Henry Ellis never thought he’d be in the transportation business.
It was love that moved him to start one.
When his wife came down with kidney failure, the 58-year-old Gainesville resident had to find treatment for transportation three times a week. They found the transportation was either the wrong kind or was late.
“It chose me, and I just accepted it. I call it a love story because if I hadn't loved her so much, I probably wouldn't have [done it],” he said.
Ellis and his wife bought an accessible shuttle bus to get her to appointments.
“Other people needed a ride as well … and we just turned it into a working business,” he said.
The business, which they started in 2017, is one of the many transportation services in the region that helps those who lack the means to travel.
Whether it came from a dream, a love story or as a way to make money, these transportation companies share a goal to serve their communities.
‘An agreement with God’
Fran and Amy Kealey, 45 and 42 respectively, live in Bell in Gilchrist County. They said they started their car service after they couldn’t get an Uber or Lyft to come pick them up when their car went down in Bell.
“So what it looks like on the app, it [is] like, 'Oh, I got a ride. They're coming. They're coming. They're up. Nope, they're not coming,’” Fran Kealey said.
Amy Kealey said they were also looking for ways to make money when they moved to Bell.
“We have seven kids. We've got to provide for them,” she said. “We thought while [Fran] is looking for a job, why don't we see if I could do DoorDash or do Uber.”
The Kealey family’s Mercedes Sprinter van has a big sliding door rather than four doors. According to Amy Kealey, that was enough to disqualify her from driving for Uber or delivering food.
“I thought, ‘Well to heck with that. I'll just do it myself and see if anybody wants a ride around here,’” she said. “We put it online, we put it on Facebook, and people started calling. It was the strangest thing.”
Fran Kealey said the car service started in November 2021 and mostly relies upon the van to help transport people.
“Mostly what we do is cruise rides and airport rides, but we have found that we get phone calls for cab rides,” he said. “There's people in the community that need help, so we take people to medical appointments. We get all kind of calls: cars break down, rentals break down and there's no other help in the area.”
To support his family, Fran Kealey said he works in sales selling phones and runs a landscaping business with his family. He said the car service was the least profitable out of all the ventures.
“No matter how much we charge, we really can't charge enough to make money,” Fran Kealey said. “I don't know if we'll continue to stay in business.”
Fran Kealey said the car service’s best year was when they made $20,000 without accounting for gas and other fees.
“The problem is out here, there's very few people that need rides, and the ones that do, we've had people stiff us on money,” he said.
Still, Fran and Amy said it was hard to turn anyone down.
“We made an agreement with God because three years ago, we didn't have anything, and we were starting over, and we asked God, 'Please,'” Fran Kealey said. “Ever since we asked for work, He's given us all the work we can handle.”
‘We're not millionaires yet’
For 46-year-old Shronda Allen, Gates Transportation came from a dream she had following the passing of her pastor, Keniuel Gates, in 2021.
“In the dream, I saw the logo. I saw the colors that were supposed to be presented, and I saw who was supposed to be served in the community,” said Allen, who lives in Gainesville. “I got up the next morning. I bought a whiteboard, and I wrote out what I saw. Almost a year later is when I started the business.”
Allen said she used to tease Pastor Keniuel about having a transportation company, since he would always be the driver for church trips.
“I dedicated this company to him because I knew that this was giving back [to] what he desired to do,” she said.
Gates Transportation provides airport shuttle transportation and rides to the store, doctor’s appointments and some leisure activities, Allen said.
“Hopefully one day soon, I will have the fleet to be able to go into different communities, give free rides to the elderly that's in the outskirts of Archer, Alachua and the High Springs area,” she said. “Some of them are stuck in the house. They can't go anywhere because they don't have transportation, or maybe their family is too busy. It's important for the elderly to still be a part of the community, to still feel like they are wanted and needed and appreciated.”
Like the Kealey family, Allen said she is working multiple jobs, including as a part-time nurse at UF Health Shands. She said her main source of income comes from Grace & Favor Group Home Inc., which provides personal care, homemaking and companion services for the elderly and disabled.
“The clients that I serve [at Grace & Favor] have to go to appointments, and they have to rely on other transportation companies to pick them up,” Allen said. “Sometimes they don't get picked up, and so they miss their appointments and because I see this and I'm around this, that also inspired me to start the transportation as well.”
Allen said she profits about $500 to $700 a month. She said she relies upon her van and rented vehicles to transport people.
“We’re making what needs to be made to be able to sustain,” she said. “We're not millionaires yet, but we will be.”
‘Not a part-time thing’
Ellis’ wife, Buffie, died in 2019, but he continued working.
He said he estimates the service makes about $25,000 per year.
“I do it full time,” he said. “You have to be 100% involved in this. It's not a part-time thing because you're dealing with people's lives. If they don't get the treatment, then it affects their life… You're a servant to others for the greater need.”
Ellis said he loves the job and remains focused on why he started: to help patients get to medical appointments on time.
“All these people had a common problem,” he said. “They couldn't get a dependable person.”
