business backgrounder | industry
A few notable examples of the bus
company’s green building include:
• Two 1 , 5 0 0 g a l l o n t a n k s t o
collect rainwater that the company uses to wash its buses. “It’s
more than enough for what we
need,” Gillis said.
• A waste oil re-burner uses motor
oil from the buses to heat the
company’s shop. The waste oil
reburner gives the old oil a new
purpose and saves Starline on
heating costs.
• The facility is made from recyStarline employee Matt McNamara services one of the company’s coaches. Starline has a
fleet of more than 60 buses.
cled steel, and the building is
positioned to take advantage of
the sun for light and heat. All the appliances and
lighting are Energy Star rated.
• The new location — on Martin Luther King Jr.
Way South — is 15 minutes closer to the freeway.
Multiplied by 1,200 bus trips per month, the small
distance saves a lot of fuel and time.
“Hopefully it increases the value of the building
and it might pay us back in the long run. But what
drives us to do this is that we are passionate about
doing the right thing for the environment.”
—Gladys Gillis, CEO Starline Luxury Coaches
modest beginnings
With its modern headquarters and fleet of 60 buses, it’s
hard to believe that Starline started small. Gillis and
Starline president Becky Pritchett founded the company with just two buses.
The pair had been managing transportation projects,
and even ran the shuttle service for the whitewater
kayak events in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
They officially incorporated Starline two years later,
providing mostly paratransit services — transporting
people with disabilities — around Seattle.
Today, Starline offers a range of services from driving
fans to sporting events and taking skiers up the mountain to transporting wedding parties and providing
buses for celebrity musicians.
The company runs corporate shuttles, busing
employees between buildings. And it offers executive
motor coaches — complete with WiFi — for businesses
who want to get some work done en route to conferences or meetings.
Starline even played a role in last year’s Winter
Olympics in Vancouver, providing 17 buses to move
people between events. The company also ran shuttles
for the 2010 Paralympic Games.
The company has grown cautiously, keeping a close
eye on financials and aggressively paying off its buses.
That prudent business approach meant that the recent
recession was a speed bump — not a road block —
for Starline.
“We own more than 70 percent of our fleet,” Gillis
said. “That’s almost unheard of in this industry, but if
it weren’t for that fact it would have been very difficult
to get through the downturn.”
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