The vintage limousine has low miles and is in excellent condition. LCT ARTICLE HERE
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We’ve never seen one matching all that criteria at LCT Magazine, until now. Specialty Vehicles Co. has a white, 60-in. 1987 Lincoln Town Car stretch limousine available on Limoforsale.com for $17,900 at 80,000 miles.
The stretch’s big claim to fame is it carried astronaut John Glenn and members of the Apollo crew during the Rose Bowl Parade on Jan. 1, 1988. While specially made for this event, the convertible limousine now could serve as a vintage flagship for an operator who wants to appeal to touring, wedding, or small town parade clients.
Owner and limousine vehicle dealer Robert Harrell, also founder and CEO of Specialty Vehicles Co., kept the stretch in storage for the last 17 years in Arizona, which accounts for its excellent condition and low miles. He has more than $8,000 in receipts proving the stretch’s previous client track record. The stretch comes with the following certifications: QVM, FMVSS, CA SB109/SB338 Fire Safe.
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We recall finding it rather striking when it debuted in New York, and a poll on this website revealed a majority of you felt similarly at the time. But how has it aged? Is it still a show-stealer today like it was back then?
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We were afraid spending a week with one might tarnish our opinion of the car — that it couldn’t live up to our first drive impressions. But after several hundred miles in a host of different conditions, it lived up to them and then some.
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One of the most important factors of handling travel to another country is the time difference. As you may remember from your geography classes, in addition to the world having 20 individual time zones, we also have the International Date Line (IDL) to consider. It’s very important when a traveling client crosses the IDL to make sure the arrival date is correct in the order to your affiliate.
It’s entirely possible for a client to leave the United States on one date, and land in another country on the next day or even the day before. Always confirm the exact date and time of arrival for international travel. Also, if you are working with a smaller operator in another country, you might want to check their local time before calling them at two o’clock in the morning when it’s the middle of your business day.
Currency Conversions
Make sure when you obtain a quote it’s expressed in USD (U.S. Dollars) to avoid any confusion. For instance, if you request a quote for a local airport transfer from an operator in Mexico City and the quote you receive is $2,606 (MXN), it might seem a little high for a 45-minute ride. However, that amount would equal about $140.
The conversion rate fluctuates. You can verify the exchange rate using one of many online exchange rate conversion sites. You should also check with your credit card company who would most likely tack on a foreign conversion fee to the transaction.
Customs and Cultures
While it’s quite common in the U.S. for operators to add a gratuity to the total, if you try that in Argentina, you would be breaking the law. Tipping is prohibited there. Do you want to add a 20% gratuity for your client in Japan? Wrong again! While not illegal, there is no tipping in Japan.
It’s best you research this matter before trying to book service in another country. You could anger your savvy client if you try to add a tip to his travel in Japan when he knows it’s not customary. While you could ask the affiliate in the other country for guidance, unless you actually know them, they could rip you off simply because of your lack of knowledge.
Insurance Matters
We all know having $1.5 million in liability coverage is almost a nationwide standard here in the U.S. However, it may not be so in another country, and your affiliate may not even carry insurance absent any requirements. Don’t assume your client is covered. Ask!
If you have doubts, contact your own insurance agent to ask what type of protection your policy would offer for the traveling client. You may have to purchase a separate policy for this trip, and the cost of it could make you rethink your decision to accept the job.
Farm The Farm
While it’s normally considered a taboo situation to have a job farmed through multiple affiliates, international orders may be the exception to the rule. You might want to consider farming the order to a partner who truly handles worldwide transportation and has expertise in this area.
Although many companies include the word “worldwide” in their name, they don’t truly have the experience necessary to handle worldwide travel. If worldwide travel isn’t part of their weekly routine, consider using a company which maintains offices in multiple countries.
Smooth Operations provides a broad range of information focused on new ideas and approaches in management, human resources, customer service, marketing, networking and technology. Have something to share or would like covered? You can reach LCT contributing editor and California operator Jim Luff at Jim@LCTmag.com.
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Cunningham started Vehicle Tracking Solutions in 2002 with his wife after years of working in the telecommunications industry.
“We both loved wireless technology, and saw this emerging market for using GPS to monitor assets,” he says. The couple began to build the infrastructure for the company and reached out to different transportation segments that might be interested. They found quick supporters in the limousine industry.
In the limousine industry, operators tend to use the software to improve upon best practices when serving their clients.
“People connect vehicle tracking with stopping an employee from doing something wrong,” CEO and founder John Cunningham says. “But in chauffeured transportation, it’s very different. I learned early on that these operators do great training and trust their employees.”
FASTFACTS: Vehicle Tracking Solutions
Location: Commack, N.Y.
Service: fleet management software
Owner: John M. Cunningham Jr.
Founded: 2002
Employees: 53
Website: VehicleTracking.com
Contact: (631) 586-7400
Providing A Modern, Mobile Experience
Vehicle Tracking Solutions, which counts Empire CLS and Dav El/BostonCoach among its clients, has developed Silent Passenger, a user-friendly robust fleet management program, powered by Google Mapping. Once onboard with the program, operators gain access to a dashboard where they see a GPS map of all vehicles integrated with real-time traffic and information on vehicle movements. Silent Passenger features proprietary split-screen mapping which allows a dispatcher to view multiple sedans at the same time, allowing for more efficient dispatching.
“Dispatchers can look at the screen and see if there’s a traffic jam,” Cunningham says. “If a car might not make a ride or be late, they can immediately inform their client or call an affiliate. What we do is help make sure operators can raise the level of service they’re providing to their client.”
An ETA feature within Silent Passenger allows operators to view the four closest vehicles to a pick-up location, as well as provide an estimated time of arrival (including real-time traffic information) to a client. FlyteTyme, a VTS client, has gone one step further by developing an app which allows clients to view their cars’ real-time locations by using the GPS data from Silent Passenger. This data enables operators to provide their clients with a mobile, modern experience — something no longer considered a luxury in this industry.
Silent Passenger allows operators to monitor driver behavior and ensure client safety. An operator can see if a vehicle, for example, is braking too hard, taking corners too closely, or accelerating too fast.
Vehicle Tracking Solutions also has helped operators manage large corporate accounts. “We can prove how long the client was at the wait stop, or how long they were at the play, or that 10-minute stop on the way home from the airport. So many times the client thinks it was just a short time, when actually it was two hours or more, so we help clear that up.”
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By listening to clients and examining the real-life challenges experienced by operators, VTS can improve the suite of features offered. Cunningham has two new features he’s promoting:
Integration with major fuel card companies: By partnering with fuel card providers that operators use, Vehicle Tracking Solutions correlates the amount of fuel put into each vehicle with the miles driven to get accurate fuel cost assessments, while using GPS to monitor route choices and reduce idle times.
Silent Passenger Connect ties back-office reservation management systems to the GPS in the vehicle, and uses an open API for such tasks as sending an SMS text from the chauffeur to the client once the vehicle arrives within a designated radius. “You can also text clients’ current vehicle map locations and they can watch it arrive,” Cunningham says.
In Silent Passenger, operators can input dates for vehicle specifics such as registration renewals, insurance expirations, and safety inspection deadlines. They also can set any maintenance indicators such as oil changes, tire changes, tune-ups, etc., and have them set by mileage indicators.
“It’s amazing how frequently information is transmitted now,” says Cunningham of the competitive tech times. “It used to be that four-minute intervals were sufficient, but now operators get live updates as often as every five seconds using our data feed.”
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