80,000 furloughed as bus industry grinds to a halt – By Natasha Chen (CNN) / Oct 21 2020
(CNN) Clarence Cox took over a 35-year-old motorcoach business from his father and uncle and had hopes of one day giving it to his daughters. But with a $5 million fleet parked for months during a pandemic, and no federal aid, his goal now is just to make it to the end of 2020.
His business, Georgia Coach Lines, is one of thousands of small, family-owned bus companies across the US, urging Congress to approve immediate aid. Unlike the airlines or Amtrak, the motorcoach industry hasn’t received any funding from the $2.2 trillion CARES Act passed by Congress in the spring.
Peter Pantuso, president and CEO of the American Bus Association, said, “I can’t really identify for you why we have not been included.”
The American Bus Association estimates private buses provide 600 million passenger trips a year, second only to commercial flights. Pantuso said 80,000 of the industry’s 100,000 employees have been furloughed this year.
Continue to article: https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/24/business/motorcoach-employees-furloughs/index.html
