Some of you know I’ve been building a local airport ride service here in Boulder County after Eight Black folded. We’ve had a strong start, with 83 rides in July, 163 in July, and on pace for ~260 for September. This is all via word of mouth, referrals, and my participation in conversations on Nextdoor and Reddit.
But I’ve run into a branding issue and could use your perspective.
The problem with our current name (The BoCo Shuttle):
“BoCo Shuttle” overlaps with legacy Eight Black domains like Boulder Shuttle and Longmont Shuttle. Those old sites still show up in Google and confuse riders.
The word “Shuttle” makes people think of shared vans, but what we actually deliver is private, door-to-door, professional rides.
SEO is tough. We’re buried under old brands, and we need a name that’s unique enough to break through.
In addition, I don’t want a hyper local name (like the one I currently have, cuz I’m dumb) because once I dial in the brand and systems, I want to expand up and down the front range.
What our customers are telling us about the service:
It feels more like a premium car service than a budget shuttle.
They value dependability, predictability, and professionalism most.
Riders describe us as “the good guys” — familiar faces, friendly conversation, and reliability they can count on.
Our objectives for a new brand:
Unique name that stands apart from shuttles/rideshares.
Conveys dependability + premium feel.
Strong SEO potential, clean domains.
Memorable and scalable if we expand beyond Boulder.
Here are 4 vetted options we’re considering (domains are clean and available):
ClearSky Ride → Colorado skies, uplifting and reliable.
YourOnTimeRide → Just added this. Most descriptive and directly aligned with what riders say they value most. Feel more functional and less brand-y
Questions for you:
Which of these names gives you the strongest impression of a reliable, premium, private airport service?
Do any immediately strike you as a “yes” or “no”?
And if you were searching online for a ride to DIA, which name would you actually click?
In short, I feel I’m at a significant inflection point in the growth of the business, but the name confusion and lack of SEO mojo is holding me back. If I can solve this, I can really turn up the marketing dial and blast past this hump.
Thanks in advance — I know this group has sharp branding and business instincts, and I’d love to get your feedback before we lock it in.
BlueSkyRide(s).com was a leader until I found a Blue Sky Limo that does $$$$ transport from DIA to Vail, Aspen, etc. I don’t want legal problems downstream.
The name itself doesn’t have to say “airport,” or “transportation” for that matter because SEO keywords on the site will take care of that.
I want one word, or a pair of words, that are easy to remember, then its just easy to remember to put “ride” behind it. Nearly all of the one-word domains I’ve considered are taken, unless I start making up words…
Waypoint: yeah, means more if you’re familiar with navigation, etc, less so if you don’t.
Last one - YourOnTimeRide or some variation of that. Simple, gives a clear idea of what you offer. If you go more obscure you will have to up the investment on marketing/SEO to get it known and visible. It is a bit long, but I like that direction best especially if you want it to get beyond Boulder area
Once I decide on a name, I’ll drafting a “3mo Update” email to our customer email list, asking them for input on two names.
From conversations we’ve had on drives, they are clearly invested in our story and our success, and likely to be very loyal to us if I continue to include them in “the story.”
IOW, I’m going to gamble my future on a customer poll
What about using two names (separate but same back end) - the younger crowd will eat up the German like smashing together of words and granite or other gives room to grow into not just airport rides.
Not sure if taken, but Summit Shuttle, Rocky Ride services, Mile High Transit, TrustLine Transport, SureWay, Ridgeline, etc. I may or may not have been feeding some AI for those
The positive associations are immediate. It’s simple, direct, powerful, memorably unexpected (like Eight Black was), sophisticated without being snooty. And it unlocks so much potential for image branding that reinforces the concepts you want to communicate. I can practically see the simple, bold logo and the beautiful granite gray vans on i70.
With all respect, the others are too obvious and will get lost in the sea of similar attempts by others.
FYI, the model is a bit different. That is, I’m not building a traditional airport transportation company, with a fleet of vehicles, hourly employees, an office, etc. Instead, I’m building a brand and customer / driver facing platform to:
Aggregate and book airport-only rides to and from Boulder County.
I’ll then “sell” these rides for 20% of the fare to a short list of vetted drivers. I’m currently in Phase 1 and the drivers are 4 guys I worked with at Eight Black. Very good, professional, excellent customer service, etc. I book the rides through my platform, assign them to these guys, rider pays them for the ride and I invoice them weekly.
I earn my 20% by building all of the marketing and systems that book rides, then doing all of the customer service up until about 24hrs out from the ride, when the driver takes over via SMS introduction.
As I run out of driving capacity with these guys I’ll bring on “independent” drivers. These are people who’ve already made the investment in a vehicle, commercial insurance, etc, and have hung out their own shingle as a driver.
In this Phase 2, the rides available will live on the web behind a login. Drivers will claim the rides they want and I’ll invoice them weekly for rides completed, taking 20% of the fare.
Phase 3 will be a driver-facing phone app.
Basically, my business will be the Craigslist of Boulder County airport rides.
This model allows me to scale up and down the front range. That is, after I have my branding, processes, and backend built, I can expand into a new area (FoCo, for example) by simply pointing rider and driver facing marketing towards that area.
So, a name like Granite is simple, memorable, and, most importantly, not geographically tied to a city or region.
Growth so far has been mainly via word of mouth, referrals, and me posting / answering questions on Nextdoor and Reddit. Excited to get some search engine mojo, reach out to local hotels and businesses, etc.
Closed out September with 260 rides booked. Bringing on 2 new drivers this week. I have a gal in the Philippines who worked in my land biz for years, talking to her about gradually bringing her in to work customer support.
Driving less and less so I can work on vs in the business.
Just wanted to say we’ve used Granite 3 times so far and have loved the service! Way better than any previous shuttle companies. We live in NW Longmont and have always had the challenge of getting Uber/Lyft to drive us to/from the airport anytime other than the middle of the day, its nice knowing we have this option when going on the few trips when airport parking doesn’t make sense.
