Hartford Business Journal--February 2006--DATTCO Inc. Family Atmosphere Drives Success of Bus Company

There were only about a half dozen DATTCO tour buses when Lou DeVivo bought the company in 1962, adding them to the collection of school buses that he already had. Today, the company provides its distinctive red tour buses for most any occasion, supplies school buses to 17 school districts, and took in about $80 million in revenue in 2005. The New Britain company even sells buses, moving them from manufacturers in Tulsa, Okla., and Little Rock, Ark., and selling them to other bus companies around New England. But to employees, DATTCO still feels like a small place. Partly, that’s because the company’s COO is Lou’s son, Don DeVivo. Longtime employees remember Don when he was a middle schooler visiting his dad’s work. As Don DeVivo explains, “These guys have known me my entire life.” So it’s no surprise — except to newcomers —that DeVivo treats the company’s work force as a big, 1,000-person family. Three years ago, Roger Wierbicki was weighing whether he should uproot his life in New Jersey, where he was working for the New Jersey Nets, to move to Connecticut, where he grew up. At the time, he was thinking about taking a job with the state. But a contact with the state left for the private sector and asked him to join her. At first, Wierbicki wasn’t sure; the other job seemed like a good fit for his interests. But his friend convinced himthat the family-owned company she was joining — DATTCO — was too good to pass up on. “Roger, she said, trust me, this is where you want to go,” Wierbicki says. Wierbicki withdrew his name forthe other job, a move he realized was right almost as soon as his employment interview at DATTCO began, as the company’s representatives began explaining to him how the DeVivo family and the firm would support him. Suddenly, he felt much more comfortable about uprooting from his life in New Jersey. Now, as sales executive for student travel, Wierbicki describes the comfort and ease with which he can talk to Don and Lou DeVivo as “unprecedented,” and believes it to be a key reason so many people remain with the company. “There [are] people who have worked here for 25, 30, even 40 years,” Wierbicki says. “You don’t see that anymore.” DeVivo says the open-door policy isn’t just what comes naturally, it’s good business. Rather than having to work their way through multiple levels of management, employees can bring ideas directly to him — making the company much quicker on its feet. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a driver came to DeVivo and suggested that drivers wear name tags so they could be easily identified by passengers in the case of an emergency. The idea sounded like a good one to DeVivo. “We went out and got an ID card maker and made everybody ID cards,” DeVivo says. Simple as that. DeVivo isn’t afraid to have a little fun, either, an interest that is spurred by the fact that he has hundreds of buses at his disposal. On the day after Thanksgiving every year, DeVivo takes as many employees as are interested on a trip to Manhattan for some holiday shopping. In March, he is planning a trip to Mohegan Sun casino for a night of fun. Last year, the trip drew between 450 and 550 employees, or, in DATTCO terms, eight to 10 busloads. The appreciation he shows his staff is intentional. “When you’re in a service business, the people are the key,” DeVivo says. Nor is it lost on his employees. Wierbicki has been at DATTCO for three years, enjoying an environment in which he is continually impressed by the trust the company places in him to do his job. Rather than requiring that he stick to a rigid company sales pitch, DATTCO allows him to use his skills as a salesman to meet customers’ needs in most any way he sees fit. “They’re very liberal about that, which I think it helps not only on our end, but on the customerside,” Wierbicki says. He offers a sports analogy as a way of thinking about what it’s like to work at the company. “It’s kind of like in sports,” Wierbicki says. “It’s the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back, that matters.” Since Wierbicki has DeVivo’s cell phone number (as does everyone else in the company), he can call and talk about an actual sports team they both follow, the New York Yankees. DeVivo is happy to hear from DATTCO employees, even if it isn’t related to work. “It’s that kind of relationship,” DeVivo says. “It’s not always a business thing.” He adds: “When you’ve got the family tradition, you don’t even think about it. It’s part of our culture.”