COVID-19 Throws Anderson Travel under the Bus
The Meadville Tribune
April 20, 2020
The pandemic has forced layoffs of nearly all 100,000 employees in the school bus and motorcoach industry — including drivers, mechanics, cleaners and office staff —the American Bus Association, a trade group, said on its website. Motorcoach is a term used in the industry to describe buses designed for leisure travel.
The group estimates the industry will lose nearly $8 billion during the next five months. The association blames the job and revenue losses solely on the pandemic.
In January, the American Bus Association named Tom “TJ” McGlynn, a driver for Anderson for 36 years, as 2020 American Motorcoach Driver of the Year. McGlynn, of Hubbard, Ohio, is among the Anderson employees now unemployed.
Anderson Travel fits a profile in the motorcoach industry. Of the 3,000 bus and motorcoach companies in the U.S., 90 percent are small, family-owned businesses that had to close operations due to the COVID-19 crisis, the association said on its website.