December 24, 2025 • 47 mins
In this holiday year-in-review special, Ken Lucci and James Blain reflect on the conversations, guests, and industry moments that made this past year such a pivotal one for ground transportation.
From memorable origin stories and standout interviews to hard conversations about insurance pressure, safety expectations, and industry fragmentation, this episode captures the lessons operators can’t afford to ignore. The hosts revisit insights from across the podcast’s most impactful episodes, including reflections from major industry events and candid moments that reinforced why collaboration across transportation verticals is essential.
This episode is both a celebration of how far the podcast—and the industry—has come, and a thoughtful look at what must change for operators to thrive moving forward.
If you’ve followed the Ground Transportation Podcast this year, this is the perfect episode to reflect, reset, and look ahead.
At Driving Transactions, Ken Lucci and his team offer financial analysis, KPI reviews, for specific purposes like improving profitability, enhancing the value of the enterprise business planning and buying and selling companies. So if you have any of those needs, please give us a call or check us out at www.drivingtransactions.com.
Pax Training is your all in one solution designed to elevate your team's skills, boost passenger satisfaction, and keep your business ahead of the curve. Learn more at www.paxtraining.com/gtp
Connect with Kenneth Lucci, Principle Analyst at Driving Transactions:
https://www.drivingtransactions.com/
Connect with James Blain, President at PAX Training:
https://paxtraining.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
James Blain (00:00):
Yeah.
(00:00):
Holiday special.
Let's go.
We will digitally paint in Ken'shat.
Ken Lucci (00:05):
Now it is the hair.
I, I, you know, I don't do that.
I don't do hats.
(00:34):
Well, good afternoon everybody,and welcome to another exciting
episode of the GroundTransportation Podcast.
My name is Ken Luci and I amfrom Driving Transactions.
We are a financial analysis andbusiness valuation and MA
advisory firm specializing inpassenger transportation.
I'm so pleased to be joined bymy ables.
(00:54):
Co-host James Blaine from PTraining, who is a trainer
extraordinaire of chauffeur andmotor coach pilots in the
industry.
We're also blessed to have ourproducer, John Tieman, who is
going to actively participate inthis.
He's behind the scenes on everyone of these podcasts, keeping
us honest and bleeping me outwhen I swear.
James Blain (01:16):
It is a full-time job, right.
Ken Lucci (01:18):
lot more than that.
but he's gonna participatebecause we're gonna have a, our
first look back show.
We are going to look back atsome of the highlights from the
Ground Transportation podcast.
So, John, take it away.
James Blain (01:31):
Yeah.
Holiday special.
Let's go.
John Tyreman (01:33):
It's the holiday special.
This episode is coming out righton Christmas Eve, so we thought,
hey, let's, let's dawn the SantaHats and let's take a look back
at some of the best e bestmoments of 2025.
Maybe sip on some eggnog whilewe're at it.
James Blain (01:47):
We will digitally paint in Ken's hat.
Ken Lucci (01:50):
Now it is the hair.
I, I, you know, I don't do that.
I don't do hats.
John Tyreman (01:55):
Um, so, uh, f first of all, before we dive
into some of the clips, I justwanna ask both of you like, is
there a particular moment thatmaybe stands out to you from the
podcast over the course of thelast year?
James Blain (02:10):
Oh, Ken, you go first.
You
Ken Lucci (02:12):
Well, I, I really enjoyed the, the episode we had
with, uh, Dawson Rudder andTammy Rudder from Commonwealth
because he told his originstory, which I didn't know.
Um, I also enjoyed theconversations we had with Brett
Barron holds for the samereason.
I mean, he told us his originstory and the fact that he, he
was originally in finance, um,stocks and bonds.
(02:36):
So I, I'd have to say those two,but there are so many.
I mean, I enjoyed Matt Dawes.
I mean, talking to Matt wasfantastic.
Uh, I don't wanna leave anybodyout, but yeah, I think, I think
those were the ones that, thatwere most memorable to me.
John Tyreman (02:49):
Okay.
James Blain (02:49):
I, I think for me, I had an aha moment.
So I, I recently was electedonto the board of Greater
California Livery Association,and, you know, we're, we're
sitting there, we're, we'rehaving a, a lunch before we go
in and, you know, I was lookingat the table and Tiffany Hinton
was right across from me, right.
Maurice Brewster was there.
(03:09):
And,
Ken Lucci (03:10):
could I miss those two?
James Blain (03:11):
Yeah.
And, and there's so many greatpeople, but it's kind of like
I've said on the, on the podcastbefore, like, you typically
don't meet someone and go, yeah,hi, my name's James.
I, I work with Pax.
Here's the past 20 years of mylife.
Here's how I got in theindustry.
Here's my backstory.
Here's what I do.
Here's how I built my company.
And so, you know, I think forme, and I hope the audience
(03:31):
feels the same way, we get tomeet people on a personal level.
In a way that you don'ttypically do.
And that was, that was for me.
And, and one of my big thingswhen we start these interviews,
I always wanna start with astory.
I always wanna understand wherethey are, what they do from
where they came from.
And I think for me, sitting inthat room, seeing them, that was
(03:52):
a huge deal.
And I had this moment of, wow.
You know,'cause I, and, and Ken,you probably feel the same way
to me, it feels like we juststarted the podcast.
Ken Lucci (04:00):
It does.
James Blain (04:01):
feels like this is super brand new.
And, and when I was there, I hadthis moment, I was like, oh,
wow, you know, this new podcast.
And then I realized we missedour one year anniversary.
Like we didn't even realize we'dbeen doing this for a whole
year.
We didn't, we didn't have a oneyear anniversary because for us,
we, we were still felt like wewere getting to do it.
Ken Lucci (04:19):
Maya's time flown.
James Blain (04:21):
My god.
I mean, it just, it just goesright.
So, and, and
Ken Lucci (04:26):
Spending every minute with you goes by like seconds,
James
James Blain (04:29):
So, so just so everyone's aware, Ken feels like
we've been doing this 20, 30years because I torture him.
Just every episode Ken is justtortured by me, right?
Ken Lucci (04:38):
And to think that this, the highlight of my,
James Blain (04:41):
look, yeah.
Like.
Ken Lucci (04:42):
highlight of my week.
James Blain (04:44):
Like you have no idea if we would've been
recording Ken's face when Ijumped on with this hat on,
right?
You would've thought, I mean, itwas the look of like, this damn
kid, right?
This child.
What, what am I gonna, but, butall joking aside, I think for
us, one, I wanna thankeverybody.
Like we, we missed that one yearanniversary.
I wanna thank everybody thatlistens because I get people
(05:05):
that come up to me and they tellme how much they love the
podcast.
They tell me how much they lovethe interviews.
They tell me how much it meansto them.
So for me, I think probably if Ihad to pick a favorite moment,
my favorite moment is every timesomeone comes up and talks to me
about the podcast, because youknow, I, I have days where I'm
like, man, who would wannalisten to me?
I can't believe people enjoythis.
(05:26):
But it really means a lot toknow that people are getting
value and that all the work allthe time, all the effort that
John, that Ken, that myself, allof us kind of putting our heart
and soul into this, that youguys really appreciate it.
So that to me is probably myfavorite.
Ken Lucci (05:40):
I don't even think I could count the number of people
who have said that to me.
I mean, I think it's in thehundreds that, and, and we've,
and it certainly.
Has helped us connect with newpeople who are interested in our
service.
But that's to me secondary.
What's primary to me is whensomebody walks up to us at a
conference that says, you know,I am, I, I implemented what you
(06:01):
talked about on the podcast, or,you know.
The guests that you had on soand so.
I really learned a lot from themand I've connected with them.
So I think, I do think we'remaking a difference.
I really think we're making adifference in the industry.
The fact that we are partneringwith chauffeur driven more on
the surveys, on the data, um, Ithink we're doing a great
(06:24):
service for the industry.
Um, and yeah, I, I, I, we couldnot be more pleased with John.
Is this gonna be his review bythe way?
James Blain (06:33):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ken Lucci (06:34):
Is he getting a review?
Is this his review?
James Blain (06:36):
Surprise.
All right, so let's talk aboutyour performance.
Ken Lucci (06:39):
No, because he's really the one that comes up
with a lot of the ideas, thewhole video clips I, uh,
episodes.
James Blain (06:46):
hero
Ken Lucci (06:46):
Right.
And he is a professional, he's aprofessional producer.
And so it's, it's gone a loteasier.
And let's just point out thissoiree was James idea
originally?
James Blain (06:59):
Oh God, I get blamed for everything.
Ken Lucci (07:01):
Right, but then it really, having John, having John
involved, it's certainly takenit to a next level that, that I
didn't anticipate
James Blain (07:08):
We, we, we couldn't have done it without John.
And,
Ken Lucci (07:11):
no way.
James Blain (07:12):
I think one of the things that people don't realize
is, you know, people think, ohyeah, you go, you record this
podcast, it's great.
You know, and I had aconversation with someone like,
oh, it must be so easy.
You go in, you record, uh, whatthey don't see.
Yeah.
All the work that goes behind,you know, the social media
doing, you know, the editingand, and all of the bleeping of
Ken and, no, I'm
Ken Lucci (07:32):
a full-time job.
John Tyreman (07:34):
Well, not only that, but the prep work on your
end and knowing how to navigatethe conversation and
Ken Lucci (07:39):
The questions we Right.
And, and getting the people toagree to.
Come on.
We've, you know what?
We've very, we've had a coupleof scheduling glitches.
Not many, but people have reallywanted to be on the podcast,
which says a, which says a lot.
So let's get to the highlight
James Blain (07:55):
Yeah, let's
John Tyreman (07:56):
it.
Ken Lucci (07:56):
to the highlight reel.
John Tyreman (07:57):
And I, I love that you guys, many of the things
that you brought up were momentsthat I planned to share with
you, so I'm glad that you, thatyou brought some of those things
up.
James Blain (08:06):
All in the same frequency, that same holiday
frequency.
John Tyreman (08:09):
That's right.
That's exactly right.
So we're gonna do another screenshare for us, and then for our
audience, um, we'll, we'll bringin these clips.
But this first clip that Iwanted to share was from Ken's
conversation with Matt Dawes.
Ken Lucci (08:25):
legendary Matt do.
John Tyreman (08:26):
This was episode 15 on
James Blain (08:29):
In the Sound studio, Les, what a boss.
John Tyreman (08:32):
So this was, um, Matt talking about the three
business models of autonomousvehicles.
Matt Daus (08:39):
And these are sophisticated cars.
When I got in them, I mean, theywere going around in opposing
traffic when someone was beepingand backing up into us.
Like they are sophisticated.
They, and you could, they haveeyes behind their head and at
every level, like octopi, Imean, basically you could see
things that a driver can't see.
They could things in the blindspots.
Ken Lucci (08:59):
And that'll be the argument.
That,
Matt Daus (09:01):
the safety question has been answered.
It is safer than a human driver.
There's no question about it,but some vehicle technology is.
Different and better thanothers.
And we won't, you know, callnames here, but, you know, the
business models are alsodifferent.
There are basically threebusiness models.
There's the robo taxi model, theUberization, which is the Waymo
(09:23):
cruise way now cruises out ofthe picture, Uber was smart to
get out of doing it themselvesand now being more like a
platform.
So their partnership with Waymois where I think the future is
going to be in the next fiveyears is where they start
cropping up in more and morecities.
As using their own app waymo,but also as one of many ways to
(09:45):
get around on the Uber app.
And I think it's going to remainthat way for a long time, but it
is scaling and you will see itin New York.
You will see it elsewhere.
The mayor of New York wantsthis.
I mean, he said that on his thenight he was elected.
There's more legislation andlocal rules that are very strict
in New York City, so it's a lotof hurdles, but Waymo has the
(10:05):
Uber type, you know, on demandmodel Zooks and Beef and you
know, May Mobility, which has anaccessible
Ken Lucci (10:14):
Yeah, Maymobility's up in Michigan, privately held
at this point.
Matt Daus (10:58):
It's a very different business model.
It's more shared mobility,multiple passengers.
You're going to see those atairports retirement communities,
college campuses.
And it's going to be integratedinto transit.
Waymo, Waymo is really the onlycompany left standing with Tesla
has a different business model.
That's the third business model.
(11:19):
And I think there's a lot ofconfusion about where Elon is
going to go with this.
And I think, you know, to yourpoint, we could talk about Elon
for like an entire podcast.
Ken Lucci (11:28):
try to get them on, by the way, Matt.
gonna be, you're gonna be onthat episode when we get them.
Matt Daus (11:33):
We'll have to go.
We'll just have to go down andhang outside the gate at Mar a
Lago.
Ken Lucci (11:37):
Well, didn't that get, yeah, we be careful that.
James Blain (11:41):
Uh, has there been an episode that we didn't
mention Elon?
Like, I think we're, I thinkElon's brought up on every
episode that we've
Ken Lucci (11:48):
No, we have Elon Envy.
There's no question about that,but, but let me tell you
something.
Getting Matt dos on the podcastto me was a milestone that we
were onto something.
Okay?
Because
John Tyreman (12:01):
talk to him next week.
Ken Lucci (12:02):
we're gonna talk to him again next week, and he and
I are doing a few more thingstogether.
But this guy is literally.
The transportation regulatoryexpert and without question, the
best transportation attorney inthe country.
So that was an an incredibleepisode, James.
I noticed that you missed thatepisode.
James Blain (12:22):
it's all right.
This is why we're bringing'emback.
I will be there for thatepisode.
Ken Lucci (12:26):
Okay.
All right,
John Tyreman (12:27):
And we will have to ask if his, uh, opinion on
Elon Musk has changed.
Ken Lucci (12:32):
Agreed.
Agreed.
'cause there's a lot, a lot ofthings have
James Blain (12:35):
I, I don't know that we're gonna find Elon at
Mar-a-Lago.
We're gonna have to go hang outoutside a different gate.
John Tyreman (12:40):
Yeah.
This was recorded back when Dogewas big,
Ken Lucci (12:43):
yeah, yeah.
How quickly, how quickly theyforget
James Blain (12:47):
The tables have turned.
John Tyreman (12:48):
All right, so this, uh, this next clip that,
uh, I have is from after the CDNLA show in Vegas.
Earlier this year.
Ken Lucci (12:59):
do we look tired or what?
John Tyreman (13:01):
did?
James Blain (13:01):
you can.
You can feel the lack of energythrough the screen, like just
drained.
John Tyreman (13:08):
I think for me, and from my perspective, it was
after that show and it was thismoment.
That I knew that we were ontosomething was because James, if
you recall before the, the Vegasshow, you had recorded like a,
like a three minute bumper oflike, Hey, if we see you at the
show,
James Blain (13:27):
Our selfie challenge.
Our selfie challenge.
John Tyreman (13:30):
selfie
James Blain (13:30):
Yeah.
It was a big deal.
John Tyreman (13:32):
So let's, let's see how, um, what I'd love to do
is show what your instantreaction to that was, and then
let's, let's relive that alittle bit.
Ken Lucci (13:39):
The people that you met on the floor, how was their
attitude?
James Blain (13:43):
I think the attitude was great.
You know, I, I can tell you bigshout out to everyone that came
to see us.
Um, you know, I, I don't knowthat I've ever had that many
people coming to see us.
I think part of that is thepodcast.
I'm, I'm glad to say it soundslike everybody's enjoying it.
I think the other side of thatthough is I think the show floor
continues to grow year afteryear.
I think the show continues togrow year after year.
(14:06):
Um, I think the other thing andI'm gonna again, we're gonna
take a little tangent.
I had tons of people thatactually took me up on my selfie
challenge,
Ken Lucci (14:16):
Yeah.
So did I, so did I.
James Blain (14:18):
but I will say, guys, you got to tag us.
You know, you got the selfie.
You've got it in your phone.
You got to tag us.
I would love to announce thewinner today that we had, right?
We were hoping to do thatjointly.
But we've, we've got all theseselfies out in the wild that I
don't know where they've endedup.
Um, so post those,
Ken Lucci (14:35):
What is tagging the selfie?
What is the process of taggingthe selfie?
James Blain (14:40):
So there's a couple different ways that you can do
it.
Ken Lucci (14:43):
Tell us technology
James Blain (14:45):
yes,
Ken Lucci (14:45):
Tell us Mr.
Wizard.
James Blain (14:47):
the easiest way to do it is to make a post on
Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram,Twitter, um, now X, whatever
your favorite social media is,and then just put the symbol and
put ground transportationpodcast.
That's it.
And then you just post
Ken Lucci (15:03):
whoa, whoa, whoa.
You're telling me, you'retelling me this whole thing
about tagging.
This is a revelation to mebecause it's not, it's not on a
P and L or a balance sheet.
You're telling me that I canpost a picture.
And then I can say the at symbolground transportation podcast.
James Blain (15:22):
And, and you can, you can tag individuals that
way.
So the at symbol, you can putJames, you can put Ken, you can
put whoever you want and tag itthat simple.
Um, and then from that point,it's really easy.
You, you've done it.
You've tagged it.
Then you can even go into theindividual photo and you can
actually tag people within thephotos.
So if you click on the photo,there's a little, it looks like
a price tag up in the corner.
(15:43):
Right.
You click that tag and then youcan click on the photo and tag
people within the photo.
Um, almost every platform'sabout the same.
They all support kind of the atsymbol.
We are really, really easybecause we have at ground
transportation podcast onbasically every platform.
So
John Tyreman (16:03):
the.
James Blain (16:04):
so, so I think, I think that perfectly illustrates
why we have to cover AI andtechnology so much on this
podcast, because I rememberthere were so many people that
were like, Hey, can I take aselfie?
You know, and, and it was, itwas almost humbling to me
because I didn't think we'dhave, uh, you know, lots and
lots of people take us up on it.
More people took us up on itthan I expected.
(16:25):
And all of these selfies stillexist out there, and I don't
know where they've gone
John Tyreman (16:29):
Well, here's a reminder.
Yeah.
Go
James Blain (16:31):
whole thing?
Yeah, yeah, the whole thing.
The whole thing was to tag,right.
So that we'd know and we'd seethe selfie.
But I, I, I text so many selfieswith people and then I'm like,
where did they go?
John Tyreman (16:42):
Shout out to Paul Pastor Neck
James Blain (16:44):
He did.
John Tyreman (16:44):
he's the one who came the closest.
James Blain (16:46):
He, he did.
Yeah.
John Tyreman (16:48):
So, um, I think, uh, I think now people are
starting to tag us.
I see men some mentions ofground transportation podcasts
on social media channels.
Um, and, and I see lots ofcomments from people, especially
on LinkedIn.
That seems to be the channelthat most people are engaging
with us on.
Ken Lucci (17:05):
Yes.
Yes,
John Tyreman (17:06):
I'm curious Ken James, ahead of the uh,
C-D-N-L-A show in Vegas in 26.
Should we try the selfiechallenge again?
Ken Lucci (17:14):
I think so.
I do.
I think so.
I think, I think we should, andI think we better maybe give
some instructions on properlytagging.
Um, there's, there's no questionbased on the people that have
talked to us and the people thatmentioned the podcast that came
up on two out of my four callsthis morning.
(17:35):
Um, people that I wouldn't thinklisten to the show, um.
All the time.
So yeah, I think we ought to do,we ought to try that one more
time, but I am not, I am kind ofshocked at how tired I, I look
on that
James Blain (17:50):
We both look exhausted
Ken Lucci (17:52):
exactly, exactly.
But I, nobody told me that.
It looks like I'm in a hospital,uh, hospital bed with that big
white chair.
Anyway, that's, we don't havethat chair anymore, so that's
good.
John Tyreman (18:04):
That's
James Blain (18:05):
I will, I will tell you one thing, and, and I don't,
I'm gonna put this out in theether.
I find if I put things out therethat they sometimes come to
fruition.
I think one thing that I wouldlove to do, and I, and I don't
know which show is right forwardor, or which, you know, which
show to do it at, but I thinkthat it would be really great.
If we were able to do a liveaudience type episode to be
Ken Lucci (18:27):
I agree with that.
James Blain (18:28):
we're gonna do like a fireside type chat.
So you've got Ken and I upthere, you've got a guest up
there, you know, and I thinkthat'd be great if we could pull
someone from outside theindustry, you know, and we could
say, Hey, you know, and maybe,you know, maybe one of the shows
has a keynote speaker and afterthe keynote we can kind of pull
them over.
I think that for me would benot, I say it not because
(18:49):
there's value in my world.
Because I really feel like oneof the hardest parts for me is
when I go to these shows and I'mtalking to these people, like I
mentioned earlier, we're, we'relooking into a camera right now.
So to have the audience there,to have our listeners there, to
be able to connect witheveryone, to be able to make
them kind of a part of whatwe're doing.
Ken Lucci (19:10):
we need to do a mixer.
Maybe we need to look at it for26.
Look, the way the industry ischanging, I think this is the
year to do it now flat out.
I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna,John, record this flat out.
I'm gonna do a call out to ElonMusk, okay?
I will buy the most expensiveTesla that you make, and I will
(19:33):
pay cash for it.
If you come on the groundtransportation podcast,
James Blain (19:37):
Ken, this guy builds rockets.
You're gonna end up with a$10million rocket in your backyard.
Ken Lucci (19:43):
okay.
For,
James Blain (19:44):
The man builds rockets.
Ken Lucci (19:46):
fine.
We'll
James Blain (19:47):
He's gonna Mars.
NASA's not even gonna Marsexcept with like RC cars.
He's taking people there.
Ken Lucci (19:53):
reissue the challenge.
James Blain (19:54):
He shot one into space.
Ken Lucci (19:56):
Elon Musk, I will buy the most expensive Tesla sedan.
That you make, and I will paycash for it if you come on this
podcast and talk about yourautonomous vehicles because we
believe that you're gonna dofantastic things, but, uh, that
(20:17):
are gonna impact our industry ingreat ways.
But you, you, you are a man ofthe people.
You know Joe Rogan, what does hetalk about?
And we're not smoking pottogether, don't get me wrong,
James Blain (20:28):
If that's what it takes.
Ken Lucci (20:30):
James will smoke pot with
James Blain (20:32):
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
I got the CDL.
You don't have a CDL.
I can't risk my CDL man.
That's not legal yet.
Ken Lucci (20:37):
well
John Tyreman (20:37):
I've already volunteered to choke up with
Elon if he comes on the show.
So.
James Blain (20:41):
John will.
John will do it.
He'll even
Ken Lucci (20:43):
John, our produ, our producer, by the way, he'll
probably wanna hire you away
James Blain (20:47):
By the way.
He is not in a safety sensitivefunction, so as long as it's
legal and the state, he recordsin we should be
Ken Lucci (20:52):
So John will toke up with you and I will buy the most
expensive Tesla sedan.
There'll be no moratorium on howlong I keep it, and I will pay
cash for it.
If you come on this podcast,there's the challenge.
James Blain (21:06):
Yeah.
And, and my challenge to myselfis to figure out what Ken is
doing to have that much cash onhand and start doing that.
John Tyreman (21:16):
Gotta get into financial services,
James Blain (21:17):
Uh, apparently.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, we, we we're doing it allwrong over here.
I don't, I don't have that kindof cash.
John Tyreman (21:23):
All right, So I wanna share another clip, um,
from earlier this year.
Uh, this one is, uh, from ourconversation with Eric.
Cool Ball
James Blain (21:33):
And it starts with Ken Lucci doesn't wear shorts,
so we know it's gonna be good.
Ken Lucci (21:38):
Eric Augh from Advantage Remarketing, one of my
favorite people in thisindustry.
John Tyreman (21:42):
What I love about this clip, Ken, is you came in
with some piss and vinegar andit was awesome, but then Eric
claps back at you with the, andit was hilarious.
This is probably my favoritemoment from the show.
Ken Lucci (21:58):
But before we, we get into, uh, talking about
advantage remarketing, I justwant to say flat out, this is
the only place in the chauffeurtransportation industry that you
can go for continuous educationevery single week.
if you listen to the podcast,you'll pick up more tips in one
hour on this podcast than youwill, and for no money.
(22:23):
You don't have to travelanywhere.
You don't have to get a hotelroom, you don't have to buy a
conference ticket.
So, uh, really, really happy tosay we have had.
Over 70,000 views of our shorts.
Now I'm happy to introduce avery close friend of mine, uh,
Eric Augh Advantage Remarketing.
Eric_Coolbaugh (22:43):
So it's my pleasure, Ken.
Thanks for having me.
And I can't believe 70,000.
What
Ken Lucci (22:48):
70,000 downloads or views of our shorts, of our,
our, our, our Facebook, uh,short videos.
James Blain (22:55):
And, and there you go.
Let's clarify that.
We don't mean like our literalshorts, right?
Like the ones we're wearing, wemean like shorts on YouTube and
whatnot.
For the younger generation,
Ken Lucci (23:03):
Correct?
Eric_Coolbaugh (23:04):
you know Ken Lucci, he doesn't wear shorts.
Ken Lucci (23:07):
No,
James Blain (23:07):
had to go there.
Had to go there.
Ken Lucci (23:09):
I rarely wear shorts
Eric_Coolbaugh (23:11):
I've, I've went to a sauna with him.
Trust me.
It's,
James Blain (23:14):
Oh.
Eric_Coolbaugh (23:15):
it's interesting.
Ken Lucci (23:16):
By the way, I don't know what the hell who got
saddle
James Blain (23:22):
What did they say about this podcast to make you
go that hard in the paint?
Like Ken is, like Ken is sellingit.
Like his life depends on it.
Like if you are not listening tothis podcast, you have no life.
You don't live under a rock, youare a rock.
You're just, you're just deadweight.
Like, my God,
John Tyreman (23:40):
By the way, the, the, I just wanna update the
numbers.
We've got over 170,000 views ofour shorts,
James Blain (23:46):
Yeah.
Yeah.
People like our shorts.
John Tyreman (23:49):
in over 17,000 plays on our podcast since we
launched.
So we've grown a bit since then.
Ken Lucci (23:55):
170,000.
John Tyreman (23:58):
Yeah, across LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook.
James Blain (24:02):
wow.
They like us.
They really like us.
Ken Lucci (24:09):
Maybe I should rant more.
John Tyreman (24:11):
Step on a soapbox.
Ken.
Hey, is there, is there anybodythat's gotten under your skin
recently?
Here's your
James Blain (24:16):
so, so before we do that, after that opening, did
our views go up or down?
We need to know.
We need to be sure we're doingthe right thing here.
Did they go up or did they go
Ken Lucci (24:25):
Well, we obviously have gotten some attention based
on the partnerships that we'vecreated and the
James Blain (24:29):
Oh, absolutely.
Ken Lucci (24:30):
the fact that we've gotten some unbelievable guests,
so maybe, maybe me tilting atthe windmills really did work.
James Blain (24:37):
I think Ken, you just hit on something.
I think, I think we'd be remissif we didn't say thank you to
all the guests, because I thinkthat has been one of the biggest
things for us and, and at leastit's one of my favorite parts,
is having these guests, havingpeople from the industry on
having, you know, all of thesepeople that are willing to share
their knowledge.
And you know, nobody ever abusesthe platform either.
(24:58):
It's not like they come out hereand they're like, they give a
sales pitch.
I mean, it's genuinely solid,valuable, good information.
Ken Lucci (25:05):
And, and, and I love the format because it's
extremely conversational, and tome it's almost like the only
thing missing is we're sittingon a, we're not sitting on a bar
stool having a beer and.
They're sharing a lot.
Uh, a lot of the guests haveshared things that I never
thought they would, and it'sbeen extremely, extremely
(25:25):
productive.
James Blain (25:26):
Well, and, and that's like Mo, right?
Mo shared all his big things.
Right?
As soon as that next big onecomes out, we gotta have him
back on and, and to be thatforthcoming and to share, you
know, a lot of these guys haveshared their secret sauce.
I mean, it's, it's a big
Ken Lucci (25:41):
and, and because they're secure in their success
and they know that, and theyknow, like in Maurice's case, it
can't be duplicated.
Maurice is a huge part of thesecret sauce.
Secret sauce.
Tiffany Hinton is a huge part ofthat secret sauce.
Um, all right.
What else do we have, John?
I hope it's no more rants.
John Tyreman (26:00):
I wanna play a short clip from Charlie Horkey
who teased his book on thepodcast earlier this year.
And then recently, uh, he cameon with James and, and talked
about the book release.
Ken Lucci (26:12):
living Legend.
Talk about a guy that you canlearn a lot from.
James Blain (26:16):
Well, and you talked about being secure in
your success.
One of the things, in my opinionthat makes Charlie Horkey
extraordinarily special is he'ssecure in his success and he
learned from his failures.
Ken Lucci (26:30):
Oh, Phoenix from the Ashes Complete Phoenix from the
ashes.
James Blain (26:34):
I, I went to dinner with him the last time I was in
Vegas and we had a blast andCharlie's one of those guys,
he'll share what he got right?
He'll share what he got wrong.
He'll share how he learned.
He'll share where he is going,but he's one of those people
that doesn't try.
There's a lot of people that tryto pretend that the failures or
the issues or, you know, theproblems never happen.
(26:54):
Charlie owns them.
Charlie laughs at'em in somecases
Ken Lucci (26:58):
lived through them.
He's a stronger, he's a strongerman because of
James Blain (27:01):
a hundred percent.
Ken Lucci (27:03):
Play that clip.
How big were you when the yearthat you ended up selling, how
big was the business from arevenue perspective?
Do you remember?
Charlie Horky (27:10):
yeah, it's 65, 70 million.
James Blain (27:13):
Wow.
Ken Lucci (27:14):
Phenomenal.
So what was the secret?
To go from fricking one car, youknow, which would be two maybe
back in the day would be ahundred thousand dollars a year
in revenue.
How do you go from 100,000 ayear in revenue to 65 million?
Charlie Horky (27:27):
you're gonna have to read the book.
James Blain (27:28):
guys, If you're, if you're on YouTube, we'll pop it
up on the screen or, or we'lldrop it in the, show notes,
Ken Lucci (27:33):
Okay, so you gotta look at this Unbreakable path.
Charlie Horkey.
A story of loss, resilience, andthe pursuit of greatness.
James Blain (27:43):
so give us the teaser for it, Charlie.
Right.
Because,'cause now that Ken hasdone that, I know I, I'm hanging
on the edge of my seat
Charlie Horky (27:49):
I thought I had a story to tell and, and, um, and,
and so I wrote it when I wasaway.
And, uh, in the last seven yearssince I've been out, um, I, uh,
I've learned that good storiesare a dime a dozen.
And that, uh, it's a one in amillion shot to make a movie.
(29:10):
And, um, you know, and, and thehung it was horrifying to me was
that it's somebody else'sversion of your life.
Like, you know, it's ascreenwriter and we did pay for
a screenwriter to write this,and he did now, like, it was
spooky.
It was, it was scary.
I, I just, you know, and a, a, areally important client of mine
said to me, you know, Charlie,these things last forever.
Like, you know, is this, is, isthis really how you wanna be
(29:31):
represented, you know, Legacy.
Yeah.
Whatever that
Ken Lucci (29:36):
got, you've got an incredible story in the
industry, and I don't thinkpeople realize because based on
who's in the industry now.
A lot of your contemporaries arelong gone.
Charlie Horky (29:49):
yeah, yeah, yeah.
Um, you know, what it convertedto, I don't want to, you know,
take off all your time aboutthat book, but, um, was that I.
I'd spent all this time doingit, and someone turned me on to
Game Changer Publishing.
And what I liked about them wasthat I thought I needed to tell
the story better.
And the way they do it is theyrecord your book, so you speak
it.
So it took me like a week oflike two hours a day to like be
(30:10):
recorded.
And then it's been a amount ofediting.
But what they do is, is whatthey did with what they did with
this book, and it's not a badidea, was that I was looking for
a side hustle.
The only reason I was interestedin this book was a side hustle
to maybe get us to become aspeaker.
I mean, I'm pretty sure I couldget a gig,
Ken Lucci (30:26):
A hundred percent.
100%.
Charlie Horky (30:28):
you know, so the book was wrote more as a
motivational piece, you know,get too close to the sun, you're
gonna get burned.
You know?
Um, it, it, it is certainly the,the story from the time I was
born until probably right aboutthe time when I got out, you
know?
Um, but it's not in gory detail.
It's not salacious, you know,I'm not saying, I mean, I
mentioned people that arefamous, but, but, but only
(30:50):
because I.
I was around them.
Not, not because I was in anyintimate settings with any of
them,
James Blain (30:56):
They're, they're part of the story, right?
They're part of the life.
They're part of understandingit.
Charlie Horky (31:00):
right.
Yeah, exactly.
Ken Lucci (31:02):
so let's back up a
Charlie Horky (31:04):
You, you might like him.
I mean, you know.
Ken Lucci (31:06):
Trust me, I'm gonna love it.
James Blain (31:07):
Yeah.
I'm definitely getting a copy of
Ken Lucci (31:09):
look, I, I, I honestly don't read nonfiction.
I read business books and I readbiographies because I believe
that you can get, there's somuch message with people's
life's experiences.
I frankly think that there's allthe messages you need to live
your life in the world.
And it's, I, I don't know thatthe word to me, I don't believe
that there's mistakes.
You and I have had thatconversation privately about
(31:31):
things that change you, andfrankly, that's gonna be our
next podcast together because Iwanna read the book first.
But, you know, there's fewthings that we, you and I could,
we could divulge
Charlie Horky (31:44):
Yeah.
It, it, I think that, you know,I, I don't really know how to
tell.
That, that, that personal story.
I mean, it comes to me more andmore and, you know, I, I think
I'm living it, you know, I'm,I'm in a better place, uh,
Ken Lucci (31:57):
No question.
You're a phoenix.
You're in, wait a minute, you'rein Vegas, but you're a phoenix.
You've literally risen.
There's not too many people whohave a successful second act the
way you have no question aboutit.
And it's because people be,because people believe the most
important people from thatperiod believed in you, believed
in you.
John Tyreman (32:16):
So that was, that was Charlie Horkey from, uh,
from earlier this year.
And so next, um, I, I worked ata branding agency for about
seven years and one of thebiggest signals of that you have
a strong brand is what yourcolleagues say about you when
you're not.
(32:37):
And so this next clip wasessentially a four minute
commercial for Pax training,
James Blain (32:44):
Which I was not even involved in,
John Tyreman (32:46):
James wasn't even involved in with Tim and Mike
Rose on.
Um, a Thorn between Two Roseswas the name
Ken Lucci (32:53):
that happened to be probably in the top three
episodes.
And, and because I love thoseguys and they're both, we're
very, very blessed to have themas clients and colleagues and,
um, yeah.
So that was a great episode.
James Blain (33:09):
Well, and talk about guys that give back.
Right?
I, I will tell you, I mean, so,so one, I am very lucky to have
them as clients and advocates.
But Mike and Tim are both, getit done guys.
Right?
Ken Lucci (33:24):
oh, it's in the DNA.
James Blain (33:25):
they're very
Ken Lucci (33:26):
the DNA.
James Blain (33:28):
They're very active.
I mean, if, and the other thingis they're the types of guys
that if you say, Hey, I needhelp, they're not gonna give you
some piddly, horrible advice.
They're gonna tell you what theyneed to, what you need to do,
and how you need to get thereand what their experience is.
And I have nothing but respectfor both those guys.
Plus they're, they're.
(33:48):
Serious.
But they're fun to be around.
Ken Lucci (33:52):
Uh, absolutely.
James Blain (33:53):
it done, but they don't just, you know, work isn't
the only thing in their life,you know?
Um, you've got Mike Mike's partof the fire department, right?
He's a fire chief.
I mean, there, he's giving backto the community.
Same thing, you know, with Tim.
Tim's actively involved.
Tim went when they had the humantrafficking issue and they were
able to save somebody.
I don't know if that ever cameup with a podcast, right?
(34:14):
You know, we worked with Tim andwhen we started doing human
trafficking courses, theyadopted it.
They trained all their drivers,and what happens, one of the
dolphin drivers is off work at adiner and literally he sees this
gal with this guy and all theboxes get checked.
He calls it in.
They come in, this guy had comehiding offshore, came in to
traffic.
This woman, he called it in, dideverything he was supposed to
(34:37):
do.
They saved this woman's life andthey literally, they've got a
human trafficker that now ishopefully gonna get behind bars.
So you wanna talk about two guysto get it done?
I mean, they're incredible.
They're absolutely incredible.
Ken Lucci (34:48):
So the clip is from a thorn between two roses.
James Blain (34:53):
Who was, who was the thorn?
I didn't make it to that one.
Was that, was that you, John?
Ken Lucci (34:57):
No, that
John Tyreman (34:58):
It wasn't me.
James Blain (34:59):
Now.
Now if I remember, I can't evenname that one.
John Tyreman (35:03):
Oh, it was brilliant.
I.
James Blain (35:08):
Oh, that was, that's such a classic name.
The Nice Brothers (35:11):
So, The tools are there.
We have to adopt the the wholegoal is you're trying to avoid
the big one.
As you mentioned.
You were, you were distractedand looking at that in your
vehicle, right?
what we do is train.
Okay.
And James, I'm sorry you're nothere today.
We miss you too, because you dogreat work.
(35:32):
Okay.
Great work.
James.
Did I mention
Ken Lucci (35:34):
James, Blaine.
James Blaine from PS Trainingdoes fantastic work.
The Nice Brothers (35:38):
does fantastic work.
my Director of Safety andCompliance, Mike Davis swears by
him and, uh, so many of our,fellow affiliates do, and, you
know, our, fellow Hoffmancompanies as well.
And the whole goal is about,avoiding the, uh, the big one.
and as Mike mentioned, the newtechnology is now so much
better.
Every time that they come outwith something, I then turn
(36:01):
around and I torture Mike Davis,who works for us, and I say,
Hey, Mike, look at this newfeature that, you know, it says,
please slow down when you get toa certain mile per hour.
Or it says, you know, pleasewear your seat belts when you
get in the car.
It's, it's muscle memory asMike's said.
And, and there ways to avoidthat.
And, uh, it's really all we cando to try to, you know, ingrain
(36:22):
upon them that the safety, uh,is, is very, very important.
and insurance is what keeps usin business.
Ken Lucci (36:28):
Well, and, you know, I'll just give a shout out.
I, I, I talk a lot to TimDelaney.
I talk a lot to the guys fromresearch underwriter, Steve
Freeberg and Andrew Don, and.
Uh, they lament the fact that alot of operators still think,
well, you are going up on me andyour price.
These guys have no choice.
There's no one clamoring to getinto the commercial fleet
(36:52):
insurance business, uh, lastthree years in a row for every a
hundred dollars they've taken inthe industry has collectively
lost$104.
It's not a sustainable businessmodel.
from a standpoint of, you know,you bring up PACS training,
which I think is another, way tocreate a culture of safety.
(37:13):
And James and I lament a lotabout what we do, and someone
will look at our product, our,our course, or our services, our
financial, uh, review and profitimprovement service.
And they're like, that's prettyexpensive.
And I'm like, basically, weguarantee to improve your
profits in James Case.
To me that program is, it shouldhave been, I wish it was around
(37:35):
20 years ago when I was anoperator, but that program is a
game changer for your operation.
It tells your, your chauffeurdepartment or your chauffeur's,
individual chauffeurs that youare serious about a customer
service, superior customerservice, and maximum safety.
I don't know why.
Operators, again, they considerit an expense.
(37:56):
Okay.
When James can demonstrate, notthat this is a commercial forum,
but he can demonstrate thechange in behavior when you
implement all of the strategiesthat he has.
The Nice Brothers (38:06):
question
Ken Lucci (38:07):
it, is it the operators that perhaps are just,
you know, they're in their ownecho chamber.
They've been doing this for solong.
I haven't needed it up till now.
What is it?
The Nice Brothers (38:18):
So, so I, I, you know, if you go back 20
years to Tommy MA's trainingvideos
Ken Lucci (38:24):
God bless
The Nice Brothers (38:24):
and, you look at where it's come and, and now
it's, you know, the PACStraining program, which, you
know, Bruce and James havebuilt.
So it went from, you know, howto be a chauffeur to how to be a
safe chauffeur.
And that's what it's about.
It's.
Provides that safety culture foryour new employees.
And I could tell you from a mylimo perspective, after we
(38:46):
implemented, you know, pax, wesaw immediate, immediate
improvement in service delivery,safety, quantifiable increases
in survey scores across theboard.
So it was a fantastic, yeah.
So you have to live it.
It's, again, safety culture is,is something that, you know, is
across the board in your companyand you have to live it.
(39:08):
But, for folks that don't adoptthese platforms, whether it's
James' or someone else's, youhave to talk to other operators,
see what they're doing, and talkto people that, that, you know,
have adopted and say, you know,where have you seen the return
on investment?
John Tyreman (39:25):
Alright, so, uh, our next clip that we have was
actually from a recent episodethat we did.
Where James, you had been on theroad for, I think it was like
four or five weeks straight
James Blain (39:35):
I've been on the road like every month this year.
It's insane.
John Tyreman (39:38):
yeah, it, it was right after the, uh, fall show
for the CD and LA
James Blain (39:42):
Oh, is this the big epiphany?
John Tyreman (39:44):
in Dallas.
And this was your, your bigepiphany.
So here comes James'.
Aha.
Moment.
James Blain (39:50):
we were there for NLA, we went and we saw all the
representatives.
Literally the very next dayafter being there with
representatives, I was now goingwith TTA to see representatives.
And for NLA we were asking foran insurance task force.
And we got, ironically enough,right?
Sharice Davids, I believe she'sHouse of Representatives,
democratic Party, state ofKansas.
(40:11):
Don't quote me on that, I'm justgoing off top of my head.
But her head of office, had beenthere for a long time.
And he told me, he said, I'mgonna give it to you straight.
You're asking me for a taskforce.
Okay, what does that look like?
How does it work?
What does it do?
You want an insurance taskforce?
This is not even my problem.
This is a state issue.
The thought to me was, allright, so we've got a state
(40:32):
issue, so we have a very easyway for them to kick it down.
It wasn't collaborated and in ashort span of time, I wasn't
able to go with UMA, but UMA wasthere too.
So we had TTA, NLA, UMA, so youhave the motor coach operations,
NEMT, taxi and Paratransit, andsome smaller school bus, and the
limo associations allconverging, all asking for the
(40:55):
same thing.
At a roundabout way, whathappens when we say, Hey?
We've all come together as anindustry.
This is the shared problem.
This is what we want a taskforce to look like.
Here's a blueprint for it.
We'd like you to endorse it.
The whole game changes.
Now let me be abundantly clear.
Cornerstone did an incrediblejob and putting stuff together
for us.
(41:16):
TTA's side did an incredible jobputting stuff together for them.
But it's grown to a point where.
We as an industry, have thisopportunity to come together And
say, these are the main issues.
We're not gonna agree on all of'em.
We're not gonna want the samething on all of them.
But if we become that squeakywheel that gets the grease, and
(41:37):
we're able to pool resources andtime and money to do that, guys,
there's a reason that the Amishcan build a whole barn so
quickly
Ken Lucci (41:45):
do we need them on the task force?
James Blain (41:47):
So look, here's the thing.
For me, that aha moment washuge, and I'm at a point where
I've been traveling every singlemonth, right?
We expect travel to increase,not decrease next year.
Um, but I think for me, whatwhat that came from is all of
these different verticals, allthese different associations,
(42:09):
everybody's facing the sameproblem.
And if everybody tries toreinvent the wheel
Ken Lucci (42:15):
On their own,
James Blain (42:17):
on their own right, we talked about, I, what's your
favorite saying about theislands, Ken?
Ken Lucci (42:21):
Yep.
Yep.
James Blain (42:22):
If you're, if you're, if you're an island,
those are the most backwardscompanies we deal with.
That's one of Ken's favoritethings to say, and I love that
because here's the thing, if asthe passenger ground
transportation industry.
We don't come together, right?
And we talk about the industry,we talk about the black car
industry, we talk about the busindustry.
We talk about NEMT, you talkabout school bus, we talk about,
(42:45):
but really those are, those arejust verticals.
Those are just segments.
It's the ground transportationindustry, right?
The passenger groundtransportation industry.
And I a hundred percent believethat the better we can get about
working together.
The better we're gonna be.
And I stand 120% behind thatstatement.
I'm at all the different shows.
It's not uncommon if I'm on the,I was on the bus industry safety
(43:05):
Council call, you know, not toolong ago, and they were like,
Hey, uh, about the chauffeurside, and I'm happy to chime in,
you know, if I am on the, Iremember I was at, I was in
California, I was doing anassociation out there.
Hey, what about the bus side?
I'm happy to try and bring thosepieces in and try to be that
bridge because the.
Bigger we are in terms ofworking together as the
(43:27):
industry, the more we're gonnaget done and the more we're
gonna solve.
Ken Lucci (43:29):
And it came crystal clear to me when, at the day on
the hill for the chauffeur side,I was in town for that.
And what, three days later youwere in town for the motor coach
guys,
James Blain (43:44):
no, I was there for tt, I missed Motor Coach this
year,
Ken Lucci (43:47):
So you were there for TTA
James Blain (43:49):
TTA was the day after,
Ken Lucci (43:51):
the day after, and then the motor coach guys came
into town.
James Blain (43:55):
Yeah.
I can't remember if they were,um, I, I can't remember if they
were the beginning of that monthor the end of that month, but
like within a month, you're allthree of them.
Ken Lucci (44:03):
and Matt, that is probably your epiphany moment is
definitely something we need todo something about because it,
it, there's no question that ifwe can.
Advance it and make it come tofruition.
It could be a game changer.
This morning, I was on the phonewith an operator who's beside
himself.
He's a$1.8 million operatorwhose insurance just went up to
(44:26):
$20,000 a month on 12 vehicles.
Now, he didn't have a fatality,but he had a couple of issues.
Obviously 240,000 on 1.8million.
Is just not su sustainable.
And I, I said that to him andyou know, he is got a few other
debt issues that we have to tryto help him with.
But I said at the end of the daythat funda, this has
fundamentally changed yourbusiness because that should be
(44:48):
more like 120,000, or even90,000.
And it's, it's definitely you.
You can't sustain it.
So this is a guy who's been inthe business 25 years.
So your epiphany moment issomething that I think we need
to build on, and I blame you ifit doesn't happen.
James Blain (45:07):
Look, look, I, I think we're gonna get there.
I have made it a very big pointthis year.
You know, we announced our, ourpartnership with Lancer.
I've got some excitingannouncements coming with some
other insurance companies thatwe're partnering with.
I think the biggest thing, andthis is really important, is
that we have gotta double downas an industry.
And when I say double down, Imean double down on doing it
(45:27):
right.
Double down on making sure thatwe're.
Working with the regulators,we're working with people to get
rid of the gypsy operators.
We're working to get thesethings done because there's so
many pieces that affect us all,and a lot of times it becomes
very easy to just operationallyput gliders on.
I'm just gonna focus on me, I'mgonna focus on what I'm doing.
And I think for me, the travelopened that up.
(45:49):
And I think it might not happentomorrow.
It might not happen in January.
We might not get it done in2026, but this is something that
even if the insurance crisis wassolved tomorrow, this is how we
get ready for and we're ahead ofthe next issue.
Just because we solved theinsurance crisis, just because
we figured this out doesn't meanwe don't all do that.
(46:09):
If we're all working together asthe passenger ground
transportation industry andwe're all coordinating on
issues, they're gonna get solved10 times faster, and we're gonna
have 10 times better answers.
Ken Lucci (46:20):
A hundred percent great advice and I think that's
a great place to to end for theday.
It's been an exciting day.
I am sorry I don't have myholiday hat on, but I'm with you
in
James Blain (46:31):
We, we will see gi it on.
You've been wearing it the wholetime.
You didn't even know it.
John Tyreman (46:35):
Yep.
And that concludes our best of2025 episode for the Ground
Transportation Podcast.
If you've made it this far intothe episode, please follow the
show on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,wherever you get your podcasts.
And leave us a rating.
Leave us a review.
That really helps us to grow theshow.
So thank you so much forlistening, and we'll see you
next Wednesday on the GroundTransportation Podcast.
James Blain (46:56):
Happy New Year.
Yeah.
(00:00):
Holiday special.
Let's go.
We will digitally paint in Ken'shat.
Ken Lucci (00:05):
Now it is the hair.
I, I, you know, I don't do that.
I don't do hats.
(00:34):
Well, good afternoon everybody,and welcome to another exciting
episode of the GroundTransportation Podcast.
My name is Ken Luci and I amfrom Driving Transactions.
We are a financial analysis andbusiness valuation and MA
advisory firm specializing inpassenger transportation.
I'm so pleased to be joined bymy ables.
(00:54):
Co-host James Blaine from PTraining, who is a trainer
extraordinaire of chauffeur andmotor coach pilots in the
industry.
We're also blessed to have ourproducer, John Tieman, who is
going to actively participate inthis.
He's behind the scenes on everyone of these podcasts, keeping
us honest and bleeping me outwhen I swear.
James Blain (01:16):
It is a full-time job, right.
Ken Lucci (01:18):
lot more than that.
but he's gonna participatebecause we're gonna have a, our
first look back show.
We are going to look back atsome of the highlights from the
Ground Transportation podcast.
So, John, take it away.
James Blain (01:31):
Yeah.
Holiday special.
Let's go.
John Tyreman (01:33):
It's the holiday special.
This episode is coming out righton Christmas Eve, so we thought,
hey, let's, let's dawn the SantaHats and let's take a look back
at some of the best e bestmoments of 2025.
Maybe sip on some eggnog whilewe're at it.
James Blain (01:47):
We will digitally paint in Ken's hat.
Ken Lucci (01:50):
Now it is the hair.
I, I, you know, I don't do that.
I don't do hats.
John Tyreman (01:55):
Um, so, uh, f first of all, before we dive
into some of the clips, I justwanna ask both of you like, is
there a particular moment thatmaybe stands out to you from the
podcast over the course of thelast year?
James Blain (02:10):
Oh, Ken, you go first.
You
Ken Lucci (02:12):
Well, I, I really enjoyed the, the episode we had
with, uh, Dawson Rudder andTammy Rudder from Commonwealth
because he told his originstory, which I didn't know.
Um, I also enjoyed theconversations we had with Brett
Barron holds for the samereason.
I mean, he told us his originstory and the fact that he, he
was originally in finance, um,stocks and bonds.
(02:36):
So I, I'd have to say those two,but there are so many.
I mean, I enjoyed Matt Dawes.
I mean, talking to Matt wasfantastic.
Uh, I don't wanna leave anybodyout, but yeah, I think, I think
those were the ones that, thatwere most memorable to me.
John Tyreman (02:49):
Okay.
James Blain (02:49):
I, I think for me, I had an aha moment.
So I, I recently was electedonto the board of Greater
California Livery Association,and, you know, we're, we're
sitting there, we're, we'rehaving a, a lunch before we go
in and, you know, I was lookingat the table and Tiffany Hinton
was right across from me, right.
Maurice Brewster was there.
(03:09):
And,
Ken Lucci (03:10):
could I miss those two?
James Blain (03:11):
Yeah.
And, and there's so many greatpeople, but it's kind of like
I've said on the, on the podcastbefore, like, you typically
don't meet someone and go, yeah,hi, my name's James.
I, I work with Pax.
Here's the past 20 years of mylife.
Here's how I got in theindustry.
Here's my backstory.
Here's what I do.
Here's how I built my company.
And so, you know, I think forme, and I hope the audience
(03:31):
feels the same way, we get tomeet people on a personal level.
In a way that you don'ttypically do.
And that was, that was for me.
And, and one of my big thingswhen we start these interviews,
I always wanna start with astory.
I always wanna understand wherethey are, what they do from
where they came from.
And I think for me, sitting inthat room, seeing them, that was
(03:52):
a huge deal.
And I had this moment of, wow.
You know,'cause I, and, and Ken,you probably feel the same way
to me, it feels like we juststarted the podcast.
Ken Lucci (04:00):
It does.
James Blain (04:01):
feels like this is super brand new.
And, and when I was there, I hadthis moment, I was like, oh,
wow, you know, this new podcast.
And then I realized we missedour one year anniversary.
Like we didn't even realize we'dbeen doing this for a whole
year.
We didn't, we didn't have a oneyear anniversary because for us,
we, we were still felt like wewere getting to do it.
Ken Lucci (04:19):
Maya's time flown.
James Blain (04:21):
My god.
I mean, it just, it just goesright.
So, and, and
Ken Lucci (04:26):
Spending every minute with you goes by like seconds,
James
James Blain (04:29):
So, so just so everyone's aware, Ken feels like
we've been doing this 20, 30years because I torture him.
Just every episode Ken is justtortured by me, right?
Ken Lucci (04:38):
And to think that this, the highlight of my,
James Blain (04:41):
look, yeah.
Like.
Ken Lucci (04:42):
highlight of my week.
James Blain (04:44):
Like you have no idea if we would've been
recording Ken's face when Ijumped on with this hat on,
right?
You would've thought, I mean, itwas the look of like, this damn
kid, right?
This child.
What, what am I gonna, but, butall joking aside, I think for
us, one, I wanna thankeverybody.
Like we, we missed that one yearanniversary.
I wanna thank everybody thatlistens because I get people
(05:05):
that come up to me and they tellme how much they love the
podcast.
They tell me how much they lovethe interviews.
They tell me how much it meansto them.
So for me, I think probably if Ihad to pick a favorite moment,
my favorite moment is every timesomeone comes up and talks to me
about the podcast, because youknow, I, I have days where I'm
like, man, who would wannalisten to me?
I can't believe people enjoythis.
(05:26):
But it really means a lot toknow that people are getting
value and that all the work allthe time, all the effort that
John, that Ken, that myself, allof us kind of putting our heart
and soul into this, that youguys really appreciate it.
So that to me is probably myfavorite.
Ken Lucci (05:40):
I don't even think I could count the number of people
who have said that to me.
I mean, I think it's in thehundreds that, and, and we've,
and it certainly.
Has helped us connect with newpeople who are interested in our
service.
But that's to me secondary.
What's primary to me is whensomebody walks up to us at a
conference that says, you know,I am, I, I implemented what you
(06:01):
talked about on the podcast, or,you know.
The guests that you had on soand so.
I really learned a lot from themand I've connected with them.
So I think, I do think we'remaking a difference.
I really think we're making adifference in the industry.
The fact that we are partneringwith chauffeur driven more on
the surveys, on the data, um, Ithink we're doing a great
(06:24):
service for the industry.
Um, and yeah, I, I, I, we couldnot be more pleased with John.
Is this gonna be his review bythe way?
James Blain (06:33):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ken Lucci (06:34):
Is he getting a review?
Is this his review?
James Blain (06:36):
Surprise.
All right, so let's talk aboutyour performance.
Ken Lucci (06:39):
No, because he's really the one that comes up
with a lot of the ideas, thewhole video clips I, uh,
episodes.
James Blain (06:46):
hero
Ken Lucci (06:46):
Right.
And he is a professional, he's aprofessional producer.
And so it's, it's gone a loteasier.
And let's just point out thissoiree was James idea
originally?
James Blain (06:59):
Oh God, I get blamed for everything.
Ken Lucci (07:01):
Right, but then it really, having John, having John
involved, it's certainly takenit to a next level that, that I
didn't anticipate
James Blain (07:08):
We, we, we couldn't have done it without John.
And,
Ken Lucci (07:11):
no way.
James Blain (07:12):
I think one of the things that people don't realize
is, you know, people think, ohyeah, you go, you record this
podcast, it's great.
You know, and I had aconversation with someone like,
oh, it must be so easy.
You go in, you record, uh, whatthey don't see.
Yeah.
All the work that goes behind,you know, the social media
doing, you know, the editingand, and all of the bleeping of
Ken and, no, I'm
Ken Lucci (07:32):
a full-time job.
John Tyreman (07:34):
Well, not only that, but the prep work on your
end and knowing how to navigatethe conversation and
Ken Lucci (07:39):
The questions we Right.
And, and getting the people toagree to.
Come on.
We've, you know what?
We've very, we've had a coupleof scheduling glitches.
Not many, but people have reallywanted to be on the podcast,
which says a, which says a lot.
So let's get to the highlight
James Blain (07:55):
Yeah, let's
John Tyreman (07:56):
it.
Ken Lucci (07:56):
to the highlight reel.
John Tyreman (07:57):
And I, I love that you guys, many of the things
that you brought up were momentsthat I planned to share with
you, so I'm glad that you, thatyou brought some of those things
up.
James Blain (08:06):
All in the same frequency, that same holiday
frequency.
John Tyreman (08:09):
That's right.
That's exactly right.
So we're gonna do another screenshare for us, and then for our
audience, um, we'll, we'll bringin these clips.
But this first clip that Iwanted to share was from Ken's
conversation with Matt Dawes.
Ken Lucci (08:25):
legendary Matt do.
John Tyreman (08:26):
This was episode 15 on
James Blain (08:29):
In the Sound studio, Les, what a boss.
John Tyreman (08:32):
So this was, um, Matt talking about the three
business models of autonomousvehicles.
Matt Daus (08:39):
And these are sophisticated cars.
When I got in them, I mean, theywere going around in opposing
traffic when someone was beepingand backing up into us.
Like they are sophisticated.
They, and you could, they haveeyes behind their head and at
every level, like octopi, Imean, basically you could see
things that a driver can't see.
They could things in the blindspots.
Ken Lucci (08:59):
And that'll be the argument.
That,
Matt Daus (09:01):
the safety question has been answered.
It is safer than a human driver.
There's no question about it,but some vehicle technology is.
Different and better thanothers.
And we won't, you know, callnames here, but, you know, the
business models are alsodifferent.
There are basically threebusiness models.
There's the robo taxi model, theUberization, which is the Waymo
(09:23):
cruise way now cruises out ofthe picture, Uber was smart to
get out of doing it themselvesand now being more like a
platform.
So their partnership with Waymois where I think the future is
going to be in the next fiveyears is where they start
cropping up in more and morecities.
As using their own app waymo,but also as one of many ways to
(09:45):
get around on the Uber app.
And I think it's going to remainthat way for a long time, but it
is scaling and you will see itin New York.
You will see it elsewhere.
The mayor of New York wantsthis.
I mean, he said that on his thenight he was elected.
There's more legislation andlocal rules that are very strict
in New York City, so it's a lotof hurdles, but Waymo has the
(10:05):
Uber type, you know, on demandmodel Zooks and Beef and you
know, May Mobility, which has anaccessible
Ken Lucci (10:14):
Yeah, Maymobility's up in Michigan, privately held
at this point.
Matt Daus (10:58):
It's a very different business model.
It's more shared mobility,multiple passengers.
You're going to see those atairports retirement communities,
college campuses.
And it's going to be integratedinto transit.
Waymo, Waymo is really the onlycompany left standing with Tesla
has a different business model.
That's the third business model.
(11:19):
And I think there's a lot ofconfusion about where Elon is
going to go with this.
And I think, you know, to yourpoint, we could talk about Elon
for like an entire podcast.
Ken Lucci (11:28):
try to get them on, by the way, Matt.
gonna be, you're gonna be onthat episode when we get them.
Matt Daus (11:33):
We'll have to go.
We'll just have to go down andhang outside the gate at Mar a
Lago.
Ken Lucci (11:37):
Well, didn't that get, yeah, we be careful that.
James Blain (11:41):
Uh, has there been an episode that we didn't
mention Elon?
Like, I think we're, I thinkElon's brought up on every
episode that we've
Ken Lucci (11:48):
No, we have Elon Envy.
There's no question about that,but, but let me tell you
something.
Getting Matt dos on the podcastto me was a milestone that we
were onto something.
Okay?
Because
John Tyreman (12:01):
talk to him next week.
Ken Lucci (12:02):
we're gonna talk to him again next week, and he and
I are doing a few more thingstogether.
But this guy is literally.
The transportation regulatoryexpert and without question, the
best transportation attorney inthe country.
So that was an an incredibleepisode, James.
I noticed that you missed thatepisode.
James Blain (12:22):
it's all right.
This is why we're bringing'emback.
I will be there for thatepisode.
Ken Lucci (12:26):
Okay.
All right,
John Tyreman (12:27):
And we will have to ask if his, uh, opinion on
Elon Musk has changed.
Ken Lucci (12:32):
Agreed.
Agreed.
'cause there's a lot, a lot ofthings have
James Blain (12:35):
I, I don't know that we're gonna find Elon at
Mar-a-Lago.
We're gonna have to go hang outoutside a different gate.
John Tyreman (12:40):
Yeah.
This was recorded back when Dogewas big,
Ken Lucci (12:43):
yeah, yeah.
How quickly, how quickly theyforget
James Blain (12:47):
The tables have turned.
John Tyreman (12:48):
All right, so this, uh, this next clip that,
uh, I have is from after the CDNLA show in Vegas.
Earlier this year.
Ken Lucci (12:59):
do we look tired or what?
John Tyreman (13:01):
did?
James Blain (13:01):
you can.
You can feel the lack of energythrough the screen, like just
drained.
John Tyreman (13:08):
I think for me, and from my perspective, it was
after that show and it was thismoment.
That I knew that we were ontosomething was because James, if
you recall before the, the Vegasshow, you had recorded like a,
like a three minute bumper oflike, Hey, if we see you at the
show,
James Blain (13:27):
Our selfie challenge.
Our selfie challenge.
John Tyreman (13:30):
selfie
James Blain (13:30):
Yeah.
It was a big deal.
John Tyreman (13:32):
So let's, let's see how, um, what I'd love to do
is show what your instantreaction to that was, and then
let's, let's relive that alittle bit.
Ken Lucci (13:39):
The people that you met on the floor, how was their
attitude?
James Blain (13:43):
I think the attitude was great.
You know, I, I can tell you bigshout out to everyone that came
to see us.
Um, you know, I, I don't knowthat I've ever had that many
people coming to see us.
I think part of that is thepodcast.
I'm, I'm glad to say it soundslike everybody's enjoying it.
I think the other side of thatthough is I think the show floor
continues to grow year afteryear.
I think the show continues togrow year after year.
(14:06):
Um, I think the other thing andI'm gonna again, we're gonna
take a little tangent.
I had tons of people thatactually took me up on my selfie
challenge,
Ken Lucci (14:16):
Yeah.
So did I, so did I.
James Blain (14:18):
but I will say, guys, you got to tag us.
You know, you got the selfie.
You've got it in your phone.
You got to tag us.
I would love to announce thewinner today that we had, right?
We were hoping to do thatjointly.
But we've, we've got all theseselfies out in the wild that I
don't know where they've endedup.
Um, so post those,
Ken Lucci (14:35):
What is tagging the selfie?
What is the process of taggingthe selfie?
James Blain (14:40):
So there's a couple different ways that you can do
it.
Ken Lucci (14:43):
Tell us technology
James Blain (14:45):
yes,
Ken Lucci (14:45):
Tell us Mr.
Wizard.
James Blain (14:47):
the easiest way to do it is to make a post on
Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram,Twitter, um, now X, whatever
your favorite social media is,and then just put the symbol and
put ground transportationpodcast.
That's it.
And then you just post
Ken Lucci (15:03):
whoa, whoa, whoa.
You're telling me, you'retelling me this whole thing
about tagging.
This is a revelation to mebecause it's not, it's not on a
P and L or a balance sheet.
You're telling me that I canpost a picture.
And then I can say the at symbolground transportation podcast.
James Blain (15:22):
And, and you can, you can tag individuals that
way.
So the at symbol, you can putJames, you can put Ken, you can
put whoever you want and tag itthat simple.
Um, and then from that point,it's really easy.
You, you've done it.
You've tagged it.
Then you can even go into theindividual photo and you can
actually tag people within thephotos.
So if you click on the photo,there's a little, it looks like
a price tag up in the corner.
(15:43):
Right.
You click that tag and then youcan click on the photo and tag
people within the photo.
Um, almost every platform'sabout the same.
They all support kind of the atsymbol.
We are really, really easybecause we have at ground
transportation podcast onbasically every platform.
So
John Tyreman (16:03):
the.
James Blain (16:04):
so, so I think, I think that perfectly illustrates
why we have to cover AI andtechnology so much on this
podcast, because I rememberthere were so many people that
were like, Hey, can I take aselfie?
You know, and, and it was, itwas almost humbling to me
because I didn't think we'dhave, uh, you know, lots and
lots of people take us up on it.
More people took us up on itthan I expected.
(16:25):
And all of these selfies stillexist out there, and I don't
know where they've gone
John Tyreman (16:29):
Well, here's a reminder.
Yeah.
Go
James Blain (16:31):
whole thing?
Yeah, yeah, the whole thing.
The whole thing was to tag,right.
So that we'd know and we'd seethe selfie.
But I, I, I text so many selfieswith people and then I'm like,
where did they go?
John Tyreman (16:42):
Shout out to Paul Pastor Neck
James Blain (16:44):
He did.
John Tyreman (16:44):
he's the one who came the closest.
James Blain (16:46):
He, he did.
Yeah.
John Tyreman (16:48):
So, um, I think, uh, I think now people are
starting to tag us.
I see men some mentions ofground transportation podcasts
on social media channels.
Um, and, and I see lots ofcomments from people, especially
on LinkedIn.
That seems to be the channelthat most people are engaging
with us on.
Ken Lucci (17:05):
Yes.
Yes,
John Tyreman (17:06):
I'm curious Ken James, ahead of the uh,
C-D-N-L-A show in Vegas in 26.
Should we try the selfiechallenge again?
Ken Lucci (17:14):
I think so.
I do.
I think so.
I think, I think we should, andI think we better maybe give
some instructions on properlytagging.
Um, there's, there's no questionbased on the people that have
talked to us and the people thatmentioned the podcast that came
up on two out of my four callsthis morning.
(17:35):
Um, people that I wouldn't thinklisten to the show, um.
All the time.
So yeah, I think we ought to do,we ought to try that one more
time, but I am not, I am kind ofshocked at how tired I, I look
on that
James Blain (17:50):
We both look exhausted
Ken Lucci (17:52):
exactly, exactly.
But I, nobody told me that.
It looks like I'm in a hospital,uh, hospital bed with that big
white chair.
Anyway, that's, we don't havethat chair anymore, so that's
good.
John Tyreman (18:04):
That's
James Blain (18:05):
I will, I will tell you one thing, and, and I don't,
I'm gonna put this out in theether.
I find if I put things out therethat they sometimes come to
fruition.
I think one thing that I wouldlove to do, and I, and I don't
know which show is right forwardor, or which, you know, which
show to do it at, but I thinkthat it would be really great.
If we were able to do a liveaudience type episode to be
Ken Lucci (18:27):
I agree with that.
James Blain (18:28):
we're gonna do like a fireside type chat.
So you've got Ken and I upthere, you've got a guest up
there, you know, and I thinkthat'd be great if we could pull
someone from outside theindustry, you know, and we could
say, Hey, you know, and maybe,you know, maybe one of the shows
has a keynote speaker and afterthe keynote we can kind of pull
them over.
I think that for me would benot, I say it not because
(18:49):
there's value in my world.
Because I really feel like oneof the hardest parts for me is
when I go to these shows and I'mtalking to these people, like I
mentioned earlier, we're, we'relooking into a camera right now.
So to have the audience there,to have our listeners there, to
be able to connect witheveryone, to be able to make
them kind of a part of whatwe're doing.
Ken Lucci (19:10):
we need to do a mixer.
Maybe we need to look at it for26.
Look, the way the industry ischanging, I think this is the
year to do it now flat out.
I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna,John, record this flat out.
I'm gonna do a call out to ElonMusk, okay?
I will buy the most expensiveTesla that you make, and I will
(19:33):
pay cash for it.
If you come on the groundtransportation podcast,
James Blain (19:37):
Ken, this guy builds rockets.
You're gonna end up with a$10million rocket in your backyard.
Ken Lucci (19:43):
okay.
For,
James Blain (19:44):
The man builds rockets.
Ken Lucci (19:46):
fine.
We'll
James Blain (19:47):
He's gonna Mars.
NASA's not even gonna Marsexcept with like RC cars.
He's taking people there.
Ken Lucci (19:53):
reissue the challenge.
James Blain (19:54):
He shot one into space.
Ken Lucci (19:56):
Elon Musk, I will buy the most expensive Tesla sedan.
That you make, and I will paycash for it if you come on this
podcast and talk about yourautonomous vehicles because we
believe that you're gonna dofantastic things, but, uh, that
(20:17):
are gonna impact our industry ingreat ways.
But you, you, you are a man ofthe people.
You know Joe Rogan, what does hetalk about?
And we're not smoking pottogether, don't get me wrong,
James Blain (20:28):
If that's what it takes.
Ken Lucci (20:30):
James will smoke pot with
James Blain (20:32):
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
I got the CDL.
You don't have a CDL.
I can't risk my CDL man.
That's not legal yet.
Ken Lucci (20:37):
well
John Tyreman (20:37):
I've already volunteered to choke up with
Elon if he comes on the show.
So.
James Blain (20:41):
John will.
John will do it.
He'll even
Ken Lucci (20:43):
John, our produ, our producer, by the way, he'll
probably wanna hire you away
James Blain (20:47):
By the way.
He is not in a safety sensitivefunction, so as long as it's
legal and the state, he recordsin we should be
Ken Lucci (20:52):
So John will toke up with you and I will buy the most
expensive Tesla sedan.
There'll be no moratorium on howlong I keep it, and I will pay
cash for it.
If you come on this podcast,there's the challenge.
James Blain (21:06):
Yeah.
And, and my challenge to myselfis to figure out what Ken is
doing to have that much cash onhand and start doing that.
John Tyreman (21:16):
Gotta get into financial services,
James Blain (21:17):
Uh, apparently.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, we, we we're doing it allwrong over here.
I don't, I don't have that kindof cash.
John Tyreman (21:23):
All right, So I wanna share another clip, um,
from earlier this year.
Uh, this one is, uh, from ourconversation with Eric.
Cool Ball
James Blain (21:33):
And it starts with Ken Lucci doesn't wear shorts,
so we know it's gonna be good.
Ken Lucci (21:38):
Eric Augh from Advantage Remarketing, one of my
favorite people in thisindustry.
John Tyreman (21:42):
What I love about this clip, Ken, is you came in
with some piss and vinegar andit was awesome, but then Eric
claps back at you with the, andit was hilarious.
This is probably my favoritemoment from the show.
Ken Lucci (21:58):
But before we, we get into, uh, talking about
advantage remarketing, I justwant to say flat out, this is
the only place in the chauffeurtransportation industry that you
can go for continuous educationevery single week.
if you listen to the podcast,you'll pick up more tips in one
hour on this podcast than youwill, and for no money.
(22:23):
You don't have to travelanywhere.
You don't have to get a hotelroom, you don't have to buy a
conference ticket.
So, uh, really, really happy tosay we have had.
Over 70,000 views of our shorts.
Now I'm happy to introduce avery close friend of mine, uh,
Eric Augh Advantage Remarketing.
Eric_Coolbaugh (22:43):
So it's my pleasure, Ken.
Thanks for having me.
And I can't believe 70,000.
What
Ken Lucci (22:48):
70,000 downloads or views of our shorts, of our,
our, our, our Facebook, uh,short videos.
James Blain (22:55):
And, and there you go.
Let's clarify that.
We don't mean like our literalshorts, right?
Like the ones we're wearing, wemean like shorts on YouTube and
whatnot.
For the younger generation,
Ken Lucci (23:03):
Correct?
Eric_Coolbaugh (23:04):
you know Ken Lucci, he doesn't wear shorts.
Ken Lucci (23:07):
No,
James Blain (23:07):
had to go there.
Had to go there.
Ken Lucci (23:09):
I rarely wear shorts
Eric_Coolbaugh (23:11):
I've, I've went to a sauna with him.
Trust me.
It's,
James Blain (23:14):
Oh.
Eric_Coolbaugh (23:15):
it's interesting.
Ken Lucci (23:16):
By the way, I don't know what the hell who got
saddle
James Blain (23:22):
What did they say about this podcast to make you
go that hard in the paint?
Like Ken is, like Ken is sellingit.
Like his life depends on it.
Like if you are not listening tothis podcast, you have no life.
You don't live under a rock, youare a rock.
You're just, you're just deadweight.
Like, my God,
John Tyreman (23:40):
By the way, the, the, I just wanna update the
numbers.
We've got over 170,000 views ofour shorts,
James Blain (23:46):
Yeah.
Yeah.
People like our shorts.
John Tyreman (23:49):
in over 17,000 plays on our podcast since we
launched.
So we've grown a bit since then.
Ken Lucci (23:55):
170,000.
John Tyreman (23:58):
Yeah, across LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook.
James Blain (24:02):
wow.
They like us.
They really like us.
Ken Lucci (24:09):
Maybe I should rant more.
John Tyreman (24:11):
Step on a soapbox.
Ken.
Hey, is there, is there anybodythat's gotten under your skin
recently?
Here's your
James Blain (24:16):
so, so before we do that, after that opening, did
our views go up or down?
We need to know.
We need to be sure we're doingthe right thing here.
Did they go up or did they go
Ken Lucci (24:25):
Well, we obviously have gotten some attention based
on the partnerships that we'vecreated and the
James Blain (24:29):
Oh, absolutely.
Ken Lucci (24:30):
the fact that we've gotten some unbelievable guests,
so maybe, maybe me tilting atthe windmills really did work.
James Blain (24:37):
I think Ken, you just hit on something.
I think, I think we'd be remissif we didn't say thank you to
all the guests, because I thinkthat has been one of the biggest
things for us and, and at leastit's one of my favorite parts,
is having these guests, havingpeople from the industry on
having, you know, all of thesepeople that are willing to share
their knowledge.
And you know, nobody ever abusesthe platform either.
(24:58):
It's not like they come out hereand they're like, they give a
sales pitch.
I mean, it's genuinely solid,valuable, good information.
Ken Lucci (25:05):
And, and, and I love the format because it's
extremely conversational, and tome it's almost like the only
thing missing is we're sittingon a, we're not sitting on a bar
stool having a beer and.
They're sharing a lot.
Uh, a lot of the guests haveshared things that I never
thought they would, and it'sbeen extremely, extremely
(25:25):
productive.
James Blain (25:26):
Well, and, and that's like Mo, right?
Mo shared all his big things.
Right?
As soon as that next big onecomes out, we gotta have him
back on and, and to be thatforthcoming and to share, you
know, a lot of these guys haveshared their secret sauce.
I mean, it's, it's a big
Ken Lucci (25:41):
and, and because they're secure in their success
and they know that, and theyknow, like in Maurice's case, it
can't be duplicated.
Maurice is a huge part of thesecret sauce.
Secret sauce.
Tiffany Hinton is a huge part ofthat secret sauce.
Um, all right.
What else do we have, John?
I hope it's no more rants.
John Tyreman (26:00):
I wanna play a short clip from Charlie Horkey
who teased his book on thepodcast earlier this year.
And then recently, uh, he cameon with James and, and talked
about the book release.
Ken Lucci (26:12):
living Legend.
Talk about a guy that you canlearn a lot from.
James Blain (26:16):
Well, and you talked about being secure in
your success.
One of the things, in my opinionthat makes Charlie Horkey
extraordinarily special is he'ssecure in his success and he
learned from his failures.
Ken Lucci (26:30):
Oh, Phoenix from the Ashes Complete Phoenix from the
ashes.
James Blain (26:34):
I, I went to dinner with him the last time I was in
Vegas and we had a blast andCharlie's one of those guys,
he'll share what he got right?
He'll share what he got wrong.
He'll share how he learned.
He'll share where he is going,but he's one of those people
that doesn't try.
There's a lot of people that tryto pretend that the failures or
the issues or, you know, theproblems never happen.
(26:54):
Charlie owns them.
Charlie laughs at'em in somecases
Ken Lucci (26:58):
lived through them.
He's a stronger, he's a strongerman because of
James Blain (27:01):
a hundred percent.
Ken Lucci (27:03):
Play that clip.
How big were you when the yearthat you ended up selling, how
big was the business from arevenue perspective?
Do you remember?
Charlie Horky (27:10):
yeah, it's 65, 70 million.
James Blain (27:13):
Wow.
Ken Lucci (27:14):
Phenomenal.
So what was the secret?
To go from fricking one car, youknow, which would be two maybe
back in the day would be ahundred thousand dollars a year
in revenue.
How do you go from 100,000 ayear in revenue to 65 million?
Charlie Horky (27:27):
you're gonna have to read the book.
James Blain (27:28):
guys, If you're, if you're on YouTube, we'll pop it
up on the screen or, or we'lldrop it in the, show notes,
Ken Lucci (27:33):
Okay, so you gotta look at this Unbreakable path.
Charlie Horkey.
A story of loss, resilience, andthe pursuit of greatness.
James Blain (27:43):
so give us the teaser for it, Charlie.
Right.
Because,'cause now that Ken hasdone that, I know I, I'm hanging
on the edge of my seat
Charlie Horky (27:49):
I thought I had a story to tell and, and, um, and,
and so I wrote it when I wasaway.
And, uh, in the last seven yearssince I've been out, um, I, uh,
I've learned that good storiesare a dime a dozen.
And that, uh, it's a one in amillion shot to make a movie.
(29:10):
And, um, you know, and, and thehung it was horrifying to me was
that it's somebody else'sversion of your life.
Like, you know, it's ascreenwriter and we did pay for
a screenwriter to write this,and he did now, like, it was
spooky.
It was, it was scary.
I, I just, you know, and a, a, areally important client of mine
said to me, you know, Charlie,these things last forever.
Like, you know, is this, is, isthis really how you wanna be
(29:31):
represented, you know, Legacy.
Yeah.
Whatever that
Ken Lucci (29:36):
got, you've got an incredible story in the
industry, and I don't thinkpeople realize because based on
who's in the industry now.
A lot of your contemporaries arelong gone.
Charlie Horky (29:49):
yeah, yeah, yeah.
Um, you know, what it convertedto, I don't want to, you know,
take off all your time aboutthat book, but, um, was that I.
I'd spent all this time doingit, and someone turned me on to
Game Changer Publishing.
And what I liked about them wasthat I thought I needed to tell
the story better.
And the way they do it is theyrecord your book, so you speak
it.
So it took me like a week oflike two hours a day to like be
(30:10):
recorded.
And then it's been a amount ofediting.
But what they do is, is whatthey did with what they did with
this book, and it's not a badidea, was that I was looking for
a side hustle.
The only reason I was interestedin this book was a side hustle
to maybe get us to become aspeaker.
I mean, I'm pretty sure I couldget a gig,
Ken Lucci (30:26):
A hundred percent.
100%.
Charlie Horky (30:28):
you know, so the book was wrote more as a
motivational piece, you know,get too close to the sun, you're
gonna get burned.
You know?
Um, it, it, it is certainly the,the story from the time I was
born until probably right aboutthe time when I got out, you
know?
Um, but it's not in gory detail.
It's not salacious, you know,I'm not saying, I mean, I
mentioned people that arefamous, but, but, but only
(30:50):
because I.
I was around them.
Not, not because I was in anyintimate settings with any of
them,
James Blain (30:56):
They're, they're part of the story, right?
They're part of the life.
They're part of understandingit.
Charlie Horky (31:00):
right.
Yeah, exactly.
Ken Lucci (31:02):
so let's back up a
Charlie Horky (31:04):
You, you might like him.
I mean, you know.
Ken Lucci (31:06):
Trust me, I'm gonna love it.
James Blain (31:07):
Yeah.
I'm definitely getting a copy of
Ken Lucci (31:09):
look, I, I, I honestly don't read nonfiction.
I read business books and I readbiographies because I believe
that you can get, there's somuch message with people's
life's experiences.
I frankly think that there's allthe messages you need to live
your life in the world.
And it's, I, I don't know thatthe word to me, I don't believe
that there's mistakes.
You and I have had thatconversation privately about
(31:31):
things that change you, andfrankly, that's gonna be our
next podcast together because Iwanna read the book first.
But, you know, there's fewthings that we, you and I could,
we could divulge
Charlie Horky (31:44):
Yeah.
It, it, I think that, you know,I, I don't really know how to
tell.
That, that, that personal story.
I mean, it comes to me more andmore and, you know, I, I think
I'm living it, you know, I'm,I'm in a better place, uh,
Ken Lucci (31:57):
No question.
You're a phoenix.
You're in, wait a minute, you'rein Vegas, but you're a phoenix.
You've literally risen.
There's not too many people whohave a successful second act the
way you have no question aboutit.
And it's because people be,because people believe the most
important people from thatperiod believed in you, believed
in you.
John Tyreman (32:16):
So that was, that was Charlie Horkey from, uh,
from earlier this year.
And so next, um, I, I worked ata branding agency for about
seven years and one of thebiggest signals of that you have
a strong brand is what yourcolleagues say about you when
you're not.
(32:37):
And so this next clip wasessentially a four minute
commercial for Pax training,
James Blain (32:44):
Which I was not even involved in,
John Tyreman (32:46):
James wasn't even involved in with Tim and Mike
Rose on.
Um, a Thorn between Two Roseswas the name
Ken Lucci (32:53):
that happened to be probably in the top three
episodes.
And, and because I love thoseguys and they're both, we're
very, very blessed to have themas clients and colleagues and,
um, yeah.
So that was a great episode.
James Blain (33:09):
Well, and talk about guys that give back.
Right?
I, I will tell you, I mean, so,so one, I am very lucky to have
them as clients and advocates.
But Mike and Tim are both, getit done guys.
Right?
Ken Lucci (33:24):
oh, it's in the DNA.
James Blain (33:25):
they're very
Ken Lucci (33:26):
the DNA.
James Blain (33:28):
They're very active.
I mean, if, and the other thingis they're the types of guys
that if you say, Hey, I needhelp, they're not gonna give you
some piddly, horrible advice.
They're gonna tell you what theyneed to, what you need to do,
and how you need to get thereand what their experience is.
And I have nothing but respectfor both those guys.
Plus they're, they're.
(33:48):
Serious.
But they're fun to be around.
Ken Lucci (33:52):
Uh, absolutely.
James Blain (33:53):
it done, but they don't just, you know, work isn't
the only thing in their life,you know?
Um, you've got Mike Mike's partof the fire department, right?
He's a fire chief.
I mean, there, he's giving backto the community.
Same thing, you know, with Tim.
Tim's actively involved.
Tim went when they had the humantrafficking issue and they were
able to save somebody.
I don't know if that ever cameup with a podcast, right?
(34:14):
You know, we worked with Tim andwhen we started doing human
trafficking courses, theyadopted it.
They trained all their drivers,and what happens, one of the
dolphin drivers is off work at adiner and literally he sees this
gal with this guy and all theboxes get checked.
He calls it in.
They come in, this guy had comehiding offshore, came in to
traffic.
This woman, he called it in, dideverything he was supposed to
(34:37):
do.
They saved this woman's life andthey literally, they've got a
human trafficker that now ishopefully gonna get behind bars.
So you wanna talk about two guysto get it done?
I mean, they're incredible.
They're absolutely incredible.
Ken Lucci (34:48):
So the clip is from a thorn between two roses.
James Blain (34:53):
Who was, who was the thorn?
I didn't make it to that one.
Was that, was that you, John?
Ken Lucci (34:57):
No, that
John Tyreman (34:58):
It wasn't me.
James Blain (34:59):
Now.
Now if I remember, I can't evenname that one.
John Tyreman (35:03):
Oh, it was brilliant.
I.
James Blain (35:08):
Oh, that was, that's such a classic name.
The Nice Brothers (35:11):
So, The tools are there.
We have to adopt the the wholegoal is you're trying to avoid
the big one.
As you mentioned.
You were, you were distractedand looking at that in your
vehicle, right?
what we do is train.
Okay.
And James, I'm sorry you're nothere today.
We miss you too, because you dogreat work.
(35:32):
Okay.
Great work.
James.
Did I mention
Ken Lucci (35:34):
James, Blaine.
James Blaine from PS Trainingdoes fantastic work.
The Nice Brothers (35:38):
does fantastic work.
my Director of Safety andCompliance, Mike Davis swears by
him and, uh, so many of our,fellow affiliates do, and, you
know, our, fellow Hoffmancompanies as well.
And the whole goal is about,avoiding the, uh, the big one.
and as Mike mentioned, the newtechnology is now so much
better.
Every time that they come outwith something, I then turn
(36:01):
around and I torture Mike Davis,who works for us, and I say,
Hey, Mike, look at this newfeature that, you know, it says,
please slow down when you get toa certain mile per hour.
Or it says, you know, pleasewear your seat belts when you
get in the car.
It's, it's muscle memory asMike's said.
And, and there ways to avoidthat.
And, uh, it's really all we cando to try to, you know, ingrain
(36:22):
upon them that the safety, uh,is, is very, very important.
and insurance is what keeps usin business.
Ken Lucci (36:28):
Well, and, you know, I'll just give a shout out.
I, I, I talk a lot to TimDelaney.
I talk a lot to the guys fromresearch underwriter, Steve
Freeberg and Andrew Don, and.
Uh, they lament the fact that alot of operators still think,
well, you are going up on me andyour price.
These guys have no choice.
There's no one clamoring to getinto the commercial fleet
(36:52):
insurance business, uh, lastthree years in a row for every a
hundred dollars they've taken inthe industry has collectively
lost$104.
It's not a sustainable businessmodel.
from a standpoint of, you know,you bring up PACS training,
which I think is another, way tocreate a culture of safety.
(37:13):
And James and I lament a lotabout what we do, and someone
will look at our product, our,our course, or our services, our
financial, uh, review and profitimprovement service.
And they're like, that's prettyexpensive.
And I'm like, basically, weguarantee to improve your
profits in James Case.
To me that program is, it shouldhave been, I wish it was around
(37:35):
20 years ago when I was anoperator, but that program is a
game changer for your operation.
It tells your, your chauffeurdepartment or your chauffeur's,
individual chauffeurs that youare serious about a customer
service, superior customerservice, and maximum safety.
I don't know why.
Operators, again, they considerit an expense.
(37:56):
Okay.
When James can demonstrate, notthat this is a commercial forum,
but he can demonstrate thechange in behavior when you
implement all of the strategiesthat he has.
The Nice Brothers (38:06):
question
Ken Lucci (38:07):
it, is it the operators that perhaps are just,
you know, they're in their ownecho chamber.
They've been doing this for solong.
I haven't needed it up till now.
What is it?
The Nice Brothers (38:18):
So, so I, I, you know, if you go back 20
years to Tommy MA's trainingvideos
Ken Lucci (38:24):
God bless
The Nice Brothers (38:24):
and, you look at where it's come and, and now
it's, you know, the PACStraining program, which, you
know, Bruce and James havebuilt.
So it went from, you know, howto be a chauffeur to how to be a
safe chauffeur.
And that's what it's about.
It's.
Provides that safety culture foryour new employees.
And I could tell you from a mylimo perspective, after we
(38:46):
implemented, you know, pax, wesaw immediate, immediate
improvement in service delivery,safety, quantifiable increases
in survey scores across theboard.
So it was a fantastic, yeah.
So you have to live it.
It's, again, safety culture is,is something that, you know, is
across the board in your companyand you have to live it.
(39:08):
But, for folks that don't adoptthese platforms, whether it's
James' or someone else's, youhave to talk to other operators,
see what they're doing, and talkto people that, that, you know,
have adopted and say, you know,where have you seen the return
on investment?
John Tyreman (39:25):
Alright, so, uh, our next clip that we have was
actually from a recent episodethat we did.
Where James, you had been on theroad for, I think it was like
four or five weeks straight
James Blain (39:35):
I've been on the road like every month this year.
It's insane.
John Tyreman (39:38):
yeah, it, it was right after the, uh, fall show
for the CD and LA
James Blain (39:42):
Oh, is this the big epiphany?
John Tyreman (39:44):
in Dallas.
And this was your, your bigepiphany.
So here comes James'.
Aha.
Moment.
James Blain (39:50):
we were there for NLA, we went and we saw all the
representatives.
Literally the very next dayafter being there with
representatives, I was now goingwith TTA to see representatives.
And for NLA we were asking foran insurance task force.
And we got, ironically enough,right?
Sharice Davids, I believe she'sHouse of Representatives,
democratic Party, state ofKansas.
(40:11):
Don't quote me on that, I'm justgoing off top of my head.
But her head of office, had beenthere for a long time.
And he told me, he said, I'mgonna give it to you straight.
You're asking me for a taskforce.
Okay, what does that look like?
How does it work?
What does it do?
You want an insurance taskforce?
This is not even my problem.
This is a state issue.
The thought to me was, allright, so we've got a state
(40:32):
issue, so we have a very easyway for them to kick it down.
It wasn't collaborated and in ashort span of time, I wasn't
able to go with UMA, but UMA wasthere too.
So we had TTA, NLA, UMA, so youhave the motor coach operations,
NEMT, taxi and Paratransit, andsome smaller school bus, and the
limo associations allconverging, all asking for the
(40:55):
same thing.
At a roundabout way, whathappens when we say, Hey?
We've all come together as anindustry.
This is the shared problem.
This is what we want a taskforce to look like.
Here's a blueprint for it.
We'd like you to endorse it.
The whole game changes.
Now let me be abundantly clear.
Cornerstone did an incrediblejob and putting stuff together
for us.
(41:16):
TTA's side did an incredible jobputting stuff together for them.
But it's grown to a point where.
We as an industry, have thisopportunity to come together And
say, these are the main issues.
We're not gonna agree on all of'em.
We're not gonna want the samething on all of them.
But if we become that squeakywheel that gets the grease, and
(41:37):
we're able to pool resources andtime and money to do that, guys,
there's a reason that the Amishcan build a whole barn so
quickly
Ken Lucci (41:45):
do we need them on the task force?
James Blain (41:47):
So look, here's the thing.
For me, that aha moment washuge, and I'm at a point where
I've been traveling every singlemonth, right?
We expect travel to increase,not decrease next year.
Um, but I think for me, whatwhat that came from is all of
these different verticals, allthese different associations,
(42:09):
everybody's facing the sameproblem.
And if everybody tries toreinvent the wheel
Ken Lucci (42:15):
On their own,
James Blain (42:17):
on their own right, we talked about, I, what's your
favorite saying about theislands, Ken?
Ken Lucci (42:21):
Yep.
Yep.
James Blain (42:22):
If you're, if you're, if you're an island,
those are the most backwardscompanies we deal with.
That's one of Ken's favoritethings to say, and I love that
because here's the thing, if asthe passenger ground
transportation industry.
We don't come together, right?
And we talk about the industry,we talk about the black car
industry, we talk about the busindustry.
We talk about NEMT, you talkabout school bus, we talk about,
(42:45):
but really those are, those arejust verticals.
Those are just segments.
It's the ground transportationindustry, right?
The passenger groundtransportation industry.
And I a hundred percent believethat the better we can get about
working together.
The better we're gonna be.
And I stand 120% behind thatstatement.
I'm at all the different shows.
It's not uncommon if I'm on the,I was on the bus industry safety
(43:05):
Council call, you know, not toolong ago, and they were like,
Hey, uh, about the chauffeurside, and I'm happy to chime in,
you know, if I am on the, Iremember I was at, I was in
California, I was doing anassociation out there.
Hey, what about the bus side?
I'm happy to try and bring thosepieces in and try to be that
bridge because the.
Bigger we are in terms ofworking together as the
(43:27):
industry, the more we're gonnaget done and the more we're
gonna solve.
Ken Lucci (43:29):
And it came crystal clear to me when, at the day on
the hill for the chauffeur side,I was in town for that.
And what, three days later youwere in town for the motor coach
guys,
James Blain (43:44):
no, I was there for tt, I missed Motor Coach this
year,
Ken Lucci (43:47):
So you were there for TTA
James Blain (43:49):
TTA was the day after,
Ken Lucci (43:51):
the day after, and then the motor coach guys came
into town.
James Blain (43:55):
Yeah.
I can't remember if they were,um, I, I can't remember if they
were the beginning of that monthor the end of that month, but
like within a month, you're allthree of them.
Ken Lucci (44:03):
and Matt, that is probably your epiphany moment is
definitely something we need todo something about because it,
it, there's no question that ifwe can.
Advance it and make it come tofruition.
It could be a game changer.
This morning, I was on the phonewith an operator who's beside
himself.
He's a$1.8 million operatorwhose insurance just went up to
(44:26):
$20,000 a month on 12 vehicles.
Now, he didn't have a fatality,but he had a couple of issues.
Obviously 240,000 on 1.8million.
Is just not su sustainable.
And I, I said that to him andyou know, he is got a few other
debt issues that we have to tryto help him with.
But I said at the end of the daythat funda, this has
fundamentally changed yourbusiness because that should be
(44:48):
more like 120,000, or even90,000.
And it's, it's definitely you.
You can't sustain it.
So this is a guy who's been inthe business 25 years.
So your epiphany moment issomething that I think we need
to build on, and I blame you ifit doesn't happen.
James Blain (45:07):
Look, look, I, I think we're gonna get there.
I have made it a very big pointthis year.
You know, we announced our, ourpartnership with Lancer.
I've got some excitingannouncements coming with some
other insurance companies thatwe're partnering with.
I think the biggest thing, andthis is really important, is
that we have gotta double downas an industry.
And when I say double down, Imean double down on doing it
(45:27):
right.
Double down on making sure thatwe're.
Working with the regulators,we're working with people to get
rid of the gypsy operators.
We're working to get thesethings done because there's so
many pieces that affect us all,and a lot of times it becomes
very easy to just operationallyput gliders on.
I'm just gonna focus on me, I'mgonna focus on what I'm doing.
And I think for me, the travelopened that up.
(45:49):
And I think it might not happentomorrow.
It might not happen in January.
We might not get it done in2026, but this is something that
even if the insurance crisis wassolved tomorrow, this is how we
get ready for and we're ahead ofthe next issue.
Just because we solved theinsurance crisis, just because
we figured this out doesn't meanwe don't all do that.
(46:09):
If we're all working together asthe passenger ground
transportation industry andwe're all coordinating on
issues, they're gonna get solved10 times faster, and we're gonna
have 10 times better answers.
Ken Lucci (46:20):
A hundred percent great advice and I think that's
a great place to to end for theday.
It's been an exciting day.
I am sorry I don't have myholiday hat on, but I'm with you
in
James Blain (46:31):
We, we will see gi it on.
You've been wearing it the wholetime.
You didn't even know it.
John Tyreman (46:35):
Yep.
And that concludes our best of2025 episode for the Ground
Transportation Podcast.
If you've made it this far intothe episode, please follow the
show on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,wherever you get your podcasts.
And leave us a rating.
Leave us a review.
That really helps us to grow theshow.
So thank you so much forlistening, and we'll see you
next Wednesday on the GroundTransportation Podcast.
James Blain (46:56):
Happy New Year.
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