New transportation company makes commuting easier
Published in the Aug. 5-18, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Robert Airoldi
Bounce Buses owners Eric Morhenn, left, and Joe Eckardt, in front of one of their new buses that will drive commuters from the South Valley region to and from work in Silicon Valley.
Photo by Marty Cheek
Inspired by Google’s employee shuttle, Eric Morhenn and Joe Eckardt decided after working for years in high-tech they could make commuting easier for South Valley workers traveling to and from Silicon Valley every weekday. They launched the inaugural run of their new Bounce Buses business at 5:15 a.m. Monday Aug. 3 from the Gilroy Caltrain station. About 15 minutes later, they made a pick-up stop at the Morgan Hill Caltrain station.
“I originally contacted Joe for a quote on a job and we began talking,” Morhenn said. “Joe brought a different background and set of skills than I had, but we had the same vision.”
That vision eventually became Bounce Buses, a private commuting service that charges about $20 a round trip. The company’s fleet has two sizes of luxurious commute buses, one that can carry 13 people and one that seats 56. On weekends, the buses are available for private charter.
“We have been living with Bay Area traffic and commuting for years and wanted to make it better,” Morhenn said. “We were also inspired by friends working at big high-tech companies like Google, Apple and Facebook that loved the shuttle services the companies provided and wanted to open that up and make a Google-type shuttle for everybody.”
Driving a mile in the United States costs about $0.58, according to the IRS. Most people fixate on the price of gas, but this is just one of about five costs to owning and operating a car. When the fees from parking, vehicle maintenance, insurance, registration and depreciation are added in the fully-loaded cost per year can run in the thousands of dollars. Potential work time lost behind the wheel and the stress toll of a morning and afternoon commute also added to the quality-of-life cost.
Believing there were more cost-effective options than traditional transport, Morhenn and his partner Joe Eckardt set about researching the validity of operating a commute service. They posted an online survey and received 50 responses from people interested in a private transit service in South Valley. They were able to serve all of them except for one person who wanted to go to Palo Alto.
Eventually they settled on developing two morning commutes beginning in Gilroy, stopping in Morgan Hill at 5:29 and 8 a.m., then heading north with stops at Silver Creek Valley Road, Kaiser Hospital, Second and Santa Clara streets, the Diridon Caltrain Station, Valley Medical Center, Santa Clara University, Mission College Boulevard and finally the Great America ACE Station at 6:50 and 9:20 a.m. Customers go online and find the route they want to commute and reserve their seat. Payments can be made on-line with a credit card. A receipt with an electronic ticket is emailed to the customer within two hours. There are options for daily, weekly and monthly passes and Bounce Buses encourages companies to build morale by subsidizing workers’ commute expenses.
The name “Bounce Buses” came from era of the mega bus where people would say, “Got to bounce, let’s bounce,” Eckardt said.
“From the responses based on the surveys from riders, we think the experience of Bounce Buses compared to the typical way of commuting will be excellent,” Morhenn said. “We provide our clients with a very convenient, safe, reliable way to commute every day. We have WiFi, phone chargers and we’re looking at bringing in beverage services to get our passengers’ day going and we’ll provide them with a near door-to-door experience.”
Eckardt, who once worked as an IT professional on Carnival Cruise Lines, has now been in the transportation business for 13 years. He started as a bus driver and quickly became operation manager for a large transportation company. He was part of crew that started the first Google shuttle.
One factor that keeps people from getting out of their vehicles is that they are worried about flexibility and how to find transportation if their child is sick or there is some other personal emergency. Bounce Buses offers a deal that solves that problem.
“We are one of the very few companies where people can call if they have an emergency,” Eckardt said. People who purchase a pass get one free ride for emergency reasons.
Sitting in cars as a solo commuter can raise a lot of health issues and Bounce Buses can take away that stress, the two business partners said. Compared to public transportation, they offer more convenient routes and times and provide a more luxurious, business-class commuting experience.
“We think a lot of people in South County and Morgan Hill suffer through long commutes on (U.S.) 101 and we believe we have the opportunity to make their lives better,” Morhenn said.
