“People are interested in the convenience of Uber and Lyft and not having a whole bus full of people. “In the past couple years it’s become obsolete,” Haines said. Word that SuperShuttle was cutting local operations so soon was a surprise to Maya Haines, an administrative assistant in sales at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. Kim Davis, a dispatcher on duty Thursday evening, said she is unsure what’s next but will do “anything to help pay the bills.” Many are scrambling to update résumés and file applications around town. But I feel bad for the employees here,” she said, glancing toward her former colleagues, who have already begun packing up the company’s two kiosks. Now she counts her blessings that she narrowly avoided a pink slip. She has compared rates from her own home in northeast Minneapolis, where a shuttle would run roughly $27, while an Uber might be $20 to $25. Uber is often cheaper and more convenient, she said, with no stops for other passengers and shorter wait times. “Shuttles used to leave with five to seven people aboard, and they’d been leaving with one,” she said. “It is a sign of the times,” he said.įormer SuperShuttle dispatcher Cassandra Roberts said she saw the writing on the wall and left the company earlier this fall for another role at the Minneapolis airport. Hogan surmises that SuperShuttle saw a drop in revenue. Three years ago the MAC, which manages the airport, created a legal framework for Uber and Lyft to operate at MSP, despite pushback from the taxi industry. Unlike most of its competition, SuperShuttle transports groups of passengers headed in the same direction and bills itself as a cost-effective, environmentally friendly way to get to and from the Twin Cities airport. But in recent years, the service has closed or reduced operations at several major airports, including Denver and Atlanta - the nation’s largest. SuperShuttle began its MSP operations in 2004 and served 72,267 passengers last year, Hogan said. Vans that were once full now are often almost empty, Pliska said.Ĭalls to the local and national SuperShuttle offices seeking comment were not immediately returned. “I thought we’d still have a year or two,” said Pliska, who has already begun looking for other work.Īlthough the company’s announcement did not explicitly blame popular app-based ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, employees said ridership has dwindled since those services began operating at MSP. Paul International Airport on Thursday, November 14, 2019. The news came as a shock to her and her colleagues, who suspected that the business was struggling but didn’t realize just how bad it was.Ī SuperShuttle parked at the Minneapolis-St. “They told us they were closing down due to financial difficulties,” said Karilynn Pliska, a dispatcher of six years. The Phoenix-based company notified the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) last month that it will halt service on Saturday, said airport spokesman Patrick Hogan. Eleven days’ notice that dozens of drivers, dispatchers and customer-service workers would lose their jobs without severance pay. He has $13,000 to go - and isn’t sure he can even sell it back.Įmployees said they were given 11 days’ written notice that SuperShuttle would cease operations in the Twin Cities. “It was very abrupt,” said Feawoe, of Brooklyn Park, who had paid off nearly half his vehicle for the owner-operator franchise. SuperShuttle drivers like him are preparing for their final trips inside the ubiquitous blue vans now that the transport company has announced it will end service at the Minneapolis-St. In less than 24 hours, Matthew Feawoe will be out of a job.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |