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Luxury Coach’s new 2019 Prevost H3-45 motorcoaches
Concord, Ontario — To celebrate their 20 years in coach transportation, Luxury Coach took delivery of eight fully loaded 2019 Prevost H3-45 motorcoaches this past spring. The company has grown steadily into a company of 40 dedicated employees who accommodate and serve customers with every mode of transportation and staying busy year-round. This most recent acquisition brings the coach count to 31 in the all-Prevost fleet and includes one Prevost H3-41 VIP.
“Prevost was our first choice and is the only coach we have ever run,” says Luxury Coach Founding Partner Anthony Lauriola. “Our new 2019 H3-45s allow us to continue to serve our customers in what we truly believe is the finest coach on the market.”
The company has systematically grown and updated its coach fleet since 2003 and has acquired new model Prevost coaches since 2010.
“If it weren’t for Glen Gendron, our Prevost sales representative at the time, we would still be running a fleet of older coaches and known only as that average transportation company,” says Lauriola. “He was the realist who walked us through the process and helped us understand the value of buying new.”
Serge Gonthier, Prevost regional sales manager, Eastern Canada, has since taken over for Gendron in the Toronto region.
“Serge is well informed and his deals always feel like the right choice for us,” says Lauriola. “He goes out of his way as a close friend would to walk us through our questions and concerns.”
The new model coaches feature Prevost’s proprietary 500-HP Electric Fan Drive, which reduces mechanical drag and load on the engine and components. Technicians can now service the engine without disturbing the entire cooling system.
The state of the art Prevost AWARE is standard on the 2019 H3-45 and features Adaptive Cruise Control and Impact Alert signals to help drivers avoid collisions. Electronic Stability Program tracks vehicle movement, monitoring wheel speed, steering angle, lateral acceleration, and yaw to help avoid loss of control and prevent rollovers.
With this coach order, Luxury Coach also took the opportunity to upgrade the interiors with a combination of luxury leather and fabric for the seats, and to fully refresh its public image with all-new graphics and color scheme.
Visit luxury.to or prevostcar.com for more information.
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MLOA Executive Director Barbara Oliver
Henderson, Nev. — The Minority Limousine Operators of America (MLOA) welcome longtime advisory board member Barbara Oliver as its new executive director.
Her tenure officially began September 1, and she has accepted the role on a temporary one-year basis, with the option to extend her duties if she wishes to.
Oliver said that she happened to be on a conference call with MLOA President Maurice Brewster of Mosaic Global Transportation, who volunteered her for the executive director positon.
“It’s hard for me to say no to certain people—and Maurice is certainly one of them,” she said with a laugh. “We spent a month working out the details of making this happen, since I do have a day job and I wanted to guarantee that I can give the time required to make it a successful partnership.”
If Oliver’s name sounds familiar, it may be because of that day job as publisher of the award-winning Minority Business Entrepreneur (MBE) trade magazine, as well as her role as president of the minority- and woman-owned Enterprise Publishing.
Her time with MBE has, in fact, given her “a periphery view of the transportation industry” well before she first teamed up with the MLOA.
“MBE was born from the transportation area,” Oliver said, explaining that the previous owner was inspired to found the publication by reading about minority business opportunities in Department of Transportation work—but that “nobody was really talking to minority businesses to let them know about these opportunities.”
“The magazine was essentially born from what she was learning back in the early ’80s about what the government was doing to encourage more minority businesses to participate in the transportation world.”
Oliver also is an active supporter of the Western Regional Minority Supplier Development Council and serves on various committees for the Women’s Business Enterprise Council-West, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, and the MLOA. She has been a keynote speaker, moderator, and panelist, and is the recipient of several organization awards. The wife and mother of two is a native of Jamaica who earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
Along with an impressive background, Oliver also brings big plans to her new role at the MLOA.
“There are a few things that need to be done strategically, and that’s what we’ll be working on initially,” she said. “The MLOA meeting at the Chauffeur Driven Show is where we’ll lay out our plans for the next six to 10 months after that, which runs to the end of my initial term. I’ll be working hard to get the association to the next level.”
MLOA’s meeting at the 2018 Chauffeur Driven Show will be the morning of October 9.
Visit mlooa.org for more information.
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Chauffeur Driven was a sponsor for the annual GALA golf outing
Roswell, Ga. — When the Greater Atlanta Limousine Association (GALA) headed to the Country Club of Roswell August 28 for its annual charity golf tournament, more than 100 players from all across the country came along for a day of good company coming together for some friendly competition to benefit a great cause.
A total of 108 golfers comprised 27 teams and raised nearly $44,000 in the yearly fundraiser benefiting Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. It is one of the largest nonprofit children’s cancer and research centers in the world—and a favorite charity of GALA’s.
“We’ve donated more than $60,000 to Children’s Healthcare over the past few years, and they’ll be getting a nice surprise from us when we present them with the donation check at our next membership meeting,” said Golf Chair Fred Rich of CTN Global Chauffeured Transportation.
Rich said that GALA’s golf outing is now the biggest in the industry, and has attracted more than 40 sponsors accordingly. He cited Enterprise, Mercedes-Benz, Chosen Payments, Grech Motors, and Ford-Lincoln Limousine and Livery Vehicles as being among the event’s major sponsors.
In addition to doing some good, golfers had ample opportunities to win big in a various contests, as well as the auction held during the awards banquet that serves as the event’s capstone dinner. Items like airline tickets to anywhere in the U.S., hotel certificates, tickets to sporting events like Braves and Bulldogs games, and more helped stuff the charity coffers.
GALA President Jeff Greene of Greene Worldwide Transportation (left) and Treasurer/Golf Chair Fred Rich of CTN Global Chauffeured Transportation (right) present the winning team from RBM of Atlanta with their trophies
Contest winners included Hoss Oskouie of Atlantic Limousine & Transportation for Longest Drive, Mark Mayfield of RBM of Atlanta for Closest to the Pin, and Khari Dickson of Divine Chariots for Straightest Drive. A hole-in-one grand prize offered a trip to Scotland, which Rich said that went unclaimed.
“No one’s ever won the hole-in-one prize,” he said. “We have to ensure it every year because somebody’s going to win it one of these times!”
The RBM of Atlanta team ultimately came in first, with the Casey Corporate team placing second and the Chosen Payments team clinching third.
Rich said that, just as in previous years, participants raved about the golf tournament.
“First-timers said it was one of the best tournaments they’ve ever played in,” he said. “Everyone just had a ball. We had a great time and a great awards banquet—and it couldn’t have been for a better cause because, frankly, there is no better cause than the kids.”
More than 100 golfers and volunteers enjoyed an awards banquet after a day on the green
He added that Dave Winokur, the development officer at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, is a big supporter of the charity outing, and reminds golfers that their generosity is making a difference to the hundreds of young patients the center treats every year.
“Dave always speaks before the tournament, and he talks about how they treat more than 400 cancer patients a year,” Rich said. “That means that every day, they’re telling a family that their child has cancer. And it feels good to know that we’re helping them give some of those families good news.”
The next GALA meeting will be September 20, where representatives from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta will be given proceeds from the tournament.
Visit galalimo.org for more information.
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