70 Years Strong

There are times when we may reflect on our lives and wonder what random confluence of events got us to this point in time. It can be daunting to look back on our family history and try to understand how something as simple as a missed personal connection or war casualty could alter the entire configuration of your family tree.

The same could easily be said for a business. During the course of a company’s life, there can be so many constants that are easy to identify; location, ownership, management, employees, clients, business practices, etc. But what happens if there is a change in the ecosystem? How does a change in ownership, management or employees affect the overall configuration of the company tree? Assuming a company responds promptly and makes solid decisions, the impact should be minimal. But what if we dig a little deeper? What if we look at things that are less obvious?

OML is celebrating our 70^th year in business. Starting in a home in Lake Forest, growing in to one of the largest limousine fleets in the country in the 1990’s, and settling in to our post-COVID identity, we have undergone change after change that few could have anticipated. Yet here we are…smaller and wiser. But what if? What would our company be like if our current owner had not purchased the company back in the mid-1980’s? What if the use of limousines had not been phased out due to economic concerns? What if Uber hadn’t come along to disrupt the ground transportation industry? Obviously, we can’t know the answer to these hypothetical scenarios, but let’s play a game of “what if”, starting with our ownership change.

In the early 1980’s, there were a handful of limousine companies in the Chicagoland area. I’m intimately attached to this period in time because it’s when I started with O’Hare-Midway Limousine Service as a chauffeur. In 1983, I was assigned to a beat up 1978 Cadillac Fleetwood factory stretch limousine. It would break down several times a month, and was covered with enough body filler and black lacquer that it could pass through a TSA checkpoint without setting off an alarm. This is not to say that we didn’t have new vehicles on the fleet, but a majority of those limousines were “dated”. When the current owner George Parker bought the company in late November of 1984, his immediate focus was on upgrading the quality of people and equipment, and a general paradigm shift led to a rapid increase in business volume. His vision led us through the market crash of 1987, and along with his wife Wendy, they built a strong foundation for sustainable growth in spite of several economic challenges over the years. So what if George hadn’t purchased the company? What if the original owner had not sold O’Hare-Midway? How would the company be different? Would we have a fleet of luxury vehicles like we do today, would it be held together with duct tape and bailing wire, or would it be here at all? There is no way to know, but I am comfortable in the space we currently occupy. Now let’s look at the LIMOUSINE “what ifs”.

It might be hard to imagine a time when the vast majority of livery vehicles were stretch limousines. Today, the most common vehicle is the SUV, but during the halcyon days of O’Hare-Midway, we had a fleet of over 100 stretch limousines. Seeing a stretch was like seeing a pigeon in Chicago. They were literally everywhere, and if you were at an airport during peak holiday travel periods, it could seem like limousines outnumbered passenger vehicles ten to one. They were luxury and functionality, carrying anywhere from one to six (or more) people with enough trunk space to hold substantial amounts of luggage. Limousines were a reflection of wealth and success, yet were cost effective enough to provide a fun and entertaining ride for casual users. They worked well for parties and group outings, and of course they were almost a necessity for weddings and special events. Then came the market crash of 1987, which was one of the precursors to the ultimate demise of the stretch. The initial hit came from the corporate traveler as they began to shift from the apparent opulence of the stretch limo to the more fiscally responsible sedan. Additional recessions in 1990, the dot.com recession in 2001, and the great recession in 2007-09 more or less sealed the deal, and although there was still some demand for limousines, the writing was on the wall. The final nail in the proverbial coffin was the discontinuation of the Lincoln Town Car in 2011. While several makes and models of vehicle were converted to limousines over the years, the Town Car became the industry workhorse due to its sleek look, durability, reliability, and attractive price point. The Ford Motor Company was tied tightly to the limousine industry, and they worked to provide vehicles that coachbuilders could continue to convert in to great stretch limousines. But the overall car market was changing, and Ford decided that sedans were a thing of the past and made the decision to switch from building large Town Car sedans to creating the Town Car crossover that was eventually renamed the Lincoln MKT. Coachbuilders tried to adapt by converting other available sedans, as well as the “new” Town Car and other vehicle types into stretch limousines, but the demand for these vehicles by clients never recovered, and were ultimately replaced by customized Mercedes Sprinter and Ford Transit vans. There are other reasons behind the demise of the stretch; the increased price or vehicle purchase and conversion and the elimination of the “shared ride” concept to name a couple. But for companies that do a majority of their business with corporate travelers, the vehicle is now considered a dinosaur.

Next topic...“what if” Uber or Lyft didn’t exist? Obviously, we all know that it wasn’t by chance that rideshares came in to being. The limousine industry was extremely profitable, and was susceptible to a market disruptor like Uber. Little known fact…Uber came to major cities like Chicago prior to launching in an effort to secure support from limousine services to get their platform going. The sales pitch was simple; they were "targeting" taxi services and creating a cheaper option for those travelers while creating new demand for limousine services. I know this because I sat in several meetings with their team here. They had a technology that our industry was just starting to look at, and they also had money behind them…lots and lots of money. Investors - foreign and domestic - dumped millions into Uber, and there were numerous political connections that they leveraged (or bribed) to obtain privileges that legitimate services could never get. And, by structuring themselves as a “technology” as opposed to a transportation provider, they were able to avoid things like insurance, proper licensing, and of course…responsibility. That was written directly in to their long and mostly unread user agreement that most users skipped past when signing up with them, basically putting up a wall of immunity between the company and the people providing service in their name. With their vast financial resources, they were able to set unrealistically cheap pricing to get people hooked on the service while offering a minimum weekly income for their drivers. It isn’t a sustainable model, but it worked to secure both customers and providers. But wait...this is supposed to be about a world WITHOUT ride share companies. The "what if" isn't about their arrival or history. So let's address the original what if question, and this is only the opinion of the writer. When rideshares came along, the limousine industry was already working on apps that basically replicated what Uber does. Unfortunately, change has always been slow, and especially where technology is concerned. Our company spent several years and well over a million dollars trying to develop an application that was functional for us and user friendly for our clients, and we heard multiple sales pitches from developers promising that they could produce a product that would achieve both objectives. We made it to the finish line on more than one occasion, only the have the developers stop supporting their product. Limousine companies tend to work on very thin margins, and to expect each operator to build a software platform is unrealistic. Getting a segmented industry to pool resources for the common good wasn't likely to be successful either so it was going to take a while. However, back to the original point, the application would have happened in the industry sooner or later. But the rideshare companies won that race, and thanks to the COVID shutdown, their base of clients and suppliers grew at a rapid rate. Once restrictions eased up post-pandemic, they had a solid foothold and had become part of the American lexicon. Now if ALL of this had gone differently and rideshares didn't have the billions in cash behind them, or if all of the criminal lawsuits against their "drivers" weren't buried by a legion of lawyers, or if people actually realized that those attractive cheap rates are long gone and are now actually similar, the same, or in some cases MORE than the price of a legitimate car service, the world would still be here. People would still be using taxis or SUVs, sedans, or other service supplied vehicles. The difference is in the "duty of care". This is where we can separate rideshares from transportation companies. You see, a rideshare driver has little or no accountability, except to his/her star rating. A legitimate service holds their drivers accountable for their actions and does their due diligence to make sure their team is properly vetted. A rideshare company "says" they do this, but there are few checks and balances and no humans to keep an eye on things. Ultimately, while technology is great, a living breathing watchdog is necessary to keep us safe. Of course, there are good rideshare drivers out there, but there is no control, no consistency, and no guarantees. A legitimate company has a reputation at stake, something that is more important than a star rating.

Finally..."what if" I had chosen a different path? As someone that started in this industry as a 24 year old chauffeur at much younger company, my stay was supposed to be temporary. I had a startup construction business that couldn't make money during the 1983 recession, so I was able to land a part-time job driving nights and weekends. Things started slowly, but picked up fairly quickly. At the time, it was a mostly cash business, so I was getting paid every day. With young kids to feed, this fact was attractive, and with the availability of as many hours as I could handle, I was working anywhere from 80 to 120 hours a week and making enough money to pay the bills. What was supposed to be temporary was becoming permanent. I stopped driving after 9 years and became a dispatcher, and kept learning and growing within the company. Ultimately, I have done virtually everything you can do, taking reservations, dispatching, sales, and even building a global affiliate network. It has pretty much become my identity. Yet even today, after more than four decades in the business and numerous title changes, some people still assume I drive a limousine. I had opportunities to make a career change over the years, some more attractive than others, but I could never seem to pull the trigger on any of these chances. In hindsight, a few of these would have probably served me better, but it seemed my destiny was to stay in this business. I started in the service industry as a 15 year old restaurant worker, and have been in it pretty much my whole life. I guess it all makes sense.

In the end, playing "what if" can be a fun diversion. But in reality, what is most important is "what is". Seventy years is the "what is". Seven decades of serving clients everywhere and anywhere is the "what is". I'm proud of the fact the OML Worldwide Transportation, the alter-ego of O'Hare-Midway Limousine Service, is still here after all the challenges, and that I've been part of the journey for over four decades. The limousine industry is historically woven into the fabric of the transportation industry, and I am personally woven in to the fabric of OML. THAT is not a what if...that is a what is.