Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Good morning, Fort McMurry, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. You've tuned into the Mac city morning show. I'm your host, Elliot Pierre. And as per usual, we're going to start the show off the same way we start every episode off with a moment of gratitude. I know you could be doing a million things with your time and the fact that you spend it with us truly does mean the world to me. So thank you on that note, tenor hidden with the intro.
Speaker 1 00:00:21 Oh, she caught me loves you're listening to the next anymore.
Speaker 0 00:00:30 All right. And we're back. I'm excited about today's guest for many reasons, but the main one is cause uh, she brought us some pretty cool gifts. So as you guys know, I do not introduce my guests. I let them do that themselves. So on that note, can you please tell everybody at home who you are and what you're about?
Speaker 3 00:00:45 Thank you, Elliot. Um, my name's Juliet Miranda. I'm originally from El Salvador. We immigrated to Canada when I was seven and grew up in Edmonton. Um, and now I've been in Fort McMurray for about 16 years. And I'm excited to share my business with you today. It's called kid drop and uh,
Speaker 0 00:01:02 Okay, well, I'm excited to have you so first and foremost, let's talk about what kid drops off.
Speaker 3 00:01:08 Yeah. So kid drop is a transportation company exclusively for kids. So we move kids around to, and from school extracurricular activities, even custody exchanges between exes. Oh cool. So it's just a safe, reliable service, um, that helps parents out move kids by themselves to, and from, you know, the, the proper adult on the other side. Wow.
Speaker 0 00:01:30 Wow. Okay. I've seen the bus before, but I thought it was just literally like you pick kids up at the beginning of the school day. Like, because parents can't always drop the kids to school or whatever, and you drop them to school or, um, not school, but what's it called early school care or
Speaker 3 00:01:48 Daycare
Speaker 0 00:01:49 Daycares and stuff, or like pick them up from daycare and then take them to school because there's that gap for parents. I had no idea that you picked them up and took them to like, like sporting events.
Speaker 3 00:01:57 That's right. Yeah, I know. And so we're a door to door service. So we come directly to your door, collect them from a driver in uniform. Um, we issue them IDs. So our drivers have IDs and our children have IDs and come on the service and then we take them to, you know, if it's a birthday party or grandparents' house or the school, and then they're handed over to the proper administrator and, uh, all this is done in advance so that we know where they're going and what time of day?
Speaker 0 00:02:25 Oh, that's a really unique service.
Speaker 3 00:02:29 Wow.
Speaker 0 00:02:31 That would be super beneficial. Especially for parents who like are working shift or like you just said, like for a birthday party, like, Hey, listen, maybe if I have two kids, I got to go this way. The other kids got to go that way.
Speaker 3 00:02:42 Right. It's really, you know, it's meant to be a helping hand to parents because like many of us were from somewhere else. We don't have the same support system with grandparents or sisters, aunties. Um, so it's nice to have, you know, uh, somebody that you don't have to just ask for a favor from, right. You can just right. Call them up and schedule it. And we'll be there on time. We're open seven days a week and
Speaker 0 00:03:03 Yeah. What are your seven days a week? What are the hours of operation?
Speaker 3 00:03:07 So we actually, so we recently purchased a commercial building, which will allow us to extend our hours to 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Oh, wow. Yes. There's shift workers. There's people that, you know, get up at four 30 in the morning. Those kids need to go to daycare or say, you have a sitter late at night, and then, you know, you come home and you don't want to pack everybody up to drive the sitter home. We'll just come by and take the sitter back to their house. And oh yeah. So we're available, uh, even late into the evening. Okay.
Speaker 0 00:03:37 Okay. Now how this is fascinating. This is my favorite part about the show because there's a lot of things in the community that I think people don't know about and I'm one of them. So like the cool thing is like every my facial expressions completely genuine. We've never talked about your business. This is amazing. So, all right. So let's uh, from a cost ball, how does this work? Does it, is it like, uh, I, if I just need a, want a ride one time I paid for the ride one time, or is it a monthly fee or? Okay,
Speaker 3 00:04:05 So we have two options. We have the daily rate. Uh, so it could be one way. So if your child just needs to ride after school, home, or in the morning to school, um, or round trip service. So, you know, if you're just going one way, it's $25. If you're going round trip, it's $35 for the day and then there's monthly fees if you're wanting to commit to a monthly service.
Speaker 0 00:04:24 Okay. So yeah, like let's say my little guy, if I was like, listen, I can't take him to school anymore in the morning. I want you to come pick them up every single day. So there's like a, there's a special category subscription. Thank you.
Speaker 3 00:04:36 That's right. That's right. There is. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And there's, there's a different rate for evenings and weekends, so those are a bit different. Um, yeah, but we, you know, we're definitely able to take people to, you know, tournaments or your practices early morning, late practices. And it's, you know, some kids are just a little of a different age where they're able to travel a bit more freely, but not yet, uh, old enough for a regular transit or a cab yeah. Transit or a cab. And then, you know, the coach's waiting on the other end, other moms are waiting on the other end, so you just schedule it. And, uh, and the services provided, how did you come
Speaker 0 00:05:11 Up with this idea? Um,
Speaker 3 00:05:13 So interestingly enough, I am a single mom, so I, you know, it's, I have two kids and they each have their own schedule. You know, it's, it's different when you have multiple kids and say, even if you're a stay at home mom or, you know, um, where you have one healthy kid and one sick kid, right. So you can't pack up your sick kid to go take your healthy kid to hockey.
Speaker 0 00:05:36 No,
Speaker 3 00:05:36 Especially not nowadays. Right. You really want to, yeah. You want to be conscious of that. And, and so kids are missing out on activities. Participation is down, and this is just another avenue to allow those resources to flourish. Right. Because what happens is when you don't have a high enough attendance, these classes get canceled right. Or, or there's less options for, for time slots. So, um, so yeah, we're just, we really think that this is a real benefit to the community and to parents. And I just wanted to express how, why this is a safe service, you know, um, you know, who's the face behind it. Cause I think a lot of people, um, don't get to see that, you know, we just, we just got a building. So really everything before that was just done via email and phone conversation. So I'm willing to put a face to the name today.
Speaker 0 00:06:23 Cool. How long you been in business for?
Speaker 3 00:06:26 Uh, we've been in business two years. We're going on our third year and uh, yeah, we have four vehicles in our fleet right now, um, operating full time and we are looking to expand with four more by September so we can be citywide.
Speaker 0 00:06:40 Wow. That's awesome. So currently, where in the city are you available for schools?
Speaker 3 00:06:46 So for schools, we're exclusively north of the bridge. So thick wood Dickens field. Uh, yeah. Parson's Creek Kimberly.
Speaker 0 00:06:54 And so you want to expand to the schools on this side?
Speaker 3 00:06:58 We've got downtown, we've got up in Greg guar beacon hill. So yeah, we, you know, and we have we're generating, uh, trying to build the interest up in order to yeah. Support the service everywhere.
Speaker 0 00:07:10 Um, what are you like? It's kind of a no brainer of a service. Like it's, I've never heard of it before, but you're like, yeah, like this would actually help a lot of families. I know I grew up in a family of three, so I'm the eldest of three. Um, and yeah, it was like a nightmare for my mother. Like when I had like soccer and then my little sister would have dance and then my brother would have soccer at the same time, but on a different team somewhere else. And it was like just a constant juggling act.
Speaker 3 00:07:38 That's right. It's like, there's um, sorry. Uh, you, you know, as a parent, I remember my mom saying to me that she felt like she was a chauffeur all the time, so I'm just driving you around. That's all I do with you, kids, you know, we're here for them and you're getting mad when you're like, mom, we gotta go. We gotta go. I'm going to be late. And you know, that's so it's just something that hasn't been expanded and we have really big plans for it. We want to take it and franchise it and get it out there to other markets in Alberta and across Canada. So we've got really big ambitious.
Speaker 0 00:08:09 That's good. You guys got to dream big, you know, you'll get there. If you're focusing, if it's a passion, it'll happen. Okay.
Speaker 3 00:08:14 It is. Yeah. You know, we have a huge support system behind us. We have startup. YMM where I have, um, participated in a mentorship program. I have, you know, uh, our clients are great. We have investors behind us. Um, you know, we just, you, we have everything it takes to just go all out. So, so cool.
Speaker 0 00:08:36 Oh, cool. So you said it at the beginning of the show, you have been in Fort Macquarie for a little while. What brought you to Fort McMurray?
Speaker 3 00:08:43 Um, so I came initially, um, my dad actually had a business in town is it's called Romeo's tile. And, uh, I would come up here to help him and my mom, you know, they just had a mom and pop little tile store. Um, and after a few years bought it out, grew it out. And then, um, about four years ago, I just took a step back from that. And now just focusing on this,
Speaker 0 00:09:08 And so your parents immigrated to Canada, was, uh, Edmonton the first stop in the immigration process?
Speaker 3 00:09:15 No, it took us, it took us, uh, almost three years to get to Canada. We made our way to Mexico. Uh we're in Mexico for eight months, uh, lived in California for two years and then eventually made our way to Canada.
Speaker 4 00:09:30 What was the point of that? Like you just, it seems like you went hot, hot, hot, freezing cold.
Speaker 0 00:09:37 Yes.
Speaker 3 00:09:39 That's exactly what happened. Um, well there was a war in El Salvador. It was a really dangerous time. And, uh, so there was a lot of, uh, instability in the country. And, uh, so we went to Mexico initially to try and find some sort of avenue to get across. Um, and we did get across illegally at the time coyotes. I'm not sure if you're familiar, but that's, that's how, um, Latin Americans typically do it when they cross the border. And, uh, there was some risks. There were some really, uh, scary times. We ended up going to jail for some time. Um, and, but eventually made her way into the U S stuck to kind of our Latino community. But then there was a big movement to, uh, have everybody, sorry. Uh, immigration was really hard in the, in the U S so they were deporting a lot of illegals. And then, so our family had to make a decision. Do we try our way north? Or do we go back home? Right. My parents have always been, uh, you know, big dreamers, brave people. And, uh, you know, we, we took a chance coming to Canada thinking that we could eventually get deported from Canada as well. We just thought it was, uh, it was an opportunity and it paid off in a big way for all of us. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:11:01 I'm so grateful. That's awesome.
Speaker 4 00:11:03 Northern neighbors are a little more friendly. I think that's right. Less cancer deportation.
Speaker 3 00:11:11 Cold.
Speaker 0 00:11:11 It's just got, there's a trade-off here.
Speaker 4 00:11:14 Welcome here. If you want. That's exactly. What
Speaker 0 00:11:17 On a day like today, it's just like, ah, you know, it's got a cold, that's terrible. What a great, fascinating story. That's awesome. Wow. Okay. Well, listen, this is a good segue in regards to a town or segment it's called the Mac city minute. I'm just going to ask you some questions. Oh, I don't know what he's going to ask you. I wish you nothing but the best of luck, tenor hitter with the max 80 minute.
Speaker 4 00:11:38 Alrighty, question number one. What is your favorite story from your time transporting the kids at Fort McMurray?
Speaker 3 00:11:46 What is my favorite story? Um, cause there's so many, well, I'll give you an last week. Um, I challenged my drivers to ask the kids what they wanted to be when they grow up. Right. So I'm like just shoot me a little Texas throughout the day of kind of what is on everybody's mind. And we had some of the greatest answers. One just said, I just want to be a dad when I grew up. I just want to be a dad. Oh my God. I think we all credit got teary-eyed about it, but you know, they see the darndest things they think, uh, you know, they call, uh, our drivers, miss, miss Melanie, Ms. Ashley. And it's, uh, it's just such a neat opportunity. I think you get to know these kids so closely their parents closely and, uh, yeah, with just take a lot of pride in that relationship building
Speaker 4 00:12:35 Question number two. What is your favorite event you've helped transport a child to
Speaker 3 00:12:43 Favorite event? Um, I think one of my favorites is seeing the kids in uniform going to martial arts. Uh, you know, they look like little ninjas and then take them to, to Bowman's or Fort martial arts. And it's, uh, it's just really neat to see them all like, you know, dressed up and excited. But actually, no, I will mention, we did do a field trip out to the airport, uh, for, for a daycare group. And, um, they were out there checking out the helicopters with, uh, yeah, Phoenix helicopters. And that was, that was a really fun thing for everybody. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:13:21 Uh, question number three. What is your favorite part of running a local business that helps out so many local families?
Speaker 3 00:13:29 Do you know? My, my favorite part, um, is that this business model allows us to hire an employee parents, specifically mothers. So all of my drivers are mothers. They're able to transport their kids to school while working for us. So it's, it's almost, uh, an added value on both ends where, you know, our employees appreciate that they're able to take their kids to and from school, which is it's a big, uh, uh, uh, it's almost like a luxury, not, not, not everybody allows you to do that while still kind of, you know, making money on the side. And, uh, and, and there's a comfort level of knowing that, you know, your who's driving your children, our mothers with our own kids. It's like, you know, how, how much more of a built-in safety could you have? So I just think it's, it's a neat opportunity to employ moms.
Speaker 4 00:14:21 Question number four. What is the weirdest place you've had to transport a child to?
Speaker 3 00:14:28 Um, I don't think there's any weird places. I think they usually go to and from where they're supposed to. So they've been there before. Yeah. I don't think there's any too many surprises on that.
Speaker 4 00:14:40 And your final question, what is the first thing you remember when you arrived in Canada?
Speaker 3 00:14:47 Well, one of the biggest shocks is, you know, we went, I started schooling in, in Los Angeles and I started learning English. So I grew up speaking Spanish, learn English, came to Canada. My parents were like, everybody here speaks French. We got to put you in a French school. So I started, so I started mixing up my Spanish, English and French in grade one. So I ended up failing grade one because I was just, you know, the languages in three languages at home. We only speak this at school. We learned this, but all my friends speak English. So yeah. Um, so that kinda put me behind a year, but, um, yeah, w yeah, got back on
Speaker 4 00:15:27 Track. Those have been your five questions. So
Speaker 0 00:15:30 Did you, have you held on to all those languages? I have to assume Spanish.
Speaker 3 00:15:35 I have Spanish. Yeah. I have English. I don't know. A little bit of French. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:15:39 You only speak English.
Speaker 4 00:15:41 I was going to say that's two and a half more languages.
Speaker 0 00:15:44 Yeah. I struggle with English. Ah, wow. What an interesting journey at such a young age for you too. So I have to imagine. There's not like you still have memories, but a lot of it, isn't still there memories fade after that kind of timeline
Speaker 3 00:16:01 From El Salvador. You mean the neat thing is that I've been fortunate enough to travel back home and visit family throughout the years. Not so much right now in the COVID era, but, um, but no, I, uh, you know, we still have family there. My parents are there. At least they have a house there. So we, you know, it's, uh, it's still very much a part of, you know, where I'm from. My children have been there and, uh, you know, maintaining, maintaining the language, even with them is, uh, is definitely important for them.
Speaker 0 00:16:30 So your kids speak Spanish, then they speak
Speaker 3 00:16:32 A little bit. They like, yeah, we practice words. I want to wait until they've, they've dominated the reading, writing in English because I understand the struggle with that.
Speaker 4 00:16:43 Uh, like no disrespect, but screw your culture. Even that's going to just be handy for those kids to know two languages. Like I wish somebody when I was young would have just pushed me into a second language, so I'd know because it's not happening now.
Speaker 0 00:16:57 They'll absorb some of that just by hearing it and being around.
Speaker 3 00:17:00 Oh sure. And they do. Yeah, they do. They, they pick up on it. So it's, so sometimes they'll ask me, you know, what does this mean? Or what were you and grandma talking about? And, and, um, and one of my good friends actually, cause so I'm part of startup YMM right. And, uh, so great support system there too with Darshana Mia. Um, Lisa, so Mia, she's also fluent in Spanish and she tutors my kids in Spanish. So it's, you know, it's so communal here, it's like everybody knows somebody. We all kind of, you know. Yeah. So it's great. That's exactly
Speaker 0 00:17:33 Cool that I I'm taken aback by this business model. I it's so smart
Speaker 3 00:17:39 Ink
Speaker 0 00:17:40 Really is. And like everything you keep saying, I just keep getting blown away more and more like the model of having mothers drive the buses. Like
Speaker 3 00:17:49 Yeah. Well, let me share a couple other features that we have. So all of our vehicles have cameras on board, so there's one facing our driver and one facing the road. We have, um, uh, seatbelt and booster seats on board. Um, we have all of our drivers possess defensive driving, first aid, um, you know, criminal record checks, uh, you know, clean drivers abstracts. And, uh, yeah, it's just, there's, there's so much safety built in and we're slowly integrating new technologies also into our, into our business platform that eventually I want this ID to be able to ping the child in the vehicle, send a message to mom. Yeah. You're on the bus and ping them off yet. They've arrived from the bus. So just to increase the fluidity and transparency for parents because it, you know, the technology is there. It's just about, yeah,
Speaker 0 00:18:46 Yeah. Getting it in, incorporating it into the business. It's such a good idea. Like I'm taking it back. Like I'm fortunate enough where I get to drop my child to, and from school every day. And, uh, I love it. It's like the best part of my day. I gotta be honest, sorry, Tanner, sorry. Uh, hanging out with Keegan. So, but it, but it's one of those things where like the safety aspect comes into it and I I'm, I have the luxury of doing that and that's what it is. So I know that like parents, they worry about their kids and if there's like a safe alternative and that they know like you've put in this, these precautions and like, I just love the aspect of like having moms do it as well. And having their kids like talk about like, when people work for you, that's an added bonus. Money is obviously the transaction for a service. But if they can be like, Hey, my kid gets to come on to Boston. I get to take my child to school every day. That's an added bonus in regards to, yeah, this is what I want to stay and work with this organization. Wow. Really good out of the box thinking, but it makes sense. Thank
Speaker 3 00:19:53 You.
Speaker 0 00:19:54 Cool. And I love the gifts you brought us. I'm literally uptown to hit me up. This is like Babyface Elliot without the beard. And I actually have like a load of hair in this picture and this is the Mac city. I'm going to use this as a press pass. So when me and tan are going, we film on location. I'm going to be putting this around my neck. So thank you for the gifts
Speaker 3 00:20:14 Very well.
Speaker 0 00:20:15 You're very welcome. Anyways, listen, I know that we're either on time or a little bit overtime right now. So 20 minutes flies, but before we cut you loose, uh, everybody gets a shameless shout out or plug. You got the mix, the lights and the cameras on you are fun.
Speaker 3 00:20:30 Um, so I do want to give a special shout out to my children who have, um, you know, are such a big part of kid drop building, kid drop, supporting kid drop and really, you know, build the sacrifice with me. Cause they, uh, you know, as a single mom, there's only so much for me to go around and they're just such troopers. Um, my business partner, Josh, you're incredible. I couldn't have done any of this without you and Shanita. And Nevine, you know, you're the back bone behind this. So thank you so much. And we have such a huge community behind us and uh, you know, please support us, check us out, um, you know, share our posts and yeah, we were happy to be growing in Fort McMurray, starting in Fort McMurray and going out from here. So thanks everybody. Very cool.
Speaker 0 00:21:16 Well thank you for coming on the show. Feel free to come back as many times as you want. And if there's any other of like your employees, your business partner, anybody tell them to come on the show like anytime you guys have anything going on or expansion is happening or you want to get your message out. That seed is always open
Speaker 3 00:21:32 For you. Thank you so much, Elliot preceded it. You're more than
Speaker 0 00:21:35 Welcome. All right. Before Macquarie would Buffalo and the rest of the world, that's been another episode of the Mac city morning show. Thank you so much for tuning in. It means the world to me, hopefully having a great day and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.
Speaker 5 00:21:48 I just dies that desk. It's another Mac city morning show Dawn.
Speaker 6 00:22:05 Talk about quenching your ugly thirst.
