OCEAN CITY — Ocean City is set to take ownership of two high-capacity articulating buses in time for the summer season, but it appears they won’t be bearing the wrapped advertising so prevalent on many of the other vehicles in the city’s fleet.
Acting Superintendent of Transportation Wayne Pryor briefed the Transportation Committee on a wide variety of issues related to the city’s municipal bus service last Tuesday, including an update on the two new articulating buses, which feature a traditional main bus trailed by a connected second session. Pryor has referred to the high-capacity articulating buses as street sweepers for their ability to absorb so many more riders in a shorter amount of time then the traditional buses.
Ocean City will soon take delivery of the two articulating, or artic, buses and they are expected to be up and running in time for the summer season. It now appears, however, they won’t likely feature the same wrapped advertising so visible on traditional buses. In January, Pryor told the committee one of Ocean City’s newest planned attractions, the proposed haunted house on Worcester Street on the site of an old underage nightclub, had expressed interest in contracting for wrapped advertising on one of the articulating buses.
However, when Pryor reviewed Steelhead Production’s proposed graphics, he brought the issue to the Transportation Committee. While receptive to the idea, the committee expressed concern about the graphic nature of the haunted house’s proposed bus wrap advertising and suggested they return with something a little more “PG-rated.”
In the weeks since, it appears Steelhead Productions’ interest in wrapping one of the articulating buses with advertising has all but disappeared, in part because of the requested design changes, but largely because of financial commitment. Pryor explained the initial design costs for the haunted house or any entity that wished to wrap the new buses with advertising would come in at around $10,000, and with other fees and costs, the initial first-year investment would be more like $28,000.
“The bottom line is, they are pulling back on the idea of wrapping the artic bus at least for this year,” he said. “With the $10,000 for design plus the monthly media rates, along with the design constraints, they have expressed interest in going in another direction.”
Pryor said Steelhead Productions wasn’t the only company that was balking on the concept of wrapping an articulating bus with advertising. He said in Baltimore where the articulating buses are prevalent, the only wrapped artic bus ever was done by the MTA itself, and that’s in an area with much more exposure. He said because the big articulating buses would only be used during the peak summer months in Ocean City, it would be a tough sell because of the cost.
“The artic buses are only running at peak times and if you advertise, you want to see them up and down the highway all the time,” he said. “It’s just not practical. They are not going to be out there all the time.”
However, some on the committee thought the estimated $28,000 initial investment represented a great opportunity. For example, Councilmember Mary Knight said she was surprised some of the larger corporate entities weren’t chomping at the bit to get advertising on the artic buses.
“I can’t believe people aren’t jumping on them,” she said. “That’s not a lot of money for the amount of exposure. How about our city-wide sponsor Coca-Cola? Maybe they would be interested.”
Councilman Dennis Dare said perhaps Ocean City itself should take the lead and wrap one of the articulating buses with advertising for its special events or other activities.
“Maybe the town should do one bus and that gets the message out about how effective it is,” he said. “If we invest the $10,000, it might lead to selling the other one.”
In other transportation news related to buses, Pryor said an agreement had been reached with the Maryland Transit Authority to provide 10 loaner buses to Ocean City for the summer season. Each year, the MTA loans buses to the town of Ocean City on a seasonal basis to help handle the increased demand during the summer and this year will be no different. Transportation Committee officials jokingly questioned whether the resort would get the same loaners they made repairs on last year.
In addition, Pryor told the committee the aggressive campaign to hire qualified bus drivers to round out the summer staff was moving along ahead of schedule. The target number of CDL-certified bus drivers is 155 and already 100 returning bus drivers have been processed. In addition, the department has received 20 new applications bringing the total to 120 already out of the targeted 155. In addition, the department is also seeking to fill 60 positions for the Boardwalk tram including drivers, conductors, ticket and maintenance personnel and already 42 returning staff have been processed and nine new applications have been received, bringing the total to 51 out of the required 60.