemic, Harris said. Cash-strapped operators also need assistance financing purchases of vehicles to replenish fleets lost during the pandemic to loss of business or repossession.
It's not purely charity, Harris notes, but rather savvy business sense, explaining, “we're giving them interest free financing for a few years to help them build their business back up and in return, we're also making money because we're growing the supply side on our platform.” “It's really this variability in demand that prevents operators from scaling. So we help them with forecasting or just the ability to forecast their business so much better,” said Harris.