Shuttle 5500 hits a bump in the road, due to permit issues

By: Alexis Economy

Shuttle 5500 was off to a good start, and had found its niche in the Athens shuttle scene. Everything seemed to be running smoothly, until permit issues began to arise. These issues have forced Shuttle 5500 to stop running until November, in an attempt to sort out and fix their permit problems.

The service, started by business partners James Tomol and Jordan Dyce, is part of a management class, titled Management 5500 (also the namesake of the shuttle business), taught at the University of Georgia through the Terry College of Business. The class, taught by Christopher Hanks, allows students to formulate their own business plans and then actually launch the proposed business ideas during the semester.

According to Hanks, while many business schools offer similar classes that enable students to develop a business plan, only UGA offers a class where students are able to start and run their own businesses.

“We are the only entrepreneurship program in the country with an exclusive focus on launching the actual business,” Hanks said.

Why launch a shuttle service on game day in Athens when the city already has numerous taxis and vans?

According to James Tomol, a senior management major from Sarasota, Fla. and also the group leader of Shuttle 5500, to create an experience.

“We don’t want to be a commodity; we want to be compelling and provocative,” said Tomol.
That is what you get with Shuttle 5500; a new kind of game day ride experience.

That is what you get with Shuttle 5500; a new kind of game day ride experience. While on the ride guests can play trivia games about Georgia football or talk about experiences at the University and the Terry College of Business. By coincidence many of Shuttle 5500’s passengers are alumni of the Terry College of Business.

“Most of our customers are UGA alum and more specifically Terry alum, so most of the time we just end up talking about Terry and different business related issues,” said Tomol.

Along with gaining business experience, the young men of Shuttle 5500 are also allowed the opportunity to network and talk business strategy, which is quite an asset.

According to Lisa Bedgood, an alumni of Terry College and an Alumni Relations Associate with the Terry College of Business, “Networking is one of the most important skills a business student must develop. Paired with a solid education, it is a vital component of a successful career. Established Terry alumni can render a large world intimately small. One contact turns into ten and ten quickly multiplies to 30. Subsequently, students should seize any opportunity to build these skills.”

In addition to trivia and good conversation, guests are offered the option of purchasing chips or soft drinks and are even offered free pizza. During its first weekend of business, Fox’s Pizza, a Pittsburgh-based pizza and sandwich franchise with locations in Athens and Watkinsville, sponsored Shuttle 5500 and donated pizzas to be distributed on the rides.

According to Tomol, the business is hoping to get more sponsors and to work out a deal where if you buy a Shuttle 5500 T-shirt and wear it to the sponsoring businesses, you would be eligible for different deals at the businesses on the T-shirt.

Through this T-shirt idea Tomol and his business partner Jordan Dyce, a senior management major from Atlanta, Ga. are hoping to make the service free. Currently Shuttle 5500 is looking for more advertisers to cover its main costs, so the T-shirt can be a benefit to using the shuttle service.

However, the search for more advertisers is not meant to imply that this business venture has been unsuccessful. In fact, it has been quite the opposite. With only one weekend under its belt, the business can already boast serving approximately 200 guests.

“On our first weekend we began running at around 9 a.m. and then started again about an hour after the game ended. We did not finish until around 4 a.m. It was crazy,” said Dyce.

The shuttle picks up at mainly the Howard Johnson, Hampton Inn, and the Country Inn Suites near the intersection of Atlanta Highway and Alps Road and makes pick ups and drop offs about every 30 minutes. The shuttle picks up guests at the three hotels and then drops guests off at the bus stop near the arch in downtown Athens.

With parking costs soaring to $40 and taxis costing $10 and upwards per person, Shuttle 5500 seemed to have found its niche in offering a unique and full experience (for nearly no cost) to Georgia fans on game day.

However as with any other business venture, there are risks involved and numerous problems often arise. The problem that arose for Shuttle 5500 was in relation to the permit required by shuttle services that charge its customers. Neither Tomol nor Dyce could not be reached to offer more information on the problem and possible solutions. All that is known now is that Shuttle 5500 is taking a break and will up and running again in November.

Christophter Hanks (above) is the instructor for Managment 5500.

(Photo/Alexis Economy)

The Hampton Inn, located at the intersection of Atlanta Hwy and Alps

Road, is where Shuttle 5500 picked up the majority of its passengers.

(Photo/Alexis Economy)

Edited by Lauren Willson