ABA's Women in Buses: 50 Stories from 50 States | Page 9

Connie Giddens Pacific Coachways Billing Clerk cgiddens @ pacificcoachways . com
• Fleet Size – 18 Motorcoaches , 6 School Buses , 1 Mini Coach
• $ 105,000 annually plate fees
I dated and eventually married into the bus business . Tom started driving the church bus when he was just 17 years old ! We went to the same church and I thought the bus driver was pretty cute ! I remember going on dates with him and we would dream and plan about owning a future bus company . When we were married in 1980 , Tom was working as a Dispatcher for Robert ’ s Holiday Lines and over the years worked at several other charter bus companies until on July 1 , 1989 an opportunity arose to purchase Pacific Coachways Charter Services from Bob Fawcett . It was our dream come true but certainly was a lot of work ! At first , we had nowhere to park the 4 MCI Motorcoaches , so we moved them from a parking lot behind a Target shopping center to our church parking lot to finally a rented space in another bus company ’ s yard . I was working as a School Secretary at Holy Cross Lutheran School where our son Michael , daughters Susie and Noelle all attended . I also had a part time position at a furniture manufacturing company called Royal Coach Furniture as a bookkeeper ’ s assistant . I also answered phones and dispatched for Pacific Coachways at night in our home office while Tom was out driving or washing and dumping the buses . Sometimes I was not sure which phone I was answering and was afraid I would answer “ Holy-Coach- Ways !”
It was a busy and exciting time building our company as well as our family . A new baby ( Noelle ) was born in 1990 and when she started to crawl , I pushed Tom to find somewhere other than our living room for his office . We eventually found office and yard space for the buses and my days of working 3 jobs ended . In 1992 Tom wanted to purchase a new Motorcoach but his credit was overextended from
purchasing the company , so it was on MY credit that we were able to become the proud owners of a new Le Mirage Prevost Motorcoach ! I attended most of the trade shows with Tom over the years , getting to know all the wonderful people in the bus industry but continued working as School Secretary until it sadly closed in 2009 . I took a couple of months off between jobs then started working at Pacific Coachways , first just filing and trying to organize Tom ’ s desk and office but soon moved to accounting and billing when that position became available . Our company celebrated our 30th anniversary on July 1 , 2019 with a wonderful party where employees , friends , family , and industry friends helped us celebrate this milestone . The company has received many awards from the California Highway Patrol , IMG , UMA , Trailways and our California Bus Association .
I enjoy working with my husband Tom , son Michael and daughter in law Jennifer , and hope and pray we make it through this devastating industry wide shut down due to COVID-19 . It will make me the happiest person on earth when we are able to do what we do best and that is safely take people where the need to go !
My favorite vacation spot is Lake Powell in Utah where our family enjoys houseboating each year . In my quarantined free time , I have organized my photos , and like to read and garden . We have quite the bumper crop of pumpkins this year making all our grandkids and neighborhood kids very excited as Halloween gets closer !
Tom and I celebrated 40 years of marriage on May 17 , 2020 and we have three grandsons ( Owen-6 ; Westley-4 ; and Rhys-1 ) from our daughter Susie and her husband Daren and one granddaughter ( Hannah-5 ) from Michael and Jennifer . Hannah is well known and loved by many people in this awesome industry , and we hope she will enjoy many more years of attending shows and maybe eventually taking over running Pacific Coachways .

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