Ground Transportation Insights – 2025 In Review
What Resonated Most with Readers in Our Inaugural Year
Ground Transportation Insights launched in mid-January 2025 with a simple purpose: to create thoughtful, experience-driven conversations about leadership, operations, and financial discipline in the ground transportation industry.
What followed—in less than a full year—confirmed there was real demand for practical insight grounded in lived experience, not theory. The publication quickly grew from a single post into an ongoing dialogue shaped by operator feedback and real-world challenges.
GTI by the Numbers – Year One
52 articles published
Four video articles
One audio-only article
Thousands of views across the industry
32 articles featured by industry trade publications, including the American Bus Association’s News Center, UMA’s Bus & Motorcoach News, Busline, and BUSRide
For a first year, those numbers are humbling—but what matters most isn’t volume. It’s what resonated and why.
What Resonated Most in 2025
Clear themes emerged throughout the year:
📊 Data & Decision-Making — moving from reactive to real-time visibility
🧠 Leadership & Culture — details, kindness, and consistency
💰 Financial Discipline — EBITDA, variable costs, margin protection
🔄 Industry Relationships — brokers, lenders, and trade-offs
🏆 Legacy & Experience — learning from leaders who built this industry
The Top 5 GTI Articles of 2025
Ranked by total reader views during Ground Transportation Insights’ inaugural year
#1 – 40 Over 40 Legends: A Conversation with Mike Waters
The most-viewed GTI article of the year launched the 40 Over 40 Legends series, honoring industry veterans with 40+ years of service. My conversation with Mike Waters focused on leadership lessons shaped over decades—people first, safety and service as non-negotiables, and teamwork as the backbone of our industry.
🎥 Watch the video here:
https://busbusinessconsultant.substack.com/p/40-over-40-legends-a-conversation
Featured by Bus & Motorcoach News.
#2 – The Broker–Operator Relationship: A Conversation with BusBank’s Harald Kruse
This video conversation addressed one of the industry’s most debated topics with balance and clarity. Rather than taking sides, the discussion explored trade-offs, misconceptions, and how operators can think strategically about when brokered relationships fit their business model.
🎥 Watch the video here:
https://busbusinessconsultant.substack.com/p/the-brokeroperator-relationship-a
Featured in the October/November 2025 issue of BUSRide Magazine.
#3 – You Spoke. We’re Addressing (Part 2): Taming Variable Costs Before They Tame You
Focused on driver payroll, maintenance, fuel, and other margin-eroding expenses, this article emphasized leadership discipline over shortcuts—and reflected the daily realities operators face.
📖 Read the article here:
https://busbusinessconsultant.substack.com/p/you-spoke-were-addressing-part-2
#4 – What Is EBITDA — and Why It Matters
A practical breakdown of one of the most misunderstood financial metrics in business, this piece explained why EBITDA matters to lenders, buyers, and boards—and how misunderstanding it can create blind spots in growth, financing, and succession planning.
📖 Read the article here:
https://busbusinessconsultant.substack.com/p/what-is-ebitda-and-why-it-matters
#5 – What Southwest Airlines Can Teach Ground Transportation Leaders
Rather than copying an airline model, this article explored transferable leadership behaviors: simplicity, clarity, empowered frontline teams, and disciplined decision-making.
📖 Read the article here:
https://busbusinessconsultant.substack.com/p/what-southwest-airlines-can-teach
Featured by the American Bus Association News Center.
Also, Among GTI’s Top 10 in 2025
The following articles rounded out the Top 10 based on total reader views and reinforced the year’s core themes:
Boom Time Blindness
Kindness Isn’t Soft. It’s Strategic (Audio)
The Details That Drive Us
Closing the Gap on Real-Time Performance Data (Video)
Building More Than Hotels
Looking Ahead
If 2025 proved anything, it’s this: leadership, discipline, and clarity matter—long before the wheels roll.
Thank you to the operators, executives, partners, and readers who made Ground Transportation Insights’ first year possible. Your engagement shaped the topics and sharpened the conversations.
Here’s to building on that momentum—and continuing the dialogue—in 2026.
