ABC Magazine Stories, Bus Industry News

New Port Macquarie operator excels with charter

Many operators lay low during the COVID lockdowns. In Port Macquarie, Adam Bryan decided to do the opposite, buying his own bus and starting a local business that has taken off immediately.

It takes a brave person to start a business during the middle of the COVID pandemic. While many companies struggled and tragically had to shut their doors, Adam Bryan was doing the opposite in Port Macquarie, New South Wales.

After having someone pay for him to get his medium rigid licence in 2017, Bryan decided to buy his very own minibus in December 2020 and officially start his own operator service.

“I used to rent minibuses through a local operator and drive around the local community rugby union team from 2019 onwards,” Bryan told ABC.

“One rugby club turned into two that I would transport to and from Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour. Throw in a soccer club and the odd birthday run or bucks weekend and it became a steady source of business for me.

“During COVID I decided to buy a 2002 Toyota Coaster for $6500 with upgraded StyleRide seats so I could make the business my own.”

 

While news began to break out of operators not surviving lockdowns, Bryan defied the odds, starting his brand new Custom Charter and Party Bus business in Port Macquarie.

Yet it got off to a rocky start when Bryan arrived in Tamworth following a 300km journey over the Walcha Mountains to pick up the Coaster in January 2021.

Upon reaching the minibus, he found out that the sellers put a forklift under the front to move it and unknowingly damaged the steering arms and the bottom of the radiator. Bryan took his refund and made the three-hour trip back home.

“I took one look at it and thought what have I just done, how was I even going to fill it up,” Bryan says.

 

“I went from paying $6500 for a 21-seat Coaster to a week later buying a 57-seat Volvo for $6000.”

When the trio went to take the Volvo back to Port Macquarie from Rutherford, Bryan’s mum affectionately coined the bus ‘Vinnie the Volvo’. The love affair only grew when ‘Vinnie’ drove beautifully on the three-hour venture home.

The name has also stuck since, with Bryan taking to the name ‘Vinnie’ and its Latin origins of ‘to conquer’.

“As a result, the name ‘Vinnie the Volvo’ has been applied to the front and centre of the bus, under the windscreen,” he says.

Bryan then fitted it out to enter service and finalised his accreditation courses, paying extra to push through the exams during COVID lockdowns. By September last year, Bryan was welcoming his first paying passengers for a hens party.

In the six months since, Bryan has been kept busy doing wedding guest transfers, more hens parties, general transfers, Christmas parties and even a three-day multi-day charter.

It’s been a whirlwind six months for Bryan since he first decided to stop renting minibuses and instead purchase his own. Although he was initially hesitant about having the bus parked in a mate’s property throughout COVID lockdowns, he’s glad that he stuck with it and made the brave move.

He’s already looking at growing further. Bryan is dreaming of running a maximum of five buses around the Port Macquarie area, including a fleet of two minibuses, a low floor wheelchair-accessible bus and a coach to go alongside his current bus.

“I started advertising it as a party and customer charter bus and would take it out every now and then with the lights on,” but now I don’t have to do any advertising,” Bryan says.

“I’m absolutely loving it. I’m going to keep a mix between the modern low floor wheelchair accessible buses and the vintage retro buses so I have a nice mix of buses for all occasions.”

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