The Limos.com Forum Has Moved!!!

the owner of our company was saying he dont take the stretch home no more because the neighborhood complained. he lives in a exclusive subdivision, home prices being $400,000. its single family homes. sometime he used to take the stretch home and park it out front of his house but now he got a letter from the home owner association telling him the stretch has got to be parked out of sight. they dont even let him park it in his own drivway. its got be be completely out of sight. did anyone ever here of anythign like this before?

also wanting to know when you hire a new driver how long do you wieght before you will let him take a car home with him if he got an early morning run?

There always will be haters out there and people jealous of you. Not much you can do about that. Its like having a nice car in a city and there will be other people that will key your car just because its a nice expensive car. Dont you just hate jealous people?!

Digger, while I hear what you are saying, sometimes that just won't work. It is not uncommon at all for us to take calls at night requesting service. Last night we have five cars dispatched after 5:00pm. One was to a bar and they wanted a car ASAP, three more were for surgical teams arriving my private plane for an organ transplant case that arrived at 11:30pm, 12:30am and 2:00am. Yet, another requested a 4:00am departure to LAX.

In my business, which truly operates round the clock, it would just waste time by not having a car ready to go and the on-call chauffeurs (all full time) take the cars home to wait for calls.

Those same chauffeurs are always scheduled to work the next day and IF they get called out at night, their day time runs are reassigned to other chauffeurs as needed.

Happened to me when I started serveral year's ago. Just married, moved into a large condo ass., parked stretch for month's, no complaint's. Then I recieve a letter from homeowner's ass. stating that any vehicle's longer than 28ft. cannot park on the ground's overnight. Tell your boss to goto the next townhome association meeting, usually held once a month. I'm sure he know's what this is. At meeting, like CEDARMILL said, the covenant's of the association would have to be changed, allowing a vehicle up to a certain length. This can be changed by requesting a vote, if nobody show's up but the board member's, it's an easy vote to change. Two-third's of all resident's have to either agree or disagree on vote for favor.
As far as the new driver, there is no WAIT, if he HAD an early morning run, boss should have a handbook outlining rules on new hire's so everyone that start's feel's equal and no bitching will occur. Make sure boss collect's a "BOND" upfront on day one from driver to cover deductible if car doesn't show up again or with damage, no sweat for your boss there.... Usually bond is $500-$750 this is a common practice yellow cab and other limo/cab companies use around here with new driver's. Here's how it work's:
New driver gives a monetary bond, amount set by what insuarance deductible is. Now if driver has an accident, NO MATTER WHO'S AT FAULT, believe me, driver's will be more careful driving your limo if they know they will lose the bond even in a fender-bender yes the driver get's bond back if other party involved in accident has their insurance pay for limo damage, which does not hold the other party at fault, since our state, ILLINOIS a "no fault" state meaning if driver get's into accident, insurance companies usually will pay-out if the evidence (ticket's given to other driver/picture's/attorney/witness'/image's of accident recorded from camera/) point's to their insured, but it does NOT hold the insurance company at fault. So, if it is found to driver's fault and other parties insurance won't pay-out, driver CANNOT start again for work until the bond is brought back to where it should be, some companies let the driver's pay over several week's, some don't (example: Yellow Cab. who increase's the bond after first accident from $500 to a required bond of $750 before cabbie can work again, all paid upfront, ca$hola....)Also, if driver get's any parking ticket's, red light camera violation's, etc..., those are taken out of bond as well. See how the Country's (perhap's world's) largest cab company saves their ass!!! Maybe we could learn from them...and save our's too!!! (and yes, this is legal, simple bond agreement like a deposit for a rental.) Less headaches for owner's = a) more sleep or b) more time to enjoy a hobby or c) more time to party ...ok guy's, is it a, b, or c ?
I pick b-more time to train my untrainable mutt (both girlfriend shhhh, nah if you meet her, you'll agree....and canine)...lol
Do you work for Hinsdale Limousine, Mark?

I've only allowed one driver to take a car home and that's only because he lives way out in the sticks, otherwise the cars always come back to the security lot. Even if your driver doesn't have enemies the tree-huggers may decide to vandalize a car, or the kids that just can't find anything to do and think that trashing a limo would be fun. Too many reasons for stupid people to hurt your car for no reason, don't let them take the car home.

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Dean is right, it opens the door for everything.

Dean seems like a very knowledgeable guy so I wouldn't want to take anything away from him, and being new and all I realize that I could be invisible...

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Originally posted by MarkRi:
...also wanting to know when you hire a new driver how long do you wait before you will let him take a car home with him if he's got an early morning run?

There is no waiting... day one.

quote:

Originally posted by MarkRi:
the owner of our company was saying he dont take the stretch home no more because the neighborhood complained. he lives in a exclusive subdivision, home prices being $400,000. its single family homes. sometime he used to take the stretch home and park it out front of his house but now he got a letter from the home owner association telling him the stretch has got to be parked out of sight. they dont even let him park it in his own drivway. its got be be completely out of sight. did anyone ever here of anythign like this before?

also wanting to know when you hire a new driver how long do you wieght before you will let him take a car home with him if he got an early morning run?

A lot of nice neighborhoods have CC&R's(Code of conduct and regulations) that have specific rules against parking RV's or commercial vehicles.

As far as trusting employees taking home a car with them, I'm more worried about where they park it and who they piss off. Common retaliation is spitting, eggs, dents, keying, broken windows, and flat tires. Not to mention parking tickets.

I agree that is nothing out of the ordinary. I would not want one parked next to my house either. Dean is right, it opens the door for everything.

As for when we decide to let a chauffeur take a car home...........I say this......

If you can trust him with your vehicle from the day you hired him, you should not have hired him at all.

We do not hire anyone until their background check is completed, drug and alcohol screen are completed and either a driver physical of DOT approved Medical Card is on file along with a ten year driving record print out. If after all of these steps there are questions remaining, don't hire!

It is common practice.

quote:

Originally posted by MarkRi:
the owner of our company was saying he dont take the stretch home no more because the neighborhood complained. he lives in a exclusive subdivision, home prices being $400,000. its single family homes. sometime he used to take the stretch home and park it out front of his house but now he got a letter from the home owner association telling him the stretch has got to be parked out of sight. they dont even let him park it in his own drivway. its got be be completely out of sight. did anyone ever here of anythign like this before?

also wanting to know when you hire a new driver how long do you wieght before you will let him take a car home with him if he got an early morning run?

As far as the parking goes, it depends on the covenants and the association. The reasoning is usually that if you allow a limo, then it's a boat, then a RV, then parking in the street, etc.

I can't answer question about allowing driver to take car home since we just started operating.