James Blain 0:25

Hello, everybody. And welcome back to another episode of the ground transportation podcast. I am really excited today. We are actually doing a special one on one episode with Tom Halsnick from Walsh Chauffeur Transportation. In addition to being an incredible operator, a member of the membership committee for the NLA, and The Florida limousine association secretary, Tom's actually a really great friend of mine. So I am very excited to have him on the show. I'm very excited to kind of talk about his background and help you guys learn a little bit more about him. Tom to kind of launch us out here. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got in the industry? Kind of how you got to where you are.

Tom Halsnik 1:02

Sure. I'd be happy to. But first, let me thank you for inviting me to be here. I really do appreciate it. We always have great conversations, so it's nice to be able to do it and have it recorded for posterity's sake. Um, so, but, uh, but yeah, I, I started, believe it or not, back in 1991, um, had a friend's mother who worked for an accountant and he had a client who had lost his driver's license because of too many DUIs,

James Blain 1:29

Oh, geez.

Tom Halsnik 1:30

back in the early nineties was saying something, because you know. It wasn't as penalized as it is now. Um, so I was in college at the time and they said, Hey, you need somebody to drive him around, take him to his attorney's office, take him to lunch, pay you, you know, I'm like, Oh, cool. I get to drive a limo. That's, that's a lot of fun. I'll do that. So that's how it started. And then he bought another limo and he says, Hey, maybe we could, um, you know, rent these out and, you know, you can make a little money. I'll make some money on the cars and stuff. I'm like. Okay, sure. Sounds good to me. So instead of setting up an actual company, we just basically took the overflow from other companies. We said, Hey, we're here. You know, if you have anything you don't want or you get overbooked, give it to us.

James Blain 2:17

Affiliate game.

Tom Halsnik 2:19

Exactly. So I was affiliate stuff right from the beginning, and that's what we did. You know, I took people out. And because we were like, A two car operator, basically. We had no, like, base radio phone or anything. I had a, I had a Motorola brick phone that was the owner's, and he would like, Okay, it's three dollars a minute. Unless somebody is bleeding, don't use it.

James Blain 2:43

So, so did you get to skip the pager phase or do you have the pager

Tom Halsnik 2:46

No, I had, I had the pager too, but that came later on. That came later on. We had this, I mean, basically, when you went off, you had your phone for emergency, but you were on your own. There was no communication, right? So, and, and people paid in cash back then, you know, so so it was great. So I'd come back, he'd get his cut. I'd get my cut was great. Plus he'd pay me for the week. Probably the money I made probably, took care of my pay and maybe a little bit more for, for him, but he didn't really care. He was kind of a trust fund baby. So, um, which is how he got into trouble with, with alcohol and stuff. Cause he had no job and plenty of money so that was, that was his thing.

James Blain 3:25

So is that where the Walsh comes from and Walsh chauffeur transportation?

Tom Halsnik 3:29

it's not actually, actually. Um, so that was in Orlando cause I grew up in Orlando, moved to Tampa in 93, went to university of South Florida, which is located here in Tampa and didn't really get into limos until about back until about 95 when I started with a company here in Tampa called Julie's limousine, which was one of the more popular ones because Julie was on the radio. With Ron and Ron radio show. And they did a ton of work and they were pretty well known. And so over the years I kind of rose up the ranks and, uh, after, uh, not long, probably four or five years, uh, I was one of their top chauffeurs. I would, you know, train people and, uh, she would give me all the celebrity work, all difficult clients. And that's kind of really where I started. Cause you know, if you know me, my, my demeanor is pretty, pretty calm. Um, it's not a whole lot that, you know, gets me going or, you know, flaps me or anything like that. So I would get the clients that nobody else liked. So, and I did great with them. Cause you know, I kind of figured out when to talk, when not to talk, you know, you just, you were like just straight professional and, you know, and it was funny because. Over time, and it became a challenge for me is to turn those difficult clients into really good clients that, you know, they would, they were difficult with other drivers. They never tipped and I would turn them into these nice people tipped all the time. Just,

James Blain 5:03

Make all the other drivers jealous.

Tom Halsnik 5:05

yeah, you know, and that was kind of my, my claim to fame, you know, and, and I enjoyed it. And so. Um, so that's where I started and then I worked for several different companies and finally in 2008, uh, you know, during the recession, which is probably not the best time to start, um, I actually went into as, uh, working as a private chauffeur for the founders of Outback Steakhouse and that, and that lasted for about, oh, about seven years. But in the, in the meantime, that's when I started my business because. Um, you know, I just was like, well, I'll start my own business. And really how I ended my career with them is because they didn't really like me having my own business. They felt like it was a conflict of interest. And I'm like, no, it's not. I'd never once told you, no, I can't do it. Can't drive for you. So I left them and that's kind of when my business took off. Um, and, uh, you know, it was originally called Black Pearl limousine because of the history of, pirates in the Tampa Bay area. And I thought it was something that was unique, come to find out. 19 other companies have that same name. So in fact, there's one in South Florida that I occasionally get their parking tickets. I've gotten sometimes they're 10 99s. So, you know, it's too close. And so that's when I, one of the companies that I had purchased, cause I'd purchased a couple of companies. One of them was a Walsh airport service and it had been around since 95 started as an airport taxi service. Had a lot of really good clients, Citigroup, JP Morgan, uh, Bausch and Lomb. So it came with a lot of really good clients. And that's primarily what I was known with, in the corporate stuff. So that's of where I went with it. And over time, because it was Walsh airport service, we kind of got pigeonholed into just doing airports. So when I started buying limos and that kind of stuff, people thought that all we did was just airport stuff. And I'm like, no, we do more. So that's during COVID. So I was operating three different websites, had three different marketing plans. I'm like, now's my chance. Everything's going into one. We're doing Walsh chauffeured transportation, one website, one phone number, streamline the whole thing. I know guys that are still using like multiple sites. I'm like, it's a waste. It's a waste of time. It's a waste of money, effort. So that's when everything got kind of, you know, put together. but yeah, so that's how I ended up where I'm at now.

James Blain 7:34

Well, and it's, it's really interesting because I hear a lot of talk right now about limo versus black car versus chauffeur versus bus versus motor coach.

Tom Halsnik 7:44

It's the same. Yeah.

James Blain 7:45

it is, and we're heading towards a point where, and I say this all the time, the ground transportation industry is what it's going to be, right? We're going to have. Taxi, limo, bus, shuttle, any empty. I see everybody kind of being under one roof, but there's a lot to be said about the name. Cause like you said, if you've got a name that kind of ties you to one segment that can hurt you to a certain extent. And so I find it really neat that you were able to get in there and kind of figure that out and keep that because I see a lot of companies that struggle with that name. They're not sure what to do with it. They've got like five different variations of it. They're running different websites.

Tom Halsnik 8:20

Well, and their mistake is the fact that they think that their actual name means something. And what, well, you know what I'm talking about. You're laughing. Cause you know what I'm,

James Blain 8:30

I know exactly what you're talking about,

Tom Halsnik 8:31

because they think that that, that means something I'm like, no, they could, you could call it abracadabra limo. It's not the name of your company. It's you. They're doing business with you and the service that you provide, you know, that's what they're coming back for. They could care less what it's called.

James Blain 8:50

Look, naming something is I'm a car guy at heart, right? I grew up loving cars, right? I'm a Mustang nut. I've still got the first Mustang I ever bought. My very first car sitting in the garage. But when it comes to naming stuff, I go back to this old story of Carroll Shelby is standing there with somebody and they said, Hey, we got this new race Mustang. We got to come up with a name for it. You know, what what are we going to call it? And he goes, How far do you think it is from here to that bar? And they said, what? They said, how far it is do you think it would be here to that barn? I don't know about 500 feet. No joke. That's why it's called a GT 500. Cause the guy thought it was about 500 feet at the end of the day. Right? Just like in our business, people are buying it because it says Shelby on it. And because they've learned to know that brand Shelby didn't mean anything. It was just his name.

Tom Halsnik 9:34

Another good story along that same line, you know, cause I worked for the founders of Outback Steakhouse, right? You want to know how they got the term Outback Steakhouse? They didn't know what to call it. And the movie, uh, Crocodile Dundee was big that year. So they said, yeah, we'll just call it Outback.

James Blain 9:50

yeah. No,

Tom Halsnik 9:51

meant, it really meant nothing. And then once they started, they're like, Oh, well, I guess we've got to pick out some decor. I guess we'll go with Australian decor.

James Blain 9:59

that's awesome. I,

Tom Halsnik 9:59

Yeah.

James Blain 10:00

I didn't know that one. And it's funny because, you know, you've made a great point. A lot of this is understanding that your brand is about more than just a name, right? It's the experience you give your clients. It's the things you do for them. It's the way you make them feel. Which makes me come back to something that I, you mentioned, and I, I, I'm fairly sure every single one of our listeners wants to know how you did it. Right. You said you were taking those difficult clients. And turning them into the best ones. What I want to know is, were you actually changing them? Or is that something where you were able to figure out their needs? How, what were you doing? What was your magic there? What, what does everybody here need to know to make this work?

Tom Halsnik 10:40

I think part of it is just recognizing what people's needs are. You know, you kind of. You see how they, how they operate, what their expectations are. And it's a matter of figuring them out. The reason why most drivers couldn't do that is because they couldn't figure them out. But over time I saw their tendencies. I saw what they liked. I saw what they didn't like. And so I was able to just kind of dial that in to where every time I saw him, I already knew what they liked. I knew what they didn't like. And so once they got to a point where they were comfortable and they knew that I knew what I, what they liked, We kind of hit it off

James Blain 11:14

and it's funny because that's something we talk about a lot, right? You don't, obviously we're not in a room, but reading the room, you know, figuring out exactly what that passenger wants, exactly what they need and how to meet those needs.

Tom Halsnik 11:26

and that's the hard part about this industry. And, you know, we have a lot of people in and out of this business, but you know, it is an art form. It takes a certain type of people to person to be successful in this. And it's just being able to recognize those kinds of things. It's just the customer service. Understanding what people want and being able to read people. You know, I've seen a lot of guys that think that, you know, because you pick them up at just gigantic mansion, that they should tip you an ungodly amount of money. And I'm like, you know,

James Blain 11:53

That's not how

Tom Halsnik 11:54

if, if you tailor your service, depending on what size of house that, you know, they live in, you're going to be sadly mistaken. You have to give everybody the same love, the same great level of service. I should say,

James Blain 12:08

Oh,

Tom Halsnik 12:08

nine times out of 10, it's the people. Because the guy that lives in the house, he's used to that service. So you're basically meeting his expectations.

James Blain 12:17

Yep.

Tom Halsnik 12:18

The people that don't do it very often, the birthday parties, the, the weddings, those are the ones that don't get treated the way we treat people, you know, taking their luggage, rolling out a red carpet, you know, how we handle them, how we talk to them, how we make them feel special. Those are the ones that when they get done. You know, they're like, hold on, hold on, you know,

James Blain 12:39

Yeah.

Tom Halsnik 12:40

and, and, you know, you, you gotta be able to, to read them, but also understand that it's not the people that you would think that tip you the most money.

James Blain 12:49

You know, when I was a kid, I worked at a car wash and it was, it was a great experience for me as a kid, right? Cause you're getting cash, you're getting tips, but I was really lucky in that kind of all of my experiences growing up and working have somehow bled in somehow helped, you know, now that we're, you know, now that I'm president of PACS doing training, they all kind of had their own little thing they added. And the interesting thing that I found there is. You know, you would have this beautiful, nice Mercedes come through and the guy would give you like two bucks. You'd have an absolute beater, right? You'd clean it. You'd get it perfect. You might get 20 bucks and then you might get a football player, right? That comes up all gaudy. He doesn't want to talk to you. He doesn't want to do anything. And the next thing you know, he throws a hundred bucks in your hand. Right? And the, the big thing there being is you never knew what you were going to get. And so, You couldn't tell by the car. You couldn't tell by the person, but what I found is if you go and talk to some of these people, right. And obviously being a carwash kid, you didn't get a lot of time to talk, but it was a lot of times what we found is. It really kind of wasn't something you could figure out. You're not going to be able to look at somebody and tell you're not going to be able to, you know, see them and know instantly whether or not you're going to get a tip. But what we figured out as kids is if you just busted tail on every single one, at the end of the day, when you counted it out, it would even out and you could tell this was a hard day's work and yeah, there'd be days you'd bust your tails and they'd suck. But there'd be days that you didn't give it a hundred percent and it would show up in your tips. So I think this industry has that same mentality.

Tom Halsnik 14:24

yeah, but, but that's also, you know, you're busting your butt, it becomes normal. You know, it doesn't seem like an effort because that's what you're used to doing. You know, my driver's always, you know, I don't drive that much anymore, but when I do, I get tipped on every single run and they're like, how do you do that? And I'm like, It's because I've done it for so long that it comes naturally for them. They have to think about what they're doing. They have to think about the conversations that they're having. And I try and train them. I'm like, if all you're doing is holding the wheel and taking them from point A to point B, that doesn't deserve an extra tip. It doesn't, you know, engage with them in conversation. Now, some people don't want to, but some people, and most people are inquisitive and curious about the area they're at, what's going on locally, you know, that's the experience part of it.

James Blain 15:52

There's a huge difference, right? And I've talked about this on the podcast before. There's a huge difference between being ready and willing and providing the information and knowing when to do it and then knowing when not to. And you've already nailed it, right? It's reading the room. If you've got, and I talked about it in another One of our episodes, one of my favorite trips ever is one when I didn't talk. Right. And I love the sound of my own voice. I don't know when to shut up. Um, but you know, we were driving back from the airport, right. I was coming back from my very first ever limo show. This is maybe the second or third time I've ever ridden in a limo. And the guy looked in the rear view and he saw I was dead tired. And instead of, you know, he reached for the radio. I'm like, Oh God, he's going to turn up. He turns it down and he lets me kind of relax. You know, that one stood out to me because he read the room. I probably would've had a conversation with him. I don't know that I would've had the energy, but he was reading the room and, you know, that is so important in what we do. Let me ask you, Tom. So you've done training, right? You've got tons of experience. You've, you've come up, you know, as a chauffeur, how do you, what are the tools you use when you're training somebody? How do you get these guys up to speed? How do you help them understand it? And more than just tips, right? For you now as an owner. Those tips that experience that really translates to repeat customers that only want to use your company. So how do you train these guys? What does that look like? What's your formula there?

Tom Halsnik 17:15

Well, I used to train them myself because I had a lot of experience. Okay. And what I realized is they weren't getting consistent training. So, and shameless plug, I started using the PACS training system. Um, and you know, yours was consistent. It's measurable. It was. And when my drivers went through it, they're like, but we already knew this. They're like, this is all the stuff you taught us. And And I'm like, yes, but now I know that you've completed this module in this module. So I know what you've done when I train people, it's like anything, you know, if you're doing, you know, uh, storytelling time, every time you tell it, it's going to be different, you know? And you don't want those inconsistent messages. You want them to have consistent training. And so everybody gets the same message. Everybody gets the same methods, all that kind of stuff. And you know, it's been done because sometimes, you know, and when I train, because it's To me, I think there's a lot of training that goes into this business. So I would only train them on things that they were experiencing at the time, because really it doesn't make sense until you actually experience it, right. Like if you're doing a plain side pickup, well, if you've never done that, why would I tell you about it? So before you do that, I go, okay, this is what you're going to do. This is how you do it. So when they go and they do it, It clicks and everything makes sense. And they go, Oh, okay. Now I know how to do that.

James Blain 18:40

Right. And

Tom Halsnik 18:40

But your system, you know, you get to see it visually and hear it. So, um, you know, I think that makes, you know, makes more sense. Cause I can't. I can't replicate that when I'm training people, I have to wait for it to happen.

James Blain 18:53

let me ask you something. One of the things that has always been huge for me is the shift from a trainer to a coach, right? And that's probably one of the biggest things that we've always strived to give operators or the trainer, whoever's using PAX, is to shift them from being a trainer to a coach. Because if I take you to an airport and I show you the airport and I tell you all about it, and then we leave, I'm not in the position of, okay, here, let's, I want you to, you know, we'll use an FBO. For example, I want you to take this module on the FBO. You're going to see how it's done. You do everything. I'm going to drive over to the FBO. I now want you to walk me through what you do right now. I'm coaching you. I'm not trying to tell you, have you seen that shift in yourself for using that? Have you been able to kind of make that pivot?

Tom Halsnik 19:41

Well, when you said between a trainer and a coach, the thing I was envisioning for a coach is reinforcing those things that they've learned and kind of being more of, um, for lack of a better term, like a cheerleader, like, you know, They know those things and I know they know those things, but when they do a good job and a customer recognizes them for that, make sure you pass it along, you know, make sure you thank them for the work that they did that day. Make sure that, you know, you show appreciation to them. So, you know, because everybody wants to be appreciated and it just develops a better relationship and it reinforces all the things that they've learned, you know?

James Blain 20:19

Oh, absolutely. And, and I've said it before and I'll say it again. We are a firefighting industry, right? As, as owners, a lot of time is spent on what is most on fire right now. And how do I get those flames to die down? And the second, second, I've got this thing under control. It's like, Oh, look, new flames are bursting out over here. And so you really have to make it a point to do that. You, you have to give that brace because if you're running a squeaky wheel company, You're not going to get to where you need to be, right? You're not going to have them really kind of motivated. So is there a certain thing that you found that is kind of like your key to success or kind of what, you know, obviously coming up through that, you've got so many different things to pick from, but is there something specifically where you can point to and say, you know, I wish I would have done that sooner. I wish I would have figured that out sooner.

Tom Halsnik 21:06

I, well, I wish I would have gotten involved with the NLA sooner and go into the shows. I mean, it wasn't until it, believe it or not, I mean, I know a lot of people know who I am in this industry, but I've really worked on my brand and, and, and made myself available and made myself part of conversations. But I really didn't get involved in this until 2017.

James Blain 21:27

Wow.

Tom Halsnik 21:27

member. I did not attend shows. But I wish I would have gotten involved sooner because I thought because I was a chauffeur that I knew the business inside and out. And even though I have a college degree with a, you know, business background and everything like that, things had changed. Okay. Between the time I graduated in 96 till, you know, 2008 when I started my own company. So I was running it, but I was running it based on the knowledge I had as a chauffeur, which is not business, which is not business knowledge. It's customer service knowledge. And I nailed that. Okay, but the accounting, the marketing, the, you know, the finance, all that, I kind of lost touch with all that stuff. So I was running my company and I was just kind of at this plateau and I'm like, why am I not getting to the next level? Why am I just right here? I need to get up here.

James Blain 22:18

Right.

Tom Halsnik 22:18

How do I do that? And it wasn't until I started going to the shows and going to those sessions and getting those little nuggets of knowledge that I would bring back that things started going up, you know, and and that's really what I wish I would've done it sooner, you know?

James Blain 22:34

So you said 2017 is when you joined the NLA. 2008 is when you make the leap, right? So we're talking roughly nine years if I did the math right. So, what do you think you would have been able to do with those nine years if you would have made that leap earlier, if you would have gone and found that? Because it sounds like you were kind of just operating, and we call it kind of operating as an island, right? You kind of had all your knowledge, you kind of had what you're doing, you're operating as an island. What do you think would have changed? Or how do you think, what do you think you could have done different with those nine years or the growth there?

Tom Halsnik 23:05

I probably would have been farther along, you know, I probably, you know, because those were good years, you know, because I started during the recession. So obviously coming out of the recession, those were great years. And even though they were great years, I was just kind of stagnating because of the stuff I didn't know. I probably would have been farther along. Um, I probably would have a larger company. Um, you know, I, I wouldn't have been struggling that's for sure. And not that I was struggling. financially, I was struggling to reach my goals.

James Blain 23:35

will tell you, you know, I have, I have friends in this industry that are one car operators. I have, you know, friends and, in this industry that are, you know, 200, you know, people on their staff, huge companies. And the one thing that I have seen, and even with, you know, the mentors that I have in the industry is a lot of it also comes down to kind of, you know, Personal growth and being able to get to a next level. And I can tell you, one of the things that Brett Barinholtz talked a lot about was mentorship. And I think that's something you're kind of alluding to here is that having those people that have gone down those roads and having them help you is huge. So, you know, one of the neat things though, is you've actually taken a further, because now you're on the membership committee for the NLA, right?

Tom Halsnik 25:24

Right.

James Blain 25:25

So, you know, I guess, let me ask you, if you've got someone listening and they're saying, Hey, I'm not where I want to be in my business. You know, I might be an association. I might not be, what can they start doing that you were able to figure out and do that's going to help them.

Tom Halsnik 25:41

Well, there's a lot to be said for finding somebody that's in a level where you want to be and figuring out what they do, whether either directly or indirectly say, Hey, how did you get to where you're at? Can you help me? It's finding those mentors, you know, because sometimes you don't have to build the bridge. Sometimes you just need somebody to hand you the instructions, you know,

James Blain 26:02

Point, point to it over there. Right. Just you're walking the wrong direction.

Tom Halsnik 26:05

Yeah. And here's the pitfalls. Here's, here's the mistakes I made. Don't do this. Okay. You know, because it is, you know, there's either mentors or, you know, there's peer groups. I mean, there's, there's several peer groups I'm involved in and we talk regularly, there's still pitfalls that we have. There's still issues that we have, and we kind of figure them out. Everybody goes, okay, that's a great idea. I think I'm going to do that. This worked for me. This didn't work. Okay. but when you're an island and you don't know anything and you don't know where to reach out, it's, it's a lonely place,

James Blain 26:36

I can, I can tell you, I think one of the things that I learned early on is that it's really easy to see a problem, solve a problem, see a problem, solve a problem. And sometimes, especially on the bigger problems, you will spend all this time figuring out how to build that bridge. And. You know, you might talk to someone that's been in the industry and they'll be like, Oh, well, you know, you could have crossed the one over there and been done with it. i've been guilty of that. I know my mentor's been guilty of that. and i'm a very type a personality so i'm notorious for doing stuff like that

Tom Halsnik 27:09

right?

James Blain 27:10

so

Tom Halsnik 27:10

we all are. I mean, you know, we all think that we're, you know, the only one that can solve our problems and that's not always the case.

James Blain 27:19

No, it's not. Well, and let me ask you, you also, you know, you're also really involved in a state level, right? Because you're, you're part of the membership committee, which, you know, we're going to keep saying it again and again and again, you guys had a massive win in Florida with being able to get your legislation passed for your permitting. What would you say, you know, what's the difference between the NLA and the state? I hear people say, well, I'm part of the state association. I don't know to be part of the NLA or I'm part of the NLA. So I don't do anything at the state level. Clearly you're really active in both. What's kind of the differences between the two and what's the, what's the benefit you get from each.

Tom Halsnik 27:54

The differences between both of them, the NLA is something where you get a lot of really good business knowledge, the connections that you make in other parts of the country. Those are the folks that you can talk with that give you, you know, unfiltered advice. Okay. Because They don't operate in the same market as you. There's no, there's no silver bullet as to, you know, you know, how to operate in your market. You're not talking with your direct competitors, Right. So the flow of information is much more freer. Um, you know, and when you're talking about a local association, yes, your competitors, but you operate in the same market. So when you put your voice together, you can get things done like we did with the reciprocity bill. Um, Because that was something that had been tried and we've been working on that for probably decades. Um, and you know, when, when you, when you work on local issues, you need local people. to, to work on that stuff. It's not something that the NLA could do and they can't work on every state, every city. It's just not possible. It's not financially possible. It's not physically possible. So in your local one, that's where you handle all that. That's where you want to create your level playing field for everybody. Yes, you can be competitors, but everybody still needs to operate on a reasonable and level playing field. So in the state of Florida, When they first started, and that started as a, as a state, but originally there was very few people that lived in Florida. So what the state did was gave a lot of responsibilities to the counties. Okay. there's 67 counties in the state of Florida because the population is growing and because of technology and because of, you know, where we're at as a society, we connect more. Okay, so a lot of the local jurisdictions, the state needs to take over. So there's more uniformity. Okay. So as the population grows, the state is taking back a lot of this. Um, the, the legislation, the oversight for a lot of those things, and they needed to take it over for the transportation industry. The problem was it was still handled County to County. So there was a lot of conflicting rules, conflicting permitting processes, duplicate processes. For, for companies that were down in the South Florida area, they would have to have 11 different permits on their cars. They had to get permitted for three different airports. Two different cruise ports, drivers would have to get like three different background checks every year at their own expense. It was redundant. It was very redundant. So when we, uh, you know, put the regional associations together into the one FLA, that's when we really found our voice. We were able to hire lobbyists. Um, uh, Randy down in Fort Myers had a connection with one of the legislatures who sponsored our bill. And that's really where it got started. Um, because, and they had always promised, you know, that they were going to get to us. When Uber came in, I went to a lot of those workshops and meetings and I dealt with a lot of the County issues and, and they kept going, well, we got to deal with them right now. Cause this is popular.

James Blain 31:13

Did

Tom Halsnik 31:14

We'll get to you

James Blain 31:14

to them? Did that, did any of the permitting, right? Did they have to have the window stickers or did they just kind of skate through all of it?

Tom Halsnik 31:21

they skated through all of that. They basically wrote their own legislation. They did whatever they wanted to face They had a lot of money to do

James Blain 31:27

right.

Tom Halsnik 31:27

But, but when They got done Yeah, but when they got done, it never got back to us. So that's what we did. We kind of forced the issue and everybody agreed they needed to take care of it. And so we finally, Got, you know, did the right things and got the right people in place, got it done. And so that's what we had passed last year. There's still a little bit of foot dragging and delaying because the counties, you know, the ones that had their own permits had their own inspectors. They had their own infrastructure of people that they employed. To write tickets to do inspections to do all they don't want to give those people up. So, you know, you go, look, you, you've got to do this now. And they're like, well, that's not the way we see it. You know, so there's still our attorney has to deal with them going, yeah, this is the way the bill is written. This is what you need to do. Um, and we're still in that process because, you know, we're, we're to the point now where some of the companies down there have to keep the actual law in their glove box. So when one of the inspectors says, Hey, You know, you're violating this. He'd go here, here's the law that says that I'm permitted in this county and you're supposed to recognize it.

James Blain 32:42

You know, we've seen that happen. There's a couple of things worth mentioning, right? So, so obviously being in training when they did the entry level driver training requirement, um, for new CDL drivers, we saw a lot of similar things. And that in that world, more so than getting rid of people, it was getting people to understand it. So one of the things that the entry level driver training requirement has is if you get a class B for the first time, you upgrade from B to an A, you get an A. Or you do a school bus, a passenger or a hazmat, you have to go through and you have to do entry level driver training. But things like getting an air brake restriction removed, things like that, you don't have to do entry level driver training for. And I would have customers of ours that would say, Hey, I got to get this guy's air brake removed. And I'd say, great, just take him to the DMV, take the vehicle and do it. And the DMVs would say, well, no, you have to do entry level driver training. And so it got to the point where they had to do the same thing, right? They had to go in and say, Hey, we get, you're trying to follow a federal law. But read this pamphlet from FMCSA that says when it applies and just, just be aware this is not a time it applies. And I think the other side of that, and this is something that, that we've seen in our industry before is we also become a source of revenue, right? That they are getting revenue from us in terms of permits. You know, you see the fights happening with congestion pricing in New York. You see things like that. These are, these are revenue generators for the county, for the state, for the airport, for the city, for whoever's

Tom Halsnik 34:13

We've moved past safety to the traveling public and gone into direct revenue generating. Yeah.

James Blain 34:20

Yeah. And, and it, you know, you kind of seen the same thing happen, right? You know, we, you see, you know, speeding tickets or DUI checkpoints, you see these things, yeah, they, they serve a good purpose to society, but at certain points in times, there's also an argument to be made of if it's not done in service of the public and service of safety, then at that point it becomes revenue generation. And as we've kind of seen with some of these industry disruptors, TNCs and whatnot, sometimes they're able to use money to grease the wheels to not have to kind of get it paid one piece at a time. They're able to come in and get sweeping legislation and write one big check. So let me ask you what, you know, it sounds like I already know the answer of, of, you know, was it worth it for you guys? I feel like the answer is yes. You know, you are making progress. Thank you.

Tom Halsnik 35:11

Yeah. We're definitely making progress.

James Blain 35:12

One of the things I hear, especially with the little guys is I don't have time to be involved in that. That's bigger than me. The bigger guys are going to take care of it. It's going to get done. I'm too small for it to matter. I'm too early on in the business. You know, you hear all those little island mentality things. Um,

Tom Halsnik 35:28

you can't see the forest for the trees kind of

James Blain 35:30

yes, yes. So, so I guess what would you say to that person, right? Obviously, you know, for you, it's been huge being involved in these associations, a big part of getting where you're getting. What would you say to that person that still got that mentality

Tom Halsnik 35:44

They're probably not going to see it until they run into a problem like what I did.

James Blain 35:47

until you hit the tree?

Tom Halsnik 35:49

Yeah, you hit the wall. You're like, what am I, what am I missing?

James Blain 35:53

Right.

Tom Halsnik 35:54

and some people will never get it. They'll drop out of the business or they'll just stay at the level they're at. And some people will be like, there's got to be more. I've got to find the answer. And then they'll get to that next level. On the local level, we'll, we're trying to reach them and, and explain to them the benefits of being, you know, a part of. The NLA or the FLA, um, you know, a lot of it is what we're trying to do is do more social media stuff to where there's more engagement because we're such a large state. Um, we can only get together like twice a year. So. You know, we, and we need to create more value for people to become members and show them here's the value of being a part of this. So we need to get more engagement. And I think, you know, we're all on our phones. We're all connected through social media. So I think doing that reaches those people who are, they're in their cars, they're waiting in the cell phone lot, you know, they're waiting outside of a restaurant for a client. Well, they can engage right from there. You know, so that's one of the things that I've been working on developing is, is having those, those mechanisms to discuss business things all the time, you know, and hoping that, you know, somebody will be like, wow, that I, I learned something. I didn't, I didn't know that I'm going to, I'm going to use that, you know, and then they start getting it and they start because let's face it, you know, rising tide raises all boats and that's what we want to do. You know, because it's the people who don't know what they're doing. That's given our industry kind of a, you know, a bad look, you know, there are people are confused between us and the TNCs.

James Blain 37:29

And I think you've hit on something that's really important, right? And that's the, the rising tide lifts all boats. I think we are at a point in the industry where anybody that's got a scarcity mentality is at a disadvantage because I think we've, when you know, when I first got into the industry, yeah, I remember, and Bruce has told this story on the podcast before, right? You know, we, we had a guy come to our booth. I got 75 idiots, right? How can, how can you fix them? And we were in shock. And. The, the size of the industry, the shape of the industry, the look of the industry has changed. And we're at a point right now where the industry is stronger working together. Yeah. You might have some overlap in business. Yeah. I might take some of your business. You might take some of mine, but overall, what we're seeing is in the markets where, you know, and, and obviously, you know, you there's rules to be followed, but in the markets where the companies are getting together, they're saying, Hey. You know, I've got overflow at this time. You've got overflow at that time, right? I'm going to need affiliate. You're going to need affiliate. You have vehicles that you have available that I don't have in those markets where they're working together. They're able to do a couple things. The first is they've got a really tight grip on quality. Right. Because they knew who they're using, uh, nothing. And, and we talked about this with another association recently. One of the things that absolutely just crushes my soul is when I see someone get on Facebook and just blindly who's here and they take the first option. There's no vetting. There's no nothing now. Hey, I'm all for connecting. I'm all for getting online. I'm all for finding new people. But I can't tell you how many times you'll see someone get on and go, Hey, I need something in two hours in this place. And the very first person that comments is getting the work. You know, I, if you think about that from the side of your client, I don't care if it's a motor coach, I don't care if it's an SUV, I don't care what it is. If we get there, right. And it's complete train wreck. Ultimately. We're not going to be mad at the affiliate because we trusted you to take care of us. And so I think that's, that's something that I see a lot and that I don't, I

Tom Halsnik 39:41

hope that they're not doing that. Like the first answer. I would hope they're doing a little bit more vetting. I mean, I know I do. Sometimes it's easier to post and get responses than it is to start making 50 phone calls. And I look at who's recommending who, and have I heard of that company or that ownership before, you know, because sometimes, and this happens a lot. I mean, we're all connected on Facebook by the owner's name. I don't even know half the company names that, that they even own. So I don't even know what city they're in sometimes, but, Oh yeah, I know this guy. I've heard of them. Oh yeah. Okay. So sometimes it's just a quicker way to get a response, especially if you're looking something within a couple hours. Because let's face it, it could take you a while to make phone calls for that.

James Blain 40:26

no, absolutely. And I think part of that, and this is something that we talked a lot about when, when I was talking with that other association was, you know, having a process to vet them. You know, PAX training, if you go on to our website, you go into resources. There's a company directory. You can see point blank. Are they an active PAX training member? Right? You can do the same thing in the NLA's directory, right? You can do the same thing across various different methods to try and vet them. Now, you know, is that is that going to be? You know, better or worse than, you know, all of the other methods out there. It depends on what you're trying to figure out, but you've got to decide what that process looks like and you've got to have it in place.

Tom Halsnik 41:01

That's part of that cross reference vetting though, too. I mean, yes, somebody is going to give you a name and a number, you know, on, on, on social media, but you know, yeah, you should be going to those places to double check if they're a member. Are they a PAX train? Are they doing this? You know, those kinds of things. What software are they using? All those things are great.

James Blain 41:20

Well, and I, I think there's something to be said also about the relationships that you build. Right. I think knowing, because one of the things that I see online a lot as well is when something goes wrong, the way that that owner at that company is going to handle it is completely different. And especially if you have someone, you have a relationship, you have someone, you know, they're going to do whatever it takes to make it right. That's completely different than if you've got someone that you've done minimal bedding, right? You don't know anything about them. If I know that even if something does go wrong, you're going to bend over backwards in your market to take care of it. That's what becomes a huge deal. And I'm sure that's something that you was important to you guys having started kind of in that world. And obviously I don't want you to throw yourself under a bus. wAs there ever a time when you were kind of early on and you guys were You know, in that place, getting that work where you guys were able to go above and beyond, or maybe you had to jump in and do something and it turned a, it turned a corner or turned the tide for you.

Tom Halsnik 42:23

There was a lot of times that, you know, you would do something you've never done before and it worked out. And then there was some times that didn't quite work out. And, you know, you knew you were in over your head. Um, but it's nice to have those relationships to be able to reach out and go, Hey, I'm having a problem, you know, can you help me, you know, and having those relationships with the other people that you're working with, because, you know, at the end of the day, it's all about the customer and it's all about the result. It's not about how you got there. You know, so if you're having difficulties, let somebody know about it, you know, cause you may not be able to solve the problem, but they may be able to fix the problem on their end, you know? So it's having that collaboration with the people you're getting the work from, you know, that really helps and being honest,,

James Blain 43:09

that's probably one of the biggest things. When I talk to people about things that go wrong with affiliates, a lot of times the lack of honesty and transparency, you know, I, and it's really funny, you know, Brett Berenthold set up, you know, all I care about with my affiliates, I'm not worried about price. Don't screw up my client. Right? And if something goes wrong, you call me, you tell me we start fixing it. Now. I don't want to find out later. Right. I think that to me is huge because we're in a logistics industry. You got to have the right guy in the right car at the right place at the right time, saying the right thing, doing the right thing, and it doesn't always work out. And so I think

Tom Halsnik 43:45

And we all know things are going to happen, you know, and it's not, you know, I always tell people, I'm like, when you have a service failure, it's not usually one thing that happens. It's usually. Two, three or four things in a row that happened that you couldn't possibly predict that that's what screws it up. You can only hope that you have a good enough relationship with that client to seek forgiveness, you know?

James Blain 44:08

Well, and I think that goes back and I feel like kind of our theme here is. Join your association, right? Because a lot of that goes back to if you're parts of these associations, if you spent the time with these, you know, operators, if you've built those relationships, it's a completely different experience when you know the person on the other side of the phone, right? When you've spent time with them, when you've had lunch or dinner or whatever it might be with them, there's a much bigger attachment than somebody with a random account that came to them through the internet.

Tom Halsnik 44:37

Yes. But on the other side, there's also the drivers. And if they're not properly trained or they're not using packs, you know, they should be also communicating with their office or whoever that, you know, either things are on track or things are off track and you need to know about it because I'm behind schedule. You know, an accident happened. I'm stuck on a bridge, you know, any number of those things, because if they're not honest with you, you can't really fix the problem. And they're the ones on the front line.

James Blain 45:06

and, and there's two parts to that, right? When we talk about that, you know, cause we do dispatcher, we do CSR training. As the chauffeur, you two things as an owner, you can't make an environment where they're scared. If they're scared to tell you something's gone wrong, they're not going to tell you and it's going to make more things go wrong. So as an owner, as an operator, you've got to have an environment where if something goes wrong, You understand you give them a little bit of grace that chauffeurs got to understand that if something's going wrong, if they see something they need to be proactive and they need to get ahead of it. And then, as a dispatcher, your dispatchers have got to be watching that board, right? If they see, hey, this is running over this turned into an as directed, you know, something's happened. I know there's no way that. You know, my chauffeur in 53, it can't possibly get across town to get to the next pickup that dispatcher, whether or not that chauffeur is called, whether or not they've even figured it out. If you, as the dispatcher, don't figure that out and rework it, or if you, as the owner, don't have dispatchers that figured out and rework it, that's where you start getting those cascading failures that you've talked about. And having a team that has that little bit of productivity and foresight is huge. And I talk about all the time. Training is proactive. If you're not proactively training and teaching and developing people, and like you said earlier, ongoing, being a coach, that's where you start to see those types of failures.

Tom Halsnik 46:37

Yeah. But, and also too, it's not just the, you know, as it's happening kind of coordination, it's the pre trip planning too, because somebody should be doing a schedule that gives the driver a chance to make things happen. If you're not leaving enough time in between, if you're not leaving enough time for a flight to be late or accounting for traffic, you know, the driver can't possibly be. Successful if the schedule is not done right now, things will happen, you know, and that's where there's a little bit of experience that goes into that, you know, trip planning stuff. But the driver should also be looking at it too. I mean, I'm guilty of it too. I've done schedules and I'm like, yeah, that should work. And then the driver calls me up and he's done a little trip planning. He goes, you know, I looked this up and I'm not so sure. And I've had to go, you know, I think you're right. You know, but there's that conversation that needs to happen in that pre trip planning. I think a lot of people don't even do anymore,

James Blain 47:33

Now, and it's funny because, you know, now we're, we've, we've hit my home territory, right? Now we're hitting me where I live. We got to be careful or we'll end up recording a whole nother. Second part of this episode makes a two hour episode, but it absolutely comes down to that because you've got to think about every link in the chain, if it breaks the whole chain falls. Right. And so as that driver, as that chauffeur, right, whoever you call them, whatever, you've got that set up as they plan their day out, they need to be looking at the routes. They need to be looking at what's going on. They're the

Tom Halsnik 48:05

job and the next job,

James Blain 48:07

Yeah, and then same thing with the dispatcher. The night before when the dispatcher was planning that out, they've got to do it. And, you know, especially if you deal with airports, one of the interesting things about our industry is it doesn't matter if the flight's delayed 20 minutes or two hours. Most passengers are still going to expect you to be out there waiting for them. Why? Because they don't care about any other trip you're doing. It doesn't matter if it's a bus and there's 50 people coming, or if it's a car and it's just one person. They assume they're your only passenger. They assume no one else matters but them.

Tom Halsnik 48:44

and that's, that's the problem I have when you hire TNC drivers is because they have that taxi mentality. The only thing they care about is the job that they're on. And when it's done, they're like, okay, what's next? I'm like, you're in the limousine business. You're not only doing this job, you're monitoring the next job and the traffic to get to the next job and the flight for that next job. There's a lot going on and, and. If you're not trained properly, you're not setting yourself up or the company up to be successful either. You should be looking ahead.

James Blain 49:13

I think one of the big things there, you know, I, I grew up as a boy scout, right? I had be prepared beat into me. I, I mean, I, I travel, I gotta, I've literally got a small umbrella in my backpack. Why? Because I know that if I'm in Florida, it's going to rain. And if I'm in California where it never rains in Southern California, the one day I'm there, it'll rain to remind me, be prepared. I

Tom Halsnik 49:34

I'm probably the only one. I store emergency ponchos in the glove box.

James Blain 49:39

but, but a lot of that that's foresight, right? And I can tell you one of my favorite limo stories. Um, Was, you know, we had an operator, uh, that was doing a funeral and during the funeral, it started raining and, you know, the chauffeurs were over the vehicles, right? He all of the transportation was over there and, you know, the owner happened to be there on this one. He said, guys, grab the umbrellas, everybody grabbed an umbrella. I don't want a single head over there getting red and everybody grabs the umbrellas and they run over and they do it. Look, they could

Tom Halsnik 50:09

Yep.

James Blain 50:10

could have just gotten the vehicle and not got wet, but they understood that, Hey, their preparation and taking care of those people on that day is going to gain them a client for

Tom Halsnik 50:19

100%. Done that exact situation. Yep.

James Blain 50:22

So, so as we kind of wrap up, you know, I kind of want to ask you what, you know, and, and obviously we've talked about associations, but. If there was one thing you could go back, right. You know, and, and you can tell me at what point you go back to, right. Whether it's when you're driving, you know, the guys that started out back, whether it's when you first started driving, but if you could hop in the DeLorean, right back to the future and go back in time, catch yourself and say, Hey. Here's your Ray's Almanac, right? Here's your secret that you need to know. What would you go tell yourself?

Tom Halsnik 50:54

I probably would say just to get involved earlier, much sooner than I did. You know, I mean, that, that's really about it. I mean, I love the industry and I don't know that I would. Go back and say, hey, don't do that, you know, because I've realized there's a certain personality and we all have it. We all like to, you know, have our hair on fire. You don't know what's going next. I mean, I always tell people, I'm like. There is no way I could sit in a cubicle and do the same thing every day. from nine to five. I would kill myself. I love, I love the randomness of it. I love you never know what's going to happen. The stressful situations, the, you know, the, the resolution of certain events, the fact that you, you have a beginning, middle and an end, like some people, their job, they do the same thing month after month, year after year. There's no beginning. There's no end. I'm like, there's nothing. Be satisfied about with me. There's with this business. It's like everything has a story. Every having has a beginning, middle and end, whether it's a convention, a wedding, an airport trip, there's always a beginning and a middle and an end and getting to the end is so satisfying, especially when it's successful and the people like love it and they write good reviews about you and you know, all that stuff that's satisfying. I can't imagine working in an office where, you know, you get your employee review every six months and they go, yep, great job. CNN six months later.. I love that daily, like, you know, affirmation for lack of a better term, you know, that things were successful, it's intoxicating.

James Blain 52:29

think, for me, I, I, I relate to that completely. I, I don't know that I could do the cubicle ever again. Once, once I got that small business bug, once you're solving problems, you're constantly growing. For me, at least, one of the biggest things is I always loved Jim Rohn. And one of his famous quotes is it's not what you're getting. It's what you're becoming. And I can tell you if I'd, if I'd spent that, and I've been in the industry almost 10 years, right? Not even holding a candle to you yet. I'm just trying to be like you, Tom, but you know, almost 10

Tom Halsnik 53:00

before you know it.

James Blain 53:02

for me though. It was, I just, I don't think I would have grown that much as a person if I'd been sitting in a cubicle. I think having, you know, being involved in the industry, having a business has helped me grow. And it sounds like you're kind of in that same boat.

Tom Halsnik 53:16

And people that don't own businesses have no idea what we go through.

James Blain 53:20

Oh no, no. I, you know, I've, I've mentioned it before. My, my father in law loves to say that, you know, he started his business in his basement. He had pretty, you know, practically nothing. At one point he was living in a corner of his His business and people will come up to him now and go, Oh, you're, you're an overnight success. And he goes, yeah, but you didn't get to see how long the night was, you know, they didn't get to see the 15, 20, 30 years of hitting my head on the wall, wondering whether or not this is a good choice. So

Tom Halsnik 53:50

you know, inventors that say, yeah, everybody remembers your success, but they never remember how many times you failed to get to that success.

James Blain 53:58

absolutely, absolutely. Well, I, Tom, you know, obviously we're, I'm lucky enough to call you one of my friends, so we could do this all day. I can't thank you enough for coming on. Um, you know, obviously I think we'll have to do another call. I think,

Tom Halsnik 54:15

uh, I was just going to say, I'd love to do it again.

James Blain 54:18

yeah, no, I would love to have you on for another episode. I know that obviously, you know, you and I. Get to do all kinds of cool stuff together. Maybe we can do a live episode somewhere at one of the association events. thank you to everybody for listening again. I've got, you know, Tom Halsnick over at wall show for transportation in Tampa with me. So I'm super excited to have him. Um, Man, anything else you want to leave us with before we check out

Tom Halsnik 54:41

I would just say get involved. If you're passionate about your industry, then be passionate about it. Don't just be your own Island. You're never going to, you're never going to be successful. If you're your own Island, get involved with the rest of the group. You're going to love it.

James Blain 54:55

and subscribe to the podcast?

Tom Halsnik 54:57

And subscribe to the podcast. Click the link above here, Down

James Blain 55:01

Down below around. No, absolutely. I think, I think that's probably the most solid advice we could end with is get off your Island.

Tom Halsnik 55:07

Yeah,

James Blain 55:08

All right. Well, thanks again, Tom. Thank you everybody for listening. We hope you'll join us again on the ground transportation podcast.

55:14

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.