Company to run High Point shuttles
By Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, December 16, 2001
HIGH POINT — Directors of the International Home Furnishings Market Authority have agreed to hand over the market's often-maligned shuttle system to a Raleigh company that specializes in transportation and logistics for large events.
The company, McLaurin Parking Co., will be responsible for all shuttle vehicles, drivers and routes that previously had been operated by a consortium of High Point-area nonprofit organizations, private tour bus companies and the City of High Point.
This includes downtown High Point's market shuttle service, shuttles between downtown and several satellite parking lots, shuttles to dozens of hotels in High Point, Greensboro and Winston-Salem, and transportation to and from the Piedmont Triad International Airport, said Market Authority President Judy Mendenhall.
Private shuttles operated by individual showrooms outside the immediate downtown area would not be affected.
"It's going to ratchet up our transportation system considerably," Mendenhall said. "(McLaurin) has a lot of experience handling major events. It's a turnkey operation."
A price tag for McLaurin's services couldn't be given because a contract with the company has yet to be signed. The board gave Mendenhall the go-ahead to negotiate final details of the agreement and said the group's three-person executive committee would give final approval.The contract initially would cover the April and October markets in 2002.
Mendenhall said a number of shuttle routes are likely to be altered, additional vehicles will be added, and many shuttles, particularly those to area hotels, will have extended evening hours.
Plus, she said the Market Authority will heavily promote the new transportation system well in advance of the market by working with, among other groups, the High Point Convention and Visitors Bureau and various hotel operators.
During a series of recent meetings with hotel executives, she discovered that many hotel employees have little, if any, knowledge of the transportation system and are unable to answer guests' questions about it. She said the Market Authority is considering a bus trip that would show doormen, bellmen and other hotel employees the locations of key market buildings and explain the operation of the shuttle system.
"Many of them have never been in downtown High Point," Mendenhall said. "We want to help them provide some basic information for their guests who are attending market."
She said an efficient, reliable shuttle system could reduce the need for marketgoers to rent cars, which would, in turn, ease the downtown parking crunch.
"A good transportation system is more cost-effective than park-and-ride lots," she said. "If we have a good transportation system, it will help our parking situation."
In the short-term, however, she said that parking woes are not going to go away, and noted the Market Authority is negotiating to lease or buy three lots that would add more than 1,600 parking spaces.
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