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You're listening to the ground transportation podcast with Ken Lucci of driving transactions and James Blaine of PAX training. Learn how you can build a thriving transportation business with real profits, repeat clients, and enterprise value. And now for your hosts, Ken and James.

James Blain 0:30

I am super excited today. We are joined by my business partner, probably one of my favorite people in the world, and also a luxury expert, Bruce Heinrich. How are you, Bruce?

Bruce Heinrich 0:39

Fantastic, man. I'm excited to be here.

Ken Lucci 0:42

What a treat. It's been a long time planning. So

James Blain 0:46

it has. So obviously I know you really well, um, but our viewers may or may not know you. Can you kind of start by telling us a little bit about your background, how you got into this and kind of how you got where you are?

Bruce Heinrich 0:59

man, I didn't know what I was made for, what I was wired for. And, and, uh, man, it's been a long journey getting here. Um, I went to school, graduated with a marketing degree, fell into modeling and acting and did that for, And, uh, and then was just very unfulfilled, you know, um, it's a very vapid and tough industry. Uh, and so I moved, I was based in Chicago. I moved to L. A. And by the grace of God, I ended up working at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. And the first day of orientation changed my life. Man, they showed me what it was to, to create an incredible service experience. And, uh, you know what I've come to realize is my whole life I was trying to make myself happy by pleasing me and doing, you know, things for me and all that. And man, I've had some great experiences and a lot of fun, but ultimately I was empty. And what I realized that first day when they taught me how to take care of other people and serve other people and make them happy. That's when I found my happiness. I mean, it's kind of, I don't know, crazy, but I love hospitality. I love the service industry. I love taking care of our guests. And, uh, so I worked at the Ritz Carlton, front of the house. I did a lot of different jobs up there. And a couple of things stuck with me. The, uh, general manager, you know, first of all, at orientation, they had everybody in the same room together. From, I was hired as a bellman. We had a valet in there. We had two housekeepers. We had the sales manager in there. We had the new executive chef. We were all considered equals in there. And then that very first day as well, we went for lunch in the very fine dining restaurant. We got to order off the menu. We drank out of the cobalt blue goblets. We got to experience what a guest would experience at the hotel. I'd never really, you know, been able to experience that before. And it was, I was like, wow, first of all, it was an amazing, you know, dinner. Secondly, that they would treat us so well and treat us on par with, you know, the executive chef and the, and the new, uh, executive sales manager. And then the general manager did a couple of things. He said one thing to me that has always stuck with me. He said, You are more important than I in your job. It is you who will determine whether or not the guests come back to the hotel. They will probably never meet me. They won't know my name. You will meet them. You will know their name. They will know your name. You will be the deciding factor on, on their perception of the hotel, on whether they choose to come back here. I'm like, wow, that just blew my mind, the, the empowerment that he gave me. And at that time, that was 28 years ago, I was making 6 an hour plus tips. I'm And I felt like I was responsible, personal responsible for that entire hotel. And so the empowerment they gave me through the Orientation and his message was amazing. The other thing he did was when we, he was giving us all the tour of the hotel, we're walking down the main hallway and there was a little, I didn't even see it. There's a little gum wrapper on the, on the ground there. He just reached down, picked it up, put it in his pocket, kept on walking. I thought, man, is it, don't they have a janitor to do that stuff? And I don't know if it was a setup or not, but the message was very clear is that you are responsible for this entire hotel. Don't wait for the janitor to do something. Don't, you know, this is your place of business. And if you see trash, pick it up. Don't call somebody. And along with that messaging was, hey, if the guest has an issue or a problem, you're the one to solve it. Don't say, hey, I have to go ask my manager or whatever. Anything like that. And it was just so empowering. And so, you know, to, man, that I was an important piece of this high end hotel. And that I could create experiences for my guests. It was awesome. Anyway, so that's how we got into the hospitality end of it. And, uh, and I was still kind of playing around with the, you know, with the acting and modeling out in L. A. And so I got some good gigs. I ended up, uh, quitting the hotel. And then about a year later, I ran out of money, again. And so I had to get another job. And, uh, a friend of mine who worked at the Ritz Carlton had, had, uh, got a job as the sales manager at CLS Transportation. That's it. And she goes, you should try and work here. You'd be a great chauffeur. And I'm like, okay, I'll try it. And I loved it, man. That was, I knew right away that that was a great job for me. I love driving. I love taking care of people. And it was a longer relationship. You really get to know somebody and take care of them as opposed to a quick hit at the hotel, you know, somebody coming in and out. And so, man, I love it. Being a chauffeur, I think is the greatest job in the world. And I still drive. I love it. That's my favorite part of owning Leader Worldwide Chauffeur Services is I get to still drive people. So that's how I got in the business. Uh, and then as I'm driving, my passengers kept saying, Hey, when are you going to. When are you going to start your own business? And I'm like, I don't know anything about business. I know how to be a great chauffeur. And, uh, but then some opportunities came my way. I'm originally from Kansas City. A friend of mine said, Hey, if you ever move back here, you know, you can use my car. He had purchased a stretch limousine to take care of his clients. And so about a year later, I took him up on his offer. Moved back to Kansas City, 31, 000 in credit card debt. Um, no money in the bank. Uh, had a, had used his borrowed car and, uh, had a cell phone. And that was my start in the limousine industry.

Ken Lucci 7:58

Quite a motivator, that 31, 000 in debt to keep working. It

Bruce Heinrich 8:02

really is.

Ken Lucci 8:02

you and I first met a while ago. I knew your name when I was an operator. But then we met when you were launching PAX, and I don't tell this story often, but you guys are the reason why I After I wrote the book on chauffeuring, I didn't turn it into a training plan because you guys, first of all, I really enjoyed Meeting you face to face. It was a casino. That's right. And it was right.

Bruce Heinrich 8:28

Yeah.

Ken Lucci 8:28

And at the same time, it, at the same time, the rest of my business on the finance side was taking off. So I said, look, these guys got it knocked, but what convinced me was your background with Ritz Carlton. So, because we, I went to the Ritz Carlton executive leadership center. So I guess my question to you is how do you turn there and they obviously have a culture of quality. How do you turn that culture of quality? How do you unleash that in your business today? Because look in Kansas city, there's going to be what, 25 limo companies and you're in the top three, no question. And I don't mean that in terms of revenue. I mean that you've got an unbelievable reputation. I think everybody knows you for quality. So how do you, how do you create that culture?

Bruce Heinrich 10:24

Yeah, that's a good question. Um, obviously you have to be trained in it. And you have to believe in it, you know, um, you know, I go back to, you know, what the Ritz Carlton did with me and also CLS when I started working there. I mean, I think they were probably the top limousine company. In the world at that time, probably. I know they were in LA because I know every movie star, every music star. And, uh, and so the key things that I took away from that, that I apply to my business is. Number one, you have to have a roadmap. You have to know what, what quality services, what hospitality services. I talked to a lot of operators and they're like, Oh, yeah, we give great service. You know, and it's like, I don't think they even have a plan. They don't, I don't. Right. I thought I knew what great service was until I started working at the Ritz Carlton. And then I'm like, Oh my God, this is like,

Ken Lucci 11:24

Oh, they dialed it in.

Bruce Heinrich 11:25

This is a whole nother level,

Ken Lucci 11:27

completely different level.

Bruce Heinrich 11:28

Yep. Yeah. Yep. Yep. And so first of all, you have to learn that level. Right. And executive leadership is that, um, even just, I mean, I've taken my knowledge and put it on PAX, you know, on PAX training. And so that's, that's the quick fix of getting that level of knowing, having a roadmap,

Ken Lucci 11:49

well, you've glossed over something that's critical though, the leadership has to believe it. The leadership has to believe in the culture. And, and that's to me more than anything. When I hear you speak. You exemplify that because anybody can give a speech on any subject if you're a good speaker, but the passion that you have for the, and the servitude, the servant mentality that you have, obviously we both, we both had it, right? You had it, I had it, but when we went to Ritz Carlton, it like awakened in us, but it has to emulate from the top, which I think, which is what that GM did for you when he picked up that, that gum wrapper. He was leading by example. You lead by example every day. You set the tone. You reinforce. You reinforce what you want as far as the ultimate experience you deliver. Do you think every operator gets that?

Bruce Heinrich 12:46

Uh, no, I know they definitely don't. Um, we had, this is a funny little story, but when James and I were in, we're in, uh, our PAX booth, it was one of the first years that we had a booth. I know

James Blain 12:56

where this is going. And I love this story. It makes my day that we're going to tell it.

Bruce Heinrich 13:01

I have no idea like who they are. I've totally forgotten the company, the people, whatever. Um, but a guy and his wife and his, I think it was his business partner or his general manager and his wife came up to the booth and looked at it and goes. Hey, what, what, what can you do for me? I got, I got 72 chauffeurs and they all suck.

James Blain 13:26

72 idiots. I want to say was the wording, right? Well, maybe that was it. Yeah, it was, it was something brutal.

Ken Lucci 13:32

Is this like the 72 virgins

Bruce Heinrich 13:36

when you grow up,

Ken Lucci 13:37

when you're going to have 72 idiots, that that's how we called it.

Bruce Heinrich 13:40

Yeah. And it was just brutal and they all suck. Right. I had to like, think about my response for a minute and I couldn't hold back. And I just said, you know, everything starts at the top.

Ken Lucci 13:54

A hundred percent. A hundred. They didn't really,

Bruce Heinrich 13:58

they didn't really care for that answer, especially in front of their wives, but that's the truth. It's a hundred percent. You know, and not everybody has to run a five star service company. Right. And I don't think everybody could. Some people aren't wired for that. Some people, we have a very successful operator here who, I mean, what he cares about is volume. Yep. Right. That's his mantra and he is very successful at it. And so not everybody has to be successful or has to be a five star service provider. But the reason why I chose it is one, because I'm wired that way. And I love it. Yep. Number two is, is I think that. We don't compete against Uber, we don't compete against a lot of other things. We don't even compete on price. Correct. Right. And that's where I wanna live. I, I, I wanna live on, Hey man, we're going to, we're gonna provide you an amazing level of service

Ken Lucci 15:01

and you know where I should, you're not even

Bruce Heinrich 15:02

gonna care what the price is.

Ken Lucci 15:04

No. And you know where I sit, right? So when I look at someone who is just dead set. All they want is volume, volume, volume. And I look at their revenue per trip, and it's probably 20 percent less than a guy that that focuses more on quality than you, you could see it in their bottom line. Their gross margins are lower. And when you push for volume and you push your people for volume, And that's your primary driver. I believe you tell me if I'm wrong. I don't think quality can exist at the same level. If your number one push is get that guy pointed a point B. I think it's you, you giving, you have to give up a little bit. I can't think of an example in business where. You have extraordinarily high volume, the lowest price and the best quality. I can't think of it.

Bruce Heinrich 15:55

You can usually get two out of the three, but you can't have all three. Yeah.

James Blain 15:59

But by the way, give us, give us that three. Right. Cause I, I know where you're going with that. Right. Now having, having been so in sync for so long, I know exactly where your head went with that. But explain that a little bit, Bruce. What, when you say you can have the, how does that work? Right. What, what does that look like?

Bruce Heinrich 16:15

It's like, as a consumer, right. You can usually get high quality. You can get convenience or great service, but if you get all those two, you usually have to pay a high price. Yep. Now, if you're, if you're deciding factor is, Hey, I want a low price or I don't want to pay a high price, then you're going to have to give up somewhere either in the quality of the service or in the, uh, uh, yeah, quality of the service or the quality of the product or the convenience.

Ken Lucci 16:50

Agreed. We all make those decisions every day. I mean, you know, you, you guys probably see on Facebook. I eat at five guys. Okay. Uh, cause Bentley Bentley loves the burgers and you know, you, you can get a, you can get a, you can get a fast food burger anywhere you want, but at five guys, you got to wait a little bit longer. We know the prices is higher, but the beef is never frozen. And the potatoes are unbelievable for their fries. That's about, that's a decision I make based on the quality for that specific, for that specific service. I mean, when we all travel, we try to stay. At least when I see you guys, we try to travel and stay at Marriott's. We're not staying at the motel sixes. If all we wanted was the clean, comfortable room, we'd be staying next door at the, at the lower priced hotel. Um, you know, the, the sad part based on where we all sit in the business, we, the chauffeured space that by definition is, is quality because of what the other choices So it, it saddens me that a lot of people don't get it. I, it saddens me when I do a site visit and I, and I just don't see the, the environment that is conducive to quality. I don't see the, I don't see, they may have the right words on a poster, but they're not living what you live every day.

James Blain 18:23

And it's more than just us.

Bruce Heinrich 18:25

Again, that is a great segue into back to how do you, how do you build that culture in your company? And when you talk about environment, right, it's like, what are your, what are your employees coming in and seeing every day? Is it messy? Is it dirty? Or is it clean and orderly because they're going to model whatever. You model, and if you're okay with messy and kind of little sloppy here and there and cars that maybe don't get fixed right away, or, you know, it's okay if there's not that clean, Hey, that's okay. You know, I've been, I've been told that B plus McDonald's make the most money, not a plus McDonald's. Okay. And so there's a different, there's different levels that you as an operator get to choose. At what level, at what level do you want to be at? Do you want to be a five star provider, a four star, a three star? And there's different ways to do it. And so again, not everybody has to be a five star or strive for that. But when you do, first of all, your customer, I mean, one of the huge keys to our success is we rarely lose a client.

Ken Lucci 19:38

Customer loyalty.

Bruce Heinrich 19:40

Man, they're not going to, we have, we have clients that will actually change their, their air travel to the next day. If we can't pick

Ken Lucci 19:47

it up, it

Bruce Heinrich 19:50

blows my mind, but they just, they trust. We're like a, you know,

Ken Lucci 19:55

it translates into the brand. It creates brand loyalty. Do you think there is. a tremendous extra cost to providing quality. No.

Bruce Heinrich 20:08

And here, here is the key. Okay. So back to a culture in the company, right. Is are you hiring the right people? Yeah. I mean, that's the key. They're the delivery. I can, I can have all the great skills that I have, but I can't drive every trip.

Ken Lucci 20:27

No, you're right.

Bruce Heinrich 20:28

And so I have to get people that will. Basically represent me and my company and deliver the service that I'm requiring. How do you do it? Well, first of all and it it's really simple formula But when you're interviewing for chauffeurs, you know what the first question I ask us is Do you love to drive? Because if you don't you're probably going to hit your job because you're going to drive probably 50 miles a year That's a number one. To be a top performer. To be, yep. Do you, yeah. Do you love to drive? Yep. Or at least enjoy it, or, you know, but somebody who's, nah, I don't really like, you know what, you're nuts. You're not going to work out here, right? And then the other thing is a heart for service. So somebody that really enjoys taking care of people, meeting new people, you know, things like that. And one, one little test, James, we probably do this every time we speak at a show or go and present something. We'll be, you know, up there on stage talking and I'll accidentally like flip my pen out of my hand and land on the floor. And we'll see if somebody jumps up and picks it up. And if they do, hey, that's the kind of person I'm looking for. And so I'll do this at a job interview. Yep. When they come in, I'll accidentally, you know, shuffle a paper on the floor or a pen, and if they just kind of look at it and then look.

Ken Lucci 21:57

That's a good trick, by the way. I'm like, you are not. That's a good trick.

Bruce Heinrich 22:01

You are not for us.

Ken Lucci 22:02

Well, it's like, it's like IBM saying, if you salt your food before you taste it, you're not a good candidate for IBM. Think about that. You just gave them the ability to display their art, the servant mentality.

Bruce Heinrich 22:18

That's a good one. Yeah, that's right. And, uh, and then here's the other, like, huge takeaway from the Ritz Carlton, is that there are external guests, as we call them, external clients, But there's also the internal clients, which are the employees. And guess what? One is not more valuable than the other. No, sure. They're of equal value. We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. Exactly. And so, and again, raising the culture. I had, I had to learn how to speak a different way. And whenever we saw somebody in the hallway, like a fellow employee, it doesn't matter who they are, they had a name tag, you say either good morning, good afternoon, good evening, look them in the eye and use their name, you know, good morning, Guadalupe. How are you this morning?

Ken Lucci 23:13

Well, good morning, Bruce. It's right using the name is the ultimate sign of respect to which I think that that's a, that's a hallmark of, and it's also, it's not, yeah, or I don't know, it's yes, or, you know, my,

Bruce Heinrich 23:31

my pleasure,

Ken Lucci 23:33

my pleasure. Let, let me, let me, let me find that answer for you. So the, the environment is key, fostering the environment. Talk to me about communication with your team. I know you're, you're big on open communication. Talk to me about that.

Bruce Heinrich 23:56

So, um, my leadership, you know, what I've learned over the, man, I have, I've been a horrible boss. When I first started out, I used, I used all the, you know, Management techniques that I learned from my German dad, right? Which is a lot of yelling

Ken Lucci 25:22

might be a little

Bruce Heinrich 25:22

rigid. Might be. Yes. I didn't know any better. I'd never learned any management skills or whatever. I'm just like trying to get people to do what I want them to do. And if they didn't do it, I'd yell at them. Okay, well, you know, we probably had a little more turnover than we needed to at the beginning. I was a terrible boss. And so I had to learn, first of all, that that employee, I can't treat a client really good and then treat my employee less than a client. Everybody's equal.

James Blain 25:55

There's so many people out there that I think missed that point in this industry, right? I agree. So many people out there that are convinced, right? Whether it's in the chauffeur service side, everything we're talking about applies to every type of business, whether it be motor coach or anyone else. And there's so many people that miss that, that I really want you to drive that home and, and really drive into that. Just, just go ahead and break that out for him. Cause that's, that's golden here.

Bruce Heinrich 26:21

Yeah, it really is. I mean, uh, you know, Southwest airlines, when they first got started, that was their model. They hired fun people, right. And they treated them really well. Yep. And guess what? They had fun doing their job and they treated the. Passengers really well. And guess what? The passengers love Southwest Airlines.

Ken Lucci 26:42

Became

Bruce Heinrich 26:44

raving

Ken Lucci 26:44

fans, raving fans. Raving fans,

Bruce Heinrich 26:47

without a doubt. And so it really all starts with your communication and care for your employees. And they say, you know, people don't really care until they realize they're cared for. And so the more that you as an owner can take the time to just, Hey, how are the kids learn about, learn about their families, ask about them. You know, I mean, that makes that's. Basically, you just take the same things that you would do it, do with a client, an external client, you know, you take them a gift, you stop by, Hey, we really appreciate you. Thank you so much. You know, you mean so much to us and do the exact same thing. It's not rocket science or it's not, Oh, you have to do something different to the exact same thing to your employees. And first of all, it doesn't cost anything, or if it does, it's no more than maybe what you'd gift a, you know, a client. And so just treating them with respect. Okay, so I'm going to get a little deep here for a minute, but there is a marriage counseling thing called love and respect. Women need to be loved. Men need to be respected.

Ken Lucci 28:07

Yeah, right. Yep.

Bruce Heinrich 28:08

Right. Yep. And so, hey, I would say probably 90 percent of the chauffeurs in this industry are probably men. You gotta treat them with respect if you want them to respect you, to like you, to work hard for you. You gotta give them respect. And man, being a chauffeur is not an easy job. No. Your hours are all over the place. You have to be very flexible. You have to give up a lot of family time. You're working long hours, long days, you're usually by yourself. I can remember when I was a chauffeur, I'd call up dispatch to just make up a question just so I could like have some interaction. Um, And, uh, so being a chauffeur is not an easy job and it takes a specific type to do that job and to do it well. And so just to communicate your appreciation, catch them doing something right, you know, hand them a gift card here. Hey man, way to go, really. You know, really appreciate you spending your time or doing that extra trip. Thank you. And back to your question of, does it cost more? It actually costs less because you have less turnover. Yep. No recruiting or smaller recruiting costs. Yep. Uh, onboarding. Incidents from new hires doing, you know, stupid stuff or making mistakes and you have to comp trips. It's so much easier to find the right people and then just, you know, keep them on board, treat them with love and respect and care about them. I mean, truly care about them because they're the ones who are really building your business up. You can't do it alone. You're only as good as that

Ken Lucci 29:45

one

Bruce Heinrich 29:45

trip.

Ken Lucci 29:46

You, you, you, you just said a mouthful. We're only as strong as our weakest link and we can't do it alone. You know, I, I had a conversation with someone yesterday and it comes right back to this. And because so many people ignore culture, right? Is this, they said, well, I want to scale my business to 10 million. And I said, the secret to scale is not growing the revenue exponentially because anybody can throw money at something and do that. The secret to scale is to grow from 5 million to 10 million. With the same healthy metrics across the board, you can't sacrifice quality. You can't sacrifice profit. So what you're saying to me is foundational. And I get sad sometimes a little frustrated. I'm not an operator. I move at a little bit of a slower pace now, but I really have a hyper focus on. The radar is always up. The antenna is always on looking for the, the. The small random acts of quality, I call them. And I just. I see us missing the point in the industry, and what bothers me the most is, back in the day, there was no competitor who had a similar vehicle, whether it be the Suburban, the Escalade, etc. Well, now you can find an Uber Black driver that's got an Escalade or Suburban. So, the only differentiator is what we've been talking about for the past 30 minutes. And, and I wish that I could show everybody what I consider to be the, the pillars of quality from a financial perspective that I can see because they're, they're almost always more profitable companies. And the ones that focus on volume and treat their employees like chattel, right? The turnover is incredible. The recruiting costs are unbelievable, right? Well, I just fired so and so. Okay, well, why? Well, because this is the second time that this happened. Okay, so let me ask you a question. How did it happen the second time? It's not his fault. It's yours. You didn't change the process. That's my opinion. You didn't, what was the process of quality? Right. And how did we create a teachable moment to make sure that didn't happen again? So, you know, defining the quality standards is not enough. You've got to live them every single day. And from the minute I saw you speak, I can't even remember when you, when I sat through one of your first sessions. I see, you know, this guy just not only did the, did, created the training program, he lives this every single day. And sadly, there are examples of people that throw posters up in their walls about quality all the time, quality, commitment to excellence, and, and, and then they treat their people like crap. You know, it just reminds me of the old Leona Helmsley thing, right? Leona Helmsley, I've written, I wrote a bio, excuse me, read a biography of her and Harry Her PR company, she had the best PR company in New York and they had a bitch of a time with her because she was horrible. So they explained

Bruce Heinrich 32:51

the hotel, right? Give her, give a little background for those who may not know who Leona Helmsley is.

Ken Lucci 32:57

The Helmsley hotels, Harry and Leona owned some of the most magnificent, magnificent hotels in New York. Now, one of them was, was the, was it the palace? No, the name is escaping me right now. It's one of the big ones that's right on central

Bruce Heinrich 33:14

park. I think it was the Waldorf Astoria. It was the

Ken Lucci 33:16

Waldorf Astoria. So her PR company, she was so bad to her employees. They came out with a slogan that she may not be a nice person, but she runs a hell of a hotel or something along those lines. They had to overcome the obstacle that this woman was not a nice person. Right?

Bruce Heinrich 33:35

Yeah.

Ken Lucci 33:35

So when we step into companies, can't you, can't you, I don't know about you, but I can feel the, the culture. I can feel the, I can feel the toxicity sometimes.

Bruce Heinrich 33:48

Yeah, but without a doubt,

Ken Lucci 33:50

how do you make sure that how do you make sure that your logistics partners treat your chauffeurs with quality and respect because they're under the gun constantly?

James Blain 33:59

But Ken, this goes back to what Bruce was talking about earlier, and you've made an incredible point. Point because there's so many different angles to think about this from, and this goes back, right? And then maybe it's just because Bruce took me back to that moment in my mind earlier, right? This goes back to that owner that Bruce and I met very, you know, we're in the very first stages of getting packs out there, you know, what it comes down to is even in your story. That's top down, right? They're having to deal with that person because not only are you often the internal brand, right? The one that the customer, that your employees are seeing, but that's going to shine through externally. And to the point that Bruce made earlier, you know, we have the same thing, whether you're in, you know, chauffeured services, whether you've got motor coaches, no matter what it is, unless you're out there driving that vehicle. The Bruce's point earlier, like that GM told him. You are reaching them through those employees, right? Through those chauffeurs, through those drivers, whoever's fulfilling that. And if you are not pushing that top down, right. In that case, you know, the marketing's having to overcome you instead of pushing your business forward, the marketing's having to overcome you. And, and we're, you know, we're kind of reaching the end of the time, but I really think one of the things that, that I'd love to hear from you, Bruce. Is, you know, if for those companies out there that are listening to this and they're saying, Hey, I see an opportunity or, Hey, I fall into some of those categories or, Hey, maybe, maybe I need to make a change, right? I know you've, you've told me recently, you feel like you have the best team that you've ever had right now.

Bruce Heinrich 35:33

Oh, without a doubt. Yeah.

James Blain 35:35

For someone that's trying to get there. If you could, you know, almost that, almost that back in time moment, like if you could go back in time and give yourself the shortcut and give yourself the play, like what's that thing you're telling yourself, or what's that thing you're telling that operator right now of here's the shortcut to get there.

Bruce Heinrich 35:53

Yeah, very good question. I have to, I have to like give a little prop just, uh, two days ago, I got a call from, uh, An affiliate who sends us business from Detroit, and she goes, Hey, I just had to tell you, we have a very 22 year client that we had in Kansas City the other day, and they made a point to call me and said, Hey, we love your service. We, you know, 22 years. We've been, But the service we received in Kansas City, the level of professionalism was beyond anything we've experienced in our 22 years.

Ken Lucci 36:31

Incredible.

Bruce Heinrich 36:32

And I'm like, wow, well, thank you. And I went to go see who drove those trips. And it was two of my chauffeurs that I considered to be not my superstars. D players. Which, yeah, kind of my, what I thought was my D guys, and I'm like, oh my god, this is, that's even a greater compliment. Anyway, so, I want to give props to my team. And I have a chauffeur manager now, who's a former Ritz Carlton guy, which, which certainly hopes or helps, uh, but in answer to your question, James, it all kind of goes back to, you know, when I started as an operator and again, broad car cell phone to scale from 1 to 2 cars. And then to add a chauffeur and all that, that is the hardest part of this industry, because you may not have enough revenue to pay for a full time person or to keep them busy enough to keep them on boarding. And so, man, especially the small operators, I love to reach them and give them a vision and a hope. And so, James, an answer to your question is. You know how PAX came into being because I didn't have a lot of wiggle room. I'm in debt. I don't have money thrown around to just, you know, I had to hire a chauffeur, get them up to speed, and get them out on the road as quickly as possible generating revenue. That's, that's how PAX came into it. I took the key. Elements of everything I learned from the Ritz Carlton, from CLS, which gave me the most incredible training as well. And man, put it all into packs. And at that time I created, it was a three hour course and put it out there and had everybody do it. And that was probably in, you know, probably 12 years before, uh, you came on James and it wasn't available to the industry, it's something I had to create. for my, uh, so for my company. And so step one is just get PACS. And this isn't a sales thing for PACS. This is, hey, if you want to make an impact right away, utilize PACS. It's all online. It's easy to use. It has the key elements, the, the pyramid of success. For a chauffeur to be able to not only do the job, but know he's doing the job, right? And that's that's a big thing right there is a lot of chauffeurs They're out doing their thing and they might not even know if they're doing it right or you know What do I measure it by can you set it easy? Earlier, what are the you know, what are the specific details that you want as an owner? And so you need to have that vision. And if you don't, PAX has that vision for the level of service and how to how to provide that level of service. And then the second thing, hire the right people, right? Make sure they love to drive. Make sure they have a heart for service. And then just. Treat them as like a client. Those are the, really the three things.

Ken Lucci 39:46

Well, you said it's respect, respecting the chauffeur. It's respecting the internal respect. I do think open communication has a lot to do with it. I know that you do, you practice that. Um, I, so many of the operators I see make the mistake of creating an internal hierarchy where the, Oh, that's the owner. Don't talk to him about that. Or, Oh, he's the owner. Don't, you know, he's not involved in that stuff. You you've, I think you, you're very modest when it comes to what you've done with culture, because you started to me. You were granted foundation from because of your time at the Ritz Carlton and I, I, I will applaud you because you're right. Back in the day, CLS was, they were the gold standard. They were the Ritz Carlton of this industry, even above. Maybe one or two of the bigger ones out there because they got it based on who their owner was back in the day.

Bruce Heinrich 40:42

Yeah, and we served the Ritz Carl, we served my former hotel out there, we did the Four Seasons, the Mondrian, I mean the Peninsula, we had all those accounts. And so we had to go through their training as chauffeurs as well. And so I got, by the grace of God, I got the best of the best of the best training, you know, from all the major high end hotels. And you know, I mean, I really just fell into it and it spoke to me. And so, you know, that's

Ken Lucci 41:13

how I ended up

Bruce Heinrich 41:13

here.

Ken Lucci 41:14

You just brought something up that I see all the time. One, when I look at somebody's p and l, 'cause that's where the place I live and I look at continuing education and training and I see zeros, or I see very little money and I see, you know, well it's

James Blain 41:30

not listed,

Ken Lucci 41:31

it's not, or not, it's not listed. Uh, you know, but the owners travel and entertainment budget is pretty big. I say to them, you know, what, what are you doing for continuing education to bring your people along? And I, I, and they're like, well, you know, it's pretty expensive. I said, it's an investment. You have to look at it as investment. It's like what I do. If you don't spend the running on the money on the right financial thing. reporting. Okay. And you consider a solid bookkeeper, solid CPA an expense. That's the wrong mindset to create a culture of quality. To me, you have to have the investment in training. You have to have the investment, a continuing education of people until it becomes muscle memory. You know, what you and I went through at the Ritz Carlton, we could have forgotten because we all know people that went through that course and washed out. Right. But it, but, but for some reason it was the, and it is the, the, the, the servant's heart. In you.

Bruce Heinrich 42:33

Yeah.

Ken Lucci 42:35

Where it awakens you and it became total muscle memory. Um, and I, I kind of fear for our industry because they don't, they don't look at some people don't look at it that way. And they're more enamored with the 20. Oh, I just got a 2024 escalate. I've been, I've been in cars where I've been in with chauffeur cars before, where the vehicle is brand spanking new and the service has been terrible. And then I go to another city and I know the vehicle is four years old, but it's just a spot on experience.

Bruce Heinrich 43:06

Yeah, it's not about the vehicle. It's not helps that can help, but yeah.

James Blain 43:13

You've also got to tie this back to kind of your larger operators as well. You know, one of the, one of the advantages I've had is, you know, coming into the industry, I got to kind of learn from Bruce and kind of see everything there, but one of the things that I've found being in the industry now going on eight years, right. Is that this applies at the larger scale as well. I can't tell you how many large companies. And I mean, Large at scale companies will tell me they have a great training program, will tell me that they're doing ongoing, will tell me that they have this culture, will tell me that they're developing it, and it's not that they are embellishing or that they're exaggerating, they genuinely believe they have it, and to the point that was made earlier, they've disconnected in the hierarchy. Right. They're not, they are sitting up on the top floor and they think that what's happening on the first floor is exactly what should be happening. They are, you know, if they were to go ride with one of their team members, right, if they go ride with one of their chauffeurs, they would be shocked. They'd be appalled. I had no idea this was happening because they've disconnected. And so I think there's also a big lesson in that it's not enough to believe and have this and do this. Even at the highest level, even at the largest company, I think you have to do a good job of inspecting this all the way down and making sure that you're not disconnecting yourself and becoming a volume operator without even knowing that that's what you've become.

Ken Lucci 44:42

Uh, when, when we rank companies or when we take them through our seller prep and because they want to sell. We asked them, what are their measurements and monitoring of quality? How do you track performance? And they swear up and down they do. But then I'm looking at unresolved reviews where they had a problem and they didn't fix it. They were totally silent. So you just, at the end, you ended with a perfect note, which is the measurement and monitoring inspect what you expect to happen. And I think if there's disconnection at the head, right, the, the, the fish rots from the head up or the head down, rather, I think if there's a disconnect there, I don't think you can, you can get it to happen on the street. It has, it's, it works with, it works with leader because it's important. It's, it's literally how you live and breathe.

Bruce Heinrich 45:38

Yeah,

Ken Lucci 45:38

I mean,

Bruce Heinrich 45:39

I was just going to say, yeah, employees respect what you inspect.

Ken Lucci 45:48

They do.

Bruce Heinrich 45:48

Right.

Ken Lucci 45:49

They do. Yeah. No question about it. Well, guys, this has been a phenomenal 45 minutes. It's doing these is the highlight of my week. Um, I know we can, I know, I know, we will definitely be having Bruce back for another

James Blain 46:03

session.

Ken Lucci 46:03

I know. No, we are definitely going to have you back. Um, and it's, and

Bruce Heinrich 46:09

it's,

Ken Lucci 46:10

yeah, it is the highlight of what we do. And the funniest thing in the world is somebody said to me, well, why are you doing a podcast and why, why are you doing this on a culture of quality? It doesn't have anything to do with profit. I said, it has everything to do with everything, everything to do with profit and success. It does. Yeah. The quality piece to me in this industry is, they, is, if you're going out there to worry about point A to point B logistics and the cookie cutter approach, you're not, you're not able to create the, the quality experience. What you and I went through at Ritz Carlton had everything to do with the personal details. You know, it was definitely, definitely not fake. And that's my final point to you is, and it's a little bit tongue in cheek. Can you fake quality? You will be found out. Right. It's like that old, uh, what was the old saying? You know, if you can fake sincerity, you've got it made. You can't do it. Yeah. Yeah. It's like hollow, right? It becomes hollow,

James Blain 47:17

but, but you can feel it. Oh, Tony can feel the whole

Bruce Heinrich 47:21

Maya Angelou quote, you know, it's, uh, they'll forget what you say, what you did, all that, but they will remember how you made them feel.

47:31

Thank you for listening to the ground transportation podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please remember to subscribe to the show on apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. For more information about PAX training and to contact James, go to PAX training.com. And for more information about driving transactions and to contact Ken, Go to driving transactions.com. We'll see you next time on the ground transportation podcast.