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We turned nine today.

And I can’t believe it.

The photo above is from May 5th, 2012. That’s me, Andy, posing with our very first customer ever on our very first bus, Bettis. We were running our City Loop which looped around the major neighborhoods and offered unlimited rides for just $5.

This nice gentlemen was waiting at the curb, presumably for the city bus. He didn’t know about any of our promotions or hand-waving around our new bus line — he was just trying to get somewhere. I pulled one of the maps out, showed him our loop, and explained it would be $5. He looked over at the bus, looked back at me, and handed me $5.

Our very first sale.

I wish I knew his name because he was the first rider of what would be hundreds of thousands of riders. While I didn’t know much about the bus business when I started we came to learn over nearly a decade how to run a good company. The Loop wasn’t a great idea financially, but it got us on the road and helped us learn how to run buses reliably.

Since then we’ve expanded into offering private bus rentals, public city tours, and our non-profit Ride for Ride program to give kids free rides to school and after-school programs. We launched Vote Rides to get people to the polls, designed city tours to help people fall in love with the city time and time again, and we threw a few back (proverbially) on hundreds of showings of Drunks of Antiquity, our Detroit historic bar tour.

It’s dizzying to consider all of the versions of DBC we’ve been through the years as we try and find our way so we can serve you best. Transportation is far from a simple or easy industry. Despite these struggles I can safely say that I’m so glad we did it.

Thank you for all of your support over the years. Our tiny company might not be very big compared to other outfits, but your love and generosity makes us feel like we’re on top of the world.

Always,

Andy Didorosi, Founder, The Detroit Bus Company

PS: Use code “NINEYEARS” at arsenalofclean.com by this Friday to get 40% off any order of our Detroit-made hand sanitizers and surface sprays. Woweezow.

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