Ken Lucci: 0:00

I have a, a client that I, I haven't done work for him in a, in a while. Back in the day I visited him and he's like, geez, you know, I, I've got a terrible driver turnover problem, and I don't know why. Well, one day I was in his office, I actually had to use the bathroom and I had to go past the dispatch department, and his general manager was screaming at the top of his lungs

James Blain: 0:21

down.

Ken Lucci: 0:21

and, and there was a group of drivers, you know, kind of at the window kind of a thing. And I went back to my, I, I said, I know exactly why you losing drivers. Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to another exciting episode of the Ground Transportation Podcast. My name is Ken Luci from Driving Transactions. We are a financial analysis and m and a advisory service, and I am so happy to have my talented co-host with me,

James Blain: 1:14

up with me.

Ken Lucci: 1:15

uh, with James Blaine from P'S training. I've gotta tell you, I've done a couple of solo episodes and our producers, John, has been practically in tears, number one because I think they're that bad. And number two, because he's missed you.

James Blain: 1:29

Yeah.

Ken Lucci: 1:30

So, I'm, speaking to you today from a new office. We're a little bit bigger and brighter this year for 2026, and I thought we would talk about, this, this episode, one of the first of 2026, the abysmal. The abysmal world we live in as it comes to customer service

James Blain: 1:51

Oh,

Ken Lucci: 1:52

more importantly, hospitality. I feel, I feel, confident that our industry could hit it out of the park compared to the other transportation alternatives if we focused and understood the difference between service and hospitality. Uh, over the holiday break. I was telling you before we started the recording that I went to Best Buy, don't blink. Bleep. Don't bleep that out, John. They're not gonna be a sponsor. Um,

James Blain: 2:21

But Best Buy If you do wanna get it together and you do

Ken Lucci: 2:24

if you do, we will,

James Blain: 2:26

we will help fix your problem.

Ken Lucci: 2:28

I went into Best Buy because my iPad is old and I stood there for 15 minutes, couldn't get anybody to help me. Walked around to two, three different people and they were too busy to help me. And you know, I see why people are going

James Blain: 2:41

hold on. Too busy with customers or too busy with Instagram.

Ken Lucci: 2:45

No, couldn't even find them. The, the upfront, the cashier, you know, the line was fairly big. And I said to the cashier, is there anybody working the floor? And it was like, I was bothering her. Like I asked her, you know, who's outside getting the carriages out of the parking lot? I don't know. And then, right before the, the holiday break, I had forgotten my buds at the house. So I said, you know what? It's gonna be easier for me to go to Staples. I go to Staples. Of course, now everything, they're fear for fear of shoplifting. Nothing is out front. Uh uh, that's this expensive. And so it takes you 10 minutes to find someone. I found someone in the aisle next door, and she's like, well, I don't know anything about that. I'm like, and then I waited in line.

James Blain: 3:29

did she at least end with, but let me get someone to help her, or is it

Ken Lucci: 3:32

No, no, she didn't. She didn't. And then I, after I did finally get. a cheaper version of these. I stood in line and I swear to you, I've been to real estate closings or purchased cars and at the transaction time has been less. It was incredible to me. So it got me thinking about in our industry, how important it is for operators to understand that number one service is what we do, but hospitality is how we make people feel, and it costs us absolutely nothing. To leave people with an unbelievable impression and feeling extremely positive about what we do. But do you share my, concern that the state of customer service and hospitality is literally, it's worse to me. It's, it's absolutely worse than right after the pandemic. It's gotten it right after the pandemic. I felt it was terrible because everybody's like, I can't find anybody to work. And, and you felt like saying, oh my God, I better not say anything at all because, getting my food in 20 minutes rather than not getting my food at all at a restaurant is a good idea. I mean, what, what do you think about the state of service and hospitality and is it a, is it a way for us to differentiate and grow, market share compared to the other options that are out there?

James Blain: 4:59

I think it's just you. I think we have the best customer service here in the United States. The best ever. No, I'm just kidding.

Ken Lucci: 5:05

Well, I do have a t-shirt that says, stay away from me. I'm a grumpy old bastard, but I,

James Blain: 5:11

no, look. Here's the thing. I think regardless of what industry you're in, regardless of what you're talking about, customer service has gone to crap. Like across the board? I think retail and food service industry and probably the hotel industry are the ones where I see it day to day the most because

Ken Lucci: 5:32

yeah.

James Blain: 5:32

the road.

Ken Lucci: 5:33

Yep.

James Blain: 5:33

I can tell you right now, I think the biggest thing that I am seeing across the board is that common courtesy is not common courtesy anymore. And I can tell you that I think we've seen a massive shift in culture of the country. And maybe, maybe this is global, but you know, I was talking to someone the other day about hiring, when I was taught about hiring, it was, you need to be there 15 minutes early. You need to be dressed like you're interviewing for CEO.

Ken Lucci: 6:08

Sure.

James Blain: 6:08

need to put everything behind it. And they were complaining to me that they had people that were showing up every day for their interviews, just looking like they always do, and they could care less. And they're just going through the motions. And I think a lot of this is trickling down through every portion of society.

Ken Lucci: 6:29

So you're saying that they're interviewing for jobs and they're not dressing up, right? They're just coming in off the street, like they're regular street clothes. Yeah. Right. If, if they even show up.

James Blain: 6:41

coming outta COVID, I did a presentation at one of the shows. It was one of the opening sessions. So one of the things that we talked about was. What we have seen happen is the number of no-shows. The way that things have shifted, there is a canary in the coal mine of what's happening because if I've gotta fight to get you into a job interview, right? And I'm fighting to get job applicants, now what we're seeing is the cream that's rising to the top is thinner and thinner and

Ken Lucci: 7:12

Right, right.

James Blain: 7:14

see happen, and I see this happen all the time, is we are a butts in seats industry, but it's not just the transportation industry. Everyone has to have these job roles to fill. So when your best choice is getting thinner and thinner and thinner, you start having to say, well, you know, we're still gonna take like the top third. Even if it's only the top 10%. That's good. Now you're taking the top 30. So 20% of the people you hired, you wouldn't have hired before,

Ken Lucci: 7:44

You, you wouldn't even look, have looked at them. Now you're forced to.

James Blain: 7:48

Now what are you gonna do? Well, I gotta fill

Ken Lucci: 7:49

Is it a permanent, in your mind? Is it a permanent situation and what can operators do about it?

James Blain: 7:54

So a couple things. So I think the single most important thing that you have to do is you have to view this as a self weeding out culture. Look, I gotta tell you, I don't care what business you have, if you have a large scale business, you're always gonna have a certain set of apples that are rotten. Every harvest has the, the

Ken Lucci: 8:16

Sure,

James Blain: 8:17

harvest.

Ken Lucci: 8:18

sure.

James Blain: 8:18

hardest part for any business owner is to go through that harvest and say, well, I'm gonna draw the line here. Because we start looking at now, well, if I don't have enough drivers, I can't fulfill trips or I'd have to farm out, or I'd have to do this, I'd have

Ken Lucci: 8:34

Are you saying lower your standards?

James Blain: 8:36

Hell no. saying you have to raise your standards to a point where if it comes down to. might not be able to do as many trips this year, but I know that every single trip I'm gonna do is perfect. You will often have to see when, because here's what typically happens, typically life. Imitates business. So if you're anything like me, you have your office, you're working in your office, all that. If you don't, once a year clean the clutter. Like for me, I Spring cleaning is built in. Yeah, Ken, you got a whole brand new one. But for me in the springtime and kind of the like, this is where it starts for me. I'm looking at the business, I'm looking at my office, I'm looking at my personal life. I'm throwing stuff out, I'm evaluating how do we do where we go. And so you almost always have to have, you're gonna have a period of growth and then you have to have a period of clean out. In our business, I'm the

Ken Lucci: 9:32

Yeah.

James Blain: 9:33

guy, right? Because here's what happens in 95% of businesses, there's a big boom in transportation. You hire a ton of people, we're getting'em on the road as fast as we can. We gotta meet the standard, we gotta do all that. And then at some point, your number of accidents, your number of instance, your number of problems, spikes. And then that's when I get the call of, Hey James, you know, we've been using pacs, but we hired a bunch of people and we rushed'em all through and now we've gotta do the training, and now you've gotta come back and clean up. kind of the typical cycle that a lot of companies, a lot of people follow. What you have to keep in mind is you have to also do that with culture and with service and with expectation and everything else. And there's a lot of companies that let their service go to crap that don't come back and fix it. And I think the culture now that we're fighting is a national, if not a global culture of meh.

Ken Lucci: 11:43

Well, you know, you, you hit upon something and you took it really, really where I wanted to go with it. because I'm not an operator and because even though many of my clients think I am, I don't work seven days a week. So I have, even though some of my clients think I do, and they'll call you at nine o'clock at night, I get the one, one of the clients the other day that we both know and love. He sent me a text message at nine 15 and the next day I called him back. He said, what do you, don't you go to bed early? I'm like, I was in bed at eight 50. I was in bed an hour before you sent me that text. Anyway, you are taking this where I wanted you to go because I have time. I am fascinated by reading entrepreneurial books,

James Blain: 12:25

Yeah.

Ken Lucci: 12:26

especially on customer service, especially on, on success stories in, in the hospitality space. So obviously we're all, we're huge fans of the Ritz Carlton. I did not realize. That Chick-fil-A, when they had a thousand stores, they had grown to a thousand stores. The founder was worried because he went to a few stores and he's like, wow, service is a little rough. They brought in the Ritz Carlton. The Ritz Carlton created what? What, um, Chick-fil-A calls their core for. Okay. And I didn't realize that. So it's make eye contact,

James Blain: 13:09

Yep,

Ken Lucci: 13:09

smile, projecting warmth and friendliness. Speak enthusiastically, stay connected with pleasure, going the extra mile by personalizing the experience. And you notice they always ask your first name, right?

James Blain: 13:23

it's the most beautiful thing you can hear is your own name.

Ken Lucci: 13:27

Exactly, and they always, so the four, those are the four core, but you hit upon something their broader company values. They brought in the Ritz Carlton to overhaul their culture, and basically they created an internal set of values. Serve, placing the guest and team members first, better together, fostering teamwork, purpose-driven, connecting daily work to creating a positive impact. Pursue what's next, adapt and innovate, character and integrity or key, building leadership through heart, grit, and mutual respect, and then excellence, providing the highest quality product and nourishment and service. when I read that, that they had brought in the Ritz Carlton, it made sense to me because, you know, let's face it. Chick-fil-A's got Competition, right. Popeye's, and if you can call it that, Popeye's and KFC,

James Blain: 14:33

Especially on Sunday.

Ken Lucci: 14:34

Right. Exact that. Right, exactly. Because they've chosen, known to be. So

James Blain: 14:39

Yep.

Ken Lucci: 14:39

made the conscious decision as a company in a space that's very difficult to hire in, to create a culture of high quality and to create those four core s service, um, service elements, if you will. The other one that, that I recently talked about is I read a book called Setting the Table. I believe his name is Danny Meyer. Danny Meyer's a restaurateur, and he file, he, he, founded Shake Shack and

James Blain: 15:15

Yeah.

Ken Lucci: 15:16

Setting the table by Danny Meyer. And he, there's three core things. Service is what we do. Hospitality is how we make the customer feel. The team comes before the customer. And I felt this resonated with me because I think you and I have talked about this before, operators that treat their chauffeurs badly, or perhaps dispatchers who treat their chauffeurs and CDLs badly, and in the setting the table, Danny Meyer talks about the team comes before the customer. You have to treat them well in order for them to deliver the kind of service that you want. So always boost them morale. Always, increase or speak to their personal dignity. things like publishing the schedule early, trying to accommodate people's schedules and time off celebrate wins publicly and bonus people out for going above and beyond. And he spoke of culture as a constant gentle pressure, meaning continuing to reinforce best in class performance. So you, you hit the nail on the head when you, when you talked about culture, but I guess my question to you is how do operators look? We are facing unprecedented disruption and you know, we've got more coming with autonomous vehicles, but Uber and Lyft are doubling down on getting our corporate clients. How can operators use. The absolute horrible customer service in hospitality world that we're all experiencing worldwide. How can you, be the bright spot in the day of the client? How do you do? How do you do that?

James Blain: 17:00

Well, all right, so let's, rewind for a second because you've, you've kind of set a stage here that is really important because one of the things that a lot of these guys talk about, and you see it in the E-Myth, you see it in all these, is you have the owner and then one day the owner comes in and they change a bunch of stuff, and then they leave,

Ken Lucci: 17:19

Sure.

James Blain: 17:19

And then the new employee looks at the manager's like, who the hell was that? Oh, that's the owner of the company.

Ken Lucci: 17:24

And this is the latest idea.

James Blain: 17:25

yeah, don't, don't worry about all the stuff they said. We're just gonna keep doing what we're doing. Right. everybody likes to think that's not their company. That usually is every larger company that I visit the point, right, to the point where I've been on site with people helping them develop a training and somebody goes, Hey, we're gonna do this training on, you know, we're gonna help our customer service reps. I want you to just answer the phone. You're gonna answer the phone like you normally do. Just do your regular thing. And the person you know, hey, blah, blah, blah. They do the thing, they answer the phone and everyone goes, what the hell was that? What did you just do? I didn't teach. That's not how we do this. And the employee looks at them like they're on drugs. Well, yeah, that's how I was taught. That's how we all do it. What do you mean that's how you all do it? We're supposed to do it like this and this and this. The owner's disconnected. Because at a certain point you have to start delegating doubt and you can't micromanage. And the vision of what the owner of the company thinks is happening and what is actually happening on the front line,

Ken Lucci: 19:34

Two different things.

James Blain: 19:35

line up and in transportation. We love to think like, oh, this isn't rocket science. I give the guy the keys. I tell him to wear a suit or you know, I send him in my prevo, I have him get dressed, I put him in the bus, or hey, this is a shuttle. It runs a fixed loop. Or hey, you know, all you do is strap the wheelchair down. I don't care what industry vertical you're in, it doesn't change. Go

Ken Lucci: 19:56

so what You, wait a minute, what you're saying is people are not inspecting, what they expect they, they make an assumption that certain things are happening and they're not.

James Blain: 20:06

I think it's, it's something different than that. I don't think it's that they're not inspecting what they expect. you a great example. I worked with my father-in-law for years and years and years. This is the man that we talk about all the time in the podcast, right? Completely different. He's in the ag industry. He has taught me more about entrepreneurialship than probably any one person. But one of the things that I used to see him do a lot and that I try not to do, is he has an expectation of how it's gonna be done. He knows how he wants it done. He knows how it should be done. He doesn't do a good enough job in communicating the exact

Ken Lucci: 20:44

Sure.

James Blain: 20:45

of how we do that. He

Ken Lucci: 20:46

Sure.

James Blain: 20:47

all right, you go step one, you step two, you step three, you go step four, you're done. And he, he breaks it down into like the four pieces. He do it, this is a 20 step process, and he just did it in four. And then he is like, all right, it's not hard. You know how to do it. And he leaves and then he comes back and it's not done the way he wanted it and expected it to be done. And I see that happen a lot, that we have this i, call it oversimplification. When you and I did that intensive for, um, the TT a out in Boston. And one of the things that I talked about in my session there was you have this point where you oversimplify things. So I remember when my kid came to me and he goes, Hey, dad has an engine and a car work. And I went, ah, suck, squeeze, bang, blow. It's that easy. And he's like, what, what, what, what do we mean? And I'm like, yeah, the air comes in, the fuel comes in, the spark goes boom, and all of a sudden there's power. And he's like. Uh, what dude, your engine has like a thousand pieces in it. For me. It's easy to explain it like that because when I was a kid, I went to mechanic school. I wanted to grow up to be a mechanic, not where I landed. But for me, an engine is a really simple thing. But then my son goes, well, how do you capture the explosion? How do you time the explosion? Where does the air come in? Well now we gotta talk about the whole intake track and we gotta talk. But the more time you spend on a topic, the more time you work on something, the simpler it becomes. I remember when I was learning how to play hockey, I was talking to a former ECHL player. This guy played hockey for a living. And I said, Hey, can you tell me how to shoot the puck? And he goes, I don't know. You just get it on a stick and you just fling it in. to him it's that easy. Right. That's the whole thing. Well, how far back do you pull it? Well, where are your hands? Well, and now all of a sudden he's thinking about it. He's looking at it, he's figuring it out. We see the same thing happen in business. And so it's not necessarily a, they're not inspecting what they expect. A lot of times it's, they've reached the point of oversimplification. They're not realizing that if you want something done, you have to systematize it. And I can, I would love to get your

Ken Lucci: 22:55

Mm-hmm.

James Blain: 22:56

on this,'cause I bet you see this all the time. But what I found is the companies that truly are able to scale to multiple cities and multiple locations

Ken Lucci: 23:07

Everything is his system.

James Blain: 23:09

It's a playbook. It's a systematized playbook.

Ken Lucci: 23:12

Yep.

James Blain: 23:13

that said, I have seen very, very, very many companies that are one big, huge location that are literally seat of the pants of the owner. But the problem

Ken Lucci: 23:24

Yeah,

James Blain: 23:25

you remove that owner. of a

Ken Lucci: 23:27

sure.

James Blain: 23:28

you have a plane that

Ken Lucci: 23:29

I.

James Blain: 23:29

else knows how to fly with

Ken Lucci: 23:32

Right,

James Blain: 23:32

of complexity. And

Ken Lucci: 23:34

right.

James Blain: 23:34

like if Boeing said, we've got this brand new plane, we've got three pilots that know how to fly it. They're

Ken Lucci: 23:40

Sure.

James Blain: 23:40

it for these airlines. We're never gonna make a manual. And they're insanely complicated. That's what I see in business.

Ken Lucci: 23:46

Listen, that's not just our industry. I'm convinced that it's, it's pretty much all small business to a certain, at a certain level. Sadly, I've seen many, I mean, I, I say a certain level, I mean a certain number of transactions per day or per month, and a certain amount of revenue. But I see companies that are way above that threshold where the owner is still doing everything or, or, or they're focused on two or three things that are not a good use of their time.

James Blain: 24:17

Right.

Ken Lucci: 24:17

So, you know,

James Blain: 24:19

Well, you talked about the guy that did the books, right? He was doing his own books. He was taking his

Ken Lucci: 24:23

He was doing his own, he was doing in his own books Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and during primetime selling time. And he's wondering, he doesn't have time to go to MPI meetings, doesn't have time, time to go to the Chamber of Commerce, doesn't have time to go to the GBTA. And he wonders why business isn't growing. You know, from a perspective of customer service, I think you hit upon something that's pretty important. Secret Shop your own company, secret shop your own company, or have someone else, okay, that knows what you do, secret shop your company, make it, reservation, you know, customer service. I think I, I hate to say it, I don't like using the term customer service. I like in as far as our industry, I like the term hospitality because it is critically important that when you have so many modes and methods of competition, okay, let's just take airport. I can drive myself. I can have my neighbor drive me. I can have a local taxi guy drive me. Okay? or TNC, Or don't forget the illegal operator that's on Facebook to me. We have gotta hit it out of the park on hospitality. And we've gotta be able to prove that we're hitting out, out of the park on hospitality. And when you ask the average operator, they'll say to you, oh yeah, of course they're answering the phone this way. And you see it all the time when you're standing there. It's just not happening. They're not using the name constantly. They're not asking for the name. Right. have you used our services before? No. Well listen, you've come to the right place. Could I ask your first name? It's Ken. Can I use your first name or do you prefer Mr. Lucci? No, Ken is fine. Ken, thank you so much for calling today. Tell me something, what did you do before this? Well, you know, I used to use Uber, but I got tired of their search pricing or I've had a couple of scary drivers. You know, Ken, a lot of people tell me that you're gonna love our service, you're gonna love what we do. Tell me something. What time do you normally leave in the morning?

James Blain: 26:22

Yeah.

Ken Lucci: 26:23

o'clock in the morning. I catch the six o'clock flight. We are early morning experts, Ken, we, we will be there 15 minutes beforehand. Do you need a wake up call? Do you do that? Of course we will. I mean, There are so many operators that, as you said, they're lucky to have somebody in the seat and they're just not at all. They're focusing on, oh my God, just get the, get the job done on time. They're not, they're not keeping hospitality level scores. They're not talking about net promoter scores. They're not looking at, they're not issuing, reviews to every single client because they're kind of afraid of the results. And, and, you know, I think it's self-defeating. I think that we are treated so badly as customers across the board, you know, at, at this point when, back in the day, when if, if back in the day, if I wanted to be treated badly, I'd go to the DMV or the post office. Now I can't tell the difference between my local CVS and the damn DMV, the Department of Motor Vehicles. So I think opportunities have, but I think operators have an, I think operators have an opportunity to hit it out of the park and make people feel, make customers feel special every day. I think that's a competitive advantage.

James Blain: 27:44

And, and the funny thing is right, I can't speak for any other state, but Kansas has got their, you know what? Together at the DMVI made my appointment online. I had to renew my CDL. I went into the DMV, it got me literally five minutes in and out, renewed eye exam, photo, everything. What business can get me out in five minutes?

Ken Lucci: 28:07

How many cars do they have in Kansas anyway? I mean, aren't you, don't you, do they not allow?

James Blain: 28:12

me, I, I believe you meant to say trucks. How many trucks Do they have? We all

Ken Lucci: 28:15

Right.

James Blain: 28:16

pickup trucks. We all my cowboy hat's sitting over there.

Ken Lucci: 28:19

do they have to register the farm equipment?

James Blain: 28:21

No, no, no, no. Farm use only. We're good. You don't have that,

Ken Lucci: 28:25

Okay, cool. I like, I should talk on, on the Eastern shore my, uh, on the eastern shore. I'm lucky that I, I'm lucky if I go home and there's not a John Deere in my way. but,

James Blain: 28:36

you'll be out on your fishing boat later.

Ken Lucci: 28:38

but you know, the, point I'm making. I mean, we are so, we are not wowed. I can't remember the last time I was wowed as far as services is concerned.

James Blain: 28:50

Well, so there's a couple things. So one of the things that was pioneered by Bruce, my business partner, is he

Ken Lucci: 28:58

Sure.

James Blain: 28:59

they, he really likes the CEO model. And I don't know if this is something Bruce had picked up or, or Bruce had, had come up with himself, but the idea is really simple, right? You have customers. You have employees and then you have ownership. Okay? basically are the last in line. And, and I, and I've kind of tweaked this a little bit, I don't think of it as much as owners for the CEO model. I think of it more like, operations management, right? So you really have to realize that if you want to actually fix your company, most important customer isn't the one that pays you directory. your internal customers, your

Ken Lucci: 29:42

It is the team

James Blain: 29:43

Yes, your employees are a hundred percent your internal customers. And the reason for that is if you reach a point. Where you are not treating them like internal customers, and you say, Hey, and I see this all the freaking time, Well, I've got all of these drivers, they're all replaceable. The office staff is replaceable. You know, I can always swap these people out and keep going. What's going to happen is you push that sentiment down from your O to your E. Now your employees feel that. What are they gonna do? They're gonna pass that down to your

Ken Lucci: 30:16

To the customer. Yeah.

James Blain: 30:17

and

Ken Lucci: 30:18

Yep.

James Blain: 30:18

feel replaceable. One of the things that I found is that you can run two types of companies. We can focus on the number of trips we're doing, the amount of trips we're doing,

Ken Lucci: 30:31

Yep.

James Blain: 30:32

we execute and we get the trip done, we're good. The problem with that is you can. Execute a technically flawless trip. I don't care if it's a bus, I don't care if it's an EMT taxi limo, you shuttle, you pick it. You can execute the trip perfectly. But if the guy driving it has got, and I'm not making this up, I've seen it, if the guy driving it has got a raggedy tag uniform, he could care less about who's in the vehicle. He's just

Ken Lucci: 30:58

Yeah.

James Blain: 30:59

a guy driving it.

Ken Lucci: 31:01

Yep.

James Blain: 31:02

to have no loyalty. gonna have no reason to pick you over anyone else. And even though the actual trip part you got me from A to B perfectly, I've got no reason not to go with someone else. However, ironically enough when I think of a, think of a type of work that is one that is probably the most thankless, that's not getting tips, that's actually supporting another mode of transportation. That's the most entertaining to me, is actually the shuttle drivers for the rental car companies. I will probably never see that driver again in my life

Ken Lucci: 31:39

Mm-hmm.

James Blain: 31:39

it's somewhere I go to a lot. They typically are not getting out of the driver's seat. Right, and in most cases you think of'em driving back and forth. can think of three drivers. in my mind are the epitome of a professional driver. Why? I remember one, and I, I, I wish I remember the city I get on, he's got the radio turned very low. He's literally listening to BBC news. He welcomes every single person on, he helped them load their luggage onto the vehicle. He's there, he's ready. He's dressed to the nines. He's literally got a sweater on. You can see he's still got, even though he is wearing a shirt and tie, it's got a sweater over it. He could have very easily ditched the tie, but he's got the tie on. He's got the button up shirt. He is got his sweater on. He looks professional. Absolutely. Great. Guess what made an impression on me? Only thing that kills me is I don't remember what rental car company it was, but I can tell you that's one of the top experiences I've had put that same type of personality, that same type of person in a position where, hey. Now we've got an experience we can tie it to. I'm gonna go with them every single time. The problem that you run into in their world is, guess what? He was probably going to four or five different rental car companies. He probably wasn't tied to a single one. There's no opportunity there. If you would've taken that same person and he was a motor coach driver, I guarantee you every single group he drove would've been begging to have him back,

Ken Lucci: 33:18

Sure

James Blain: 33:18

begging for the loyalty. The biggest thing that I think is going to set apart any of these companies is that they have to create an experience that comes down the line, And as the owner, you have to create that same experience for your employees.

Ken Lucci: 33:38

you are right. Well,

James Blain: 33:40

the biggest difference.

Ken Lucci: 33:42

so how many of them, so talk to me about y you know, internally, when I was quoting Danny Meyers, he talks about personal dignity.

James Blain: 33:54

Yeah.

Ken Lucci: 33:55

I have a, a client that I, I haven't done work for him in a, in a while. Back in the day I visited him and he's like, geez, you know, I, I've got a terrible driver turnover problem, and I don't know why. Well, one day when I was in his office, I actually had to use the bathroom and I had to go past the dispatch department, and his general manager was screaming at the top of his lungs

James Blain: 34:19

down.

Ken Lucci: 34:20

and, and there was a group of drivers, you know, kind of at the window kind of a thing. And I went back to my, I, I said, I know exactly why you losing drivers.

James Blain: 34:31

Yeah.

Ken Lucci: 34:31

And he said, well, what do you mean? I said, I just watched so and so just literally crucify swearing like a sailor in front of four or five drivers. And I, I, I said. What about praise in public reprimand in private. And his excuse to me was, well, that guy's been in the business forever. He knows how to dispatch in New York and Connecticut, and I can't get rid of him. I'm like, then you're always gonna have problems. And, and to this day, that guy is constantly having issues. It's a revolving door. I think this personal dignity thing as far as having a person who enjoys creating hospitality and enjoys creating experiences for customers, I think it's a big part of it. I think it's a big part of it.

James Blain: 35:24

I think it's deeper than that. And here's, here's my thing, and here's what I've learned from all of the companies I've visited, right? I've lost count. The companies that truly care about their employees. Create environments that don't put up with that kind of stuff. Okay.

Ken Lucci: 35:43

They don't tolerate it.

James Blain: 35:44

Well, but their teams don't tolerate it.

Ken Lucci: 35:47

Right. Right.

James Blain: 35:49

one of my first jobs that I had was corporate. And when I was growing up, I figured out very early on that I had a mouth on me. So call centers, I mean,

Ken Lucci: 35:58

You

James Blain: 35:59

right? Yeah.

Ken Lucci: 35:59

really?

James Blain: 36:00

Yeah. A mouth on me. What, what? No. So I, I went to go work in call centers, right? I started working in call centers when I was like 16, 17, probably into my twenties. That was be before I, I changed career paths. It was an easy way to pay bills, right? When I was in

Ken Lucci: 36:15

Mm-hmm.

James Blain: 36:16

at ku, you know, it's an easy job. But one of the things that I found when I started managing my first team was I got personally bonused on my team's performance, right? So, the way my team performed, I got bonused on. don't know why I decided to do this, but decided that if I got the bonus for my team's performance, even though they all got their own commissions. I

Ken Lucci: 36:44

Sure.

James Blain: 36:45

like I needed to share that with them in a way. And so what we would do is if everybody on my team all hit their goals, we would have a party. Now, Kansas City, of course it was Jacks Stack and they knew right, if the first or or fifth of the month, I don't remember what I did anymore, but I would literally, I had a Jacks stack hat that I'd

Ken Lucci: 37:05

Who is Jacks stack

James Blain: 37:06

So for those that don't know, Fiorella is, jacks stack is one of the more better known barbecues here in town. We won't

Ken Lucci: 37:13

Oh,

James Blain: 37:14

the best is, but it's kind

Ken Lucci: 37:15

okay.

James Blain: 37:15

if you've, if you've heard of one, you've probably heard of Jacks Stack or maybe Joe's. It's kind of one of the big names in town. And so I would literally, I'd wear a Jacks stack hat and we'd celebrate and we'd, and every other team in that building would be jealous and they'd want to come.'cause I would literally order the absolute Best Best catering package they had. I remember I had a gal working for me and she just was not motivated. She did not want to do it. She was not to the point where she was at risk of getting let go, she was heading that direction. But I had built a team that very much was all about, Hey, our culture, before I even knew what culture was, I'd accidentally created this culture where we're all in the boat rowing together. We're all trying to hit this target. so what happens is this girl's just not hitting the target and everybody is trying to coach her. Everybody is trying to help her. Everybody is trying to get her there because everybody wants to hit the goal. And this isn't even in a negative way. It's, Hey, this is what we do. We're the team that hits the goal. We're the

Ken Lucci: 38:25

Sure.

James Blain: 38:26

the catering. We're the team that everyone wants to be like. I remember it got to a point where. I was worried that she was gonna keep going downhill and I was gonna have to let her go. And she came to me one day and she goes, Hey, don't think this job is right for me. And I said, why? She's like, I'm not hitting goal, I'm not doing that. And I said, well, hey, I can coach you. We can get you there. Look, it's just not right for me. She had figured out that the culture, the fit, the expectation, she wasn't gonna go the extra mile. She wasn't gonna be that person and she weeded herself out.

Ken Lucci: 39:00

Yep.

James Blain: 39:01

W what I see, and I guarantee that in the situation you brought up, this is part of the issue. Is I see this fear like you said, he knows the business. He knows what he's doing. He's this, he's that. What is not happening there is in this scenario that I gave my team, the peers put the pressure on and she let herself go. thing that would've happened if that team wouldn't have peer pressured her, and she hadn't have felt that that wasn't the right fit and weeded herself out, it would've been my job to let her go and remove her, if I would've let that continue,

Ken Lucci: 39:45

Sure you would've brought the whole team down.

James Blain: 39:47

you. Damn right.

Ken Lucci: 39:49

So what do you do then? You, you, you hit this, you know, normally, and I hate to say it this way, but when I'm reviewing somebody's company, that's not what I focus on. Right. I don't focus, but, but you can't help but notice things, right. What do you do when it's a member of your management team that is hurting the team's performance. If our goal is to create a memorable experience on every trip, how do you deal with the manager who just doesn't, you know, he does this in meetings and he'll just smile up and down that this is a great idea, let's do this, and then he doesn't support it. What do you do when the person's not rowing in the right direction?

James Blain: 40:33

So here's where things change depending on where you're at in your career and where you're at in your business, right? Because if you are in a business where you have management below you and the way you reach your team is through the management, there's a couple problems. I worked for someone that had me managing a team and would go around me and directly address the team.

Ken Lucci: 40:56

Oh, can't do that.

James Blain: 40:58

I can tell you it was hell for me. I

Ken Lucci: 41:01

Yeah.

James Blain: 41:01

get anything done.

Ken Lucci: 41:02

Yep,

James Blain: 41:03

the respect of the team. Not

Ken Lucci: 41:05

yep,

James Blain: 41:05

respect me, but because

Ken Lucci: 41:07

yep,

James Blain: 41:07

they could literally go around me

Ken Lucci: 41:10

yep,

James Blain: 41:10

to that person and I

Ken Lucci: 41:11

yep, yep.

James Blain: 41:13

what should be happening is if you're at a level where management is managing people, should be evaluating the performance of those people and holding that manager accountable as if they had done it. Because at the end of the day, if you are going down the chain, right, if I'm the owner and I've got a chauffeur manager and I've got all of these issues with my chauffeurs, it's up to that chauffeur manager to fix it. Now here's where it gets really tricky, right? And, and it could be if you're in a bus company, driver, manager, whatever, pick

Ken Lucci: 41:47

I.

James Blain: 41:48

Where it gets really tricky is a lot of times try to do that, but they hog tie. driver manager or the chauffeur manager,

Ken Lucci: 41:56

What do you mean by that? What do you mean by that?

James Blain: 41:59

you a great example. They say, Hey, you know, you need to clean this up. Well, hey, we need a clean house. I've got five guys that need to get rid of. No way in hell, you're getting rid of those five guys or gals. I gotta have butts in seats. I can't have you just firing people to get rid of'em. We can't get rid of John. He's been with us for 20 years. Well, we can't get rid of Susie. Susie's gonna cover the trips that nobody else wants. So now you've got someone that you're trying to hold accountable that can't weed out the bad apples, and now you're wondering why you've got a problem. Now

Ken Lucci: 42:29

Right.

James Blain: 42:30

is you've gotta give people the opportunity to straighten out. So I'll give you the, the example that you gave of the person dressing down. Let's say I'm the owner of that company and I walk by and I see that person dressing everyone down. The worst thing I can do is walk into that room and dress that person down because I've completely justified the behavior. The worst thing I can do is catch that person mid-sentence and say, Hey, yeah, yeah, real quick. Come here. Right, because now I've taken away all of their ability to address that team because it's all you got caught yelling at

Ken Lucci: 43:01

Yeah. Yep. Yeah.

James Blain: 43:03

what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna wait till after that and I'm gonna go talk to that person and go, Hey, what happened on the dispatch floor today? Is that how we're addressing them? Is it? And then you've got to do a couple things. One, you've got to tell them how you want it handled or how it should have been handled. then two, you brought up, inspect what you expect.

Ken Lucci: 43:25

In private.

James Blain: 43:26

absolutely. And I

Ken Lucci: 43:28

Yep.

James Blain: 43:28

way, shape or form want anyone to know this conversation took place, right? Other than

Ken Lucci: 43:33

no,

James Blain: 43:33

person I'm addressing.

Ken Lucci: 43:35

no. And it.

James Blain: 43:36

else that is directly involved with that. But at that point, you've basically with that person and be, Hey, look, you can't go in there and rip them a new one. And the most important thing is why this is the part that everybody screws up. They've done studies and studies and studies. The why matters, right? And I, my favorite example, I tell people all the time, imagine that we install a red button in all of your vehicles and you tell every single one of your drivers, you gotta push the red button every 10 minutes while you're driving. You have to push the red button every 10 minutes it's gonna beep. You have to push it. listening to this podcast is like, I know the three people that are never gonna push the freaking button, right? They're never gonna push the button. No matter what I do, I'm never gonna be able to get'em. Push the button. let's change the conversation. You have a red button, you gotta push there in 10 minutes because we have a new safety system. And if you don't push the red button at the exact 10 minute mark, three seconds later, it's gonna apply the brakes as hard as it can, regardless of speed. Even if you're going down the highway. Now they're all gonna push the red button. Some of'em even pushing the red button every 10 seconds just in case.'cause they don't want the brakes going off. But that little because or why, or here's the reasoning, here's what I'm thinking instead of, because I say so is

Ken Lucci: 44:55

Yeah. That's, that's gone, that's gone completely. You know, it it, what you're saying, it, it all flows downhill. And to me, you cannot have a company that has superior customer service and a hospitality mentality unless it flows from the top, goes through the management team and, and is reinforced every single day. You know, it's what in the book, setting the table. It's what Danny Meyer calls constant gentle pressure. And, and I think you hit upon something. I think today's employee needs to handle. They need to hear the why. They need to hear the why. Somebody asked me to come up and do a speech at their, at their company, and I'm, I'm, believe it or not, I'm gonna go, go north, uh, and do that on a Saturday for, well, they're a great client on a Saturday. They're having a, they're having a, an all hands meeting.

James Blain: 45:51

yeah.

Ken Lucci: 45:52

And I encourage every operator, regardless of size to take, take the opportunity because it's a new year to, to hit a reset. Now we joke that I, I moved into a new office, my old office, I felt a little stagnant. My old office was too dark and I wanted a big window. And, you know, listen, we had a good year last year and you know, we went up from$385 a month to 5 0 5. So it's okay. Anyway. I encourage every operator to take the first new year and write up what customer facing changes or goals and objectives that they want to see. We take people through a financial planning or business planning, financial planning, but I think that we have, as an industry, because we are so focused on getting from A to B and you know, we are focused on the fact that there's a lot of competition and disruption, et cetera, that I think we have missed the opportunity the wow. The customer every single day. you've said that and, and I see it. I see it in big companies and small. What do you do when the problem is the owner?

James Blain: 47:11

Nothing,

Ken Lucci: 47:13

What do you do when the problem is the operator?

James Blain: 47:16

There's nothing you can do below the owner if the problem is the owner, if they're not going to let you change it. Right? People don't quit jobs, people quit. Managers. Now, let, let me, let me make

Ken Lucci: 47:29

Wait a minute. Say that it would say

James Blain: 47:30

People don't quit jobs, people quit

Ken Lucci: 47:32

yep,

James Blain: 47:33

Right? let me clarify a couple things. So everything we've talked to up at this point is the foundation that it's built on. Okay? Now, what we haven't talked about is that you have to teach them what the expectation is. You have to show them, you have to be able to teach them how to think about it. But my dad was, a former Cobra attack, helicopter pilot, an engineer, kind of my inspiration. Probably one of the people I look up most to in the world, right? And one of the things that he taught me very early on, and his favorite way to say it, was, you don't go to school to learn the job you're going to do. You learn the job on the job, doesn't matter if you're gonna be a doctor, doesn't matter if you're gonna be an engineer, it doesn't matter what you're gonna do. Right? somebody had to do the first new type of surgery,

Ken Lucci: 48:20

Sure.

James Blain: 48:21

Somebody had to figure out the first new thing. So what they had to learn first was how do doctors think? What's my thought process? My big thing, and, and he was an engineer and he would always teach me is, you know, you're an engineer, so let's say you have a part, wear out on a vehicle. Instead of just saying, oh, well that part's worn out. We slap a new one on an engineer's thought process is, why did that wear out?

Ken Lucci: 48:46

Right?

James Blain: 48:46

What can I do to prevent the next one from wearing

Ken Lucci: 48:49

Yep.

James Blain: 48:49

how do I look at the whole

Ken Lucci: 48:51

Yep.

James Blain: 48:51

This we're talking about is that thought process of, if you want to fix your customer experience, you have to think like someone that understands the whole customer experience. And that's where that whole CEO model comes in. Even though you're an owner, you are management. I have to treat my team in a way that's going to then flow down. Now where this comes in is you have to have a culture in place where you are treating each other with respect you're treating. Now, does that mean that when it hits the fan and you've got, you know, super Bowl in your lap, or you've got whatever big event you deal with in your lap, that you can't just jump on the phone and be like, Hey, I need this here, I need this there. Absolutely. And there is a time and a place that you are still pleasant. You're still good to work with, but it becomes very operationally focused. But I'm gonna quote Charlie Grim, which I gotta tell you is another one of the people I really look up

Ken Lucci: 49:53

Mm-hmm. Yep.

James Blain: 49:54

at least for me, are personal mentors

Ken Lucci: 49:57

Anchorage, Alaska,

James Blain: 49:59

BAC in Alaska medical transportation.

Ken Lucci: 50:02

chauffeur Transportation, and then Alaska Medical.

James Blain: 50:07

Yep. So they've got, and, and I apologize Charlie Athena if I got there wrong, but they've got their Alaska medical transportation and they've

Ken Lucci: 50:13

sure.

James Blain: 50:14

But

Ken Lucci: 50:14

sure.

James Blain: 50:15

important quotes, and I will never forget, I was up there, they were our pilot program for the entry level driver training. Charlie and I are sitting in their break room and we were talking, he says, you can't make a withdrawal unless you've made a deposit and you

Ken Lucci: 50:32

I agree.

James Blain: 50:32

deposits than withdrawals. And he

Ken Lucci: 50:34

Yep.

James Blain: 50:35

with me a story of how he had a customer that they, you know, they, they needed a vehicle, they had all this stuff going on. They, they didn't know what they're gonna do. And he goes, man, you know, I just, I said, Hey, I've got, it was a, a spring, I had my convertible. I said, Hey, just take my convertible, right. You just don't worry about it. I'm gonna take care of it here. You guys just, I'll, I'll let you borrow it. Just go. I'll take care of it. But it's that same mentality. With employees, with customers, with everybody. If you look at how involved they are in the community, when I talked to Athena and I were, we're chatting back and forth on text and she was telling me how for Christmas, they're doing a big thing for their employees,

Ken Lucci: 51:14

Yep. Yep.

James Blain: 51:16

those deposits before you can make a withdrawal. Now, that said, that is the foundation that you are building on. That's usually the part that fails because just like I said, the why, I go and I see a lot of companies where they teach people what the customer service is. They teach them everything they do. The person knows the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 steps. They know everything they're supposed to do.

Ken Lucci: 51:41

Yeah.

James Blain: 51:42

Charlie and Athena, unlike others that we've talked about that have the right, you know mentality, the right deposit, the right culture, it's, well, you know, it doesn't really matter if I do it that way or if I just get'em in the car

Ken Lucci: 51:54

they know the notes, but they can't, they can't make the harmony. They know the words, but they can't create the story. and I think, you know, bringing in full circle, I honestly think that the fact that customer service services are dying, art hospitality now is, I mean quality, high quality hospitality is few and far between. Now I won't share, you know, the specific Marriott that I go to, but I, but I, I have made the comment, I made a comment to the general manager and I would say, you know what passes now for this is a five star hotel, what passes now for hospitality wouldn't have been tolerated. Back then, and his mentality is he, he needs people to come to work. I get it. But I, I do think from a cultural perspective, something is watered down. I think if you water down what your expectations are, you're basically giving in. And to me, you're giving into me mediocrity. Okay, you're giving into mediocrity.

James Blain: 53:04

but, but All right. Let's, close the loop completely then, because we started by talking about the culture of the country and possibly the global culture. Let's close that loop completely.

Ken Lucci: 53:14

Are we gonna blame it on Trump? Can we blame, are we blaming it on Trump?

James Blain: 53:18

Jeez, geez, this guy. Why are we making it political? Geez. Like, like, like a single president could have that much influence. I think it's deeper than that. I think what we've seen, and we've, there's lots and lots of talk about this, there's lots of that going on. How many times do you see a couple out to dinner together and both of'em are on their phone. They're literally clearly on a freaking date and they're

Ken Lucci: 53:40

Sure. Sure.

James Blain: 53:42

How many times do you see people walking down the street and they've got their phone out?

Ken Lucci: 53:46

Yep.

James Blain: 53:46

We have. as a society, way that we interact, the way that we do things has fundamentally changed. Now, depending on how you wanna look at it, and I'm not trying to blame anything on generations, this is not a blame game. This is a change of the world,

Ken Lucci: 54:05

Mm-hmm.

James Blain: 54:05

You go, you go talk to some about what it was like before. Cards were invented. Things fundamentally change the internet. All of these pieces, social media, everything is fundamentally changed. The human interactions that we have. The idea of transportation, the idea, these pieces have changed. For example, it used to be that it was a suit and tie affair to go fly on an aircraft.

Ken Lucci: 54:27

Uh, absolutely. I mean, look, it was suit and tie to have Sunday dinner at a, we used to go out to dinner at a restaurant on Sunday, and the whole family used to get dressed up.

James Blain: 54:39

Yeah. And look, I, I'm not gonna lie to you. The last time when, when we were in church, right? We were in church recently, and I looked around and the number of people that didn't have what I was taught are, you know, for me, Sunday, when I go in there with my nice golf pants and my nice polo and I'm, I'm looking like I'm gonna go golfing, sometimes I feel a little guilty.'cause I'm like, that's not really your Sunday best bud. You know, you really should be dressing up a little more. And then I look around and I'm like, shorts and t-shirts.

Ken Lucci: 55:08

I, I, I don't disagree with you. I think, I think the whole, the whole world has become more casual. I, I, there's,

James Blain: 55:16

so

Ken Lucci: 55:17

and, and, but I think, and, and it's also, to your point, it's, it's very transactional. But I, I do believe, just like my favorite five star, my favorite five star restaurant, they all know my name still. I mean, when, even if, even if I don't, haven't gone there in a while, if I fly to Tampa, they still remember who I am, the manager does. So I think there's an opportunity now more than ever to make a positive, lasting impression. By doing more, by giving more those wow experiences. And I don't know, as an industry, to me, it's a tough thing to say. The industry's gotta do that. I just look at all my successful customers. They all have certain things in common. Number one, they're all financially, they're, you know, they're, they're looking at their financials with us every single month and they're looking at their KPIs every single month. Their equipment is always pristine. They're in the top one third as far as pricing in their market. But the, the best of the best have a continuous culture of excellence that I think you've gotta drive home every single day. I don't think you can make it a one or twice a year training thing. I think excellence is an every single day. As Danny Meyer said, it's a gentle, continuous pressure. On the organization to continually reinforce excellence. You know, it's interesting to me that we always quote Ritz Carlton on this podcast because Bruce, Bruce Heinrich from leader. I mean, that's the two of us. That's what is the, that's what binds Bruce and I together is our background and actual, you know, love of the Ritz Carlton system. Do you know that they really doubled down or tripled down on the creation of that system in the eighties? The Ritz Carlton is, was a hundred years old and the, the original owner, um, gonna, I would murder his name, but the original owner. The, the founder basically said, look, we've got our eye off the ball, so this is what we're gonna do. And he created this whole system, the gold standard, and he empowered every single employee. Back then it was, you can spend$500 without any management approval. Now it's 2000. So, you know, I would encourage every operator, we are working with every operator on what their financial goals are for 2026, but I would encourage every operator to look at what are your hospitality goals and what are your goals to make sure that we wow clients, not just at the time of sale, but we wow clients with every single experience. I mean, I, I, I've gotta think that if Chick-fil-A can do it, I hate to say it, anybody can do it because, you know, they're dealing with teenagers in a lot of cases, but. I, I do think we have an opportunity. It creates a competitive advantage to deliver that wow moment. And it can't be just every once in a while and we have to do it internally. We have to reward it when we see it happen.

James Blain: 58:36

Look, I think there's a couple things that I think about when I think about this. Okay. first is that. The culture you define is the way that it's going to come out the other end. And the only way that you are able to do that is that you have to be willing to fight and defend your culture. And that

Ken Lucci: 59:01

Sure.

James Blain: 59:01

threats internal and threats external, right? Believe it or not, this is one of those fights that is more internal than external. It is. And, and I could, we could go on for another two or three hours, right? I've talked about this at at length before in my sessions. This is something where the way that you define it, what you essentially allow them to do, you are condoning. So let's

Ken Lucci: 59:27

Yep.

James Blain: 59:28

that same scenario we had earlier where we see someone and let's say this time, instead of dressing down the dispatch, you see them. And I watched this happen, right? I watched someone in front of me dressed down, a driver at an airport. They had just started. They, we were out there with the owner. The owner saw him and he went and he ripped that guy a new one. Hey, you're at the wrong place. You do not, Hey, you know, how's the first day going? Do you mind if I give you some pointers? I, I think, you know, it looks like you're lined up wrong. Let me give you some pointers. I wanna make sure that we've got you doing it right. he went over to that driver who just started, he ripped them a new one. I kid you not that driver drove straight back to the office, walked in, threw the keys at dispatch, got in their car, went home,

Ken Lucci: 1:00:12

Yeah.

James Blain: 1:00:13

never came back.

Ken Lucci: 1:00:14

Yep.

James Blain: 1:00:14

tell you, I don't know the whole story, but literally it was the guy's first day the owner and I happened to be at the airport. We saw the guy, the guy was at a place he went over. He even knew it was the guy's first day and ripped him a new one right in front of me who I had no idea who the driver was. The only reason I knew it was the first day is I got told afterwards. So I think it's top down, there's not much to be done. if you are worried that's you, you gotta take a hard look in the mirror. If you are management, if you're the levels below, you've gotta make sure that everything below your level is happening like it's supposed to. And it's there because like I said, you can teach someone everything they need to do. If the culture and the why is not there, it doesn't matter. They're going to treat people the way you treat them.

Ken Lucci: 1:01:08

No, no question about it. No question about it. And the, the other misnomer we just leave it with this is, it's not always about, actually, it's not about the money. I mean, surveys after survey you know, and I've seen it with my own clients, clients that when I look at and say, wow, you know, they're, their driver laborers is low as a percentage of total income, but they have zero turnover. Okay. It's, it's just, the way the culture is. I mean, Randy Allen did it with James Limousine down in, uh, Richmond, Virginia. Uh, I've stepped into other clients of mine that, have the wall that recognize all chauffeurs. So to me, you know, if you're gonna be striving to grow your business just by doing more and more trips from point A to point B, to me it's more important to look at the culture. Take a look at 2026, look at what your goals are. Yes, absolutely. Financial goals, profit goals, extremely important. But how can we put a fine point on the hospitality that we deliver as operators? Because at the end of the day, that's the only thing that differentiates us. It really is. We've talked about it endlessly that Uber black drivers are, are driving, you know, they're not making any money, but they're driving Escalades, they're driving brand new suburbans. So I, think as operators out there, that's, that should be as important of a goal. I can't believe I'm saying that as their financial and profit goals for 2026 is, how can we put a finer point on hospitality? It's not just about, look, we have a 94%, a 96% on time performance rate, which is great. Which is terrific.

James Blain: 1:02:56

Yeah,

Ken Lucci: 1:02:56

How can we wow the client every single time? That's a challenge. I think that is a good challenge for the, for the first part of the year, for, for everybody to think about.

James Blain: 1:03:07

I, agree. and as we kind of bring this to a close, I think in my mind, what I would say is. I don't care what kind of company you are listening to this, think that it's important that you think about that from the standpoint of, I wanna wow that actual passenger, and if that passenger is not the one that booked or interacted or dealt with my company, I want everyone to be wowed, right? I want every single one that makes up that client base, right, beyond just the pastor to be, wow. I can't think of a better way to wrap this up. I gotta say, I, I don't know that this is where I saw us going, but I think it's ultimately where it has to go. I, think as always, we want everyone to like and subscribe. By the way, we, we haven't brought it up yet, so I'm gonna bring it up now. Ken, that's a great shirt you're wearing and that coffee mug you've

Ken Lucci: 1:03:53

Don't you like this shirt?

James Blain: 1:03:55

for

Ken Lucci: 1:03:55

you like this? Did you?

James Blain: 1:03:56

are listening and that can't see the beauties that Ken has got. Ken has got a beautiful branded ground transportation podcast mug and an incredible shirt. I think at some point we may have to do some merch here.

Ken Lucci: 1:04:08

We might have to do some me. The other piece of the puzzle I want to talk to people about today is I want you to subscribe. I mean, I love the fact that, I love the fact that you listen and that you watch, but I want you to subscribe because we, at some point, at some point, this is going to have to be something that breaks even, maybe even makes a shilling or two, but break even. Would

James Blain: 1:04:31

aware, driving transactions and PACS training are personally, well not person,

Ken Lucci: 1:04:36

underwriting this,

James Blain: 1:04:37

and I are, are essentially a hundred percent funding this, which is why it's brought to you ad free, right? I

Ken Lucci: 1:04:42

correct.

James Blain: 1:04:43

have, we have our little spiels about ourselves in here, but we are a hundred percent funding this one

Ken Lucci: 1:04:48

But please, please subscribe. And I love the, the, the luminaries in the industry that send me emails saying they listen all the time. But we'd like you to subscribe. We'd like every single listener to subscribe so that at some point, uh, while our views are through the roof, for some reason, people look at the subscription number as you know, when they want to advertise with us. So we want you to subscribe. We also want you to tell us what you'd like to hear. Um, what would you like to be subject matter for? For an upcoming episode. and this, again, this has been, uh, the Ground Transportation Podcast. We will have merchandise at some point on the, uh, on the website. I'm sure John will, uh, John will take care of that. And James, it's been fantastic that

James Blain: 1:05:42

best part of my week. Thanks everybody.

1:05:45

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.