An excerpt from an article appearing in BUSRide magazine

Have lift, will travel; Marketing to wheelchair passengers invites new business.

This article discusses how today’s bus companies seem to be divided into two categories: companies that continually meet accessibility requirements with resistance and companies whose ranks view service to special needs passengers as a worthy investment in a growing target segment.

DATTCO Inc., New Britain, CT takes a personal interest in accommodating disabled passengers. The company’s former general manager Peter Worthington was moved to start installing lifts on buses in 1992 after seeing first hand what his daughter had to endure following the amputation of one of her legs. Her mobility challenges in public prompted Worthington to think there was more his company could be doing for disabled passengers.

Under his direction, company engineers cut into an existing bus to create a side door and install a wheelchair lift, which Dennis Lyons, vice president/motorcoach group, believes was the first lift-equipped motorcoach available for charter service.

DATTCO went on to provide the prototype OEM lifts for Van Hool and MCI motorcoaches. Currently, 27 of the company’s 73 coaches are equipped with wheelchair lifts. In 2004 DATTCO booked 112 lift-equipped charters with 15 from other charter companies. Lyons says many customers use the company for all their charters simply because of the availability of a wheelchair lift when needed. Lyons believes tour operators like being able to advertise to their client that all their tours are accessible.

“We have sat through countless meetings over the years listening to motorcoach operators try their best to skirt these accessibility issues and decide whether or not to install wheelchair lifts,” says Lyons. “We keep saying these people are important to the future of our business, and we have the numbers to back it up.”