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For the month the Olympics and Paralympics occupy Vancouver and Whistler, a Prince George company will become quite familiar with the Sea-to-Sky Highway.
Northern Spirit Transportation secured a contract, working with the logistics company Gameday, to move media members from Vancouver to the alpine skiing centre. Four NST buses will do the run to the alpine ski site.
NST will also have one bus rolling from Richmond to the snowboarding venue at Cypress Mountain.
"Basically, we pick up the media at their hotels in the morning, take them up to Whistler, and bring them back at the end of the day," said NST owner Paul Clermont, who has added two buses to get up to the five-bus level.
"It's taken a lot of work and investment to get the contract, and even more work to get it right so I can follow all the great planning by Dave Matun and Gameday. This will help strengthen my company, update my fleet and expand our services.
"It's funny to look back on, but when Vancouver got the Olympics I said to myself then that I wanted to get better known for my charter business so I'd have a shot at something like this, or to bring tours down to the Olympics. Well, here we are, and it's been great to work with Gameday and VANOC."
Clermont, who has flown south on a number of recent weekends for site tours and planning sessions, is not concerned about the safety of the twisty road that leads north from North Vancouver, noting the improvements made since the Olympics were awarded in 2003.
"The Sea-to-Sky, it's better, but it can be a dark, wet and treacherous road - it will be slow going, but I expect people to be cautious because they know the road they're on," said Clermont.
NST will have 14 drivers plus support staff, including a mechanic, in Vancouver for the duration of the Games. All the drivers are from the North, most of them from Prince George mixed with one from Houston and another from Smithers.
"One of our drivers, Bill Raglin, he's retired, but he heard from friends who worked the Calgary Olympics in 1988 that it was the best time of their careers," said Clermont.
"He was with Greyhound for 35 years and jumped at the chance. The drivers are really starting to get excited about it, too."
Clermont, who started in as a bus owner by branding "Paul's Party Bus" charters to places like Vancouver, Seattle and Calgary, landed the Olympics contract last summer and has been planning since then.
Clermont has experience toting athletes around - his company handled the Royal Bank Cup, the USA-Canada sledge hockey series, and the World Baseball Challenge. Clermont has also helped the city promote the recently-opened airport expansion and hosted air cargo executives.
"I really enjoyed those sporting events, getting to meet the players and take part in big tournaments that are great for the community," said Clermont.
"It's a rush, and I get to be right in the middle of things."
