Vantastic Couple Needed A Shuttle Service For Their Kids, So They Started One Themselves

Scott and Shelagh Tilton didn’t think they had a winning idea.

They knew it.

“After 17 years of shuttling three kids around to sports, dance, gymnastics and the orthodontist, we weren’t surprised,” Shelagh Tilton says.

The couple started Vantastic, a shuttle service for children, in April. The initial trickle of little passengers has now turned into a steady stream.

Business has quadrupled since, Scott Tilton says.

Working parents themselves, the couple found it hard for one of them to get time off work to take their kids to appointments. Then one day, braces and work schedules collided.

“I couldn’t get off to work to take my son to an orthodontist appointment,” Shelagh Tilton remembers. “And you know orthodontists, it can take weeks to reschedule sometimes.”

She asked the orthodontist’s staff if there was a shuttle service. They suggested a bus or a taxi.

But she worried about sending her children on public transportation alone or with a cab driver they didn’t know.

“I came home and I said to Scott, ‘I can’t believe there isn’t some kind of taxi service for kids!”’ So the Tiltons started one.

They load kids up into a shiny red Dodge Caravan and haul them to those doctor’s appointments. And to day camps, swimming lessons, soccer practices… Parents know the list.

Compared to many businesses, the start-up cost was minimal. All it took was a minivan with a logo, red company shirts, a cellular telephone and a new business line added to their home.

When they first began, the Tiltons were confident they would get a few kid customers going to occasional appointments. To advertise, they left flyers in dentists’ and orthodontists’ offices.

Luckily, though, the bulk of the business turned out not to be one-time rides to appointments. Parents practically began subscribing to Vantastic.

“What we’re seeing is people needing their children brought somewhere two or three times a week,” Shelagh Tilton says.

Some use the service more often.

“It gave me a new lease on life,” customer Laurie Caro says.

Sound like hyperbole? Caro isn’t kidding.

“My daughter has therapy every day, and it’s a half-hour drive,” she says. She drove her 5-year-old, who suffers from cerebral palsy, to therapy each weekday, then wait two hours and then pick her up again. “I was totally worn out.”

Now she doesn’t have to dread the daily haul. “That gives me time to spend with my other daughter.”

Scott Tilton, who left 20 years of hardware retailing to start Vantastic, does most of the driving. Shelagh Tilton, a security guard at East Valley High School during the school year, also drives during summers.

They plan to expand the business to include six vans by the end of this year, and 10 vans by the end of 1997. That will mean hiring staff, too.

The couple says their employees will have to undergo FBI background checks, just as both of them had done to ease the minds of customers.

“When you deal with children there is always the issue of credibility,” Shelagh Tilton says. That’s the same reason she thinks the most effective form of advertising is direct recommendation. That’s how most people find out about Vantastic.

“Word of mouth is the best way,” Shelagh says.

Other times, harried moms and dads see the kindergarten-scrawl “shuttle service of kids” graphic on the side of the Dodge and come up to ask about it.

Now Scott Tilton is on the road for as long as nine hours daily giving rides to about 10 children.

Does it take the patience of Job to spend all day with knee-high backseat drivers? He says it’s actually easy - just let them do the talking.

“With an exception of a few, they all like to talk a lot,” he says. “They love to tell you about their animals, or the school band,” Shelagh Tilton adds.

Kenda Irby’s 7-year-old son, Trevin, is one of the talkative ones.

“He loves to talk,” Irby says. She likes that fact that if something bothers her son during his day and he tells Scott, Tilton calls to ask if Trevin shared it with her. “He’s very conscientious. And I appreciate that.”

Those gestures aren’t advertised by Vantastic. But little things add up.

“The way to succeed is to underpromise and overdeliver,” Scott Tilton says. And to make those orthodontist appointments on time.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo