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Owners Shawn and Faith GlasgowAsheville, N.C. — Peak Limousine’s owners Shawn and Faith Glasgow are pleased to announce that their Charlotte-founded operation has grown to include Peak Limo Asheville, which is now open for business.
The decision to expand services to Asheville, located roughly two hours west of Charlotte, makes official a transportation option that the Glasgows are already well accustomed to offering.
“For a couple years, we’ve been doing work from Charlotte to the Asheville area and back,” said President/CEO Shawn. “There is so much room to grow a corporate and leisure travel company there: Affiliates are always looking and asking for a good Asheville car or bus service, and we are happy to be filling that void.”
Presently, all of Peak’s reservation and dispatch operations will be conducted from its Charlotte office—“one number, one call, and that does it all”—with chauffeur staff and fleet vehicles comprising Peak’s presence in Asheville. The Glasgows do plan to establish a satellite office in the destination town, at which both Shawn and Faith expect to be dividing their time and eventually adding staff as demand dictates.
The comparatively smaller market of Asheville not only is free from the notoriously stringent regulations that Charlotte transportation companies must abide by, but also happens to be the number-one wedding destination in the country—and the Peak team has already eagerly courted that special-occasion niche with great success.
“We’ve made a lot of connections with wedding venues, planners, and coordinators, and are letting them know the quality of service they can expect from us,” Peak’s Vice President Faith said. “The fact that we’re budget-conscious when it comes to working with our brides, that we’re open 24 hours, and offer the level of service that we do is a breath of fresh air to them.”
It’s a significant change for an operation that has always focused on corporate work, too.
“We’ve been corporate since day one, so it is a new and welcome shifting of gears for the AVL market,” Faith said, adding that Asheville is also a hot spot for vacationing families and couples. “The duty of care is the same, the customer service is the same, and we have everything we need to make it successful. But we are excited that it gives us a chance to try something new by branching deeper into a retail market."
Neither owner anticipates much of a change in terms of personnel and fleet, though they do see the growth potential necessitating the eventual addition of minibuses, sedans, and SUVs to cater to the more varied tastes of their new locale.
And now that Peak Limo Asheville is officially up and running, the Glasgows are pleased to finally offer their affiliates the service they’ve been clamoring for.
“I’m excited that we’re able to provide that service we’re known for in Charlotte and have metal on the ground in Asheville,” Shawn said. “And I’m happy that we’re able to give that to our affiliates: They asked, we listened, and now we’re providing.”
Visit peaklimo.com for more information.
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CEO Liz Carisone
Boston — GroundLink, a global black-car service, has unveiled a new technology platform for managed business travel. Called Brio and available in the fall, the new tool allows travel managers to book single and multiple rides on behalf of others, and more.
"It was our goal to leverage the latest technology services along with our award-winning, hightouch customer service and deep understanding of the managed business travel space, to bring an intuitive, groundbreaking solution to our corporate travel partners," said Liz Carisone, CEO of GroundLink. "We believe that Brio is just that."
Marcou Transportation Group, the parent company of chauffeured transportation providers Dav El and BostonCoach,acquired GroundLink in January, giving the company access to vehicles that are well suited to the needs of the group market.
Brio handles both business and personal accounts for passengers, while giving travel managers full transparency into their company's ground transportation spend and expense management functionality. The tool is corporate travel policy compliant, and offers the ability to manage all passengers and rides simultaneously with a group feature.
In other news, at the Global Business Travel Association’s annual conference, GroundLink announced the introduction of Ride Now, an app-based service that allows customers to obtain a ride in 20 minutes or less. The service expands the company’s footprint in metro Boston and has also substantially reduced lead times needed to book a scheduled ride to and from surrounding New England suburban areas. For every Boston Ride Now ride completed from now through August 31, GroundLink will donate $5 to the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston.
Ride Now offers the same service as GroundLink’s scheduled service, which features professionally-trained drivers who are vetted and fully-insured and licensed. Additionally, all Ride Now vehicles are well-maintained black on black cars, which is not the case with many of the ridesharing companies. Prices for a ride to Boston Logan from downtown Boston start as low as $51 when booked using Ride Now.
“It is exciting to be announcing our increasingly popular Ride Now service here in Boston during the largest corporate travel convention in the country,” said Carisone. “We currently offer Ride Now in New York and Chicago, and just recently launched in Austin, Dallas, and Houston. Boston is the latest city to join our growing number of Ride Now markets, as we continue to rapidly expand this service as the perfect complement to our scheduled service. While business travelers still prefer to schedule many of their rides, such as trips to the airport, they also want to have access to last-minute rides for that impromptu meeting or a pick-up from the airport that they didn’t book in advance. Ride Now is the perfect solution for such instances. We are also extremely pleased be giving back to the local Boston community through our partnership with the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston.”
“We are proud to partner with GroundLink for this exciting opportunity to raise crucial funding for our programs and also raise awareness of the need for positive women mentors for Greater Boston’s girls. GroundLink is making an important investment in the health of our community,” said Deborah Re, president and CEO, Big Sister Association of Greater Boston.
Visit groundlink.com for more information.
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Newark, Del. — Driving Dynamics, a provider of advanced performance driver safety training for fleet-based organizations throughout North America, has announced an ownership change.
This news follows the retirement of company founders Bill Buff and Paull Hubbard. “It’s been a true honor to work with these gentlemen. They never deviated from their mission to deliver the highest quality training and to keep drivers safe. I’m privileged to be in a position to carry on the legacy they’ve set in motion,” said Art Liggio, Driving Dynamics’ president and CEO.
Art Liggio joined the company in 2008 with a plan to grow the business. As the managing owner, he has acquired full ownership of Driving Dynamics together with majority owner investment firm Intuitis, with offices in New York and Paris and Delancey Street Capital Partners, based in Conshohocken, Pa.
“Intuitis is very proud to back the management buy-out of Driving Dynamics. This transition of leadership will allow the company to continue servicing its traditional market and capture significant new growth opportunities. Driving Dynamics is perfectly in line with our investment strategy: a strong management team already in place, a company with a solid track record of historical cash flows and significant upside potential,” commented Nicolas Delcourt Intuitis founding partner.
Intuitis Partner John Perrachon added, “We were very impressed by Art’s leadership skills, deep knowledge of the safety market, and strategic vision. We now look forward to working hand in hand with management, further expanding Driving Dynamics, and executing its strategic plan with a special focus on the e-learning offering.”
The investment group points to the company’s domain expertise, strong position in the driver training space, reputation in the marketplace, passion and commitment of the leadership team for growing the business, and proven ability to execute as key reasons for their investment decision.
“We’ve done a lot of research on the driver training space and we were extremely impressed with the company, its leadership team and outstanding customer reputation. Driving Dynamics was a strong company previously and now with the recapitalization of the business, it’s in an even better position to go after growth in multiple ways,” said Bill Filip, founder and managing director at Delancey Street Partners and Delancey Street Capital Partners.
Among Driving Dynamics’ goals is remaining at the forefront of addressing the needs of fleet-based organizations to: respond to today’s driver safety challenges, provide comprehensive end-to-end safety performance solutions, and adapt to new vehicle technologies.
“We’re already in the midst of a transformative period, “said Liggio. “We’ve been steadfastly enhancing existing services and developing new instructionally sound training programs designed to keep drivers safe.”
Visit drivingdynamics.com for more information.
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