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Business is booming for Janesville bus company

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Stephen R. VanGalder

JANESVILLE — Years after Sam Van Galder started his bus company in 1947, one thing became routinely clear for the Janesville company.

“He used to say that whenever you had a tough winter, you’d have a big spring,” recalls son Steve Van Galder, the general manager of what today is Van Galder Bus/Coach USA.

True to form after a recession characterized as a “tough winter,” Van Galder Bus Company is having a fantastic spring.

The seasons ahead look even better.

“There’s no question that we’re growing, and there’s no end in sight,” said Van Galder, who sold the family business to Coach USA in 1999.

Van Galder recently took delivery on 14 new motor coaches, all state-of-the-art busses equipped with seatbelts, plug-ins, WiFi and environmentally friendly engines.

The company also has been hiring motor coach and school bus drivers to replace a veteran force that’s nearing retirement.

The motor coach investment alone totals $7 million and makes the entire Van Galder fleet younger than 5 years old.

Driving the company’s growth is an increase in motor coach charters fueled by a boost in consumer confidence.

“We’re discretionary income, and when it comes to us, I know things are getting better,” Van Galder said.

Van Galder hasn’t been sitting around waiting for the economy to turn. The company has taken aggressive steps to promote growth.

The Janesville company recently picked up the motor coach charter operations for Coach USA in the Chicago market. A corporate sister there got out of the business and is strictly focusing on commuter runs.

The convention, tour and charter business is howling in the Windy City, and just last weekend three Van Galder coaches transported Florida State basketball players, administrators and band members during their appearance at an NCAA tournament.

“We’re also carrying other teams and colleges in the area, lots of soldiers coming in and out of Fort McCoy and we’re booking Brewer trips like gangbusters,” Van Galder said. “Our Cubs trips are sold out.”

The company’s daily line runs between Madison, Janesville and Chicago also are picking up, he said.

And the company recently launched runs between the UW-Madison campus and Minneapolis, a service that’s popular with students traveling between Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Running two coaches daily, Van Galder aligned itself with megabus.com, a low-cost, Internet-based service that offers tiered pricing depending upon when tickets are bought online.

“That run has really been great for us,” Van Galder said.

With the growth comes the challenge of an aging workforce. That explains the hiring at Van Galder.

“Our people are getting older, and it takes so long to get people ready,” Van Galder said. “We have a lot of work out there.

“We used to have peaks and valleys, but were seeing more and more work every day.”