Village Transportation: Meeting High Expectations In An Alpine Setting

By Harrell Kerkhoff, Busline Magazine editor

Village Transportation Senior Manager Paul Gorbold stands next to one of the company’s Micro Bird Commercial buses. (Photos courtesy of Village Transportation)

Whether a downhill skier/snowboarder, nature/sightseeing enthusiast, or just loving life in a picturesque alpine resort setting — there is much to be said about visiting, living, and working in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Among the many popular destinations in this well-known area of the country is Beaver Creek Resort, near Avon, CO, located approximately 106 miles west of Denver, CO.

The resort, owned and operated by Vail Resorts, includes three villages — Beaver Creek, Bachelor Gulch, and Arrowhead — all featuring various high-end amenities including transport services provided by Village Transportation.

“We provide several types of transportation services for the visitors, employees and residents within the Beaver Creek Resort system. That includes a fleet of 55 Micro Bird Commercial cutaway buses as well as 22 BRT-style 40-foot low-floor transit buses,” Village Transportation Senior Manager Paul Gorbold said, during a recent interview. “Our service capabilities include both door to door on-demand transportation as well as fixed-route. As it pertains to our on-demand offering, passengers can use our Village Connect app to book a trip. A vehicle will then be dispatched to their location, such as an area lodge or residence, and take them to where that need to go within our service area.

“Meanwhile, our fixed-route service involves more traditional transportation that operates within a loop from our base area parking lots to the ski areas. Also provided are employee shuttles that operate on a looping basis.”

Gorbold added that Beaver Creek is a unique ski resort area within the Vail Resorts portfolio. It includes a planned gated community that’s semiprivate and involves several municipal districts and various services.

“One of those services provided by the communities involves Village Transportation,” he explained. “Our passengers include employees, visitors and residents, and we operate 365 days a year. For example, our employee shuttles start at 5 a.m. and end at 1 a.m.”

Although well known as a winter wonderland for skiers/snowboarders, there are plenty of attractions for summer visitors as well at Beaver Creek Resort. That includes whitewater rafting, 4×4 tours, golfing, fly fishing and family-friendly festival opportunities as well as miles of scenic hiking, mountain biking and horseback trails.

“We are actually quite busy in the summer at Village Transportation. That involves such work as transporting passengers to and from hiking trailheads and horse stables,” Gorbold said. “There are also opportunities for people to use our services to reach scenic gondola rides and fine dinning restaurants. Just like in the winter, there are plenty of transportation needs to meet during the summer months.”

Growing With The Times

Beaver Creek Resort began in the 1980s and so too did a local municipal transportation service provided for the resort and area communities to accommodate emerging travel demands. Just as the resort area has expanded with new facilities and opportunities over the past 40-plus years, changes have taken place as well at Village Transportation. That includes the development of new technology designed to help passengers better connect with the area transport provider.

“Over the past several years we have found success at Village Transportation in providing app-based technology, and it has been very well received by our passengers,” Gorbold said. “Our Village Connect app provides a convenient way for passengers to request a trip.”

Users can download the app and create an account. They can then schedule pickups, receive real-time updates on bus locations, and stay informed about arrival times.

According to Gorbold, the user-friendly interface is similar to popular ride-sharing apps, helping enhance the transportation experience for passengers.

“We started transitioning in 2017 to app-based technology as opposed to a dial-a-ride format. One problem with the latter type of service was that there was no good way to track key analytics as it pertained to our transportation performance,” he explained. “With our Village Connect app, it not only provides more information about our services for the benefit of current and potential riders, but it also helps us better understand the level of service we are providing for our different communities. And, it has streamlined our service, which means less demand is placed on our dispatchers.

“We are always looking to improve the experiences of our passengers. That includes better response times and shorter travel times.”

Other improvements at Village Transportation have included the influx of Micro Bird buses into its fleet, according to Gorbold.

“We were introduced to Micro Bird vehicles in 2019 by our equipment supplier, Kyle Geitznauer of Colorado/West Equipment, and have been very happy with these buses,” he said. “The vehicles are much quieter and feature an improved ride quality for the benefit of our passengers. They are also very modern, updated and sleek — all qualities our passengers expect while traveling in a resort setting.

“Micro Bird has also been great to work with over the years. I took the opportunity to visit their factory and saw the craftsmanship that was involved during the assembly of their vehicles. We, at Village Transportation, have built a very good working relationship with Micro Bird Commercial.

“Obviously, nobody comes to a resort to just ride a bus, but bad transportation experiences can leave lasting negative impressions on passengers. That is why we focus on providing the best equipment possible, as well as having our drivers and other employees well trained to provide proper customer service.”

Driving With A View

Paul Gorbold is shown in front of the lay of the land at Beaver Creek Resort.

Although all employee positions are important for any transportation provider, good drivers are key to safe and reliable service every day. At Village Transportation, officials look for driving candidates who have a history of being reliable, safe and a willingness to properly engage with passengers regardless of the type of service being provided.

“Although there is no prerequisite set at Village Transportation to have previous driving experience when it comes to filling driver positions, we do look for people who have some previous guest service experience. It’s also good to find candidates who display agreeable character and disposition traits during the interview process,” Gorbold said.

Once hired, officials at Village Transportation will help people obtain the necessary licenses to drive for the company.

“We can both test and train new hires for our driving positions. There are two representatives on our staff who are registered and trained by the state of Colorado’s CDL program. They can administer the necessary CDL tests in-house, which is a nice benefit to have,” Gorbold said.

He added Village Transportation offers a variety of work for its drivers to take advantage of, often in the same work week. That includes on-demand and fixed-route service. Drivers are allowed to pick and choose their schedule.

“Our focus is to provide an agreeable work schedule, helping our drivers better meet their work/life needs,” Gorbold explained. “A flexible schedule also helps break the monotony of driving the same route day after day.”

Ongoing training is also provided at Village Transportation to help drivers safely operate a large vehicle full of passengers in the area’s high alpine environment that averages 323 inches of snow per season.

“Our drivers must successfully operate in all types of weather including very wintry conditions,” Gorbold said. “There are also steep driveways and long-winding roads within our service region, which is approximately six square miles. We provide continual defensive driving training, including how to operate when roads are slick. The good news is, being in a ski resort location, area communities are very good about keeping roads as snow-free as possible. It’s very rare for road conditions here to deteriorate to the point where we can’t operate.”

Another unique characteristic to operating transportation services in a resort setting during snow season is helping passengers who are traveling with large amounts of heavy snow gear.

“It can be quite cumbersome for skiers to travel to, and from, the slopes. That includes carrying bulky ski boots as well as skis and poles,” Gorbold said. “In response, we encourage our drivers to help such passengers board and disembark. Our drivers are also good with placing skis on racks located in the back of our vehicles. It’s an extra level of customer service that we provide.

“At Village Transportation, we empower all our employees to provide a high level of customer service, so our passengers don’t need to worry about transportation-related issues. Transportation shouldn’t be a burden while visiting, working at, or living in the Beaver Creek Resort area. As it pertains to our drivers, that includes warmly greeting passengers as they board a vehicle. We also make sure all buses are properly cleaned inside and out.”

Village Transportation maintains a staff of 45 to 50 drivers during the summer months and increases that number to around 100 drivers in the winter.

“We maintain a heavy recruiting and retention program. Some drivers remain on staff throughout the year, while others like to service our customers in the winter and then head to such places as Alaska in the summer to transport customers of cruise lines. Others find summer driving jobs in such places as the Grand Canyon, Grand Teton National Park and Zion National Park,” Gorbold said. “As the winter approaches, so do many of our returning drivers to take advantage of the ski season.”

Other employees at Village Transportation include a staff of managers and supervisors. Vehicle maintenance, meanwhile, is conducted off-site by private contractors.

“We don’t have a ‘bus barn’ so to speak, although there is our main office and a satellite location, that latter of which is used to park reserve vehicles, such as those waiting to be worked on,” Gorbold said. “Our vehicles undergo preventive and routine maintenance all year long, while more detailed work is usually conducted during less busy times of the year, such as late spring/early summer and again during the fall months.”

Partnerships are also in place to properly market the various services provided by Village Transportation. That includes working with lodging and property management companies to get the word out about all the transportation provider’s capabilities.

“We provide a lot of community outreach, such as attending annual meetings involving different boards and homeowner associations. The objective is to provide information and updates about our services,” Gorbold said. “Additionally, information is constantly updated in our resort newsletter, including how to download the Village Connect app.”

Thriving In Mountain Country

With the summer season in full swing at Beaver Creek Resort, and winter opportunities not far behind in the minds of employees, residents and future guests, officials at Village Transportation continue to make strides in providing a quality experience for all passengers.

“A key part to our success in the future will involve finding new ways to collect and analyze data so that we are always improving,” Gorbold said.

It’s also vital to learn from past experiences. At Village Transportation, that includes crowd management for those passengers waiting to board vehicles during peak times of the year. To help with that process, Gorbold and his staff have drawn from successful changes that took place during the COVID pandemic of a few years ago.

“Like many places, Vail Resorts shut down in March 2020 due to the pandemic. We took some time at Beaver Creek Resort to analyze how we could open again and what kind of services could be provided for guests,” Gorbold said. “By June 2020, the resort reopened and included services provided by Village Transportation. We were limited to 50 percent capacity per vehicle. The biggest challenge, however, was properly managing the lines of people wanting to board our vehicles during peak times of the day. It was important those passengers maintained proper spacing while waiting in line.”

To help, a queue line process was implemented, featuring an appropriately-spaced formation where individuals who were waiting for a Village Transportation vehicle to arrive would be positioned — one behind another — in an organized manner.

“We found that this organized process provided a calming effect for passengers as they waited for a vehicle,” Gorbold said. “We have since kept this boarding process in place during busy times, well after the pandemic. It was worked out well for our transportation system and passengers alike.”

Looking ahead, Gorbold is optimistic about the future of not only Village Transportation but the overall bus industry as well. He added it’s a good career choice for many people.

Gorbold’s own work history within the resort landscape includes being a ski patroller and working as a health and safety manager. He eventually entered the transportation side of resort work, first as a safety and training manager working with drivers, and now as the senior manager of Village Transportation.

“My main focus today is to help elevate the guest and overall passenger experience at Village Transportation, while also making our service more sustainable for the future,” Gorbold said. “The great thing about being involved in transportation is that it teaches you different skill sets, such as how to work with various types of people.

“I feel we currently have some of the best drivers and other employees who can be found in a resort setting. Many of our employees have been with us for years and have developed lasting friendships with our passengers. It’s always fun for our drivers, for example, to see and visit with various guests and community residents as they come back to the resort for a specific season to enjoy life on the mountains. I’m very proud of the transportation operation, employees and various services that we have in place at Beaver Creek Resort.”

Visit beavercreek.com.