By Rob Smentek
Cover Art: Transportation Advisors Owner & CEO Tom Holden (left) with Regulatory Consultant Mark Rodriguez at the company’s headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. Photography by Steve Huff.
Since 2018, Transportation Advisors has been a go-to resource for bus and motorcoach operators within the United States. As a virtual Department of Transportation (DOT) safety and compliance consultant, the company’s cloud-based technology assists owners and general managers maintain everything from driver files to compliance review documents. But for Owner and CEO Tom Holden, Transportation Advisors is more than an invaluable regulatory resource, it’s fueled by passion.
“This industry has been my passion for a long time,” says Holden. “I knew that I wanted to be part of this business from my very first trip to an industry show in Vegas.”
Although Holden is known throughout the industry for his expertise in all things related to safety and compliance, he actually began as a part-time chauffeur for Charlotte, N.C.-based Rose Chauffeured Transportation (then Rose Limousine).
“I got started in the ground transportation passenger world in 2002. I was looking for a part-time job as a chauffeur on nights and weekends,” he says.
However, it quickly became apparent that Holden’s destiny wasn’t behind the wheel of a limousine or sedan.
“Industry Consultant Charles Tenney [of the Tenney Group] was working with Rose Founder H.A. Thompson at the time. Tenney was in Charlotte for a quarterly visit with the Thompsons and he wanted to speak to drivers—and I was one of them,” says Holden. “We spoke for some time, and he learned about my background. He basically said I was wasting time driving and should be in the office working. There was a little hesitation on my part, but the following Monday a cubical was opened, and that’s where it began.”
Holden quickly learned the ropes of the 24/7 industry and became all too familiar with the headaches that accompany it.
L to R: Bookkeeper Terri Jeffries, Safety Specialist II Madeline Jackson, Safety Specialist II Teri Bell, Owner & CEO Tom Holden, and Regulatory Consultant Mark Rodriguez “When I got involved, things were working smoothly but there wasn’t a second or third shift,” he says. “We would be on-call as an answering service, and as we continued to grow, the phones kept ringing. You couldn’t even get dinner. But, from that point on, we quickly built a second shift dispatch office and then a third shift—and we had 24-hour dispatch for the rest of the time I was there. I just knew this was an industry I wanted to be in, and I had a golden opportunity to grow the company.”
Soon, Holden established himself as a key part in Rose’s expansion and success. During his 16-year tenure, the company would grow from a million-dollar operation to $10 million. He also became recognized within the luxury ground transportation industry for his expertise, particularly in matters of bus safety and compliance.
“I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak on stage at industry shows or be involved in panels on both coasts. Back when I was introduced to speaking on panels, the only presenters were company owners. But I’m all about knowledge. People came and listened and continued to ask me questions. It was something very natural that went into place,” says Holden.
But by the end of 2018, Holden says that he wanted to go out and “do something for the many versus the one.” With 16 years in the industry, he developed a plan for the company that became Bus Advisors.
“I started out of my house with my daughter Brittney, and two-and-a-half months later, I had a lease on an office building,” says Holden.
“This industry has been my passion for a long time.” – Tom Holden, Owner & CEO of Transportation Advisors
Taking what he learned during his time at Rose, Holden established Bus Advisors as a one-stop shop for DOT services and compliance, ELD monitoring and reporting, safety rating and upgrades, pre-audit/investigation check-up, audit/investigation representation, and drug testing and random scheduling.
“Initially, at Rose, we never had a safety department until we had to hire a safety manager. From that point on, it became easier for me as a GM because I just had to direct the regulations. It was the safety manager’s job to make sure things were getting done and followed by the book. But I made it very clear to my dispatch department that there are a handful of DOT regulations that they invariably had to pay attention to. If, for instance, the rule states that a driver can only perform 10 hours of driving, do not allow 10 hours and one minute. We enforced regulations and held people accountable—and it worked. Every day, I’m in contact with people across the country where an owner is not holding staff accountable, and that’s where most problems come from. I hold my own clients accountable for what they’re doing wrong,” says Holden.
But while Holden admits there are other companies that provide similar services, none offer the innovation available through his proprietary MyDOTDocs software.
Terry Bell (right) with a Transportation Advisors customer “Through a developer, I built a software called MyDOTDocs, and that software has been growing since day one,” says Holden. “We’re in our third year of the software and it continues to grow. It currently houses all the driver qualification files—all the documents that are needed for federal inspection. And we’ve specialized it so if, say, you’re an owner in New York, and you have to comply with an Article 19-A of the state’s Vehicle and Traffic Law, we have a whole section in the software for 19-A. So, we’re capable of designing a program per company, per city, per state, per regulation. In some regions, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is very stringent, so we carve in areas for the PUC. Some are strict on TSA, so we can carve that into the program. We can build and create anything.”
Because Holden developed the software, he can make relevant and timely changes to it immediately as regulations are modified or updated.
“I’m not a traditional software product that has to wait six months for an update. MyDOTDocs is customizable very quickly. And on top of the safety and compliance virtual aspect of the software, we’re monitoring ELDs and camera systems for our clients. We are able to come in and take safety and compliance from the back burner and put it on the front burner. For instance, if I see a video of a chauffeur that’s completely distracted, or they’re falling asleep at the wheel, you’re getting a phone call from Tom Holden. My team—I have nine people who work for me—does all that work, and they email reports Monday through Friday about videos that owners must focus on and address with the driver. So, nonsense videos, like where a driver hits a pothole, don’t have to take up the owner or manager’s time. We do all the work. We send over reports on what should be addressed, and they can address it directly. Owners therefore have more time to spend on training the chauffeurs than before. The goal is quality—and they now have time to train and retrain. The chauffeurs will be better than ever because you have more time to spend with them,” he says.
Currently, the majority of Holden’s clients are companies in the motorcoach industry and the chauffeur driven world (i.e., luxury ground transportation operators that have motorcoaches).
Tom Holden at the company headquarters “A typical sedan and SUV company would not use our service because they are not bound by the federal and state regulations imposed on buses and coaches,” he says.
Another aspect of Transportation Advisors is their website, EZ-DRUGTEST.COM, which provides drug and alcohol testing to companies across all verticals around the country. Whether you’re a transportation provider or a restaurant, Holden can provide scheduled or random testing. The entrepreneur got the idea during one of the transportation industry’s darkest times.
“When COVID hit and I needed to find income,” confesses Holden. “We had to find active business, and the trucking world was active. So, I took Bus Advisors and legally changed the name to Transportation Advisors, and ended up getting business in the trucking world, which we still have. While I was rebranding, we had already established drug and alcohol procedures within Transportation Advisors, so I took the opportunity to brand a new LLC called EZ-DRUGTEST.COM that I can market to every single industry that exists for pre-employment drug testing or random drug/alcohol testing. If you’re a restaurant, for example, there’s no need to be confused by the name Transportation Advisors. It’s growing every year. We have a local collection service at our office so multiple companies that have national accounts with the major laboratories, like Abbott, Labcorp, Quest, can send their clients to our location.
Though Holden is Transportation Advisors’ founder and chief regulatory consultant, he stresses that his team is the backbone behind the company.
“My team is what makes the wheels go around here every single day. Without them, Transportation Advisors wouldn’t be here.” – Tom Holden
“My team is what makes the wheels go around here every single day. Without them, Transportation Advisors wouldn’t be here. We spend a lot of time and energy and money into software development, but this business still takes a human touch,” says Holden.
At its heart, Transportation Advisors is a family-run company. Holden’s son-in-law Mark Rodriguez is a regulatory consultant and manages the day-to-day operations. Rodriguez takes first seat during all Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) audits with Holden focused in on the investigation.
“Most of my clients are calling him for questions and answers,” says Holden. “They’ll call me for growth ideas and difficult questions. Also on staff is my son Nicholas Serrano Pena, who’s on the West Coast full time. He is a safety analyst III and working to become a regulatory consultant.” Holden points out that having Nicholas on the West Coast is advantageous to Transportation Advisors’ Charlotte-based office.
“In reality, my office is open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern Time because Nicholas is on the West Coast. We offer clients the ability to have access to our staff. For instance, if God forbid there’s a post-accident drug test required after hours, we have that service. You’re going to get a live employee to handle your situation. With Mark and Nicholas actively involved in the day to day, I am confident that these two young men will steer the ship into the future. Maybe I’ll spend a little more time camping and enjoying life with my wife,” says Holden.
The rest of the Transportation Advisors team includes Safety & Marketing Specialist Olga Pena (Holden’s wife), Safety Analyst I Aristotle Lalic, Safety Specialist II Madeline Jackson, Safety Specialist II Teri Bell, Safety & PEV Specialist John Braatz, Executive Assistant & Creative Thinker Sha Baking, and Bookkeeper Terri Jeffries.
“As I said, a human touch is important. We have live people who are watching the dashcam videos submitted by our clients. A computer system will never be able to pick up what a human does—especially if there’s an accident. I can review that video 20 times and be able to tell the owner exactly what happened. Our safety analysts are in place to cross the t’s and dot the i’s. My software is not built so you can upload documents to go in some generic file. It goes into a moderation queue, which my team is then responsible for viewing each document. Then we accept the document, and it goes in the driver’s file. If not, we reject the document and notify the owner of the company and tell them what’s wrong. We’re not just shuffling paper here. Every single document goes through an inspection process,” says Holden.
Holden says that his system receives raves not just from bus operators, but from government inspectors as well.
“I built this system so not only is it easy, but with 22 years of experience in this industry, this is what I would want if I were an operator. We get compliments; we even get federal inspectors who are struck by its capabilities. I think our personal involvement in the day-to-day safety and compliance for our clients sets us apart,” says Holden. [CD1124]