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The agreement comes nearly two years after Presidential Worldwide President & CEO Shane Stickel first proposed their services to Gaylord representatives in Dallas. The contract between the companies includes all luxury ground transportation related to hotel guests, the convention center, airport transfers, shuttles, celebrity/VIP services, and local tours. Presidential also will provide a shuttle to and from a Denver’s RTD light rail service.
“We’re excited about the opportunity to be part of the first new Gaylord in 10 years,” says Stickel. “They’ve given us a large presence in their hotel and convention center, and even built us a transportation desk to operate from. We’ve hired 15 people to date and are looking to hire more once the hotel is fully operational.”
In addition to adding new staff, Stickel has made a significant investment in new metal to make sure that they can provide first-class service to the Gaylord’s guests. Presidential purchased several new Chevrolet Suburban SUVs for on-site use and Ford Transit vans for the light rail shuttle service. What’s more, the company has made the leap into the motorcoach side of the business with two Volvo 9700 buses.
With the Gaylord official grand opening of its 1501 rooms impending (a soft opening occurred in late December), and the first convention coming to town at the end of the month, Stickel is looking forward to the opportunities this partnership will provide.
“This is a new experience for us,” he says. “We’ve put a lot of time and expense into making this happen, and we’re enthusiastic to see what this turns into.”
Visit presidentialworldwide.com for more information.
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“We also look for opportunities to assist our members in developing new business relationships, in various ways, to compliment what they learn during their individual group meetings,” says Managing Director and Group Facilitator Arthur Messina.
Messina said that he has already planned networking opportunities to let members get acquainted with each other, as well as others within the industry. With this expansion, Driving Results has opened up to international companies, including operations in London, Switzerland, China, and Mexico.
Going Global Partners plans to meet three times a year, and currently has limited spaces available.
In addition to their new affiliate managers group, Driving Results has also recently formed the Big Wheels group for bus operators. With a focus on education, product knowledge, and hands-on learning directly from the manufacturers, Big Wheels is suited for owners, operations managers and fleet managers. Meetings are scheduled to take place at various manufacturers’ facilities around the U.S. and Canada.
Visit drivingresults.org for more information.
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“We surprised our staff with new comfortable office chairs after the new year. Our sales team had its best year ever in 2018, and we wanted to do something nice for them. After all, they’re sitting on them for 6-8 hours at a time, and the old chairs were hard and flat.”
Once the new chairs arrived, Carter decided to put the old furniture to use in a manner only fitting for an Indianapolis native. The company’s garage was transformed into a make-shift racetrack, while each two-person team was encouraged to customize their racing “vehicle.” Carter then created tournament brackets and hyped the event on the company’s private employee Facebook group. Once the race began, video of the derby was put on social media for all the company’s followers to witness (Check it out here: https://bit.ly/2AKapZQ). Despite two teams—including one consisting of Carter and his sister/co-owner Kristie—tying at the finish line, all the participants were winners: Each received a $50 gift card to a local steak restaurant.
Carter sees activities like this as important to the company. Not only does it give the staff time away from the daily grind and have a few laughs, it also gives him the chance to interact with them in more relaxed way.
“When our management changed two years ago, I made a real effort to improve our company culture. So, we try to do an event for our staff every month as a reward for their hard work. Operators should realize that you can’t have an amazing company without an amazing culture.”
Visit 317limousines.com for more information.
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