Lincolnland Express, commonly known as LEX Express, was forced to shut down all services by the U.S. Department of Transportation last Friday. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration indicted the shuttle company for several safety violations, which included using vehicles that were not inspected regularly, failing to properly maintain vehicle parts and falsely reporting duty status. And now it appears that the company is shut down potentially for good. LEX buses have, on more than one occasion, been incredibly late picking up this columnist — one resulting in a missed flight out of Midway Airport.

Personal vendettas aside, LEX was still doomed to fail. The lack of care shown through the company’s poor organizational skills was blatant. Timeliness is not something the company was known for — in fact, quite the opposite. Furthermore, it’s possible the number of shifts formerly made available by LEX could have spread the company too thin for proper management to take place. Had LEX cut back on time slots, perhaps better care could have been taken in the handling of the vehicles and those who drove them. As it is, LEX took advantage of area demand by offering a plethora of shuttle time slots, then took advantage of trusting customers by providing them with shoddy service.

Maybe the company will pull itself together and be back in business before the spring semester, but for our sake, let’s hope not.

President Robert Frazier of LEX Express said in an interview with WCIA that he feels the government, which is trying to pin mishaps of other, bigger transportation companies, is targeting LEX.

Really, LEX? No, you’re not Megabus, but you are essentially the largest bus and shuttle company serving Champaign-Urbana. Or at least you were. Practically a monopoly of the central Illinois shuttle system, LEX had more buses scheduled for the suburbs, Chicago airports and cities like Indianapolis and St. Louis than any other area charter bus company. Those white vans with bold red letters were all over the University, and not just on weekends. Students and staff alike knew what a LEX bus was, even if they had never ridden in one. LEX was a name so well known that making fun of LEX was even easier by Suburban Express. As if we wanted any more references to failures at bipartisanship.

Let me be clear: I’m sure there were many fine, honest individuals who worked for LEX. Unfortunately, there were also unlicensed drivers and other careless individuals who contributed to the mismanagement of the company — they really messed it up for over 100 presumably qualified former LEX employees and thousands of potential student customers both at the University and other colleges and surrounding neighborhoods, whose business will now be deferred to competitors as mentioned by fellow columnist, Tolu Taiwo. These companies are: Illini Taxi, Suburban Express and Peoria Charter.

As of Monday, LEX’s website read: “Do to circumstances beyond our control, LEX can no longer provide transportation services to the general public. The office is currently closed.”

“Beyond your control,” as in those in charge of the maintenance of the vans and charter buses could not by any means make sure they were in decent working order? “Beyond your control” meaning those instances when unlicensed drivers operating these vehicles just could not be stopped? If quality service through comprehending and organizing the inner-workings of the company is “beyond your control,” then yes, I suppose you will not be able to provide any transportation services any time soon. That is, until you do a serious overhaul of how you do business.

And by the way, your website announcement should read: “DUE to circumstances,” not “DO to circumstances …” You can blame the government and the competition as much as you would like, but you did this to yourself. Sucks to be you, LEX.

Renée is a senior in Media. She can be reached at [email protected].