National companies aren’t the only ones receiving a bailout this year. Donnie Novelle of Park City Transportation Services a van shuttle, limousine and taxi company not to be confused with Park City Transit needed a little help to survive the fallout of the Deer Valley Lodging crisis.
On June 1, Novelle announced that “a new company has been formed.” Richard Bizarro and Gordon Cummins of rival All Resort Express agreed to invest in the company and purchased certain assets to help it stay afloat.
Parkites and regular clients won’t notice much of a difference. The word “services” will be dropped from the name, but that’s the only public change.
“The economy caused this,” Novell confirmed. “It was so good last year we increased our fleet size. Then fuel prices last summer and the downturn in the economy soon after was devastating to a small company like,” she said.
Group travel and corporate travel were down all winter as formerly regular clients in the financial industry stayed away in fear of appearing lavish in their retreats, she explained. That combined with the lost revenue from Deer Valley Lodging’s financial crisis created a dire situation.
“It’s survival out there right now. The trouble with the lodging community was a huge hit to transportation,” she said.
But Bizarro wants to make clear that this isn’t two struggling companies coming together. It’s actually two strong companies working out an arrangement that will make both stronger.
He said All Resort Express had a great year. The irony is so did Park City Transportation. The two companies handled far more volume than any other company. But with the bad economy and the unpaid invoices, the latter had trouble.
“It has a viable business plan and I expect it to be a provider to the health of Park City for many years to come,” he said.
Park City Transportation has 35 years behind it. Novelle started it with her father in the 1970s and said she isn’t ready to see that legacy die.
“It’s important to me to preserve the brand of Park City Transportation, the jobs and my father’s vision 35 years ago,” she explained.
She also sees what she does as providing stability to the community’s transportation industry. There were 84 transport business licenses issued last year for the city, she said. Residents don’t really grasp how many companies want in on the action and then are gone when the snow melts.
Companies like hers, and All Resorts Express, provide services for the community 365 days a year and it takes a lot of money stored in reserves to operate past April, she said. There was no way she could continue those services this year without help.
The new arrangement is a wonderful thing, she said. Bizarro’s and Cummins’ Lewis Stages and All Resort Express and now Park City Transportation will all three remain distinct, protected brands. To lower overhead, all three will now share the same “back offices” to handle management roles like accounting, Novelle explained. That makes good money sense, but won’t affect the client’s experience.
“The customer will not miss a heartbeat. Perception will be absolutely the same,” she said.
The fleet was reduced and some lay-offs were made this spring, but Novelle said they weren’t much different than seasonal adjustments that would have been performed anyway. She also doesn’t rule out the possibility of “revving up” for winter. Like many around town, she said she’s “cautiously optimistic” about the coming season.