Virginia Limousine Association hosted an over-the-top Holiday event that was met with excitement, great food and the time to network with fellow colleagues during this festive event.
Full story coverage provide by our friends at Chauffeur Driven. For details click HERE
Claude Cristea, owner of Williamsburg Chauffeur Service, LLC continues to expand his fleet while maintaining a high level of customer service.
His latest purchase is an Executive Coach Mini-coach equipped to handle the most discreet clients. For more information on his service, visit www.williamsburgchauffeur.com
You really do not want to miss another opportunity of not being a member for this forwarding thinking association. For full meeting details provided by Chauffeur Driven, click HERE
With the honor of our 2017 LCT-NLA Association of Excellence award, we were provided with a $1000.00 check to donate to the charity of our choice.
At our June 15, 2017 general membership meeting, we made that presentation to the organization "The Doorways Between Healing and Home". We recently received a letter of their gratitude that can be read HERE
Virginia Limousine Association Treasurer Randy Allen made an acquisition to expand his current successful operation of James Limousine. Full story, as reported by LCT Magazine, can be read HERE
Are you ready to take advantage of some serious business purchase savings?
PALM AMAC has worked with a national purchasing organization to create a VLA "member only" business opportunity to reduce their purchase expenses. For full details, click HERE
Industry leader, Paul Walsh, owner and founder of Superior Executive Transportation (SET), was recently honored as “Transportation Company of Choice.
At a recent awards banquet of Coastal Virginia and COVA Biz Magazines, Walsh was recognized with this title as selected by the readers of these publications. Walsh, who also serves as the President of the nationally acclaimed Virginia Limousine Association (VLA), shared; “It is always an honor to have my company recognized for this distinguished award, but I also want to thank the Virginia Limousine Association and National Limousine Association (NLA).” The VLA was awarded the 2017 LCT-NLA Association of Excellence designation during a trade conference held in March of this year in Las Vegas. “Their vision, leadership, education and passion to serve their members and consumers and their greatest concern for safety, they have afforded me many opportunities to properly grow my company” Walsh further stated.
For more details on the services SET provides, visit their website at: www.getsetgo.us
Co-owner David Glazier of Fleet Transportation, LLC based in Alexandria, VA and member of the Virginia Limousine Association, shares his professional input as it relates to motor coach operations. For full story as provided by LCT Magazine, click HERE
June 23, 2017
Network Company Not Paying You on Time? Or Not at All?
Upon completing my keynote which was filled with NLA updates and my professional opinion on how to deal with disruption in your own business, I was asked a very tough, yet personal question from a past NLA member. Please note that I was able to get him to renew while I was there!
His question was about small operators not being paid on time, or at all, from network companies. Being on the spot and not ready for the question, yet representing your NLA, I had to answer it from the heart, and I will do the same here.
First, let me make it clear that today less than 1% of my company's revenues are generated from network companies because we concentrate on building business locally with local accounts. However, we believe it's extremely important to assist at any time with in-bound network business. Without all of us working together to build this industry, we would not have an industry.
So, what is a network company? To me, it's anyone who sends you business - whether it's one trip or a thousand trips. We are all in the network business and everyone should be establishing core, like companies to affiliate with, then sell that to your current clients that you can provide their transportation in any and every location they travel to. There's a lot that goes into setting up this segment of business and we would be happy to explore creating an educational block around this at future shows. With all of this said, we all have war stories when it comes to doing business with operators in this industry. Over the years, I've changed my attitude and rather than focus on what I cannot control, I focus on what I can control.
Now back to the question - I would say that the vast majority of companies in our industry are great companies that pay their bills quickly - if not at time of costing the trip via credit card or within a couple weeks. So does the NLA become an enforcement arm for operators that cannot collect a payment? The answer is simple: we cannot. We're a trade association that educates, advocates, fights regulatory issues, and protects the industry so that our members can be successful.
Our industry has survived many recessions and past disruptions and we will survive our current disruption. It's because we always stand together during rough times. But we all need to take responsibility for running our own businesses, the decisions we make - good and bad, and know we have control over our decisions to make us successful. Believe me when I say that these words come from my own experiences, through my own failures. Remember all failures bring success if you choose be successful. Let's all run successful businesses and the industry will grow and prosper into the future and let's all start with making logical business decisions today. If you're not getting paid, why take the trip to begin with?
Lastly, every association and every industry has companies that may not serve the industry like you, and they may be the larger operators. Let's focus on the great operators and let's not create our own disruption in our own industry. Simply, let's just support and speak highly about one another while building each of our companies.
Hope this answers the question, from my eyes anyway...
National Limousine Association
Virginia Limousine Association Legislative Committee representatives Glenn Stafford and Paul Walsh attended a recently conducted stakeholder meeting with the VA Department of Motor Vehicles.
The results of this initial meeting are posted under the "For Members/Resources" section. We strongly encourage you to review the input of all attendees as YOUR input is desired for future meetings.
The below comments have been provided by the department head of the VA DMV:
"Stakeholders,
Enclosed is the documentation from our Passenger Carrier study meeting of May 24th.
Our next stakeholder meeting is Wednesday, June 28th at the DMV headquarters building. We are scheduled to meet all day with discussion on “Public Safety” in the morning (9:00 – noon) and “Streamlining Authority Types” (1:00 – 4:00) in the afternoon. You or your representative may attend one or both sessions. Just let me know who will be attending so I can inform the security desk.
If you have any questions feel free to contact me."
Janet Smoot
Virginia DMV | Governmental Affairs | (804) 367-2479
Janet.smoot@dmv-virginia.gov l www.dmvNOIW.com
info@vla-limo.org