It happens sometimes - vehicle break downs. This last weekend we had a few breakdowns. There are a few AZ limo companies that we have a great relationship with and we help each other out during times like vehicle break downs.
Normally we are competitors - trying to earn the business from the same limo customers. But we pull together and help each other out in emergency situations and scramble to find chauffeurs and get a limo, party bus or sedan to a pick up address in time. So I like to say we are "friendly competitors".
Of course there are a few companies we don't work with at all because we don't like their business ethics (we recently had some vandalism to vehicles that we think could have been from a jealous competitor), we worry about the safety of their vehicles, or they don't pay their chauffeurs correctly as employees but instead as independent contractors.
The show must go on and we do not want to ruin the events for our clients. So we appreciate our AZ limo company partners that help pull together and help us keep the "show on the road".
Many airport companies also band together to win big jobs and help do pick ups of large groups of people for corporate events. We all help each other out in big ways and small.
What do you think? Did you know that limo companies worked together this way? 
We run a pretty busy Arizona Limo service - our main headquarters in located in Tempe, AZ - a few minutes away from Sky Harbor airport. Our chauffeurs are normally pretty good - we only use CDL licensed, that pass a pre-employment drug screening, go through classroom and ride-along training runs before they go out on their own with clients.
All our chauffeurs are employees - not independent contractors. In Arizona, employment law is not as tough as places like California, where we just opened another operation. So when our chauffeurs in Arizona screw up - a truly negligent action - like speeding in our vehicles - or crashing a vehicle into a median or wall - we pass on the cost to the chauffeur.
Arizona limo services and other companies that have fleet vehicles on the road are probably very used to the speeding ticket notices from the many cameras all over the metro Phoenix area. You open it up and see the date, time, speed of vehicle, and a nice picture of the chauffeur. We fine our chauffeurs $100 along with sending in the info on whom the driver is. The bottom line - these chauffeurs should NOT be speeding in our expensive vehicles! So we fine them if they are caught by the cameras - it is a pretty good deterrent - and we are the one that suffers the biggest consequence if their speeding causes an accident.
Also our chauffeurs, being CDL licensed, should do a pre-trip inspection of their vehicle before rolling out on a reservation. We provide them with the check-off sheet to go through. While inspecting this vehicle - don't you think they should notice that a vehicle's registration is overdue by 3 months! Recently, we had a chauffeur ticketed because she was driving a Hummer limo that had overdue registration. Overdue by 3 months! She ended up having to pay for the ticket because she was the driver and she should have noticed the registration was overdue.
It is so frustrating - we were never sent the notice by MVD on the registration of this Hummer limo - but we aren't in front of these vehicles every day like the chauffeurs. They are supposed to do a pre-trip inspection and notice issues like that! And we have two detail staff-people that are supposed to check for issues like damages, overdue registration, tire pressure, etc.
Do you agree with holding the employees of this Arizona limo service responsible for these issues? What would be other solutions for getting people to do their job? Any ideas?
Some companies in the limousine business try to categorize their chauffeurs as Independent Contractors instead of employees. There are lots of reasons for this - paperwork, government hoops, but the most important reason is cost. These limo companies spend about 20-30% less for wages because they are not paying employer related taxes (FICA, Medicare, Social Security & Workers Compensation).
By these companies keeping their payroll costs lower they can undercut the competition. But at what price to society? For example if the chauffeur is injured in an auto accident on the job and the employer doesn't have Workers Compensation - this injured workers gets no wages while off work from the accident. Not good for the worker, their family, their lenders or taxpayers if they go on government subsidies. When this worker tries to retire - where are his Social Security benefits?
It is not just the little limo companies that try and classify chauffeurs as Independent Contractors versus Employees. There is a pending case against the 9th largest limo company in the nation where the IRS just put down a ruling that this company was the Employer and these chauffeurs are entitled to be treated as Employees versus Independent Contractors. Huge win for chauffeurs/workers - just put down by the IRS.
What does all this matter to the average shopper for limo service? Pretty much the chauffeur is an employee of the company you are renting from unless the worker OWNS his own car and determines when he wants to work and when he doesn't - then he is an independent contractor.
The playing field should be level - avoiding paying compensation and other employee related costs affords the low ball operators the opportunity to undercut and remain in business - but at a price to society.
We are in a luxury chauffeured transportation business - rates charged should reflect that. In today's market - with many limo companies not operating legally and the sad state of the economy - all of us are having to play at the low ball pricing and undercutting nonsense just to make our limo, rent and telephone payments. Hopefully this ruling, and some improvement to the economy, will send our rates back to where they should be.
What do you think? Do you - as a consumer - care about how the company treats it's workers - or is price more important? Or is it a balance of both? Talk to me. . .
