High Point pushes shuttle plan
By Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, February 18, 2002
HIGH POINT — The High Point market has launched an aggressive promotional effort for its new transportation system that includes everything from a colorful brochure to incentives for hotel employees who sell shuttle tickets.
International Home Furnishings Market Authority President Judy Mendenhall said the effort, which began last week with the mailing of more than 26,000 brochures, will tout the shuttle buses that will take attendees to area hotels and satellite parking lots, and the trolleys that will serve as shuttles for marketgoers in downtown High Point.
"We're going to tell people to leave their car keys at home," Mendenhall told the Market Authority's board of directors. "We realize that most of us are joined at the hip to our cars … but we're trying to make it very convenient for them to keep their cars out of downtown."
She said exhibitors soon will receive a letter signed by her and board Chairman Steve Kincaid that asks them to encourage employees to ride hotel shuttles or park in satellite parking lots instead of bringing cars downtown. It will explain that shuttles are much more frequent, several routes have been added, and evening hotel shuttles will leave High Point much later than previously.
Transportation brochures will be distributed to more than 100 area hotels, and hotel employees will be encouraged to ask marketgoers about buying a hotel shuttle ticket when they make market reservations. At a targeted group of 39 hotels, the employee who sells the most tickets will get a $50 cash award, and a plaque will be awarded to the hotel that sells the most.
Hotel shuttle tickets, which cost $30 if purchased before April 4, also can be ordered on the Market Authority's Web site, www.highpointmarket.org. The tickets, good for the entire market, cost $45 after April 4.
Mendenhall said all hotels listed on the Web site are served by a shuttle, with 24 motor coaches operating on 20 routes. Previously, 19 coaches were used on 16 routes.
She hopes to increase hotel shuttle ridership by 25% in April and another 10% at the October market.
Mendenhall said free shuttles serving five satellite parking lots in High Point will operate continuously from 6:45 a.m. to 10 p.m., while the Market Express trolleys that stop at various downtown showroom locations will operate from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Two Market Express routes will cover an area that had been served by a single route.
Earlier this year, the Market Authority signed a contract with Raleigh, N.C.-based McLaurin Parking Co. to run the market's entire transportation system. Previously, shuttle routes had been served by a hodgepodge of vans, motor coaches, church buses and municipal buses, many operated by volunteer drivers.
In April, McLaurin plans to use motor coaches, trolleys and minibuses. All drivers, parking lot attendants and other transportation workers will be McLaurin employees.
