Standing By Your California Business Clients

WHY ITS TIME WE STAND BY OUR CLIENTS
IS CALIFORNIA AT IT WITS END?

The counties surrounding San Francisco were the very first in the country to enact the stay-at-home orders. That was March 16, what seems like a million years ago. At that time, the bay area set itself apart as being the model of coordinated action against the spread of Covid-19. Soon the entire state of California followed suit. We did everything we were told to do by our county supervisors and our Governor. This was all supposed to be temporary. In late June we finally began to feel the ease of tensions as slowly we were able to resume some semblance of normalcy.

This week, things spiraled downward as the Governor reinstated shut down orders amid mixed messages. My phones have rung off the hook by demoralized operators wanting to know what is going on! I mean that literally. Conflicting rules from county to county and city to city are leaving business owners outraged. For example, as reported by the Mercury News just yesterday, “Outdoor dining, for weeks allowed in all of the Bay Area, is now banned in Alameda County, while indoor dining can continue in San Mateo County. In Contra Costa County, which has allowed hair salons since mid-June, outdoor diners will have to wear a mask at all times except when they have a fork or spoon in their mouths. Santa Clara County, which last week had to temporarily stop outdoor dining, is now poised to open gyms and barbershops. And in San Francisco, the zoo is reopening next week while the Oakland Zoo less than 30 miles away stays closed, teetering on bankruptcy. For Union City Mayor Carol Dutra-Vernaci, the inconsistency in rules county to county is a reflection of the unequal response nationwide, where some states have refused to issue mask ordinances that have been commonplace in California for weeks. That poses a challenge for city officials in the Bay Area, where people regularly cross county lines to work, shop and visit friends and relatives. I can’t help feeling sometimes that our residents wonder what in the world we’re doing.”

What we can do is this. We can ban together. There are nearly 6,000 transportation operators in California and only a sliver of them are members of the GCLA (which is terrible). If we do not have the consensus of the entire group, we do not have the influence we need to be heard. All of you reading this should make sure you are a current member and if you are, you should be evangelizing our great organization that is trying to fight for you. We are supporting the efforts of YOUR key clients – the meeting planners, the hotels, the travel management industry, California’s tourism industry and more! If you chose to sit this one out, the GCLA just lost a critical voice in a locale that needs a VOTE. If you are not part of our solution, you are part of the problem and the big one facing us is the health of the industries that BUY transportation.

We must stand behind our clients. We must help them recover and resume operations so we in mobility can resume ours. We do that by supporting the GCLA who in turn backs organizations like Visit California!

The icing on the cake is that by the end of August, the GCLA will have developed a promotional video to distribute to all state organizations that book travel – members will get a free copy. And, we will have completed our all-new OPERATOR DIRECTORY (in digital and mobile formats) that we intend to push out to the world of travel, tourism and affiliates.

Stay Tuned, Stay Strong and Stay Safe,
Sara Eastwood-Richardson