Proposed pay rates differed for Oklahoma City airport shuttle drivers | News OK (http://newsok.com/proposed-pay-rates-differed-for-oklahoma-city-airport-shuttle-drivers/article/5339962)

The Oklahoma City company denied an opportunity to run a rental car shuttle at Will Rogers World Airport proposed paying drivers a higher wage than the out-of-state company that has the inside track on the contract.

Red Carpet Charters proposed a rate of $14.50 per hour, plus benefits, while First Transit says it will pay $11.07.

The figures are included in documents submitted to the city.

Though Red Carpet’s overall proposed first-year costs were lower, the Oklahoma City Airport Trust voted Aug. 28 to negotiate a contract with First Transit.

Red Carpet has been in Oklahoma City for 29 years and has its shop just two miles from the airport, while First Transit is headquartered in Cincinnati and is a division of FirstGroup plc, a multinational based in Great Britain.

The agenda is to provide the best possible service to travelers at the best possible rates.

Obviously intangibles of dealing with a proven local company versus a foreign owned one and a work force with better wages were not considerations. Sometimes one has to think of long term versus the short term.

The simple fact is Red Carpet has never done a shuttle service before and doesn't have any idea how to do it. Making a claim that you can isn't the same as a company that has a track record for providing the service at varying sizes of airports. Red Carpet operates charters, which run in a very different world. With the number of shuttles that will be involved in this process, you need someone capable of keeping that flowing at all hours of operation without interruption.

I've had good and bad encounters with Red Carpet. Mostly they do their job well. I've been in multi-bus groups that have had a bus break down halfway across the country, but then given their newest bus (before it even had a paintjob) the next time to make up for it. Their fleet is much newer now (it had gotten pretty old and crappy in the late 90s) and is nice. They aren't the nicest busses in the world, but they are nice. The drivers are pleasant enough (working with high school kids, their difficult to say the least so a driver can only be pleasant for so long on 20+ hour drives lol ). But anyway, that's the point, they're used to long-haul operations.

RC also raised their rates quite a bit over our tenure with them to the point that we left them for Village (and ended up with actually nicer drivers and busses). The cost of operations is something that would be an issue with RC because of their economy of scale compared to the other group. With a larger employee base, the larger company can afford better insurance rates for their drivers (which may be one reason why the pay is lower...im just guessing at that). If RC sees a cost hit, the pay of the drivers is going to be the first to be hit, so don't expect that higher level of pay to stay. Since the contract wont pay out any more than what it is, the money for a loss would have to come from the RC employee base. And I guarantee that in the first few years, they will have that come up as they figure out a balance...which is something the other company has already done. There's the upfront investment that the larger company can more easily absorb as well.

Just because they're local, doesn't mean they are the best person for the job.