The following is an open letter to Delaware congressional delegation, with a copy submitted to the Cape Gazette for publication.
We are Delaware’s motorcoach industry. We are independent family-owned businesses, transporting 503,000 residents and travelers annually across our state.
People ride our buses to get to work in another city or state and visit tourist destinations. We are visible in every community across the state and vital to America’s critical transportation network. Companies like mine carry more than 600 million passengers annually.
Before COVID-19, we employed 331 hardworking individuals and contributed $62 million in economic revenue. Like many transportation industries, that has all changed, and virtually every bus company across America has stopped operating.
We support the public health restrictions put in place to help flatten the spread of COVID-19, but when people emerge from this crisis, we want our employees to have jobs and want to be able to carry passengers.
But today, our future is very uncertain.
Before Congress left Washington, D.C., for a hiatus they passed a $2 trillion aid package to help large and small business. That package included nearly $100 billion for every mode of passenger transportation (airlines, Amtrak, transit) except for private buses.
Our voice in Congress was ignored, leaving our industry and our employees on the side of the road.
We urge you to remember that we bring your constituents to work, your kids on school trips, and we drive tourism in our state…literally.
We connect America. If we go away, those experiences go away. We need your support now.
William Dawson
Dawson Bus Service Inc.
Alan Mitchell
Jor-Lin Inc.
and the entire Delaware motorcoach industry
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