The 45-year-old said he has enjoyed reserving a ride in advance and knowing the price far ahead of time - benefits that Uber and Lyft don’t provide. Merih Tuncay, waiting to be picked up at LAX on Thursday, said he has been a loyal SuperShuttle customer for the last five years as he splits his time between his homes in Turkey and Fontana. Customer service representative Ricky Heredia, who is stationed at the airport to help travelers connect with their rides, said he learned about the shutdown shortly before his lunch break Thursday: His manager handed him a letter saying his job would end Dec. SuperShuttle is also laying off employees. “A lot of us own our vans, and now we don’t have jobs,” Mohammad Baraei said Thursday afternoon in between shuttling people to and from LAX, adding that he still owes about half the payments on his $66,000 vehicle. The shutdown will leave franchisees in the lurch - hundreds of them in California alone. The letter to the franchisee cited “a variety of factors” for the company’s closure, “including increasing costs and changes in the competitive and regulatory landscape” that “have called into question the economic and operational viability of the company’s operations.” But two SuperShuttle reservations agents reached by telephone confirmed that the company was going out of business, as did a company executive who was not authorized to speak publicly. SuperShuttle executives could not be reached for official comment. 31.Īttempts to reach Mark Friedman, identified as general manager in the letter’s signature line, were unsuccessful Thursday. In recent weeks it has pulled out of airports serving many cities, including Burbank, Sacramento, Phoenix, Baltimore and Minneapolis.Ī Tuesday letter from the company to a Los Angeles-area franchisee, obtained by The Times, says: “SuperShuttle plans to honor all reservations and walk-up requests for service” through Dec. The company - which was founded in 1983 to serve LAX and expanded nationwide as well as to Latin America, Canada, Europe and Asia - has been plagued by competition from Uber and Lyft. SuperShuttle, the shared van ride that has served passengers heading to and from airports around the world, including Los Angeles International Airport, will cease operations at the end of the year.
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