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At the awards ceremony, NHTC Board Member Terri Wiltse explained that Grace was selected for this honor due to their focus on customer service, civic involvement, and business excellence as well as providing the first and positive impression of New Hampshire to tourists and visitors.
“Grace’s chauffeurs are able to recommend New Hampshire restaurants and activities to their customers, providing a warm welcome to the Granite State,” said Wiltse. “Grace supports the state and its local communities in many meaningful ways. NHSCOT, my organization, has benefited from Grace’s generosity since 1998, with over $150,000 in donated transportation costs to get judges, competitors, athletes, and entertainers to and from Loon Mountain Resort for the New Hampshire Highland Games and Festival. We are very grateful for their longtime support. Other programs and organizations that they support include the Manchester Monarchs, Make-A-Wish New Hampshire, Sponsor-A-Highway, New Hampshire Food Bank, Animal Rescue League of New Hampshire, The Music Hall, Big Brother Big Sister of New Hampshire, Semper Fi Fund, Seacoast Science Center, and many more.”
In addition to the 2019 Business Excellence Award, Grace has received a number of awards, such as Best Car Service 2008 to 2019 from the New Hampshire Business Review’s Best of Business Awards, The Union Leader’s Readers’ Choice Award in Wedding Limousine Category, and the US Small Business Association Family-Owned Business of the Year.
“I am very grateful to NHTC for this tremendous honor,” says Campbell. “Grace has been the chauffeured car service of choice for New Hampshire for nearly three decades, and we are thrilled to contribute positively to the thriving tourism industry in our own state. Recently we have expanded into the motorcoach sector, which will allow us to provide service for tours, events, weddings, and getaways to even larger groups of people visiting New Hampshire.”
Visit gracelimo.com for more information.
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"In motorcoaches, we're an all-MCI J4500 fleet and the chance to offer the J4500 experience in a smaller coach really resonated for us," said Chamblee, who took over the 30-year-old Gulf Coast Tours in 2016 from his father Ed. "We're seeing a need for group-size flexibility from schools and groups, and we think it could open new doors to business with the corporate and private charter market. Not every group needs a 56-seat coach when a really great 40- or 44-seat coach with all the amenities will do."
The new MCI J3500 is the North American motor coach leader's latest debut to complement its best-selling J4500 recently redesigned with increased space and passenger comfort. The J3500 member of MCI's new J-Series family of coaches features all the styling and comfort hallmarks of the J4500, with seating for up to 44 passengers, a powerful Cummins engine, shared J-coach components, and a turning radius of under 33 feet that makes it a natural for high-traffic situations that call for top maneuverability.
Chamblee, a former professional musician who knows a thing or two about traveling by bus, understands there is always an opportunity to win over a customer who's never considered coach travel as a viable, long-term option. He believes giving opened-minded customers an option like the J3500 as a substitute for minibuses or limousines opens new vistas,
“The reliability of the MCI brand—and the ability to maintain it with interchangeable parts that we stock for our fleet of 17 J4500 coaches—tells our customer that smaller doesn’t mean they have to settle for anything less than a big-coach experience," says Chamblee.
Gulf Coast Tours' first J3500 comes equipped with a top-of-the-line four-monitor entertainment system with four monitors, the 2017 EPA Cummins L9 w/ engine brake, three-point seatbelts, and the optional RGB interior lighting feature offering six pre-programmed colors (red, blue, green, cyan, magenta, and yellow) plus white for the best customer branding experience.
"I think it's important to give the customer a passenger experience that’s all their own," said Chamblee.
Gulf Coast Tours' chose the 40-seat configuration to give high school, college, and university athletes the best legroom in this new, smaller coach configuration. "Two hours after delivery, this coach has never stopped moving," Chamblee says.
Visit gctbus.com for more information.
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Windy City Limousine is one of the fastest-growing ground transportation providers in the country. As the first company in the industry to be named to INC 5000’s list of fastest-growing private companies five years in a row, Windy City has experienced tremendous growth due to its impressive fleet and excellent chauffeurs. These efforts have not gone unnoticed, as Windy City has been named Best Transportation Provider by Meetings + Events Magazine for the last seven years as well as Operator of the Year. CEO George Jacobs, President Kathy Kahne, and Executive Vice President Tracy Raimer make up Windy City’s experienced and dynamic leadership team.
Windy City Limousine is unquestionably a leader in ground transportation, not only in the Greater Chicago area, but also around the globe. Their senior management has made a number of deliberate decisions that keep them on top of their game, including the choice to empower their leadership through shared experiences for skill- and relationship-building and a voice in defining Windy City’s corporate culture.
“Chronically high business expenses in the transportation industry in terms of fleet, technology, and safety leave little left to invest in the very employees who keep these companies going and growing. Windy City has a longstanding commitment to reinvesting in their human resources, aiming to be an employer of choice and understanding that without a solid team in place, they cannot succeed. I commend their efforts, and I’m grateful for their partnership. They set the bar high, and they are a great example to follow,” says LMC CEO Kristen Carroll.
This past January, Windy City held a leadership retreat for its managers in partnership with The LMC Group. It was a two-day event that included a team-building cooking class and two days of seminars and workshops focused on finance and human resources. Topics covered during the human resources portion included How to be an Effective Manager; Coaching, Communicating, and Documenting; Sexual Harassment Training; and Behavioral Interview Training. The team took the first portion of the day to collectively create Windy City’s mission and values statements.
“It was an honor to be a part of the leadership retreat and to get to know this amazing group of managers,” says LMC Director of Human Resources Christina Davis. “Windy City is leading the pack with their dedication to their leadership team’s growth.”
Training and team building are often seen as luxuries or “someday” priorities, but they are essential to growing, thriving businesses. By investing in their people, Windy City Limousine and Bus is taking a long view that will pay off tremendously in the future.
Visit windycitylimos.com for more information.
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