The Limos.com Forum Has Moved!!!

What a day! Got a flier with Thomas "I" Mazza's photograph on it (made my day), and the LimoScene with a message from my president - "[t]these are some of the most exciting days at the National Limousine Association." Almost peed my pants.

NLA is now tackling the gas guzzler tax. Something else to spend $300,000 on that has impact on only a small part of the membership. How exciting can life get?

And the hot news? The FTC was prohibiting anonymous and unsolicited faxes as of August 25. Problem? FTC deferred that rule-making, so the hot news in neither hot nor accurate. So much for that half-page.

And here's the good part - otherwise known as a non sequitur: The Executive Director's Report (Thomas "I" Mazza. that is), who tells us that everyone's trying to tax limousine service. According to our erstwhile ED, 7 states have such taxes and Ohio just began taxing limousine service. Now follow the bouncing, logical ball. You should join NLA because there is a "pattern developing." And where was the NLA when the Ohio law was passed? Or Iowa? Or Oklahoma? Or South Dakota? Or Utah? Or Wyoming? Oooopppps - guess Dav-El doesn't have company-owned locations in those states. Wait for Massachusetts, NLA will squeal like a stuck pig and dump $250,000 into lobbying, probably unsuccessfully.

Check out page 6 - "NLA Fast Facts." Hits on NLA web site since 4/1/03 launch - 235, 361. What's missing? Hits means files viewed. On heavily graphic pages one page view will produce numerous "hits." What's missing is how many "page views," and how many unique visitors. The NLA figure averages 60,000 "hits" per month, or 2,000 "hits" per day. translated to "page views," that's likely to be about 200 per day. Since each unique visitor usally looks at multiple pages, that means the number of unique visitors is likely a handful. Remember, Thomas "I" Mazza learned to count at Bobit Publishing!!

Same Fast Fact - 181 new members to date in 2003. How about that! How come if you count the published names of new members in the LimoScene this year they don't add up to 181? There's that Bobit-inspired counting again. What the hey - it was Thomas "I" Mazza that landed Pittsburgh Limousine in the LCT Top 50 with 73 vehicles - the year before they went belly-up. What's missing? How many non-renewals so far this year - and I don't mean those being carried on the books for months and months, and even years.

And here's a real hoot. On page 7 NLA announces that they're going to spend $26,000 to make promotional videos to recruit new members! At an average of $200 per member in dues, it will take 130 new members just to break even, after which the new members will non-renew when they figure out that they've been fleeced. Here's a thought - it takes a lot more money to recruit new members than to retain the old ones: JUST DO SOMETHING!!!!

Also on page 7, the Board is calling for nominations for folks to serve on the Board of Directors!!!! I think they created a new region this year - it's a 3-foot square piece of Illinois where John Sokol can stand and run for the board so no one else can run against him. I think they call it the "Solombrino Square."

Whewwwwww. I'm damned worn out from all the excitement.

P.S. Anybody been in the business long enough to know how long Thomas "I" Mazza has been using that same photograph?

James H. Joseph
Pegasus Chauffeured Motor Cars
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
jhj@pegasus-pittsburgh.com

[This message was edited by JHJ on September 06, 2003 at 03:20 PM.]

JHJ, That's what happens when ex-used WHITE CAR operators speak for the Industry....hauling newly arrived immigrants to the church is as good as it gets for the pinhead crowd....

Dean Schuler

NLA BOARD MEMBERS who called today-check the FTC, boys..... HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dean Schuler

Calm down Jim, I know Tommy is exciting but lets not let it get out of hand.

David E. Merrill