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The National Limousine Association (NLA) will be holding a No Operator Left Behind (NOLB) Virtual Summit on May 12 starting at noon ET on the NLA’s Facebook page. The event will be hosted by NLA President Robert Alexander of RMA Worldwide and Bill Faeth of Limo University, and will include several guest speakers who will cover a variety of topics to be announced. NOLB is an added-value benefit for NLA members who are smaller operators (19 vehicles or fewer) to offer support and education so that they can thrive.
U.S. Travel Association President & CEO Roger Dow
Initially, May 12 was designated by the NLA as No Operator Left Behind Day, and plans were in place to hold an in-person event featuring education from guest speakers. With COVID-19 putting the world on lockdown, the event was shifted to a Virtual Summit, which Faeth says will offer four hours of content.
The summit will offer a number of guest speakers, including U.S. Travel Association President & CEO Roger Dow and Global DMC Partners President & CEO Catherine Chaulet, both of whom were announced in a recent Facebook Live session. NLA Executive Director Kyle Hammerschmidt has said that they are anticipating guests from vertical markets—such as hotels, DMCs, wedding and retail specialists, as well as other travel industry experts—to take part in the online event.
Global DMC Partners President & CEO Catherine Chaulet
The NLA describes No Operator Left Behind (NOLB) as a program built by Limo University Founder Bill Faeth and past NLA President Gary Buffo in conjunction with the NLA specifically aimed at smaller operators. It is part of a multi-pronged initiative that aims to arm those operators with the education and support they need to thrive, while connecting them with larger NLA member operators who have the experience to offer guidance.
“In the absence of the ability to gather in person, the No Operator Left Behind Virtual Summit is what we envision as the next best thing,” says Alexander. “We all need to gather information, learn, and share ideas now more than ever as we determine what our next steps are going to be and how our world has been forever changed. We are assembling a fantastic panel of experts from all over the travel industry and with Bill Faeth producing, we know it’s going to be an event you won’t want to miss.”
The event is being sponsored by Grech Motors, Chosen Payments, Jaco Limousine, Limo & Bus Compliance, and Limo Anywhere.
Update (5.8.20): Additional speakers have been added to the lineup. They include CEO Jay Karen of National Golf Course Owners Association, Senior Marketing Planner Angela Layton of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, Dr. Lucy McBride of Foxhall Internists, CEO & Founder Sara McCall of Stunning and Brilliant Events, and Stuart Ross of Red Light Management.
Click here for information on how to join the event. The NLA is also continuously updating its coronavirus resource page, available here.
[05.05.20]
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Carolina Limousine & Coach, based in Myrtle Beach, S.C., has announced that they are the winners of a 2020 Gold Hermes Creative Award for their "Imagine a Brighter Future" social media video campaign, a response to COVID-19.
Carolina Limousine & Coach Special Projects Coordinator Andrew Wright (left) and President/Owner Joe Reinhardt with their Hermes Award
The Hermes Creative Awards, one of the oldest and largest creative competitions in the world, honors the “messengers and creators of the information revolution.” Armed with their imaginations and computers, Hermes winners bring their ideas to life through traditional and digital platforms. Winners range in size from individuals, to media conglomerates, and Fortune 500 companies. Each year, competition judges evaluate the creative industry's best publications, branding collateral, websites, and videos, along with advertising, marketing, and communication programs.
Created by Carolina Limousine & Coach Special Projects Coordinator Andrew Wright and collaborator Thomas Hart, the goal of the video was to give the company’s Myrtle Beach community something to look forward to.
“We want our community to maintain hope that the future will be brighter,” says Wright. “We told our community to imagine a brighter future by imagining riding in one of our vehicles someday soon.”
While Wright is aware that it will take some time before people are traveling and back to normal, he hoped that focusing on their service might provide a beacon of hope for better times down the road.
“Our service is about togetherness,” he says. “We just want our community to imagine being together with close friends and loved ones inside one of our vehicles. With any luck, by suggesting this togetherness to the community we can instill some hope into their hearts and minds that we will get through this, we will endure, and when it's over, we will thrive.”
Carolina Limousine & Coach President/Owner Joe Reinhardt says that the message in the video is part of the company’s vision during the industry downturn.
“During the COVID-19 crisis the goal of our marketing has been to be positive, letting our clients and community know that we will be here when they ready to travel again. Andrew Wright in our marketing department has led this mission and we are honored to win the prestigious Hermes Award for Andrew’s work,” says Reinhardt.
Visit carolinalimo.com for more information.
[05.04.20]
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Hundreds of listeners tuned in on April 30 to What Are Transportation Regulators Doing to Respond to COVID-19?, a webinar hosted by International Association of Transportation Regulators (IATR) President Matt Daus of Windels Marx and sponsored by the association. The webinar, which ran for more than three hours, invited industry association leaders and regulators from some of the largest cities around the world in a conversation about how everyone involved in transportation—operators and the riding public alike—can manage and emerge from the crisis in an effective manner.
IATR President Matt Daus
The all-star panel included Robert Alexander of the NLA, Peter Pantuso of the American Bus Association (ABA), and Tom Arrighi of The Transportation Alliance (TTA), as well as Jim Mullen of the FMCSA, Aloysee Heredia Jarmoszuk of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, Jarvis Murray of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, Rupal Bapat of the Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, David Do of the D.C. Department of For-Hire Vehicles, Sylvain Tousignan of the Bureau du Taxi de Montreal, and Jaspal Singh of the International Association of Public Transport.
NLA President Robert Alexander
Daus gave the regulators on the forefront of crafting and enforcing policies, especially new COVID-19 policies, an opportunity to explain what was happening in their cities. Ridership is down for every facet of transportation—from taxis and chauffeured to rideshares to even bike and scooter programs. Since the pandemic is being fought on a state-by-state basis, regulators have the unenviable position of balancing the safety of their traveling public with the needs of transportation providers that have been financially wounded during the crisis. Many cities have deferred license fees or extended license renewals until the summer, and have been working with transportation partners to repurpose how vehicles are used. For example, Murray and Do mentioned food delivery services for seniors and low income residents in Los Angeles and D.C., respectively, while Chicago is subsidizing rides for disabled passengers up to $30 one way.
ABA President Peter Pantuso
On the federal level, Mullen talked about the revised Hours of Service deferment, which is set to expire on May 15 and may be extended as needed. The FMCSA had also temporarily suspended the expiration of CDLs, primarily because DMVs in many states are closed, as well as updated its guidance on drug and alcohol testing. He notes that audits are still happened, although they are being done as carefully as possible and preferably off-site. Mullen also noted that, in conjunction with FEMA, a million of masks have been distributed to truck drivers across the country as they are deemed essential.
Pantuso offered a sobering look at the motorcoach industry, which is down more than 90 percent with its most profitable earning months in the spring and summer being impacted for 2020. ABA is asking Congress for $10 billion in grants and low-interest loans specific to the motorcoach industry, as he anticipates that the industry will be operating only at a 25 percent level by the end of the year.
Like Pantuso, Alexander is grateful for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that offered small businesses forgivable loans to cover salaries and partial expenses for rent and utilities for eight weeks. However, both are frustrated that the program doesn’t quite work for the needs of the industry. Both hope that the forgiveness period will be extended through the end of the year, that the eight-week period can be customized for each business to offer some liquidity when travel resumes and demand for drivers returns, and that the ratio of forgivable funds be revised to perhaps 50/50 over the current 75/25 split to accommodate asset-heavy businesses that are currently seeing no revenue. Alexander also noted that furloughed drivers may be earning more on unemployment with the additional $600 weekly funds for four months.
And with a slow rebound anticipated for the corporate travel and hospitality sectors, the association leadership offered their wish list for how they can get support from the local and federal government. Alexander and Arrighi asked that any new protocols for transportation providers be thoughtful for public safety and not spur of the moment—which often come at a high cost to companies. Both agreed that this might be a time for a common-sense approach to operations, such as eliminating the barriers to commerce within certain jurisdictions and reducing or waiving airport fees with the goal of encouraging the public to travel safely. All cities are reliant on travel and tourism, and everyone wants it to resume in a safe and healthy manner.
The full webinar is available here. For current updates, visit the IATR’s COVID-19 page at iatr.global/covid-19.
[05.04.20]