The household enterprise contains President Fernando Pereira; VP Claudia Menezes; and their daughter and CFO Fernanda Vanetta. All photographs GoPegasus
Orlando, Fla.’s GoPegasus was named METRO Journal’s Revolutionary Operator of the Yr on the American Bus Affiliation’s Market in Omaha, Neb. Available to obtain the award from METRO’s Affiliate Writer Mark Hollenbeck at Monday’s Operator Breakfast had been Fernando Pereira and Claudia Menezes, who function the corporate’s president and VP, respectively.
“We’re very enthusiastic to obtain this award as a result of it exhibits that we’re doing the correct factor and transferring in the correct path,” Menezes says. “This award may be very particular to us too, as a result of whereas we’ve gained many native awards, that is the primary time that we’ve been acknowledged nationally as an organization.”
Begun 25 years in the past with only one man and one van, Orlando, Fla.’s GoPegasus has grown right into a full-service journey and transportation firm, with a deal with simplifying processes for each its clients and workers, in addition to giving again to the group.
The household enterprise was began by Fernando Pereira, who in the present day serves as president of the corporate. He was joined by his spouse Claudia Menezes in 2001, who now serves as VP and commenced her profession as a journey agent, with their daughter, Fernanda Vanetta, now serving as CFO.
After including its first motorcoach, the corporate quickly noticed a downturn in enterprise attributable to 9/11, which impacted worldwide tourism and enterprise as a complete.
“We knew we needed to be artistic to drum up enterprise, so we determined to run our empty buses throughout the town — vacationer spots, airports, and all over the place in between,” explains Menezes. “Our buses lined a lot floor, that it really appeared like we had a big fleet, and shortly we started to begin getting cellphone calls from native companies, faculties, church buildings, and assembly planners.”
From these humble beginnings, GoPegasus now gives a variety of companies and merchandise from its workplaces in Orlando and Miami, together with attraction tickets, lodge and restaurant reservations, meet-and-greet, and formal occasion planning. The corporate is a one-stop-shop for journey vacation spot and prides itself on offering one of the best offers for home and worldwide purchasers, whereas additionally offering stress-free journey experiences.
With a fleet of 30 motorcoaches, GoPegasus’ purchasers are primarily teams within the areas of tour operators, faculties, firms, seniors, and free impartial vacationers.
Solely ‘dwell voices’ allowed
Boasting a fleet that features 30 motorcoaches with facilities together with free 4G Wi-Fi and audio/visible know-how, GoPegasus’ purchasers are primarily teams within the areas of tour operators, faculties, firms, seniors, and free impartial vacationers (FIT), each overseas and home.
“The best way our enterprise is about up is that we’ve three departments that serve our leisure, conventions and assembly planners, and sports activities clients, which make up about 70% of our annual enterprise. We additionally generate our personal enterprise on a day-to-day foundation,” Menezes says. “We imagine that each one of this diversification actually units us aside from the competitors within the space, and there’s a lot of it right here in Orlando.”
The operation has additionally grown to incorporate over 80 workers, who’re skilled to ship the highest quality customer support. For instance, all cellphone calls are answered by a dwell voice, with the corporate emphasizing that there are not any answering machines wherever all through their workplaces. The corporate additionally has a multilingual workers, with a few of its gross sales workforce and drivers onboard in a position to converse English, Spanish, Portuguese, and German.
Shopper packages, service software program
Staying forward of the curve, the corporate just lately launched an internet platform known as Pegasus Market, which permits worldwide purchasers and journey brokers, who work particularly with FIT, to have the identical all-inclusive expertise as group vacationers do.
Pegasus Market permits the operation’s purchasers to search out and reserve pre-built packages or evaluate lodge charges. Pegasus Market additionally exhibits attraction costs and itineraries, giving teams the chance to construct their very own packages for his or her clients, if they like. The system permits GoPegasus to have a sooner and extra environment friendly response for all these requests. For the reason that launch of the Pegasus Market, the corporate has skilled a rise in gross sales and consumer satisfaction, whereas additionally offering one other income stream for GoPegasus, which continues to develop.
The workforce at GoPegasus additionally created a software program system that improves inner processes, in addition to the consumer’s expertise, dubbed W.I.N.G.S (internet built-in community group companies).
The workforce at GoPegasus additionally created a software program system that improves inner processes, in addition to the consumer’s expertise, dubbed W.I.N.G.S, which stands for internet built-in community group companies.
Obtainable on cellular gadgets, W.I.N.G.S. permits GoPegasus purchasers to trace their companies and transportation in actual time; to make modifications or additions to current reservations; and conduct boarding checks and look at eating reservations and lodge lodging. The system additionally helps tour operators who work with scholar journey teams to stay calm, because it permits them to make room adjustments, change seats, and rely the variety of college students getting again on the bus — all from a handheld machine.
W.I.N.G.S. has additionally improved the effectivity of inner processes, permitting GoPegasus to search out all consumer data rapidly in a single window. This system not solely integrates the gross sales data and processes, but in addition combines the work of all departments, permitting higher communication between departments, making it straightforward for everybody inside the group to know what’s going on with their group always, whereas additionally providing a broader view of the operation.
“We discover it essential to spend money on know-how and over the course of about two years constructed the W.I.N.G.S. administration platform from scratch, which in the present day is basically the spine of our operation,” Menezes explains. “Now, we’re within the means of refining the system to incorporate our components and upkeep operations. That’s the solely factor lacking from the system, and we are going to quickly be including the capabilities to both observe the upkeep of the motorcoaches or our components stock.”
A key piece to GoPegasus is the corporate’s deal with philanthropy and volunteerism within the communities they serve in Central Florida.
Observe ‘airplane upkeep’
Touring a couple of million miles whereas carrying 100,000-plus passengers per 12 months, GoPegasus boasts incident-free journey each 12 months.
Menezes credit her operation’s security, partially, to its upkeep workforce, who’re on workers and obtainable 24 hours a day.
“It units us aside within the trade to have our personal upkeep, however along with that we observe what we name ‘airplane upkeep,’ the place we change the half based mostly on the lifecycle established by the producer whether or not it’s good or unhealthy,” she says. “This preventive upkeep observe, we imagine, is an enormous cause that we’ve a really low fee for each components failures and breakdowns.”
Menezes provides that the corporate’s year-round coaching program retains drivers updated all year long versus offering once-a-year refreshers. She additionally says that the corporate does all they will to take the guesswork out of driving for the corporate.
“An instance of one thing we do is that we all the time embody a tough copy of the itinerary and instructions for every journey in case one thing had been to occur, just like the GPS isn’t working or they drop and break their cellphone, for example,” she says. “We additionally work with our purchasers to get any of their questions answered forward of their journey, so the drivers can simply consider what they should do, which is get our clients to and from their locations safely.”
Boy Scouts and Santa Claus
The final key piece to GoPegasus is the corporate’s deal with philanthropy and volunteerism within the communities they serve in Central Florida.
“I feel it’s essential not solely within the motorcoach trade however for all companies to be actively concerned within the communities they work and dwell in,” Menezes says. “Via these interactions is how the group can start to fall in love with your small business and opens the door to type nice partnerships.”
A number of the native charities and teams GoPegasus has cast partnerships with embody SYTA’s Pupil Youth Basis, the Boy Scouts of America, and Ronald McDonald Home Charities. In actual fact, for a number of years round 500 kids from Orange County’s Head Begin program have been in a position to get pleasure from breakfast and meet Santa Claus on the Laborious Rock Cafe as a result of GoPegasus offered the transportation at no cost.
“We’re not the most important firm, so we will’t all the time assist charities and organizations with a monetary donation,” Menezes explains. “However we’ve gear, so we will volunteer that gear to assist transfer individuals safely and effectively, which finally ends up being a win-win scenario for all concerned.”
