COVID-19 shuts down Morrison, Milledgeville bus companies

No pro baseball games, no retirement club expeditions, no class field trips ...

No place for charter buses to go.

Buses at Wiersema Charter Service in Morrison haven't moved since March 14, and at Cheeseman Coaches in Milledgeville since March 8.

The halt couldn't have come at a worse time: This is their peak travel season.

"We are just in a waiting period as of right now," said Gregg Wiersema, vice president of his family's 53-year-old company, which was started by his grandfather, Marvin.

"All we can do is wait and try even harder to reduce our costs, but we want to continue to provide the same service."

Trips to Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Washington D.C. were planned for Wiersema's buses in the middle of March. Last week, Cheeseman had two trips to New England and one to Niagara Falls and upstate New York in the fall canceled.

Customers were given refunds.

Even when travel restrictions are lifted, in Illinois and elsewhere, fear may linger about COVID-19.

Paul Cheeseman, whose company has three coaches, said most of his riders are senior citizens who may not want to travel immediately after shelter-in-place is lifted, which at the moment is set for May 30 in Illinois.

"Some of my customers have rebooked for 2021, but are afraid to travel until there is a vaccine for it," Cheeseman said.

Wiersema Charter has lost 30% of its yearly income, a figure that grows daily, Wiersema said.

Cheeseman expects to make only half of what he made last year.

The charter bus industry has high overhead and insurance costs: A new bus can cost around $500,000. Wiersema's insurance provider refunded a percentage of his payments, but that alone isn't enough to control the financial decline.

Cheeseman paid $4,600 to renew his annual state bus licensing on March 10 – exactly a week before the state shutdown began – and most of it won't go to good use, he said.

He switched his insurance to bus storage status, and cut staff.

"I feel bad about laying off my employees, but come June, I don't expect to have enough work to keep one person busy," Cheeseman said. "I will just do the small amount of trips by myself. Right now, we have only 11 days of trips out until Aug.1."

The financial hit will be felt by customers when nonessential travel does return, whenever that will be.

"Our prices, unfortunately, will have to go up to help with the significant loss we have had," Wiersema said.

At least one bus will move from Wiersema's garage this week, but it will be traveling at a far cry from full capacity.

Gregg's father and mother, owner Larry Wiersema and his wife, Jan, will be among 1,000 owners of motorcoach businesses throughout the nation who will meet Wednesday in Washington D.C. to rally support for federal government funding of motor coach businesses. Nearly 1,000 buses from 400 companies in 46 states will make the trip.

Some federal relief may be on the way. In a bipartisan effort to obtain CARES Act assistance, two senators and two representatives have written to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, seeking support for bus and coach businesses.

The CARES Act provides loan programs to help companies "bridge the coronavirus crisis," but the rules "do not fully recognize some of the unique challenges motorcoach companies face, particularly the high level of capital investment needed to maintain vehicle fleets," Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, and Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island said in their letter.

The $15 billion-a-year motorcoach industry provides 600 million passenger trips per year, and now about 3,000 bus motorcoach operators and their fleet of 36,000 vehicles are at a virtual standstill, they said.

"This important industry faces a long road to recovery and requires immediate assistance that is flexible and meets both its short- and long-term needs," the senators said.

“We must ensure that the motorcoach industry is still there for our communities when this pandemic has passed."