Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Not Just a Ride: The Sedanz Standard of Chauffeur Excellence

Transcript

Not Just a Ride: The Sedanz Standard of Chauffeur Excellence · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

• 0:00
  Break Fix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from all
• 0:05
  over the autos sphere, from wrench, turners, and racers to artists, authors,
• 0:09
  designers, and everything in between.
• 0:11
  Our goal is to inspire a new generation of Petrolhead that wonder, a.
• 0:16
  How did they get that job or become that person?
• 0:19
  The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
• 0:27
  While in school, our guests needed a job with a flexible schedule in order
• 0:31
  to work around his college classes.
• 0:33
  With the help from his family, he purchased his first black car, a Lincoln
• 0:37
  Town car in late 2007, and as he quickly learned the potential of the black car
• 0:42
  business, Ron Gill founded sedans and never looked back and Ron's with us
• 0:48
  tonight to tell his story about a young entrepreneur who at the time did not know
• 0:53
  where his black car gig would take him.
• 0:56
  That's right Don.
• 0:57
  And with that, let's welcome Ron to break Fixx.
• 0:59
  Howdy.
• 1:00
  Ron, thank you for having me, guys.
• 1:01
  Appreciate it.
• 1:02
  Joining me tonight is one of our regular co-hosts on Break,
• 1:05
  Fixx, you recognize his voice.
• 1:06
  It's Don Weiberg from Garage Style Magazine.
• 1:09
  So welcome back to the show.
• 1:10
  Thank you very much.
• 1:11
  Pleasure to be here.
• 1:12
  Thank you.
• 1:12
  Well, Ron, like all good break, fix stories, there's a superhero origin.
• 1:16
  So let's go back before 2007 and talk about how all this came to be, how
• 1:22
  you got into the black car business.
• 1:25
  When I was actually growing up there was what we call gypsy cabs in New York.
• 1:28
  Basically is cars that are not yellow taxis that surround the boroughs.
• 1:32
  The gypsy cab would pick up people from the street, take
• 1:35
  'em to wherever they gotta go.
• 1:35
  They pay them cash.
• 1:36
  I saw that as like a potential thing to do as like a part-time.
• 1:40
  But then even before I got into this business, I was actually working
• 1:44
  regular nine to five job and the retail world more like for a clothing.
• 1:47
  Merchandising and sales.
• 1:49
  That was my intro to like hospitality in general.
• 1:52
  There was a lot of, particularly like a lot of the, uh, high-end net
• 1:55
  worth type people that I was dealing with even back then who came to
• 1:58
  these kind of shops to, you know, buy clothing and things like that.
• 2:00
  Little later I decided to move on into, maybe make a career out of something.
• 2:06
  From myself.
• 2:06
  So I wanted to go to school for a computer science.
• 2:09
  At the time I was living in Queens, New York, but at the same
• 2:11
  time I was needing still income.
• 2:13
  Couldn't afford to have a, like a regular nine to five job.
• 2:15
  'cause the school schedule was so demanding.
• 2:17
  So this was pre rideshare.
• 2:18
  Getting into the business wasn't as expensive because it's, you're
• 2:21
  just basically buying a car so you can, you know, just put a down
• 2:23
  payment and then you deal with insurance and your operating costs.
• 2:26
  At the time, I wasn't really too serious about it.
• 2:28
  You know, I was able to get a down payment from my mom to help me get a
• 2:31
  car, and obviously at the time it was the Lincoln Town car was the car to have.
• 2:35
  But little did I know that you couldn't really do gypsy work.
• 2:38
  It wasn't really legal.
• 2:39
  The way cars were dispatched back then was through a two-way radio.
• 2:42
  I decided during my school off time, I would go put myself on like a
• 2:46
  line or to the dispatch team saying that I was available for any calls.
• 2:49
  So they would throw me pickups within Queens.
• 2:52
  But then once I started going into Manhattan, I started realizing, As
• 2:55
  I was talking to other drivers that there was these cars lined up in
• 2:58
  front of these office buildings.
• 2:59
  They were telling me this is where you get bigger jobs, like long distance type
• 3:02
  work, people would with expense accounts.
• 3:04
  I started getting people in my car.
• 3:06
  They liked the way the car was always kept clean, and that was just
• 3:08
  standard me liking to keep my car.
• 3:11
  I wasn't even into like the whole detailing thing until much later.
• 3:14
  At the time, I was younger than the usual drivers they had.
• 3:16
  So they were more comfortable with me and they would ask if I could
• 3:19
  drive them around away from the company that I was with at the time.
• 3:22
  And back then it was really more like you would pay the company to be on this line.
• 3:26
  Little by little I had one client than another.
• 3:28
  It just ended up snowballing from there.
• 3:30
  But ironically, during the time when it was right at the height before
• 3:33
  the crash of 2008, people that were getting my car, they had like
• 3:36
  Wall Street type expense accounts.
• 3:37
  Once the crash actually happened, I lost all those clients because
• 3:40
  that was the first thing that they were not allowed to expense anymore.
• 3:43
  That's when I started going into how do I acquire new clients marketing myself
• 3:48
  and really where I fell in love with it.
• 3:49
  You brought something up about the market crash.
• 3:52
  The economy slid sideways, fishtail went completely off the road, and
• 3:57
  you were talking about how clients.
• 3:59
  We're kind of drying up.
• 4:01
  How did you combat that?
• 4:02
  How did you circumvent the Oh crap moment of I'm losing my business,
• 4:08
  I'm losing my clients, what do I do?
• 4:10
  What did you do?
• 4:11
  At the time, I didn't have that many clients, so I felt it wasn't a big
• 4:14
  drop as far as like my peers who've been in this industry much longer
• 4:17
  than I have there leveraged heavily on vehicles and, and chauffeurs.
• 4:20
  I really started looking at where the next client would be, you know,
• 4:25
  so I was hearing tech companies seem to be like the next big thing.
• 4:29
  I would segue myself towards looking for people in those industries
• 4:33
  as potential clients, but that's really where I focus my efforts
• 4:36
  through LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter.
• 4:38
  For example, you can target certain professions and people there.
• 4:42
  Our first real clients came from the tech industry 'cause at that time
• 4:45
  they were considered startups and that's what I felt I was at the time.
• 4:48
  And they seemed to be un poised to grow.
• 4:50
  But then also before there was, you know, all these like websites for
• 4:53
  specific industries like Bark or Angie's List or things like that.
• 4:57
  I went on Craigslist and there was people posting, you know,
• 5:00
  that we need a reliable driver.
• 5:02
  And I found one of my really first clients through there and they happened to be
• 5:04
  a consulting firm for tech companies.
• 5:06
  I learned a lot from them and from the owners of that company.
• 5:09
  They would go to meetings with their clients and consulting firms, tech
• 5:13
  companies, all up and coming, growing.
• 5:15
  Just starting out.
• 5:16
  Once they were a crime, more clients, that's how I grew with them.
• 5:19
  They would book me, Hey, now we're actually gonna need you to go, 'cause we
• 5:21
  have a contract with this client and we have to go up there three times a week.
• 5:25
  You know, it became like a word of mouth thing where then
• 5:27
  they would introduce me to.
• 5:28
  People, you know, oh, you gotta use this car service.
• 5:30
  I've been using, they have wifi in the car.
• 5:32
  And that was one of the first things that a lot of people at the time
• 5:35
  before used to love 'cause they can use their laptops in the vehicles.
• 5:38
  That's where I started acquiring a lot of my clients that I still service to today.
• 5:42
  So once the pandemic happened, basically we, we were like, shut down.
• 5:45
  All of our clients canceled their reservations.
• 5:47
  That to me was a big hit, what my peers felt in 2007.
• 5:50
  Right.
• 5:50
  So obviously 2007 didn't hit you too hard.
• 5:52
  It was the pandemic that hit you hard.
• 5:54
  Mm-hmm.
• 5:55
  How did you survive that?
• 5:56
  What tools did you use to get you and your company and your
• 6:00
  employees, et cetera, through?
• 6:01
  Yeah.
• 6:01
  Obviously, you know, pandemic happened and travel was like the first thing to go.
• 6:04
  All of our clients, like I said, canceled their reservations.
• 6:07
  There was a lot of uncertainty as to how the industry was was gonna go.
• 6:10
  So I tried to keep them on as long as I could, but I felt like it would just
• 6:13
  be easier to do unemployment for them.
• 6:15
  Luckily it was.
• 6:16
  Short lived.
• 6:17
  We were still like in an uncertain state.
• 6:19
  During March and April, I would still keep in contact with my clients.
• 6:22
  I would email them just saying, you know, thank you for all the support.
• 6:24
  Just wanted to let them know that we're still available for them, even though
• 6:28
  nobody wants to get in a car with anybody.
• 6:29
  But luckily there were still a need.
• 6:31
  So the Hamptons for us is kind of like in la it's like Malibu,
• 6:34
  like kind of like wait way deep in the suburbs, but where everybody
• 6:36
  kind of goes away for the summer.
• 6:38
  But in New York at that time, during the pandemic, it was really sheltered.
• 6:41
  Some of them eventually started buying houses there.
• 6:43
  At the time, I noticed some of my clients were requesting us to just bring them
• 6:47
  things and then they would say, Hey, can you bring my nanny or my housekeeper?
• 6:51
  You know, we would do things like roll down the windows, wear masks.
• 6:54
  Put partitions up.
• 6:55
  We started investing into like a safe ride experience.
• 6:58
  Little by little I'm like, okay, so it seems like the
• 7:00
  Hamptons is like the way to go.
• 7:02
  So I started marketing myself online through Google Ads as a
• 7:05
  Covid safe car service, as well as cars to and from the Hamptons.
• 7:09
  And since these were long distance trips, They were considerably more expensive,
• 7:13
  and then also for long distance trips like to Philadelphia, to Washington dc,
• 7:16
  Boston, like all these cities that are driving distance where nobody wanted to
• 7:20
  get in a plane and there was no traffic.
• 7:22
  Gas was also cheaper.
• 7:23
  So we were able to get there like in record times.
• 7:25
  Basically two months later, we were back in business.
• 7:27
  I.
• 7:27
  We were able to go back to operating, not exactly business as usual, but we
• 7:32
  at least were able to keep the lights on, didn't have to sell any vehicles.
• 7:35
  I didn't have to keep my people on unemployment for too long.
• 7:38
  It pretty much saved us.
• 7:39
  And then obviously like when the program started rolling out for like
• 7:42
  E I D L, P p p, all that additional funding, we were able to survive the
• 7:47
  whole pandemic because of marketing ourselves as the Covid safe car service.
• 7:50
  Even to this day, we have clients that request us just to wear a
• 7:53
  mask or to open on the windows.
• 7:55
  They're still sensitive to the covid a requir us to take
• 7:58
  covid tests before each ride.
• 7:59
  And then once the vaccines came out, we, we were considered essential
• 8:02
  workers, also helped us saying, oh, all of our chauffeurs are vaccinated.
• 8:06
  And they would actually ask, Hey, are your chauffeurs vaccinated?
• 8:09
  I mean, they wanted all these things.
• 8:10
  In order to travel with us, and a lot of people would not
• 8:13
  even wanna ride in Uber cars.
• 8:15
  We acquired new clients this way because they're like, okay, these guys
• 8:18
  seem to have like very clean cars.
• 8:20
  They're very covid safe.
• 8:21
  So we ended up getting a whole new clientele that we
• 8:24
  probably would've never had.
• 8:25
  And then obviously when things started coming back online with inflation and
• 8:28
  things, you know, we increased our rates just because of operating expenses.
• 8:32
  Vehicles that were getting harder to acquire our clients
• 8:35
  understood that there was.
• 8:36
  These new issues that everybody was having.
• 8:38
  Some of our competitors who didn't weather, who weren't able to
• 8:41
  weather the storm, their customers, once these companies closed,
• 8:44
  they were looking for options.
• 8:45
  And we were right then and there, we, we started ranking up higher on Google.
• 8:48
  Like we're one of the top companies that show up for these kind of things.
• 8:51
  And then obviously, like I, I had some downtime during those two months, so I
• 8:54
  kind of started going into like marketing.
• 8:56
  Learning these skills like, you know, social media s well, not
• 8:59
  so much social media, but SS e o and ads online marketing.
• 9:02
  Mm-hmm.
• 9:02
  That helped a lot.
• 9:03
  It was something where we were just a word of mouth operation, but now
• 9:06
  that I was able to take these new skills and increase my clientele, we
• 9:10
  definitely not only survived it, but we're like thriving like on a different
• 9:14
  scale than before the pandemic.
• 9:16
  So that's pretty much where we're at now.
• 9:17
  You brought up the P P P programs, et cetera.
• 9:19
  There were three to five programs that I remember specifically
• 9:22
  that were designed to help.
• 9:24
  Businesses stay in business, and it was funding basically from the government.
• 9:27
  There were loans, there were grants, et cetera.
• 9:29
  How did you access those?
• 9:31
  You know, you woke up, you said, oh, there's a P P P program.
• 9:33
  How'd you get your hands on that money?
• 9:35
  Did you call your accountant, you called your banker, your lawyer,
• 9:38
  or you did it all by yourself?
• 9:39
  What did you do?
• 9:40
  They were pretty accessible.
• 9:41
  Like, you know, I was getting the emails.
• 9:42
  Through Square Chase, my wife, she works in the finance industry, so
• 9:46
  her company was thriving 'cause they were a leader in these loans.
• 9:49
  And that's how I heard of it.
• 9:51
  And then it was easy to apply online.
• 9:53
  You just put in your application.
• 9:54
  So I didn't need like actual coaching or anything 'cause
• 9:57
  everything was pretty streamlined.
• 9:59
  And then the funds were deposited right away.
• 10:01
  I mean, I had to show some proof and I had all the things that they required.
• 10:04
  Once I got the funds, you know, we were able to put it to use and
• 10:06
  got all of our loans forgiven.
• 10:08
  You know, with the PPPs and all that stuff.
• 10:10
  So it wasn't that hard at the time.
• 10:11
  It was just before that where I was like, what am I gonna do?
• 10:14
  You know, am I gonna be out of business?
• 10:15
  You know?
• 10:15
  And then all these programs started rolling out, and then our clients started
• 10:18
  having these requests that pretty much were able to keep us from going under.
• 10:22
  You hit on a couple things, gypsy cabs, ride sharing, taxis,
• 10:26
  limousine service, black car.
• 10:27
  There's a lot of different avenues, pun intended, here to pursue when
• 10:32
  we're talking about car services.
• 10:34
  So your industry is super competitive.
• 10:36
  It doesn't matter what industry we work in, we're all sort of clamoring at the
• 10:40
  same pie, hoping to get a bigger slice.
• 10:43
  And in a lot of cases there is no more slice to get.
• 10:46
  So you have to make the pie bigger.
• 10:48
  And what I mean by that metaphor is I.
• 10:50
  The introduction of Uber into this equation over the last, let's
• 10:54
  say 15 years that you've been operating a black car service.
• 10:56
  And Uber has, its uber black as well, and I've said it myself sometimes,
• 11:01
  ah, I'm not gonna get a cab.
• 11:02
  I'll just call an Uber.
• 11:02
  I can get it on my phone.
• 11:04
  Maybe it's cheaper, maybe it's quicker.
• 11:05
  Why a black car?
• 11:07
  Versus Uber or is there an overlap there where you're participating
• 11:11
  in those services as well?
• 11:12
  Ironically, I was the first Uber driver in New York and that's kind of like part
• 11:16
  of my coming up to how my business grew.
• 11:19
  And one of my clients at the time was, uh, early investor and he kind of
• 11:22
  introduced me to the founders at the time.
• 11:24
  Obviously back then, like in 2011, no one has heard of what Uber it was, so
• 11:28
  they paid us to actually be on their app.
• 11:30
  Just by the hour.
• 11:31
  And that's how you know, we would bill clients.
• 11:32
  Once their things started going, then they didn't need us anymore.
• 11:35
  So we finish our contract and our deal.
• 11:37
  And obviously now Uber is what it is today.
• 11:39
  But the reason that our service is different than Uber, even
• 11:43
  though they carry an Uber Black version, they don't go through the
• 11:46
  same training or certifications.
• 11:48
  They still call 'em Uber drivers, right?
• 11:49
  Like we tend to say what's the difference between a driver and a chauffeur?
• 11:52
  And a chauffeur is a more of a professional certified individual that is
• 11:56
  more of a craftsman versus someone who's doing this as a gig to make ends meet.
• 12:00
  Or someone who just does this like as a part-time deal, like with their own car,
• 12:03
  even though they still have Uber black and we were doing their Uber Black customers,
• 12:06
  their bread and butter is really the UberX and like the general public rights.
• 12:10
  So we have a niche with our clients that are more of a.
• 12:13
  A more discerning traveler that can tell the difference between someone
• 12:16
  who can handle c e o of a large corporation who needs a more of a
• 12:20
  private experience and someone who may fly on a private jet and their executive
• 12:24
  assistants want to know who their chauffeur's gonna be before 24 hours.
• 12:28
  It's a more of a a niche market that we deal with.
• 12:30
  I mean, obviously our clients may still use Uber's here and there for short.
• 12:33
  Trips, but when they want to be picked up on time and they get used to a lot of
• 12:37
  our show first, like they would say, Hey, I want Ron to drive me, or I want so and
• 12:40
  so when they land at certain cities, they prefer a certain type of chauffeur to pick
• 12:45
  them up so they feel more comfortable.
• 12:46
  They know they're not getting recorded or privacy issues are very important to
• 12:50
  our individual clients as well as like discreetness and just the professional.
• 12:54
  They're used to staying at like four season hotels by private jets.
• 12:58
  So the whole experience has to kind of match the level.
• 13:00
  It's just nonexistent there.
• 13:02
  Uber just.
• 13:02
  It doesn't provide that they're great for the general public, for like you and me
• 13:05
  who just need a car to go from A to B.
• 13:07
  I do gotta say that, you know, because they did help me get my start.
• 13:10
  Once UberX became very popular, that kind of broke away my mentality into
• 13:14
  like, I want to get into like this niche market for the discerning travelers.
• 13:18
  I don't even think of Uber as a competition 'cause I'm not competing on
• 13:20
  price or in anything for that matter.
• 13:22
  So they're great at what they do, but I feel I'm excellent at what we do.
• 13:25
  The one that's always stuck out to me, especially in the
• 13:27
  taxi world, is the concept of.
• 13:29
  Those medallions that the drivers have to get for their vehicles.
• 13:32
  Can you elaborate on how that works and how that's different than what you're
• 13:36
  doing and how your vehicles are acquired?
• 13:38
  Yeah.
• 13:38
  There's a fixed number of yellow taxi medallions that the industry has
• 13:43
  given, and they're either owned or leased through a middle person that
• 13:46
  that handles the brokering side of it.
• 13:48
  And at one point they were really valuable.
• 13:50
  I mean, they were going over a million dollars at one point,
• 13:52
  but now they're much lower, like a hundred K or 200 k I believe.
• 13:56
  Obviously they had a lot of ups and downs in their industry due
• 13:58
  to involvement of Uber and, and Lyft and those, those companies.
• 14:02
  And basically, you know, I felt like they probably lost market share because they're
• 14:06
  not easy to work with, like as far as like payments go or even like customer service.
• 14:10
  Sometimes you get in a car and they're driving crazy a little bit.
• 14:13
  I mean, they do have a standard, at least the cars are all yellow and you know what
• 14:16
  you're getting when you're getting in one overall, like the yellow taxi industry is.
• 14:19
  Its own entity with those medallions and not just anybody can get them,
• 14:23
  but now it's easier to acquire, but not many people actually want them.
• 14:26
  Like in New York right now, there's like only half of the actual medallions in use
• 14:29
  versus back 10 years ago when they were like over a million dollars and there
• 14:32
  were people like fighting over them.
• 14:33
  On my side, we call like the luxury limousine industry,
• 14:36
  so there's like three types.
• 14:38
  In New York you have luxury limousine, community car, and black car.
• 14:40
  And actually black car is the ride share industry.
• 14:43
  Pretty much right now.
• 14:43
  They have the most amount of licensed vehicles.
• 14:47
  We're close to about a hundred thousand vehicles that are licensed to do non-St.
• 14:51
  Streete hail pickups.
• 14:52
  Those are cars that can pick up through reservation or through
• 14:55
  like the app for ride share.
• 14:56
  Anything that doesn't involve cash, obviously, like I mentioned,
• 14:59
  they can't be yellow and they can't pick up in the street.
• 15:01
  So that's kind of the difference right now between those two entities.
• 15:04
  Why and what makes are the best limos out there?
• 15:07
  Lincoln Mercedes, who do you think has the best limos out there?
• 15:11
  Well, the Lincoln Town car was around up until 2011, and that
• 15:14
  was like the car for the industry.
• 15:16
  After Lincoln decided not to make them anymore.
• 15:18
  We're still like in a limbo state for a sedan type car that qualifies as town car.
• 15:23
  However, in the more niche market like mine, we tend to pick more of a
• 15:27
  premium version sedans like a Mercedes S Class or a B M W seven series.
• 15:30
  And the SUVs, like the Escalade or the Suburban have become really popular.
• 15:34
  Those.
• 15:34
  I would say like the cars that we use as like a limo.
• 15:37
  Does an Escalade qualify as a black car?
• 15:40
  Like a town car would?
• 15:41
  Oh yeah.
• 15:41
  But we don't even call them town cars anymore.
• 15:43
  We just, people would say, I need an SS u v, or I need a sedan.
• 15:46
  They're very specific as to what type of vehicle they want, and they would
• 15:49
  just say either one or the other.
• 15:50
  And do you have a preference for which one you like best?
• 15:52
  I mean, I definitely prefer the Mercedes.
• 15:53
  Just because it's a sneaker of the car.
• 15:55
  It's maintenance wise, it's been incredible.
• 15:57
  It's definitely expensive, but I think it's worth it.
• 16:00
  And the Escalade, it's just good for like the room and like the
• 16:02
  presence, but I would definitely prefer like S class over an Escalade.
• 16:05
  When you think about the town car at that time, and we were just
• 16:09
  talking about the medallions.
• 16:10
  In what was the Crown Victoria's?
• 16:12
  They were the same car underneath that Panther chassis, as we all
• 16:16
  come to appreciate over the years.
• 16:17
  Mm-hmm.
• 16:17
  So going back to something you said, what about the new Lincolns?
• 16:21
  Don's holding his cards here because he is a Lincoln man.
• 16:24
  What about the Aviator and some of these really gorgeous SUVs they have out now?
• 16:28
  So the aviators are kind of considered a sedan because
• 16:32
  there is no actual replacement.
• 16:33
  Some of my industry peers may actually do carry them.
• 16:36
  And they call 'em sedans, even though they're like a crossover for the SUVs.
• 16:39
  The Lincoln Navigator, the next popular car next to the Escalade.
• 16:43
  I prefer the GM one.
• 16:44
  It has a more of a look and people actually request it.
• 16:47
  So they would say an Escalade, they wouldn't even tell me.
• 16:49
  A navigator over an S U V, kind of like if you're in New York, you'd go
• 16:52
  through the streets, you walk down, you see more escalates than anything
• 16:55
  because that's kind of like the car now.
• 16:56
  Whereas as a aviator, you don't even see celebrities.
• 16:59
  Coming in and out of them.
• 17:00
  You know, like that's kind of like the statement that the Escalade, it exudes.
• 17:03
  You mentioned something earlier about town cars, executive
• 17:06
  cars, limousines, et cetera.
• 17:08
  So there is a subtle difference between all of these.
• 17:11
  The classic stretch limo that we all came to appreciate in the
• 17:15
  late seventies and early eighties.
• 17:17
  Do those even exist anymore?
• 17:18
  Is that a thing?
• 17:19
  Do people want to ride in a stretch limo?
• 17:22
  Our company is a chauffeur transportation service.
• 17:25
  For a reason, like we don't even use the term limo anymore.
• 17:27
  They're really pretty much associated with like those eighties Wall
• 17:30
  Street, like the movie, like you see Michael Douglas riding in one.
• 17:33
  They don't make 'em like that anymore, but the only time someone would
• 17:35
  actually call us for a limo is if they're doing a prom or a wedding.
• 17:39
  They're still out there, but they're more of a party type
• 17:41
  vehicle if you're going out in any the town for a bachelorette party.
• 17:44
  But we don't really service that type of client unless they.
• 17:47
  Particularly ask for it.
• 17:48
  Most of the time we just don't do it because it's a vehicle that doesn't
• 17:51
  really fit in with a wheelhouse.
• 17:52
  Is there a favorite type of luxury vehicle for you?
• 17:55
  You mentioned the SS class.
• 17:56
  You've got a soft spot for that.
• 17:57
  Obviously the Escalade seems to be a choice of most of your customers.
• 18:01
  Let's just say money's no object.
• 18:03
  You've just won the billion dollar lottery.
• 18:05
  What are you gonna run out there and buy?
• 18:08
  I do prefer a coop like a Porsche on 11.
• 18:11
  If I was gonna be the driver for myself.
• 18:13
  But if it's gonna be driven, Mercedes does have the Maybach
• 18:15
  version of their vehicles, which are, you know, more the high end.
• 18:19
  But ironically, our clients don't like them because they're
• 18:21
  too ostentatious for them.
• 18:23
  Whereas our clients prefer to be discreet.
• 18:25
  They're more discreet in like the S-class and the Escalades.
• 18:27
  Mm-hmm.
• 18:28
  I would definitely, if I was driven around in a Maybach, I
• 18:30
  think I would, I would be great.
• 18:32
  But definitely for me, like a Porsche, uh, nine 11, I've even
• 18:36
  seen a Safari one not too long ago.
• 18:38
  It was actually restored and.
• 18:39
  I fell in love with it probably cost 'em a pretty penny to do it, but
• 18:42
  those kind of cars I, I really like.
• 18:43
  What about Lexus?
• 18:44
  You know, Lexus is the flagship for them.
• 18:46
  Been the LSS forever.
• 18:48
  Is there any talk of that or does Mercedes just have the
• 18:51
  lock on that four-door market?
• 18:52
  Definitely Mercedes and B M W in different markets it depends, but the
• 18:56
  US we tend not to, to use a Lexus just because it's a little bit too different.
• 19:00
  For what their clients are used to.
• 19:02
  You know, we've secured trips in Asia, for example, and they have a Toyota version.
• 19:05
  We've used them out there.
• 19:06
  The one in Japan, is that the century?
• 19:08
  Yeah.
• 19:08
  They made like a couple like presidential versions of that.
• 19:11
  Like kind of like our version of the Yeah, the president limo.
• 19:14
  Yeah.
• 19:15
  They're all handbuilt and takes like six months to get one.
• 19:18
  That kind of thing.
• 19:18
  Yeah, they're fantastic car.
• 19:20
  Are there any old limos, if you can still call 'em that?
• 19:23
  Are there any old limos that you'd like to drive the Packard
• 19:26
  or Rolls Royce or Bentley?
• 19:27
  Example, not me personally, but we do offer them.
• 19:30
  We did one for a wedding not too long ago, and it was like more of a
• 19:34
  classic Cadillac sedan that we used.
• 19:36
  I mean, I'm not really into too much of the older cars unless they're
• 19:39
  like the sports cars, you know, like those Shelby Cobras type cars.
• 19:42
  But not so much like the older Rolls Royces or.
• 19:45
  You know, the roll Rce Fern is still a pretty nice car though,
• 19:47
  but I'm not too crazy about them.
• 19:49
  Just in general, if there's a new car that you like that could be converted
• 19:54
  into a limo, what would that be?
• 19:55
  Porsche, Panama, something like that.
• 19:57
  Yeah, that would be, um, that would be it.
• 19:59
  But you know what's funny?
• 19:59
  Like the cars that I converted that are worked on right now is.
• 20:02
  The Mercedes sprinter, which from the outside it looks like a big black van.
• 20:06
  Right.
• 20:06
  But inside, they're completely modified now, just the version
• 20:09
  where it's like a shuttle, but like really nicely done inside.
• 20:12
  Or they have like basically what they call it, like a private jet
• 20:15
  on wheels that are really nice and they have like screens everywhere.
• 20:18
  You know, very large seats.
• 20:19
  Like you could only fit like six people in the back.
• 20:21
  Those are kind of like the new version of modified limos without stretching them and
• 20:25
  you can stand up on them and everything.
• 20:26
  So that's where the cars that are limos are converted lately.
• 20:30
  It brings back sort of the party bus.
• 20:32
  Feel, but not exactly, you know, the eighties, 40 connel line short bus
• 20:37
  conversion like you see in Las Vegas.
• 20:38
  All those are still running around.
• 20:40
  And I like the fact that you brought up the Sprinter because this calls
• 20:43
  back an episode that we did with Brian Kreider from Boulder Camper Vans and
• 20:48
  their specialty, they've kind of gone outside of doing camper vans, but they
• 20:52
  focus on the sprinters and some of the other models that are similar too.
• 20:56
  I've seen those and they do these blown out conversions.
• 20:59
  So it sort of makes sense that if they're doing that, For off-grid living
• 21:03
  that they could do that as an executive or black car type of conversion.
• 21:06
  Yeah.
• 21:07
  They've done it even for like touring, like some of them even
• 21:09
  have bathrooms in the back.
• 21:10
  Kind of like those camper ones you're talking about.
• 21:11
  Those are really the new cars that people like to be ar in.
• 21:15
  Like if they're going out and outta town, like they even have.
• 21:17
  Limo style seating where it is like a wraparound seating and they still have
• 21:20
  like where you can have like the drinks and bucket of ice, but it's more of a
• 21:23
  modern twist on an actual stretch limo.
• 21:26
  On the motorsports side of the house, we talk a lot about being
• 21:29
  smooth and driving smoothly.
• 21:32
  This is also true in your world.
• 21:34
  I wanna talk about how you learned how to drive more smoothly,
• 21:37
  especially for your clients.
• 21:38
  You know, they're not supposed to feel the ride.
• 21:40
  Maybe some recommendations for other people on how to become a smoother driver
• 21:44
  on the streets, and especially in traffic.
• 21:46
  We like to say we wanna have our clients be driven like the flow of water.
• 21:50
  No friction.
• 21:51
  You know, obviously no hard braking.
• 21:53
  We try to always find the quickest route with the least amount of traffic
• 21:57
  and stay within the limit restrictions.
• 21:59
  We also try to schedule pickups pretty early so that way they're not rushing to
• 22:02
  the airport as far as the technique goes.
• 22:04
  You just can't be, you know, on a rush.
• 22:06
  But obviously we do have some demanding clients that might stay on later for
• 22:08
  meetings and they wanna make their flights when that situation happens.
• 22:11
  You know, we try to be as.
• 22:12
  Smooth as possible, even though we have to go a little faster to
• 22:15
  make their flights and you know, we had plenty of those situations.
• 22:18
  We try to still maintain the whole smoothness of a ride.
• 22:21
  Having these vehicles like the Mercedes or the escalate with the
• 22:24
  suspensions that they have in them with the air suspension that we
• 22:26
  can't even feel some of the bumps in.
• 22:27
  In New York, we have so many potholes everywhere.
• 22:30
  Generally we try to be as smooth, like the full water as we call it.
• 22:33
  Yeah, and I've heard some crazy techniques to like imagining that an egg is under
• 22:38
  the pedals, especially when you're.
• 22:39
  Braking, or I've heard things like curling your toes will also cause you
• 22:43
  to not apply as much pressure to the pedals, but to your point, avoiding
• 22:47
  those potholes, you don't wanna be slaloming down fifth Avenue either, right?
• 22:51
  So the car's gotta be able to take a lot of that abuse, which will
• 22:54
  lead into a conversation about maintenance here in a second.
• 22:57
  But I wanna bring up one other thing.
• 22:59
  I've heard people say it before, the quote unquote, Limo stop.
• 23:03
  Is that a real thing gracefully coming to a stop rather than kind
• 23:07
  of stopping in a short distance?
• 23:09
  And if it is a real thing, does it use up more brakes because of the longer braking
• 23:13
  zones and the heaviness of the vehicles?
• 23:15
  Yeah, like especially if we're trying to stage in front of somewhere where someone,
• 23:18
  they wanna make like an entrance, right?
• 23:19
  So we want to kind of pull up very smoothly up to the curb and
• 23:22
  then people can get out the car.
• 23:24
  You know, whether they're going to like some sort of.
• 23:26
  V I p venue.
• 23:27
  But yeah, it does take a little bit of smoothness and we don't want to just
• 23:30
  come up to the area and break hard.
• 23:32
  And then when you're driving in the city with traffic, can't really tell
• 23:34
  you're doing it like smooth because you're just going kind of slow.
• 23:37
  When you get to like any destination, it's not gonna be a hard stop.
• 23:40
  Just like in racing, you have to be situationally aware.
• 23:43
  You're probably looking way ahead to see if something's going on.
• 23:45
  People are doing crazy stuff coming out from the sides because again, the number
• 23:49
  one thing is your client's comfort.
• 23:51
  Correct.
• 23:51
  In this particular instance, you've gotta be hypersensitive to everything that's.
• 23:55
  Going on around you Definitely got our peripherals going.
• 23:58
  Obviously check the traffic beforehand to avoid those kind of situations, but
• 24:02
  sometimes it happens right in front of us.
• 24:03
  You know, we try to look for detours and anything that we can get out
• 24:06
  of all of our chauffeurs are pretty experienced with the city as well
• 24:09
  as in other cities that we service.
• 24:11
  So, you know, that's part of the main role of a chauffeur is to be like a concierge
• 24:15
  of your city and know your way around.
• 24:17
  Similar to like kind the uk, they have like that knowledge test.
• 24:19
  Like I test our team here.
• 24:21
  Not officially like how they do it, but you know, they gotta know hotels,
• 24:24
  they gotta know sporting venues.
• 24:26
  They gotta know how to get to the airport.
• 24:27
  If there's a certain week, like we're gonna have in September, the UN general
• 24:31
  assembly, they kind of already have to know, okay, what areas to avoid Manhattan.
• 24:34
  'cause it's gonna be very congested in the east side.
• 24:36
  Same thing for like a stadium and we have to go through a
• 24:39
  separate entrance for our client.
• 24:41
  So all that, you know, we cover and we try to make sure that it's pretty smooth.
• 24:44
  It's interesting that you bring that up because I grew up around
• 24:47
  some cabbies and my grandfather was a chauffeur after World War ii.
• 24:51
  Back then, obviously it was paper maps.
• 24:53
  We didn't have, you know, hold on a second.
• 24:55
  Let me put it in my iPhone, or let me put it in my garment.
• 24:57
  G P s.
• 24:58
  Do a lot of your drivers still have the city basically mapped out in their head,
• 25:02
  and if somebody says, I need to go to here and here, they know exactly where that is.
• 25:06
  On the same token, are you converting cabbies over to become black car
• 25:09
  drivers because of their experience?
• 25:11
  Not necessarily.
• 25:12
  You know, say someone gets in the car and, and we have like as directed type.
• 25:16
  Right where the client won't give us an itinerary beforehand.
• 25:19
  They would just say, I'm going to this restaurant.
• 25:21
  We would still put it in the G P S, not because we don't know how to
• 25:23
  get there, but it's more for what is the quickest way to get there.
• 25:26
  So are we gonna avoid Fifth Avenue or seventh Avenue to get downtown?
• 25:30
  Because there's multiple options.
• 25:32
  Like we know how to get to places, but we can't see technologies
• 25:34
  there for a reason, right?
• 25:35
  So we use it to our client experience better.
• 25:37
  Doesn't necessarily mean we don't know how to get there, but you know, we'll
• 25:40
  discreetly try to put it in our G P Ss just to avoid pitfalls like traffic.
• 25:43
  As far as like taxi drivers, I wouldn't say I'm recruiting cabbies.
• 25:47
  They do have the experience, but the customer service is a huge
• 25:50
  aspect to our industry, and that's something that's very hard to teach
• 25:53
  if they're not willing to learn.
• 25:55
  So they have to be receptive to that.
• 25:56
  And if not, then you know, they're probably great at
• 25:59
  what they do and stick to it.
• 26:00
  And I'm sure there's money to be made there, but we're very selective with that.
• 26:03
  Sometimes we even prefer that they're not in our industry.
• 26:06
  Because things like maps and you know, locations can be taught, but
• 26:10
  the customer service part of it is one thing that is harder to teach in.
• 26:13
  Like I didn't even start in this industry as a driver from the beginning.
• 26:16
  Hospitality, customer service is something that's much easier to, to work
• 26:20
  with people that had that background.
• 26:21
  What do you think are some of the biggest mistakes or faux pause
• 26:25
  or especially we talking about customer service with a client?
• 26:27
  They may inadvertently do, you know, these social indecencies or whatever you
• 26:31
  wanna call them, what are some things that you're training the guys to kind of get
• 26:34
  out of certain habits or to begin doing?
• 26:37
  Smoking was a big thing for us.
• 26:38
  It's like our clients don't prefer that and nothing personal, but I
• 26:41
  would not hire someone who smokes just because of the smell in its hearts
• 26:44
  for people to quit that unless they're in on some particular treatment.
• 26:47
  So that's like a bad habit, that it's just hard to work with people who are late.
• 26:50
  That's a big one.
• 26:51
  Like if they're not used to being on early on time, I mean, we do send
• 26:54
  out alerts and phone calls and stuff, but like I said, we wanna have the
• 26:57
  flow of water type service where we don't have to communicate too much.
• 27:00
  Like our, our chauffer already are pretty knowledgeable of when they
• 27:03
  need to get to a certain location.
• 27:04
  So the less communication when we physically have to call them or email
• 27:08
  them or, or text them, is actually better for us because, All of our jobs are
• 27:11
  dispatched electronically to their phones and they already have all the details.
• 27:14
  We may call 'em to go over some special requests, but nothing
• 27:17
  where like, Hey, where are you?
• 27:18
  Are you, are you gonna be there on time?
• 27:20
  That stops the flow of water.
• 27:22
  That's one thing that we definitely work with people who are very customer
• 27:24
  service oriented from the beginning, and they're very serious about
• 27:26
  being on time and about their job.
• 27:28
  Do you ever take the drivers out?
• 27:29
  Do you test them?
• 27:30
  Do you train them?
• 27:31
  How does that process work when you got some guy that showed up?
• 27:34
  He's interviewing for the job.
• 27:35
  You like the guy, you obviously you take him out for a drive.
• 27:38
  Right?
• 27:38
  How does that work?
• 27:39
  What goes on there?
• 27:40
  Yeah.
• 27:40
  After we interview them and, and everything checks out and we see that
• 27:43
  they're someone who's teachable, we actually put them on mystery rides.
• 27:47
  It could be someone from our company or even another senior chauffeur that
• 27:50
  can critique them, and eventually they reveal themselves as I'm
• 27:52
  actually part of the company and I'm here to critique the service.
• 27:55
  And based on that, sometimes it's a pass or fail, but most of the
• 27:58
  time we've had our chauffeurs.
• 28:00
  Say, oh you know, this is gonna be a good hire.
• 28:01
  Like if they make it to that kind of level, like we've had a lot of
• 28:04
  people who won't even show up to interviews so that are automatically
• 28:06
  already like would not qualify.
• 28:08
  Obviously we're very strict about when we are looking for cha first,
• 28:11
  you know, they have to have some sort of certification training as well.
• 28:14
  Like we look for that.
• 28:15
  And then as far as like additional training, we have like an online.
• 28:17
  Portal where there's other things they could learn from some of the industry
• 28:21
  courses that we are involved in.
• 28:23
  And then we do some offsite training.
• 28:25
  Like not too long ago, I had our team go to one of our partners
• 28:28
  that we work with a lot in New York and they provided additional
• 28:32
  training for just their clients.
• 28:33
  We flew them down to South Carolina for this training.
• 28:36
  That way they just keep getting better in into their craft.
• 28:38
  What about the maintenance?
• 28:39
  I would assume that brakes are probably the first thing to go on those cars.
• 28:43
  What, what is that like maintaining those black cars?
• 28:45
  We put a lot of wear and tear on these vehicles.
• 28:47
  We rotate them every two years for us to even get to the brakes.
• 28:50
  Like some of our cars already have like indicator of what percentage of the brake
• 28:53
  is at, like the escalates for example.
• 28:54
  They have an indicator now that tells us the percentage, you
• 28:56
  know, once it reaches 50%, where like we're just gonna change 'em.
• 28:59
  Since we rotate our cars fairly quickly, we sometimes don't get so
• 29:02
  many, unless it's like a defect or like a recall or anything electronical
• 29:06
  that may go down in the vehicle.
• 29:08
  As far as the maintenance, like obviously we do oil changes almost monthly now, just
• 29:11
  because we go sometimes long distance.
• 29:13
  We change the batteries also because.
• 29:15
  These cars do take up a lot of juice and I don't wanna get a chauffeur stuck
• 29:18
  out in the, in the field not being able to service a client because they
• 29:21
  don't have enough juice in the car.
• 29:22
  As far as like the actual other maintenances, eventually I think we're
• 29:25
  gonna evolve into like more of a ev.
• 29:27
  Mm-hmm.
• 29:28
  It might have take away some, some of those oil changes and things like that.
• 29:31
  You know, in the meantime we still deal with that and part of our
• 29:33
  regularly maintenance tire rotation.
• 29:35
  Still, obviously that's still gonna happen, but recently though,
• 29:37
  one of our vehicles had to go down because the engine seizes.
• 29:40
  And it was only 6,000 miles.
• 29:42
  It was a brand new Escalade, and the worst part is all these parts are back
• 29:44
  ordered, so we had to wait like almost a month to get the new engine from Cadillac.
• 29:48
  You know, we have those downtimes with the vehicles because of that
• 29:50
  lately, and luckily it was only one, but I've heard from other affiliates
• 29:54
  in, in my industry that they had.
• 29:56
  Similar situations with this particular generation of escalates.
• 29:58
  It just came out in 2021, so obviously the first couple years you
• 30:01
  usually get these kind of issues.
• 30:03
  You know, obviously with the whole pandemic and everything, the supply chain
• 30:06
  is still catching up with certain things.
• 30:08
  We get these kind of issues here and there for the overall,
• 30:10
  like daily run pretty well.
• 30:11
  You know, we do the regularly scheduled maintenance just a little
• 30:13
  bit faster than usual because we, we run them so many miles.
• 30:16
  What kind of EVs are you considering?
• 30:18
  Well, Escalade obviously just came out with a new one last week.
• 30:21
  They unveiled it in New York and pretty impressed at least it
• 30:23
  has some sort of range with the 450 miles, and it's not too bad.
• 30:27
  The problem with EVs right now is more the infrastructure and the charging
• 30:30
  times we're out on a long distance trip.
• 30:32
  Probably wouldn't even assign a cart like that because how are we gonna get
• 30:35
  back and it's, we're in the middle of nowhere, like where are we gonna charge?
• 30:38
  If we're paying for the car to even charge out on in the field, if it
• 30:41
  could charge faster, would be better.
• 30:43
  You know, still a, a bit of a time gap there.
• 30:45
  It's not like as quick as filling up a gas a tank.
• 30:47
  I would definitely consider that Mercedes actually did come out
• 30:50
  with uh, E Q ss, which is kind of like the version of the SS class.
• 30:53
  It just looks different, you know, I hadn't really gone down that path yet, but
• 30:57
  I would consider also the Cadillac lyric.
• 30:59
  They also came out with just this year.
• 31:01
  It's an interesting vehicle and, and you know, it has like the extra
• 31:04
  capacity that, you know, most black cars don't have, but we can use that
• 31:07
  as like a good sedan type vehicle.
• 31:09
  And also B M W actually came out with a really nice one, which is actually the
• 31:12
  same body style of the gas, you know, internal combustion engine version.
• 31:15
  So that one would also be considered.
• 31:18
  As far as like going outta town, we would probably not use
• 31:20
  'em for that kind of service.
• 31:22
  What do you, do you lease 'em or do you buy 'em?
• 31:24
  What do you do?
• 31:24
  Yeah, we finance them and then we trade 'em in for new ones or
• 31:27
  we, we sell 'em in the off market because we get more return on that.
• 31:30
  If we give 'em back to the dealer.
• 31:31
  They always try to like low us a little bit, but we've been able to
• 31:34
  find people to buy them, even though they've been used for limo service.
• 31:37
  You know, we tell them, you know, we maintain these cars, you know,
• 31:39
  meticulously, they're garage caps a lot of the time, so even the body's still in
• 31:43
  perfect condition for this kind of service that we always have to keep them clean.
• 31:46
  They're always well maintained, clean, so we've been pretty successful in like
• 31:50
  selling them after we're done with them.
• 31:52
  Detailing has to be a big part of this business, trying to
• 31:54
  keep that car clean and sharp.
• 31:56
  Are there any special techniques you guys use for the interior exterior, or
• 31:59
  what kind of products do you guys use?
• 32:01
  I'm not sure if you guys heard of this company called Detail King.
• 32:04
  They're based out in Pittsburgh.
• 32:05
  Back around 2015, I think I actually went over there to learn auto detailing.
• 32:10
  We had our shop in Queens, New York at the time, and when the cars
• 32:13
  were gone from the garage, we would actually detail people's cars as like
• 32:16
  a way to kind of pay for the rent.
• 32:18
  Obviously, like I hired a couple of detailers.
• 32:20
  To help me clean our fleet.
• 32:22
  And then when they weren't too busy, they would actually detail
• 32:25
  cars from the neighborhood.
• 32:26
  I physically learned how to do buffing and you know, working with compounds and
• 32:29
  polishers and all that stuff, you know, I wanted to really learn the business.
• 32:32
  We ended up buying all of our supplies from them and all of our liquids and soaps
• 32:36
  and rotary buffers and that kind of thing.
• 32:39
  And that's pretty much the equipment that I use now.
• 32:41
  It's.
• 32:41
  A dual rotary buffer.
• 32:43
  And you know, we have air hoses that help with applying interior soaps.
• 32:47
  We have these hot vacs that also have like steam and soap coming outta
• 32:51
  them for like the carpets and even steamers to sanitize the interiors
• 32:54
  without having to use actual liquids.
• 32:56
  So we order all of our supplies from these guys because you're dealing with
• 32:59
  black paint and as anybody who owns.
• 33:02
  Black cars like I do and Don does and a lot of other people, it's one
• 33:05
  of the hardest colors to keep clean.
• 33:07
  So I'm looking for a little secret here.
• 33:09
  Like, you know, in the old days, McGuire's gold class paste was
• 33:13
  like the IT thing for black cars, but that was 20 years ago, right?
• 33:17
  So I'm really curious, like what you got, or maybe it's a trade secret.
• 33:20
  You can't tell us how you keep the limo so clean, you know?
• 33:23
  No, no, no, of course.
• 33:24
  Like they all have really great products now.
• 33:26
  Like they specifically made for black vehicles and McGuire's,
• 33:30
  you know, it's easier to buy.
• 33:31
  But then when we order, we either be from Detail King or
• 33:33
  even chemical guys, you know?
• 33:35
  But then if we are shorthand and we instead we can't wait for the shipping,
• 33:37
  we'll just go to Auto Zone or something like that, or anything, and they
• 33:39
  got McGuires and that kind of thing.
• 33:41
  Unfortunately, we sometimes, you know, we're in a rush and we have to
• 33:44
  go through the automated car washes, which is like the worst, right?
• 33:47
  But have to still keep the car clean for every ride.
• 33:49
  If there's a car wash 15 minutes away from our pickup, we would just go there.
• 33:52
  But, you know, every couple months or so, we do a whole buffing of all
• 33:56
  those fine lines that the, you know, those rushes make definitely big on
• 33:59
  the compounds and the polishing and you know, we still do wax 'em at the end.
• 34:03
  So keep it protected a little bit here and there with that.
• 34:05
  But fortunately, it's part of the business that we have to go through.
• 34:08
  The automated ones.
• 34:09
  Because you detail the cars so often you're re waxing
• 34:12
  them, polishing, et cetera.
• 34:13
  You are not coating them.
• 34:15
  Right.
• 34:15
  You're not using like a ceramic or something like
• 34:17
  that to try to seal the paint?
• 34:18
  Initially, yeah.
• 34:19
  When we get them, we do do that, but again, we go through these automated
• 34:23
  car washes sometimes that it just kind of wears it out, unfortunately.
• 34:26
  You know, it's not like a regular car that probably won't see the
• 34:29
  benefits of those techniques.
• 34:30
  We're constantly have to go through these car washes just 'cause
• 34:33
  we get rained on all the time.
• 34:34
  We keep them garage when they're not working, but then out almost daily go
• 34:37
  through the elements like everybody else.
• 34:39
  So we have to keep the car clean regardless of where we pick up.
• 34:42
  Is that the frequency of washing with the cars?
• 34:44
  Is it almost daily?
• 34:45
  If the weather's good and the car comes back to the garage, then
• 34:47
  we'll just do like a clean sweep inside that gets the most use.
• 34:50
  If the outside doesn't need to be washed necessarily, we won't wash it.
• 34:53
  We'll.
• 34:54
  Probably just clean out any smudges, fingerprints and that kind of thing.
• 34:57
  But I would say at least three times a week minimum.
• 35:00
  Switching gears a little bit, pit stop question here.
• 35:02
  You mentioned restaurants earlier and you get to cart around some of
• 35:06
  the coolest and probably most famous people in New York all the time.
• 35:09
  So let's talk about favorite places and recommendations to go visit
• 35:13
  or go eat at in New York City.
• 35:15
  I mean, I've taken a page from my clients when they go to these fancy places, and
• 35:18
  then I decided to take my wife out there just to experience it if there's even
• 35:22
  a table, because some of these places, like you either know somebody or you
• 35:24
  have to wait like two months to get in.
• 35:26
  For example, there's one that's called Leber Nadine, and it's
• 35:29
  like a French restaurant.
• 35:30
  It's very hard to get in.
• 35:31
  I still haven't gotten to that one, but I heard it's really amazing.
• 35:33
  But then there's also Carbon, which is a Italian restaurant, but they
• 35:36
  have other, in other cities as well.
• 35:37
  Popular one in New York.
• 35:39
  Another French restaurant is called Balthazar.
• 35:40
  Also a little hard to get in, at least on a Saturday night, but you
• 35:43
  can go there during the weekend.
• 35:45
  It's a pretty cool place, and there's a new place called Lafayette,
• 35:48
  also another French restaurant.
• 35:49
  They're kind of known right now for their croissants, like in the morning.
• 35:52
  They have a long line just for that particular pastry
• 35:54
  or you know, for the evening.
• 35:55
  There's definitely availability for that.
• 35:57
  You know, go and have a nice dinner.
• 35:59
  My background's also Peruvian, so I tend to like Peruvian food a lot.
• 36:02
  One of my favorite spots is Mission Ceviche, which they has
• 36:05
  like really, really good ceviche.
• 36:07
  Other Peruvian cuisine, and that one can get packed also.
• 36:10
  Like it's very popular just like the others.
• 36:12
  So when you take your wife to these restaurants, do you drive
• 36:15
  yourselves or do you have one of the guys pick you up in a black car?
• 36:18
  I've done it a couple times.
• 36:19
  You know, I mean, it's, it's a perk and it's, it's, it's a way of
• 36:22
  me like keeping tabs on them too.
• 36:24
  So I tend to do it a couple times here and there, but, you know, we
• 36:26
  drive ourselves, we have our own personal car, you know, if it's like
• 36:29
  an anniversary or something like that.
• 36:31
  When I first met her, one of our dates, I had one of our chauffeurs
• 36:34
  pick her up and brought her to a restaurant that we really like.
• 36:37
  Also in Queens, it's actually called Ella's.
• 36:39
  It's an Italian restaurant I use my service for, for that kind of thing.
• 36:43
  So yeah, and that's a great segue into talking about, I.
• 36:46
  Quality of life and work-life balance because your industry,
• 36:50
  the black car industry, is really sort of on beck and call.
• 36:53
  You never know when a client's gonna wanna be picked up or where they want to go.
• 36:56
  And like you said, they might be running late for a meeting and then you gotta
• 36:59
  run off to the airport and you're stuck in traffic and you really can't
• 37:02
  have a normal nine to five schedule.
• 37:04
  So how do you juggle work and family?
• 37:07
  Yeah, this industry is very demanding.
• 37:09
  It's a 24 7.
• 37:10
  Industry.
• 37:11
  And now that we've started doing rides in different time zones, it's
• 37:14
  like even worse because now we have to operate 24 7 in different markets.
• 37:18
  You know, it takes a team to do that.
• 37:19
  Like at one point I was handling a lot by myself, but eventually, like I
• 37:23
  just had to like get myself organized.
• 37:25
  And as I was growing, now I have a team, different cities, different time zones
• 37:29
  who can help me with taking reservations while I'm asleep or chauffer handling
• 37:32
  trips when I'm in a different city and or even in New York, for example,
• 37:36
  like my team is very trustworthy.
• 37:38
  We're still operating, you know, remotely.
• 37:41
  You know, I had to do some automation to make sure that all this happens.
• 37:44
  The automation helps a lot, and also like the team, like knowing
• 37:47
  what they're doing, it just helps me scale a little bit better.
• 37:49
  Now I actually have more time with my wife and my son.
• 37:52
  Before it was just very, very demanding.
• 37:54
  I still keep in touch, especially with my high-touch clients, but
• 37:57
  we're not doing millions of rides.
• 37:59
  So a lot of the rides that I do see that are reserved, I always
• 38:03
  glance to see we're picking up.
• 38:04
  Even from my phone, I can check up rides in progress.
• 38:07
  Just to make sure that the chauffeurs are on schedule and that the vehicle
• 38:10
  is where it's supposed to be.
• 38:11
  You know, with my team, it, it's been able to pass on a lot of those
• 38:14
  operational situations where I can focus more on like generating revenue so I
• 38:19
  can plan my days better and I can have my weekends now starting out it was, I.
• 38:23
  Difficult because I wouldn't even be chauffeur and still having to work with
• 38:27
  other clients who needed transportation at the same time when I wasn't available.
• 38:30
  So that's how I started adding chauffeur to my team, and then obviously
• 38:34
  reservationists and dispatchers to handle all of our bookings in different cities
• 38:38
  and in different times, different dates.
• 38:40
  Having a website that can take reservations and our dispatch system
• 38:43
  that can automate sending trips out.
• 38:45
  It has done miracles for my personal life as far as like me handling things.
• 38:49
  All by myself.
• 38:50
  That brings us back to the beginning of the conversation where you talked
• 38:53
  about getting started even before 2007 in the hospitality industry, and
• 38:57
  then kicking off sedans in oh seven.
• 39:00
  So if you look back over the last 20 years, what do you think is
• 39:03
  the biggest change in the industry outside of the technology part,
• 39:07
  which is making your life better?
• 39:08
  Is there something else that's sort of churning under the
• 39:11
  surface technology-wise?
• 39:12
  Yeah, there's still obviously improvements that need to be made.
• 39:15
  Also ideologies of pricing and also knowing your costs.
• 39:19
  When I started, like I didn't know what my costs were and what my numbers
• 39:22
  were, and I just knew that if I had money in my pocket, I was good.
• 39:24
  Once you start growing from like one car and two cars and, and then you're dealing
• 39:28
  with employees and affiliate relations, kind of have to know your numbers, right.
• 39:32
  That's kind of like where a lot of new operators that are starting to come
• 39:35
  in, they don't know their numbers yet.
• 39:38
  I feel like that can bring issues to pricing because.
• 39:41
  They probably wanna acquire clients, but at the same time, they're doing
• 39:44
  a disservice to themselves because they don't know what their costs are.
• 39:47
  They might not be as profitable as they could have been, at least in our industry.
• 39:51
  Now, there's a lot more mentors or social media groups that cover
• 39:54
  these kind of things so that people don't make the same mistakes that
• 39:57
  I did when I was starting out.
• 39:58
  I wish I had that growing up.
• 39:59
  But now there's a lot of influencers and not so much influencers, but like
• 40:03
  coaching those teachable portals that you can kind of learn certain aspects of
• 40:07
  the business, whereas none of that was.
• 40:10
  Existing during my time I had to learn the hard way.
• 40:12
  You know, I think it's evolving where people are learning a little bit more
• 40:15
  or, or should be learning more about what actually takes, aside from the
• 40:19
  technology and the expenses and what it even takes on your personal life.
• 40:22
  Because it is like a 24 7 industry.
• 40:25
  You know, when I was young I could hang with the best of them and just, you know,
• 40:28
  be out there and keep growing my business.
• 40:30
  But once you start having family and things get a little more complicated,
• 40:33
  kind of have to like really.
• 40:34
  Know when to work and when to pass on to a teammate or if you have employees,
• 40:39
  you know, pass on what you've learned and and also be able to grow that way.
• 40:43
  So that's really one of the things that I see that's happening right now.
• 40:46
  What's in the future for Ron and sedans and where are you going?
• 40:50
  Are we expanding any new services, new things you wanna share?
• 40:54
  Something going on with the business?
• 40:56
  Our future is really like doing trips worldwide.
• 40:59
  We've been growing this out, you know, where we facilitate
• 41:02
  trips in different cities.
• 41:03
  That has been like our next venture.
• 41:05
  We, we have a lot of great partners that we work with.
• 41:07
  We obviously can't have cars in every major city.
• 41:10
  You know, this is like a very mom and pop industry.
• 41:12
  We do meet a lot of 'em.
• 41:13
  Whether it was when I traveled to different cities or through
• 41:15
  conventions, I was able to meet a lot of operators like myself.
• 41:19
  We all have like the same software, same vehicles.
• 41:21
  We are able to like trade off work in different cities, right?
• 41:24
  As long as they have the same principles that we do and they
• 41:26
  provide the same level of service.
• 41:28
  We're able to replicate it in different cities, but we started doing other
• 41:32
  services such as meet and greet service, where the clients will be met by, uh,
• 41:36
  a representative by the gate or outside of customs to bring 'em to the cars.
• 41:40
  This helps a lot with traveling with minors or senior citizens, or someone
• 41:43
  who's not familiar with the airports.
• 41:45
  We also added a touch of security services where we partner with law enforcement or
• 41:49
  people who used to be in law enforcement and now are either moonlighting or they're
• 41:52
  making security, uh, their careers.
• 41:54
  And we partner with certain firms.
• 41:56
  And for as individuals, we have a client who wants that extra level of service for.
• 42:00
  Security purposes.
• 42:01
  We can facilitate those kind of things now.
• 42:03
  Well, Ron, we've reached that part of the episode where I get the
• 42:06
  asks, any shout outs, promotions, or anything else you'd like to share
• 42:09
  that we haven't covered thus far?
• 42:11
  You mentioned before like this is a family business.
• 42:13
  Right, and I've had my mom to think, obviously to help me get started.
• 42:16
  My sister's heavily involved.
• 42:18
  She's like even a chauffeur, my stepfather, also a chauffeur, and my
• 42:22
  wife who came later on in the business.
• 42:24
  But she helps me a lot with internal operations and calls.
• 42:27
  I had a lot of family coming in.
• 42:28
  I have my best friend who I grew up with back in Queens,
• 42:32
  like as a kid who's involved.
• 42:33
  He was our mechanic, but now he works remotely from a different
• 42:36
  city and he handles our dispatch.
• 42:38
  They're really great people that I've, I've surrounded myself with and they've
• 42:41
  been able to support me even through like the tough times and things like that.
• 42:45
  And they still stuck.
• 42:45
  Like my sister has been with the company for 15 years, you know, so,
• 42:49
  Been great with putting up with all of our growing pains, and I'm just happy
• 42:53
  that I'm able to help them provide for their families as well as all of the
• 42:56
  other team members that we have that have come through and excelled with our
• 42:59
  clients and have learned in this company.
• 43:01
  And I don't think it would've been possible had it not been started with
• 43:05
  the simple loan that my mom gave me.
• 43:06
  And yeah, definitely shout out to them.
• 43:08
  And then the rest of my team who helps me with everything from the chauffeurs.
• 43:12
  Detailing reservation teams and even our affiliates who work, you
• 43:16
  know, help us spread the word in different cities about our services.
• 43:19
  And obviously last but not least, but our clients, they've been very loyal.
• 43:23
  Even the new ones that we acquire, they always wanna test us out, and then they'd
• 43:27
  stick with us because they're very happy with the level of service that we provide.
• 43:29
  It's been a, an interesting experience.
• 43:31
  Like I never would've thought I, I would've had a business
• 43:34
  like this, like growing up.
• 43:35
  Like it's not like, you know, I was like a kid and dreaming I wanted
• 43:37
  to be in this industry, right?
• 43:39
  It just kind of fell into my lap and.
• 43:41
  At a circumstance and I was able to make it into something else.
• 43:44
  I mean, I just hope that can keep it growing for the next generation.
• 43:47
  Maybe my son would take over it or, or something like that and we'll see.
• 43:51
  I'm just glad that I was able to have family backing up
• 43:53
  throughout the whole ride.
• 43:54
  Ron wanted to make sure each chauffeur would treat sedans clients the way he
• 43:59
  would treat them, providing that next level personal touch to every ride.
• 44:03
  While sedans operate out of New York City, their fleet reaches
• 44:07
  beyond the tri-state area.
• 44:09
  They have secured trips for their client in all major cities such
• 44:13
  as Los Angeles, Boston, London, Paris, Stockholm and Beyond.
• 44:18
  Sedans focuses on bespoke chauffeur, transportation for celebrities,
• 44:22
  dignitaries, sea C-level executives and large event logistics, coordination.
• 44:26
  Their select fleet of sedans and SS U v limos set them apart.
• 44:31
  Luxury vehicles available.
• 44:32
  Sedans vehicles are garage kept, fully licensed, insured and warrantied sedans.
• 44:37
  Chauffeurs are held to the highest standard.
• 44:39
  Their chauffeurs are screened, insured, background checked, and the back
• 44:43
  office staff will coordinate travel to your specific demands and needs.
• 44:47
  Sedans also offers travel solutions through seamless booking software and
• 44:51
  a suite for large enterprises who book multiple vehicles for corporate employees.
• 44:55
  You can book your next Ride with sedans by using the Drive Anywhere app and enter
• 45:00
  operator code E nine, C 4 7 5, and your email that you created your account with.
• 45:07
  You can learn more about Ron and sedans by visiting his website www dot.
• 45:12
  sedans.com.
• 45:14
  That is SS E D A N z.com, or by following them on social media
• 45:22
  at Go Sedan, G O S E D A N Z, on Facebook and Twitter as well as at.
• 45:30
  S E D A Z on Instagram.
• 45:33
  Well, Ron, I can't thank you enough for sharing your evening with us
• 45:37
  here on Break Fix, and I gotta say, I really love your mantra.
• 45:41
  Be Like Water.
• 45:42
  It's very Bruce Lee, right?
• 45:43
  I think that's where I took it from.
• 45:44
  It.
• 45:46
  Yeah.
• 45:46
  But it's also sort of the long-term understanding of
• 45:50
  chauffeurs in general, right?
• 45:51
  To be seen and not heard, to be smooth and to be discreet.
• 45:55
  You guys are the unsung heroes of the autos sphere.
• 45:59
  You're out there battling traffic and the woes of the world for the benefit
• 46:04
  and the comfort of your clients.
• 46:05
  So I can't thank you enough for what you're doing and for
• 46:07
  sharing your story with us.
• 46:08
  Oh, that's, that's very nice.
• 46:10
  So for you to say, I appreciate that.
• 46:12
  You know, this is an industry where we have a lot of hard to please clients.
• 46:15
  Anytime we get like a, a nod or a pat on the back or something, it's like, wow.
• 46:18
  You know?
• 46:19
  So, yeah.
• 46:19
  I definitely appreciate that.
• 46:20
  Thank you.
• 46:26
  If you like what you've heard and want to learn more about G T M, be sure to
• 46:29
  check us out on www.gt motorsports.org.
• 46:33
  You can also find us on Instagram at Grand Tour Motorsports.
• 46:36
  Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, you can call
• 46:40
  or text us at (202) 630-1770 or send us an email at Crew chief@gtmotorsports.org.
• 46:48
  We'd love to hear from you.
• 46:50
  Hey everybody, crew Chief Eric here.
• 46:53
  We really hope you enjoyed this episode of Break Fix, and we wanted
• 46:56
  to remind you that G T M remains a no annual fees organization, and our goal
• 47:02
  is to continue to bring you quality episodes like this one at no charge.
• 47:06
  As a loyal listener, please consider subscribing to our Patreon for
• 47:10
  bonus and behind the scenes content, extra goodies and G T M swag.
• 47:15
  For as little as $2 and 50 cents a month, you can keep our developers,
• 47:19
  writers, editors, casters, and other volunteers fed on their strict diet of
• 47:23
  fig Newton's, gummy bears, and monster.
• 47:26
  Consider signing up for Patreon today at www.patreon.com/gt motorsports.
• 47:34
  And remember, without fans, supporters, and members like you,
• 47:38
  none of this would be possible.