TLPA

TLPA’s 89th ANNUAL CONVENTION & TRADE SHOW IN DENVER

What does an association's annual convention and trade show offer its members? It should be the ultimate combination of industry information, education, networking opportunities and entertainment. It should be a one stop shopping opportunity.

TLPA's annual convention and trade show gives the large and small, active and not so active operators the chance to get away from their offices, come together as one, grasp a perspective of the industry, and take what they have learned back to their companies' drawing boards. For those TLPA members who attended TLPA's 89th Annual Convention and Trade Show seeking knowledge and opportunity, their trip to Denver was a tremendous success.

The TLPA convention at the Hyatt Regency Denver and the Colorado Convention Center was a one stop show place to learn about the current opportunities for operators in the passenger ground transportation industry. Attendees were able to see firsthand the newest products and services available to our industry, and most importantly, to network by making new friends and seeing old friends.

Following is an overview of the Denver meeting. We hope this article will entice readers to make plans to attend TLPA's 90th Annual Convention and Trade Show at the Marriott Tampa and the Tampa Convention Center, Tampa, Florida, October 25-29, 2008.

The convention opened on Monday October 8 with the Gateway Insurance Golf Tournament for the benefit of the Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Foundation (TLPF). Forty-eight golfers teed off at the beautiful Riverdale Dunes Golf Course and raised more than $10,000 for the Foundation with more than $1,000 coming from golfers who donated their prize winning back to TLPF.

The golf tournament weather was a foreshadowing of what awaited convention attendees - beautiful sunshine with temperatures in the high 60s to low 70s. It is no wonder that more than 95 percent of the attendees rated Denver as an excellent or good meeting site.

On Tuesday morning, attendees were treated to a tour of Denver Yellow Cab. Comments written by those on the tour included:

• Excellent tour and facility;
  
  
• Inspiring to smaller operators;
  
  
• Very generous, professional facility, very organized;
  
  
• Incredibly forthcoming with info;
  
  
• All of the managers gave great presentations, very educational.

A similar tour of Metro taxi of Denver on Thursday afternoon elicited similar comments.

On Tuesday afternoon, the educational program of the convention opened with 3 sets of 9 concurrent Roundtable Discussions. These Roundtables have become one of the most popular portions of our convention. Each features a moderator who provides a 5 minute overview of the topic to be discussed and then moves to an open discussion.

The Roundtables promote relevant questions and answers that apply to specific company issues. They are designed to elicit participation from the attendees.

Early Tuesday evening featured the Grand Opening of the Exhibit Hall and the Opening Cocktail reception. Another highlight of the meeting most certainly was the Trade Show. With 71 booths and 11 vehicles, the trade show was one of TLPA’s largest.

Talk about one stop shopping. The exhibit hall Trade Show included:

• insurance,
  
  
• wheelchair accessible vans,
  
  
• computer software,
  
  
• automotive parts,
  
  
• toplights and signs,
  
  
• credit card processing services,
  
  
• taximeters,
  
  
• GPS,
  
  
• mapping and dispatch software,
  
  
• new sedan models,
  
  
• communications and dispatching,
  
  
• vehicle financing,
  
  
• vehicle leasing,
  
  
• smartcard technology,
  
  
• radios,
  
  
• cell phones,
  
  
• business franchising,
  
  
• partitions, and
  
  
• wheelchair lifts.

to name just some of the products and services available to trade show attendees. There was not a moment during the time the exhibit hall was open that it was not filled with operators and exhibitors.

Wednesday morning began with a welcome breakfast for new members and first time convention attendees. In-coming 2008 TLPA President Brian Hunt greeted people with a brief overview of the association with tips on how to get the most of the convention and trade show and introduced members of the TLPA staff and members of the TLPA Board of Directors.

The highlight of the morning was the Opening General Session. President Brian Wier summarized his year in office, 2007. He introduced the keynote speaker, Sherry E. Little, Deputy Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration. Ms. Little discussed the FTA's alternative congestion mitigation initiatives and the importance of the for-hire vehicle industry as part of public transportation. Public transportation is a source of viable alternative transportation. The FTA wishes to encourage people not to use their private automobiles when ever possible and to use, instead, public transportation.

In order to encourage more and better use of the resources of private operators, Ms. Little announced three new FTA initiatives:

• The addition of a new section on FTA?s web site titled "Private Enterprise Participation". The introduction to the web site: http://www.fta.dot.gov/private/ includes the following statement:

"To achieve the community benefits that private sector transportation providers offer they must participate fully in federally funded public transportation programs, from the early planning stages through the implementation of service. The information on these pages is intended to assist both public sector and private sector parties in learning more about opportunities for private enterprise participation in the delivery of public transportation services."

• A grant to TLPA in the form of a cooperative agreement to be used for funding to provide educational seminars, instructional articles and other web based materials to assist private for-hire vehicle operators in understanding and becoming involved in the local collaborative transit planning processes through their local Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) or through their statewide planning processes.

The funding will also explain the United We Ride program and its importance in assisting local communities with coordinated human services transportation planning. The funding from this cooperative agreement will also be utilized to provide technical assistance (via the telephone and if necessary, on site) by expert consultants experienced in dealing with private operator issues in transit contracting in order to facilitate an increase in competitive contracting opportunities developed through local planning processes for private transportation providers.

• The hiring by FTA of a private Sector Ombudsman whose responsibility it will be to liaison between FTA staff of U.S. private operators. The hiring of ombudsman will mark the first time in more than 15 years that private operators will have a specific contact person at FTA who will consider the private sector viewpoint and represent it in agency discussions.

After the Opening General Sessions, there were three breakout panel discussions:

• trends in Taxicab Regulatory Studies by Cities and Airports,
  
  
• Key Issues in Call Center Management, and
  
  
• Credit/Debit Card Processing Systems, Fees & Issues.

The Second General Session followed these sessions.

The Second General Session featured the driver of the year awards presented to:

• James Robinson, Denver Yellow Cab Paratransit Division, Paratransit Driver of the Year;
  
  
• David Osterhout, Transport The People, Pittsfield, MA, Chauffeur of the Year; and
  
  
• Wendell White, Metro Taxi, Denver, Colorado, Taxicab Driver of the Year.

The Driver of the Year awards were followed by the Annual Business meeting of TLPF and TLPA. At the TLPA meeting, Brian Hunt was officially elected 2008 TLPA President.

In his acceptance speech, Brian spoke of his life and how he entered into the transportation business. He announced,

"I would like to have an emphasis this year on educating ourselves about Customer Service. I believe best practices coupled with proper employee training in Customer Service can add to our previously developed Driver and Company standards. I believe specific education on this topic will continue our branding strategy by developing our member companies into being absolutely the best in the industry at what we do.

"I think you will agree with me that service is what we sell, so let us know the best ways to accomplish that. Let the strength of the TLPA membership be put to that task this year so we may continue to set ourselves apart from the competition. Let?s vow to learn together all there is to know about this subject and lets document it for the benefit of future members."

At the close of the Second Business session the convention moved to lunch and an afternoon visiting exhibitor on the trade show floor concluding with the Member Appreciation Cocktail Reception.

On Thursday morning there were two sets of breakout sessions followed by lunch in the Exhibit Hall and the closing of the Exhibit Hall. Metro Taxi of Denver hosted a very comprehensive and much appreciated tour of its facilities later on Thursday afternoon.

The Convention ended on Thursday evening with a cocktail reception, a Silent Auction to raise money for the TLPA Action Fund, and a closing banquet with entertainment provided by well known magician John T. Sheets. The highlight of the evening was the presentation of the TLPA 2007 Operator of the Year awards to:

• Corky Renzi, Cabulance, Inc,. Pittsfield, MA, Paratransit Operator of the Year
  
  
• Sam Amato, Gateway Limousine, Burlingame, CA, Limousine Operator of the Year
  
  
• Murray Rosenberg, Yellow Cab of Atlantic City, Atlantic City, NJ, Taxicab Operator of the Year. (see photo)

Murray Rosenberg receiving the 2007 TLPA taxicab operator of the year award from 2007 TLPA President Brian Wier and 2008 TLPA President Brain Hunt.

Networking, renewing old friendships, making new ones - it is a key reason for belonging to an association and coming to its conventions. The cocktail receptions, the lunches, and the closing night banquet in Denver were all designed to facilitate this networking. We hope to see and meet many new faces in Tampa, October 25-29, 2008 to take advantage of the industry information, education, networking opportunities and entertainment afforded them at the TLPA Annual Convention & Trade Show

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