An ad agency was hired Wednesday by managers of Vicksburg’s NRoute public transportation system.

If the contract is approved by attorneys for the City of Vicksburg, commercial messages might  appear in and on vans with revenue helping underwrite costs.

Bob Holladay, representing Monroe-based Monroe Outdoor, which won the deal and will pay a 20 percent commission to NRoute, said advertisers will also be offered spaces on bus benches and shelters. A spinoff company, Vicksburg Outdoor, would be formed to sell ads, Holladay said.

The contract calls for a five-year pact between the commission that manages the nine-van system and the company with quarterly payments to NRoute. The company will advance construction costs of about $700 for concrete benches and about $500 for metal benches to be bolted onto small, concrete slabs. Rears of buses would be overlaid with removable vinyl, Holladay said. About “30 usable sites” would be under consideration for bench locations, Holladay said.

Corporate sponsor names remain on NRoute vehicles, though the initial $320,000 tax-deductible pledges from local businesses ran out a year after the system started in June 2006. Revenue from fares now covers about 10 percent of costs, with the remaining 90 percent coming from local, state and federal public funds.

As worded, the contract allows agency fees to firms other than Vicksburg Outdoor to be paid from NRoute’s share, claiming as much as 15 percent of the 20 percent cut. Holladay assured the panel that the vast majority of the business would be direct from their customers and additional agency fees would not be a major factor. “Ninety percent of our business here would probably be net revenue direct from a business to Vicksburg Outdoor,” Holladay said.

Contract language estimates a monthly income of $3,500 for the company with expected increases to $5,000. Commission member Gertrude Young asked Holladay to guarantee a 20 percent cut of the first $2,000 regardless of fees to outside parties, a concession to which Holladay agreed.

Despite the approval of four of five commissioners, the panel might seek higher minimum payments during legal reviews, as well as freedom to audit the company’s books and to terminate the deal after six months. No timetable has been set for when benches and bus ads will hit the streets. 

Monthly ridership on the local transit system hit the 3,000 mark in June 2008 when three buses were added to the fleet and has stayed above 4,500 since December. Regular service on Saturdays began in October for all routes except on U.S. 61 South, now used only as needed, NRoute executive director Evelyn Bumpers said.

“We’ve expanded,” Bumpers said. “Word of mouth is really setting in now.”

Initially operated as a department of the City of Vicksburg, NRoute was spun off as an independent utility in February 2007 and the transportation commission was formed in August 2007. NRoute buses currently operate weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., except holidays, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com