An Act of Kindness that Went All the Way - Thanks Tim Rose!
The people in this industry are remarkable. Truly. Those of us that have been around awhile know that “something special” I’m talking about that keeps us hooked.
Last month the Greater California Livery Association hosted a live conference in the most Covid impacted state in the country. We did it to raise the morale of our members. We also needed the money as we operate on a razor-thin budget while keeping membership dues at $75 per year for operators and $300 per year for vendors.
Pulling this event off was not easy. The association had many goals to achieve. We aimed for 200 total attendees, which was the absolute most the facility would allow. On the financial side, our goal was to raise $12,500 to put towards our annual budget. With just a week to go, I posted on my personal Facebook page a plea for help. Our registration was at 168 and we needed 30 more people to come or we’d have a short fall of several thousand dollars.
Within a few minutes, I received a response to my post from Tim Rose, the owner of Dolphin Transportation, headquartered in Naples, Florida. He paid for nearly all the remaining event seats with a pledge of $2,500!
Okay, so let this sink in. Tim operates a transportation company which is over 2,200 miles away and a 39.45-hour car ride from our event location. Check out the map for a better perspective.
So WHY is a Florida-based company owner helping the California transportation association? Just because. This is what you call a random-act-of-kindness and this is the stuff you don’t find in most industries.
Upon hearing from Tim, he simply stated that he has many friends in California and felt the need to help them. Having spent a decade or more as the president of the LANJ – Limousine Association of New Jersey, Tim also knows how critical fundraising is to the survival of state associations.
Tim is also feeling really good these days! His company, Dolphin Transportation recently announced a merger with Key Transportation. 175 vehicles strong, the Dolphin brand is now the largest owned fleet in Southwest Florida with locations in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, the Palm Beaches, Boca Raton, Marco Island, Naples, Ft. Myers, Punta Gorda, Sarasota/Bradenton, and Tampa markets.
One for the History Books – The GCLA Live Spring Conference Is a Huge Success
It’s a wrap folks! The spring conference, held this past Tuesday at the Hyatt Regency in Huntington Beach, was the “it” place to be for every serious-minded transportation professional from around the state of California and beyond and boy did it pack a punch!
The event was the first business convention to be held in California, which is a state that is still largely shut down and where the hospitality and travel industry has been the hardest hit in the U.S. I’d like to recognize the fearless leadership of Mo Garkani, owner of The COTS Group and the GCLA president. He was the primary influencer to making this event happy. Mark Stewart, principal of Ground Logistics International (GLi) and the Event Program Chair created the session content which included experts from the meetings and convention industry, the luxury and bespoke wedding industry, incentive travel and tourism world. On behalf of the GCLA, I’d like to recognize and express our sincere gratitude to those experts who generously shared their advice (and precious time) in the spirit of helping the GCLA membership:
o Lisa Meller, owner of Meller Performance Events Group
o Alisa Walsh, president of EventWorks, Inc.
o Lee Palmer Turner, president-elect of the Los Angeles GBTA/Travel Manager for MGM Studios
o Victoria Zindell, owner of Luxury Ventures Travel
o Katie Webb Brundige, owner of InterTwined Events
o John Ehlenfeldt, Director of MPI/Executive VP of Visit Huntington Beach
In addition, our experts including Gregg Cook, GCLA Lobbyist, Matt Daus, managing partner at Wendels-Marx/president of the International Transportation Regulators Association along with the Electric Vehicle leadership team at Cadillac including Mark Leddy, Brad Beauchamp and James Hunter joined us for the State of the Industry presentation, hosted by ‘yours truly.’
Our sponsors are the ONLY reason we were able to put on this event. We only charged GCLA members $50 to attend and we made this decision based on the hardship we know everyone is enduring due to the pandemic. The rest of the event costs were totally funded by donations, so we wish to congratulate those fine companies and encourage our members to BUY from those who support YOU!
Cadillac – Leading the way with luxury vehicles (All Electric is on the way!)
Chosen Payments – Experts in Credit Card Processing, Check Processing, Financial Services
Amerifuel – All-in-one fuel management programs and discount solutions
Century Business Solutions – Experts in Credit Card Processing and Payment Integrations including EBiz.
Motor City GMC – NEW GCLA PARTNER! 4th largest GM dealership in the country, based in Bakersfield – ships to your door!
Limos 4 – The GCLA Zurich/European Transportation Partner who keeps us connected to the world.
BMW – Luxury Executive/All New Fleet Incentive Program
Ecko Transportation – San Francisco-based Luxury Transportation Provider, GCLA board director
Motev – Los Angeles-based Luxury Transportation Provider, GCLA board director
KLS Worldwide – Los Angeles-based Luxury Transportation Provider, GCLA board director
Windels/Marx - #1 Transportation Law Firm in the U.S.
First Class Customs – the Premiere Coach Builder + Sprinter Upfitter
Beau Wine Tours – Northern California-based Luxury Transportation Provider, GCLA board director
Best-VIP – Orange County-based Luxury Transportation Provider
MCI – Motor Coach Industries sells new and used buses; manufactured in the U.S. with offices in CA.
Davey Coach – Shuttle buses; recently acquired Nations Bus and now officing in Los Angeles.
TIB Insurance Brokers – Insurance brokerage firm specializing in commercial transportation.
Norton Medical Industries – Drug testing for employees in transportation
D.W. Ferguson & Associates – Insurance for business covering the Western United States
The COTS Group – Los Angeles-based Luxury Transportation Provider, GCLA President
Avalon Transportation – Los Angeles-based Luxury Transportation Provider, GCLA board director
Ground Logistics International – Orange County-based Luxury Transportation Provider, GCLA director
The LMC Group -
In close, I would like to offer a very special shout out to Chris Weiss, principal of Chauffeured Driven Media for making the huge trek across the country to spend the day with the GCLA members and help bolster our event and fundraiser. I thank our board of directors who presented at the event and to those special people who played host to our attendees. In particular, Mo Garkani, Robert Gaskill, Tom Buck, Adrian Davis, Chris Hundley, Alex Darbahani, Maurice Brewster, Harry Dhillon, Jack Nissim, Mark Stewart, Steven Wolfson and Sarah McKee.
And last but certainly not least, thanks to Tammy Carlisle owner of Action Limousine of Atlanta for spearheading our Volunteer Team and the Fundraising Committee. Tammy is one of the most gracious people in this industry and is the epitome of “service with a smile.” She went beyond the call of duty for all of us. A special hug got out to all who came to the event. I trust you got your money’s worth since the take home value was over the top. We can’t wait for the September EXPO coming to the Portofino Hotel and Conference Center and are already hitting it hard on the planning front!
SHOUT OUT! THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!
The GCLA Spring Conference, themed WE MOVE CALIFORNIA- LIVE, is off to a fantastic start. This event is critical for operators. We have pulled together an All-Star line-up of experts in weddings, luxury travel, business travel, meetings & conventions and oh so importantly, California Tourism. No operator who takes advantage of our event will leave without fully understanding the ground transportation landscape as told to you by YOUR CUSTOMERS!
This event has an expense to it well beyond the $50 full day registration pass. There is a venue rental fee, speaker costs, audio/visual/staging and production expenses, travel costs, security, promotions, marketing design and development, plus the cost to register each guest. Thankfully, this was underwritten by our sponsors and partners who deserve a round of applause and a fist bump when you see them onsite! www.GCLA.show
DIAMOND
*Cadillac*
PLATINUM
*Chosen Payments * Amerifuel * Motor City Buick/GMC*
*Limos4*
GOLD
*BMW * First Class Customs * MOTIV * KLS Worldwide*
*Century Business Solutions* ECKO Worldwide*
SILVER
*BEST VIP Chauffeured * BEAU WINE TOURS*
BRONZE
*Western Partners * Mosaic Global
Visit: www.GCLA.show
Are We Actually Hosting a LIVE Conference? That Would Be a YES.
For real. The stage is set. The program has been developed. Cadillac has stepped up to be our Official Sponsor host. Let’s pray that California will continue to roll back restrictions so we are ALLOWED to gather. It appears that will be the case since events in California have resumed their bookings.
The GCLA Spring Conference is coming. It has a theme: We Move California – LIVE! The sessions will focus on regaining lost business in all areas of transportation from luxury to business travel to retail, shuttles and charter and we’ll bring you the people with the intel to present you the facts.
Here’s the skinny:
The GCLA Spring Conference will be hosted at the Orange County Hyatt Regency, Huntington Beach on Tuesday, March 30th, 2020. Here is a video that pretty much says it all with respect to the location:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijayct82WmE
This event is CAPPED at 200 people so we will have to prioritize attendance the only way we know how, on a first-come, first served basis. We do have a registration form created for you so sign up now: https://www.gcla.org/we-move-california-live.
We wish to thank our official sponsor, Cadillac. For without their support, we would not have the means to make this live event happen, thus we would continue to be cut off from seeing you in person – a very depressing thought.
Looking ahead, we are also launching the GCLA Expo which is a larger version of our spring conference to include an exhibit area for suppliers as well as an expanded 2-day conference complete with all the networking trappings you’ve come to expect at industry shows. For all of this we are creating a brand-new event website to be up and running in the next week. In the meantime, please make note of it: www.gcla.show.
As you can see, the GCLA is growing in its optimism and there’s good reason. In the month of January, the GCLA renewed 70 percent of its 2020 membership PLUS we are welcoming 32 FIRST TIME MEMBERS. How is this possible when mobility is at a mandated halt and operators are in dire shape? It’s because our constituents know that we have to fight our way back to a robust economy and save our industry. We need each other more than ever. We need strong leadership and we need a plan. And, most of all, our people need to know someone has their back. Our job is just beginning for 2021 but we are pointed in the right direction and cannot wait to see your shining faces this spring.
Stay Strong. We are in this to win this!
And Now A Word from Our Airlines….
Just today, the CEO of Delta Air Line, Ed Bastian, gave his viewpoint on the return of flight. “In [my] 20 years dealing with crisis, business travel has always come back stronger than anticipated despite what critics say.” Delta’s president, Glen Hauenstein confirmed the worst is over and said the company believes the pandemic's impact on business travel would be behind them in two years or more. “With a slow and steady build in demand, we are restoring flying to meet our customers’ needs, while staying nimble with our capacity in light of COVID-19.”
Hauenstein concedes that, “While it may be two years or more until we see a normalized revenue environment, by restoring customer confidence in travel and building customer loyalty now, we are creating the foundation for sustainable future revenue growth.”
Let me repeat Mr. Hauenstein’ s key point here. We must RESTORE consumer confidence. But how? By working alongside the airline and hotel efforts. We must be singing from the same sheet of music and since we have a program that is earning praise from the White House to the School House, I urge you to do your research (www.SafeCleanRidecert.com). This is the only frontline training and testing program available to the transportation industry – including school, commuter, luxury, taxi, trucking, military/government, hospitality and corporate fleets. And, the GCLA recently endorsed it which is exciting news in and of itself.
Today I participated on a strategy panel with Scott Calhoun, P.E., PMP, USDOT Policy Advisor to the Secretary of Transportation, Dr. Jonathan Yoder, Lead of the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) team and COVID-19 Response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (joined by his team) and two of the SafeCleanRide advisory panelists, Dr. Amesh Adalja, Ph.D., Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, Dr. Dennis Harp, Ph.D., Chief Scientist and Vice President of Food Safety and Quality Assurance. They are all extremely enthusiastic about SCR and its mission to help mitigate risks associated with infectious and contagious disease through education.
The objective of our meeting was to review the best path forward in getting the SafeCleanRide program adopted by states and within all markets. The great news for transportation – that includes YOU – is that this program exists. I am personally involved. From the inception of SCR in April, I worked with the Advisory panel and the training/testing company’s teams along with dozens of other health groups and focus groups to bring this program to life and deliver it to you. We now must educate our employees, our affiliates, our customers, our communities, our airports and municipalities. Importantly, I encourage you to expose SCR to your insurers since training and certificated testing programs can help lower business liability expenses.
The airlines and the hotels are making the same efforts here. They too are working on certificated program, albeit they are much more complex and thus taking much longer. That just means transportation is ahead of the curve and we will be that much more prepared as travel continues to come back. Delta's CEO Ed Bastian stated that, “Roughly 90% of its primary corporate customers have business travelers who are traveling in small numbers, but are getting their own sense for what the new travel experiences is." The recovery has begun.
Stay Safe,
Sara Eastwood Richardson