03 Nov Winner of the Best Places to Work in Maine, thanks to a dedicated team.
Every year in Maine, employees vote to nominate companies as the best places to work. Last year, for the first time in the award’s history, a motorcoach company, Northeast Charter and Tour, won, and they couldn’t have been prouder.
This year, the company was amazed and brought to pause when they learned that they had won for the second year in a row.
The award surprised the company, as the motorcoach industry has been hit hard by COVID-19 in 2020. Not only has Northeast’s business been reduced to a shadow of what it was last year, but many of their employees have been furloughed from the resulting lack of work.
“You can imagine our surprise when we got the call. To think that our team felt compelled to do this considering the state of things amazed us. It was a great reminder of the importance of culture, something that we hold so dear here at Northeast Charter and Tour.” Owner Scott Riccio said.
For Northeast Charter and Tour, culture a big part of their commitment to both their employees and their customers. It is evident in everything they do, and it is in every decision they make. When work came to a near standstill in March, many transportation companies quickly laid off their entire staff. They didn’t. They continued to invest in their team long after the wheels on the bus stopped turning.
“We fought tooth and nail to keep our team on the payroll. We exhausted reserves, PPP money, and still, even after that ran out, we kept paying their health insurance. We knew how this time would affect them, and we wanted them to know that we were as much on their team as they are on ours,” Riccio continued.
“Our employees are our family. They are what sets us apart and what makes us who we are as a company. We care about them and their families. We lose sleep over the current situation and how it affects each of them. We go to work every day fighting for more business, more support from our elected officials, and for any opportunity to get them back on the road, in the shop, and on the phones.” Riccio continued
General manager Larry Allen has been instrumental in orchestrating the business’s ebb and flow over the last seven months and has worked to keep drivers and staff informed and spread what little work there is amongst the team.
“We are working hard to keep the team a team,” Allan said.
“For years, we struggled to build a team that would come together and gel into the company culture that we wanted to create. In the last few years, we have finally been there, and during the pandemic, we have continued to work to maintain that as best we can. We have seen that our team wants to stay in the loop, know what is going on, and keep looking out for one another. It has been a testament to what a great group we have. They say that you can tell a lot about people when things get tough; well, this is about as tough as it has ever been in the bus business and what we see from our team is incredible.” He continued.
The motorcoach industry, being lead by the United Motorcoach Association and the American Bus Association, has been working with elected officials to secure financial aid for the industry who has been categorically left out of any direct federal funding during the pandemic. Currently, the CERTS act has the support of a bipartisan group of 59 senators and 263 representatives who support the needed funding. Without this direct intervention, the future of the entire industry is in question.
“We are in a fight for our very existence,” Riccio added. “Being recognized by our employees during this time was an extraordinary moment for us. It shows that whatever happens in the coming months that we made the right decisions through this for our team, and that is something I will forever be grateful for!”
Northeast Charter and Tour have been providing charter bus, school bus, trolly, and limo services in Maine for over 20 years. They are headquartered in the Lewiston/Auburn area and employ over 90 Mainers.
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