How To Start An Airport Shuttle Service? :: Airport Shuttle Service App

Airport shuttle service is a very lucrative business startup. Some of the successful shuttle business owners have accounted revenue of $30,000 in the first year, while jumping to $64,000 by the third year. The beauty of airport shuttle service startup is that you can start it in the comfort of your home with only one van. In this article, we have covered all the main aspects that you should consider while starting an airport shuttle service.

The main job of a shuttle service is to transport people between airport and homes, hotels, or any other location that the passenger requests. These services are used by groups of family, friends or acquaintances and single travelers. We will get into more detailed job description in further points. Now we will see in chronological order, the steps of how to start an airport shuttle service:

1

Research

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” -Abraham Lincoln

Research should be the first and most important step for building any business. Information is the sharpened axe you would need to chop down the competition in your business. Find out what you are required to do during a particular day in an airport shuttle service business. We can provide an overview:

Manage ride schedule
Supervise shuttle drivers
Transport passengers (if you wish to do field work)
Routine maintenance and repair of all shuttle vehicles
Accounting
Marketing

You need to properly research to find your target audience. It depends on the city in which you are planning to start your airport shuttle service. If your city is a tourist destination then the majority of the people traveling to your city airport would be tourists. In this case, your target audience should be vacationers coming there from around the world, so you should contact local hotels, motels and airport authorities to let them know about your services. You can also set up a commission based trade with them in return for getting customers from their reference.

2

Decide Your Revenue Model

You can either charge each customer a fee for traveling from Pickup to drop point with charges per mile or just charge a flat fee for getting to drop point. Also important is to decide whether you would be offering your services to only large groups heading to the same destination or serve individual travelers too.

3

Legal Documentation

Register your company as a legal entity to prevent personal liability for any future legal troubles.
Register for taxes with federal and state government Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Acquire Federal Business License by registering and giving proof of your company in abidance with Federal and state transportation laws.
Vehicle registration for inter-state transportation on commercial purpose.
Acquire Class B CDL (Commercial Driver’s License) for all the drivers working commercially for your company.
Get business insurance as compensation insurance for your employees may be a legal requirement in your state.

4

Purchase Vehicle

You can initially start with single van/bus if your budget doesn’t allow you more. While purchasing a shuttle vehicle you need to make sure that the vehicle is spacious and can hold sufficient luggage including passengers. You can go for a whole fleet of vans/buses; this approach will get you a considerable discount from the vehicle dealer.

5

Setting Up An Office

Initially, you alone can handle administrative work of the company from your home saving money on office space and office staff and as your company profits and grows you can hire more staff to work on the administrative part.

6

Digitization

In today’s techno-savvy world everyone is on the internet. So bringing your airport shuttle service business online is a great idea that should be executed as soon as possible. Having your own company website and airport shuttle service app where the passengers can directly book seats in your shuttle will give a drastic boost to your earnings.

To create an airport shuttle service app like Uber did with taxi service is very profitable for the business. To build a company website and an airport shuttle service app you would need a website development and mobile app development team.

Valley, Prime Time and Metro Quick Pick are other best examples of Airport shuttle businesses that have deployed a mobile app and website of their services.

Bonus Tip

For all the existing airport shuttle businesses that have had stagnant revenue without any significant rise. Many travelers are slipping through your fingers just because you don’t have a digital presence on the Internet. Build a shuttle service app and website. Also, add posters and banners inside the airport with QR code to your app download link. People need to see your company’s name as soon as they enter or leave the airport.

Conclusion

Starting an airport shuttle service can be a very profitable business. The best marketing strategy for an airport shuttle service is to build partnerships with hotels, motels, tour operators, and travel agents and get them to spread the word of mouth advertisement of your company.

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Bonus Tip

Conclusion

Author: Mahil Jasani

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