Limousine companies still suffering from bad economy
Huge reduction in business travel, increasing fuel costs and wide-spread lack of consumer confidence leads to these top stories I've received just this week in my in-box about limo companies failing or reducing their fleet and employees.
In the Phoenix market we are doubling suffering as we normally have a drop in business due to the seasonality of this market of about 30-40%. When it is 110 degrees in Phoenix people leave town - or sit in their swimming pools and try and stay cool.
The big problem in Phoenix is that we didn't get enough revenue to tuck away to sustain us through the summer. Many of our prospective clients get upset that our Prom rates are so high - we need to boost the prices to help us through the summer - "make hay while the sun shines" as the saying goes. But this Prom season we couldn't hold our prices up - only about 4 nights had the "normal" insane demand.
So we've cut costs - everywhere we can. . . and thinking outside the box for new ways to acquire business and new niches to fill. . . We've lowered our rental rates trying to "make it up in volume" - our hourly prics and our transfers are at lower rates than they have ever been at in the almost five years we've been in business.
Top headlines about limo companies failing:
Metro Cars a Detroit limo company after company allegedly defaulted on loans and interest totaling $45.3 million. Metro Cars holds a roughly $9 million a year parking shuttle contract more. . .
BostonCoach, the fourth largest limo company in the nation owned by mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments, has closed branches in San Francisco, Dallas and Atlanta and a spokesman said the company now has 877 employees, down from 1,200 in April last year.
Its bigger national rivals also have laid off workers. They include Carey International Inc of Washington D.C., with 1,350 cars, and Dav El Chauffeured Transportation Network in Chelsea, Massachusetts, with 1,036 cars. More. . .
I know that many businesses are suffering in this economy. Hopefully most of the good limo companies (like us I think?!) will make it through. . .
What do you think? Are you a business owner struggling too? Since small business employs about 50% of the private sector employees and accounts for 60-80% of the new jobs created in the last decade I personally see it as everybody's problem what is happening to small businesses (like limo companies). . .
