J Magazine Winter 2019

short ride as fun as possible.
“Guests feel they are getting a free
amenity from the hotel, restaurant or bar,”
Kaloostian said.
RIDER RESPONSE
Fun is the one word that comes up when
sharing a ride with passengers. Melanie has
been with the company from the beginning
and now works as a driver-trainer and a
brand ambassador. She’s talkative and tries
to always wear a flower in her hair. The
flower adds to her personality and a way for
customers to remember her.
While working at the Beach, she recalled
taking a couple out on their first date. A year
later the couple recognized her and they
reminisced about that first ride. It was a
memorable because they since had become
engaged.
Preston and Kristen Hood are regular users.
They first heard about the service when
people were talking about it around the pool
at The Alexandria condominiums.
“The drivers are relaxed and it’s fun. With
the limited parking, if you drive it can be
difficult to find a place and arrive on time,”
Preston Hood said.
Tom Kimbrough and Margaret Barton
were first-time riders who chose to ride as
a novelty. But their quick trip to Grape and
Grain made them believers.
“For longer trips we would take an Uber
but this is super fun,” Barton said of the
breeze in her hair and the cart’s leisurely
pace.
Steve and Kara Mosley, with their daughter
Scarlotte, rode from Matthew’s to Bistro
Aix. But that wouldn’t be the last of using
Beach Buggy for the evening. Scarlotte was
meeting friends at the Beach with plans of
going out later. Again she’d be using Beach
Buggy.
“I like to see things like this come to Jacksonville,”
Steve Mosley said. “They have this
sort of thing in bigger cities like Chicago. San
Marco is such a beautiful place.”
The Jacksonville Transportation Authority
sees value in Beach Buggy San Marco. Last
August, it approved giving Beach Buggy San
Marco $36,000 to purchase another 10-seat
vehicle and help with a community awareness
campaign.
David Cawton, JTA Media and Public Relations
manager, said the partnership fits into
the JTA goal of overseeing mobility solutions
for the entire community. By helping to support
Beach Buggy San Marco, it keeps the JTA
from having to buy its own vehicles and hire
manpower to operate a competing service.
JTA had operated a neighborhood trolley
but discontinued it. The authority found that
the bus-sized trolley didn’t attract faithful
ridership, Cawton said. The Beach Buggy San
Marco plan fits the needs of today’s transportation
customer who is looking for neighborhood
service.
“It is certainly reflective of the customers’
demands in 2019. They want to order a ride
with an app, it comes to your door and off
you go. There is no paper schedule,” Cawton
said.
Beach Buggy San Marco is a relatively
new business. While sponsorship came easy,
customer awareness is another thing.
When Beach Buggy began five years ago,
the company placed thousands of ads on
front doors in Beaches neighborhoods. They
have done some of that in San Marco. They
already have place cards in sponsors’ stores.
They want Beach Buggy San Marco flatscreen
kiosks in the lobby of sponsor hotels.
Visitors likely won’t already have the app or
know about the service. They can use the
kiosk to request a ride and learn how to get
the app for the ride home.
The latest app version, Beach Buggy 2.0,
was scheduled to roll out in mid-November.
The updates give more sponsor information,
offer easier use and provide sponsors with
ridership diagnostics measuring the number
of riders that were brought to each sponsor’s
business.
There have been some growing pains.
Last August, a charger mishap at the Beach
location caused a fire that seriously damaged
five carts, causing $100,000 in damage,
according to news reports. No one was hurt.
Growth has brought other changes to the
business model. In the beginning, drivers
worked just for tips. Now, most are paid at
least $10 an hour, Kaloostian said. Besides
being paid, drivers use services like Pay-
Pal and Venmo to have tips wired to their
phones. The new Beach Buggy app also provides
for a tipping option. This keeps drivers
from being endangered by carrying wads of
cash during the end of their shift.
Tipping is encouraged but not necessary.
Tips are usually a couple of dollars but a
group of four or five couples on one ride have
Victoria Carlucci and her son, Joseph, look over a
Beach Buggy electric-powered cart earlier this year
while it was on display in San Marco Square.
been known to tip $20, Kaloostian said.
Between fares, Melanie calls out to people
walking with children or with their dogs on
San Marco’s side streets. She invites them
for a free ride, but this evening she had no
takers. Just as well, her cellphone was soon
buzzing with another waiting fare.
Ever the promoter, she said as her Friday
night began to become busy, “We allow you
to leave your car in the best parking spot in
town — your driveway.”
And, bam, the parking problem in San
Marco has been solved.
Something like this is desperately needed
Downtown.
DAN MACDONALD was a music and
entertainment writer for the Florida Times-Union
and Jacksonville Journal from 1984-1996 and was
the Times-Union food editor from 1997-2007. He
lives in Jacksonville Beach.
WINTER 2019 | J MAGAZINE 63