Mark Greer
Founder
Busrates.com

Like the Yellow Pages, BusRates.com does not research or recommend the companies in its directory of bus and motorcoach operators. Rather, we guide customers on how to research them on their own.

Imagine the liability of promising to have thoroughly researched companies.

We are a small operation that could never afford a $6 million lawsuit, or the insurance needed to protect against this.

The broker's business model is set up so that there will always be an incentive to choose low price over higher quality. Customers must take a leap of faith when putting trust into a biased party to choose their company for them.

Knowing how brokers work, I would never book a bus through a national broker and I don't think most customers would either if they understood what they were getting.

Too frequently, brokers are only taking advantage of those customers that don't shop around. Quite honestly, how do they sleep at night?

The reality of it is that if the brokers weren't showing up first on search engines, and bus-owning companies were, customers would be booking directly with bus owners, and both the bus owner and the customer would be better off for it.

The days of broker Internet domination is coming to an end. More bus owner groups are uniting to compete against them.

I do feel there is a place for brokers in the industry, however. For example, brokers are a good option for groups having trouble finding availability that don't have the time to call around and do the legwork.

I also feel that local brokers that intimately know their market and adhere to the 10 percent gross/net rate commission system can offer a terrific value.

If Metropolitan Shuttle is interested in collaboration, I would suggest it consider transforming into a directory. The Internet needs directories. Not everyone can have their Web site show up on the first page.

Until then, I will continue to do everything in my power to reach more customers and create more awareness.

According to Alexa.com, BusRates.com ranks in the top 100,000 of all English language Web sites in traffic, making it the highest bus charter-related site in North America.