Driving Sustainability: Tiffany Hinton's Influence on the Future of Ground Transportation

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Can transportation companies become leaders in environmental sustainability?

Motev is a prime example. In this episode, Ken and James sit down with Tiffany Hinton, Chief Operating Officer at Motev, to explore her transformative impact on the ground transportation industry and how she leveraged sustainability as a key differentiator. Dive deep into conversations about brand development, the transition to electric vehicles, and the future of autonomous driving in this enlightening discussion. In this episode, you'll hear:

• Tiffany's journey from a legal background to becoming an operational leader in the transportation space.
• The pivotal changes Tiffany implemented to streamline operations and improve team morale.
• The role of electric vehicles in building a unique brand identity for Motev.
• Insights into the evolving industry demands for sustainability and the corporate shift towards eco-friendliness.
• Predictions on the impact of autonomous vehicles on the chauffeured service industry and how luxury service will continue to thrive.

Connect with Tiffany on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hintontiffany/
Visit the Motev website: https://motev.com/

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/

Episode Transcript

James Blain (00:26):
Hello everybody.
And welcome back to anotherepisode of the ground
transportation operator podcast.
I'm super excited today.
I have operational genius,friend, COO, right?
Chief operating officer ofmotive, NLA secretary.
I could list committees, but wewon't have time to actually do
the podcast.
Um, Tiffany's involved ineverything.
I can't say enough great things.
thanks for coming on the show,Tiffany.

(00:46):
We're excited to have you.

Tiffany Hinton (00:47):
Oh, thank you guys so much for having me.
I'm excited to be here.

James Blain (00:50):
No, absolutely.
So of course, as you alreadyknow, we love to start with how
you got here.
How did you get into theindustry?
Kind of what brought you towhere you are today?
So can you kind of tee us uphere and let us know how you got
to where you're at?

Ken Lucci (01:03):
Yeah, what's your back?
What's your background beforeyour crazy life in the
chauffeured space to startthere?

Tiffany Hinton (01:08):
So my crazy background is that I actually
come from, um, the legalbackground.
I started off as a paralegal,working in law firms in Los
Angeles.
And, um, I worked my way upthrough the ranks of that, to
become an office manager.
And then eventually what Istarted doing was helping young
associate attorneys who decidedto leave firms, start their own

(01:29):
firms.
So there's always theseattorneys that get books of
business as law firms grow andthey feel like, hey, I don't
want to split the money anymore.
I'm going to go out on my own.
And so I've always been greatwith building relationships.
the first firm I worked out,which was an international firm.
One of the attorneys came to meand he said, I'm going out on my
own.
And I think you have therelationships to help me build a
firm want to give it a go.

(01:50):
And he doubled my salary at thattime.
And I said, well, let's go seewhat we can do.
So, I helped him start a firmhere in Los Angeles.
now a billion dollar firm, Ibelieve.
I think he's in the billionsnow,

James Blain (02:00):
you leave

Tiffany Hinton (02:01):
well, another one came and another one said,
Hey, I got another adventure.
And what I've learned aboutmyself now is that I'm a
builder.
like the process of building.
I love, I love watchingsomething come to fruition.
And once it's built, I'm kind oflike, where's that next?
challenge?
What can I do

Ken Lucci (02:17):
your feet get stale.
Once you've built it.
You're like, okay now what?
Yeah, I I can relate I can

James Blain (02:23):
the Classic integrator.

Tiffany Hinton (02:24):
Exactly.
So that's what brought me here.
I actually got into a badrelationship, had a whole bunch
of debt.
And a friend of mine came to meand said, Hey.
I know you love business.
You're great at making systems.
I know this lady who has atransportation company at LAX.
She just lost her businesspartner.
She knows how to maintain thevehicles and how to work with
the chauffeurs.

(02:45):
She has no idea about theinfrastructure.
So can you go over there and seeif you can help her out?
See if you can just help herease her mind a little bit, see
what you can do.
So I went and I told her, Isaid, I talked to her and I
said, listen, this is anindustry I know nothing about.
But what I do know about asystems, I do know how to find
out what doesn't work and fixit.
So how about you let me workyour overnight shift a couple of

(03:07):
nights, because that's when youreally find out when the shit
hits the fan is late at night,right?
When everything is, everythingcomes in the night.

Ken Lucci (03:14):
that's when the wheels fall off the bus when
nobody's watching

Tiffany Hinton (03:19):
So I worked a couple of nights for her.
The first night I worked forher, I basically revamped her
whole dispatching.
I came up with a plan.
I was like, this is noteffective.
This would be way moreeffective.
People understand it easier.
You could plug people into it.

James Blain (03:30):
What was she doing?
What did you have to

Tiffany Hinton (03:32):
Oh my goodness.
She had like, because it was ashuttle system, so the, she had
all these different accounts.
So all the accounts requireddifferent stops in the airport.
So some of them were you weregoing to parking lot.
Some of them you have to go toevery terminal.
Some of them you were droppingoff, airport employees, right?
So she expected the dispatch wasactually making hash marks in

(03:52):
one place.
Logging in another place,tracking, and I was like, ma'am,
this is no, ma'am, no, ma'am.
how about if we make eachaccount its own setup, right?
Each account is its own thing.
And then we can also give yourclients access to it.
So now they can see it in realtime and you can see it in real
time and we can cut out allthese conversations.
Because we had walkie talkiesand telephones and it was, it

(04:14):
was from everywhere.
It was, it was, it was

Ken Lucci (04:16):
operational chaos

Tiffany Hinton (04:18):
So I came in and I streamlined it.
Right.
And of course, when youstreamline morale goes up to
people start showing up to work,people start being more
productive.
You see a whole shift in theculture.
And so that's basically what Idid.
I started setting up systems forher.
Any place that I sawinefficiently, I created a
system.
And my goal was to create asystem where I could leave it

(04:39):
and walk away and she could plugand play other people into it,
right?
Because I only was trying tomake enough money to pay off my
debts so I could go back to myregular life.

James Blain (04:47):
you were building to get to the next thing you're
building.

Tiffany Hinton (04:49):
Exactly.
So that's how I got into that.
So that was my first.
I did my chosen transportationwith that.
And as she saw how instrumentalI was on the operations side,
she started asking me more tohelp her with the business
building side.
So with her relationships withher clients, with sales, with
her relationship with LAX.

(05:10):
And so I started getting moreinvolved in that part and seeing
that side of the business.
And I was able to help her grow,over the course of 18 months,
when I got there, she wasrunning six shuttles in the
airport and she had two hotelcontracts and one parking
contract.
When I left 18 months later, shehad 10 hotel contracts and six
parking contracts.

(05:30):
So we grew exponentially in that18 month period, but it's really
about relationships.
It's about talking to people,finding out their pain points,
and then making sure that you'redelivering above their
expectation.
And I'm always the one to tellpeople, Hey, listen, give me a
shot.
Because once you have theexperience, I guarantee you'll
want it again.
But let me give you theexperience.

(05:50):
Let me, let me, let's feel it.
See how it feels.
See if it feels good to you.
So I left her and went back tomy legal job, my good, vacation
and my corner office.
And, um, I got a phone call froma motive and they said, Hey, we
hired this driver and we're inthe same situation.
We have 11 brand new Teslas.
We have this great businessplan, but none of us have any

(06:12):
idea how, we going to executethis thing?

Ken Lucci (06:15):
how did they know you how did they find you?

Tiffany Hinton (06:17):
They found me because they hired a driver who
used to work for me at the othercompany.

James Blain (06:21):
He saw what you could do and he took that.
And did you know that motivewas, you know, their whole thing
was, they were electric.
Did you kind of know themission?
Did you know what you're walkinginto?
Or was it just anothertransportation business?

Tiffany Hinton (06:32):
I had zero idea.
They called me and they said, wehave this great new concept.
This chauffeur that we hiredsaid that you are the answer to
problems.
Can you come for an interview?
And I said, okay, sure.
I'll come.
So I came and they told me,they're like, listen, we have 11
Teslas.
Um, Morgan Freeman is our chiefinvestor.
He wants to leave anenvironmental mark.
He thinks that his acting is notenough.

(06:55):
He cares about the environment.
He, he bought a bee farm and.
He's doing, a lavender farm andhe's trying to do all this stuff
to help the environment and Iwas like, this is great, but
this is how much it costs.
I have a really great job and Ihave worked.
I mean, you know, I'm a, I'm asingle mom.
I have four kids.
I worked my way up.
I came from the bottom.

(07:15):
And so for me, it was like,listen, we got good medical
finally.
we are comfortable.
You know what I mean?
We're not, we're not strugglinganymore.
I don't know that I just want toget up and walk away from this.
This is, I got, I finally, I'm,I'm on easy street a little bit.

Ken Lucci (07:28):
Because that was his motive at that time was a
startup

Tiffany Hinton (07:32):
It was a startup.

Ken Lucci (07:33):
and startups, man, startups are just a different
beast.
They're a totally differentanimal.

Tiffany Hinton (07:40):
Yes.
You have to wear every singlehat.
And I had been in that spacefrom the legal perspective.
I've been in that startup spacebefore, but at least in the
legal perspective, we werestarting with a book of
business.
We knew that if we send peoplebills, they're going to send us
money, right?
This was from scratch.
This is like, we got to buildbrand.
We got to build clientele.

(08:00):
We have to get conscious.
Like it was nothing.

James Blain (08:03):
what role were they trying to bring you in as?
I mean, was the, I mean,obviously you're chief operating
officer now, but what was kindof the role that they saw you
coming in to fill?

Tiffany Hinton (08:11):
They wanted me to come in and do operations.

James Blain (08:14):
Okay.
So at least you're in the right,you were where you were
comfortable, where you'refamiliar, they had the right
seat on the bus for you.

Tiffany Hinton (08:19):
they did, but not the right check.
So I told him, I said, I'msorry, I can't do it.
It's not enough money.
They were like, we're a startup.
We can't afford to pay you.
And I was like, I understandthis sounds exciting.
I'm going to keep my eye on youguys.
Good luck.
two weeks later, they called meback and they said, is there
anything?
Is there any, I said, well,here's, I feel bad for you.

(08:41):
So you can't find anybody.
This is what I'll do.
I'll work for you part time forsix months.
And during that six months, I'llcome in at, you know, three days
a week, and I'll put somesystems in place.
That should get you guys up andrunning

James Blain (08:53):
You're helping them get the foundation.

Tiffany Hinton (08:55):
exactly, and then you can hire someone you
can't afford to execute thosesystems.
Right?
And that should give you guyswhat you need.
And so, um, I did that for about3 months and not quite at the 3
month mark.
They offered me everything I hadoriginally asked for plus a
bonus and the rest is history.
I'm here.

Ken Lucci (09:15):
Now, Tiffany, correct me if I'm wrong.
The gentleman who, who startedthe company was a chauffeur for
Mr.
Freeman, or am I

Tiffany Hinton (09:23):
He is.
He still is.
So, Robert, I feel the currentCEO was and is Morgan's
security.

Ken Lucci (09:29):
So let's just, let's just tee this up.
I mean, So you had a guy who wasgreat chauffeur, right?
He was a class a chauffeur.
He, he just knew how to takecare of the client, but, but,
and had this great, the epitaphwas the, the kernel of the idea
was we're going to create an EVfleet.
Okay.
And that's how we're going to bedifferent.

(09:50):
But at the end of the day, youknow, this is how most operators
start.
They're a chauffeur.
They have a better, a good idea.
You had a great benefactor, butnow they need to bring in
somebody to do operations.
What would you say?
What would you say that the mostimportant things you did during
that startup period from anoperations perspective, what

(10:10):
were the most critical thingsyou put together?

Tiffany Hinton (10:13):
I would really honestly say it's the team, it
was the team.
Because, because it was astartup, you gotta have buy in.
The people that work for you,they gotta believe in this
thing.
They gotta, they gotta eat it,they gotta breathe it, they have
to know it the way you know it.
And they have to, in a, in asense, they have to kind of want
it the way you want it.
They have to, they have to thinkthat it's something they can

(10:35):
make work.

Ken Lucci (10:36):
They have to buy into the mission.
They have to buy into themission

James Blain (10:39):
100%.

Tiffany Hinton (10:40):
And so one of the, I think the biggest thing
that I did that set us on agreat trajectory was I spent a
lot of time inundating my staffwith the brand.
And to the point that it was soingrained that we would hear our
story from people.
And we'll be like, wow, how didyou, where did, who, who, who

(11:01):
the heck told you that story,but it became the staff's
narrative, the staff, anybodythat interacted with, they all
had the same story and theyconnected with the story
differently, but it was soingrained in them.
And I, I really feel that that'swhat did it for us is that they
bought in, they bought in andanything that I went to them and
said, listen, hey, this is whatwe're going to do.

(11:22):
I need you to do it like this.
They were invested in oursuccess.
And I think that that's what, Ithink that's what did it.

James Blain (11:28):
Well, and you, you said you had, when you got
there, you said there was 11Teslas.
So is this, is this somethingwhere.
Because they had MorganFreeman's backing because of
where they were starting, theywere able to kind of start
stronger.
Or is this something where ithad kind of been running for a
while and now you're coming inwhen they're a little further
down the road?

Tiffany Hinton (11:46):
No, when I got here, the only thing that had
happened was they had beentrained.
So they knew how to operate thevehicles and they understood the
functionality basically of the,of the Teslas.
Because at that time, in 2016,this is a whole new thing.

James Blain (11:59):
Oh yeah.
Brand new.

Ken Lucci (12:01):
Yeah.

Tiffany Hinton (12:01):
tech is brand new, right?
CEO did an excellent job ofteaching them to trust the tool.
So they knew how far those cardscould go.
They knew how to use everygadget, who's it, what's it,
widget.
They knew everything, ins andouts of that card completely.
And so that definitely gave thema leg up because they were
confident.
Right.
And they have a greatpresentation because they had

(12:23):
spent money, um, hiring us, adesigner.
They had custom suits, customthree piece suits that were
custom tailored.
And, you know, we had all thebells and whistles of what it
should look like, but it wasnot, there was no brand.
No one knew what motive was.
No one had a clue what it was,what it was supposed to do or
how it was going to work.
And so that was really where,that was really where I came in.

(12:45):
But no, they, they hadn't, allthey had was training when I got
here.

James Blain (12:49):
I respect that by the way, I have to put out
there.
If all you got is training, I'mwith you.
I mean, just absolutely.
You, you've got the plan, youknow where you're going, but you
know, I think getting there onceyou've got it, once you've got
the training, once you've gotthe confidence in it, you still
got to figure out where you'regoing.

Ken Lucci (13:04):
Well, you could be all, you could be all dressed up
with no place to go.
So, tell me something.
How, how important was theSuperior Customer Service
experience in the training whenyou started?

Tiffany Hinton (13:17):
Extremely important.
And, and I mean, and I, andagain, I credit that completely
to Robert because Robert is ateamster.
He's worked in the, he's workedin the movie industry his entire
life since he was 19 years old.
Um, I think he's now 52 or 53,so he's been in this industry
forever.
I don't want to tell hisstories, but before he drove
Morgan, he was Brad Pitt'sdriver.

(13:37):
Morgan actually stole him fromBrad Pitt.
So,

Ken Lucci (13:40):
a leg, by the way, that's a leg up.
That's a, that's a, that's astep up.
There you go.
Yeah.

Tiffany Hinton (13:47):
he had been, he had been driving you know, a
list celebrities forever.
And so he understood the nuanceAnd that's what I think is so
different about him is that hevery much understands the
nuances.
we train our chauffeurs thatthey are concierge on wheels.

Ken Lucci (14:02):
100%.

Tiffany Hinton (14:03):
This is not about driving the car.
This is about catching thethings that everyone else is
missing.
That's what this is about.
This is about those littlepieces of conversation that you
hear where you get to tell theclient, you know what, we have
enough time to stop at CVS andyou'll still make your flight.
Or I can pull over here and wecan take care of that.
Or if you need us to doubleback, we can.
Or if you just give me a minute,I'll call my office and they'll

(14:26):
have someone take care of thatwhile we're in route and they'll
meet us.
It's making those adjustments inreal time that set us apart and
I credit Robert with thatbecause he really understood how
to get our staff to understandthat nuance and really tap into
it and really tune their ear andtheir behaviors toward those

(14:48):
nuances.

Ken Lucci (14:49):
and, and this is, James, this is literally what
Ritz Carlton teaches.
Radar up, antenna up, radar on,right?
And, and

James Blain (14:59):
anticipate their needs is, is the way we talk
about it.
You anticipate the need, right?
One of the core things we teach,

Ken Lucci (15:06):
But, you know, Tiffany, you're, you're hitting
upon something that what do youthink?
7 limo operators don't get.
You think I'm being too harsh?

Tiffany Hinton (15:16):
Wait, I'm 52.
Absolutely.

James Blain (15:18):
don't, I agree.
I mean, and Tiffany correct usfor wrong, but, and I, and I've
had the pleasure of getting toknow Robert.
And when I met Robert, it tookme a while to find out Morgan
Freeman is even involved becauseRobert's a very humble guy, but
I will also share.
We've been lucky enough to workwith you guys for a number of
years.
Cause when Robert found outabout us and we started talking
about what we do and our goals,I mean.

(15:40):
Kind of what motive was tryingto do with that.
And what Robert was trying todo, we've always been in
alignment.
We've always had those same coreprinciples.
And I would say seven out of 10,it might be eight out of 10.
I mean, we're talking the top 10percent of the

Ken Lucci (15:51):
yeah.
And, and, and I think it's, Ithink it's, gotten, I think it's
gotten progressively worse and Ithink it's gotten worse after
the pandemic and we spent anepisode talking about this, but
your company is the epitome.
Now, how many vehicles are yourunning today?
Total, just roughly.
So at the end of the day, you'refive times larger than you were.
And I make the case that yes, itwas about the electrification,

(16:14):
but it was also about, aboutpairing that with the, with the
service experience, the superiorservice experience.
And sadly, you know, when youlook at the industry, most
people.
Taxis get us from point A topoint B, right?
Okay, well, I think,unfortunately, if you look at a
meter, some operators in ourbusiness skew over there much

(16:39):
more than they skew on theperfection of the customer
experience.
And they don't realize that whenyou do that.
If you provide, I thinkproviding a so so experience is
worse than providing a badexperience, but when you hit it
out of the park, when you hit itout of the park, because taking

(17:00):
care of A list celebrities isall about anticipating their
needs, being three steps aheadof what they need.
If you see them fumbling in theback seat.
Sir, may I get you something?
Oh, I lost my pen.
Boom.
Okay.
and it's all about the ultimateof the answer is yes.
So if you had to fast forward,you started with electric, how

(17:24):
much of electric if you had tosay, look, you're obviously an
extremely successful company inyour market, how much would you
say has to is because ofelectrification?
Versus because of the brand youbuilt and the experiences you
deliver,

Tiffany Hinton (17:39):
That's a tough question.
Can you start off easy?

Ken Lucci (17:43):
but do you think it's, um, do you, do you, do you
think that it, do you think it'slike, it's, do you think it's.

James Blain (17:49):
I can't, I would take this further.
I would, I would say that thereal question is if we took away
all of your electric vehicles,and we went to all gas, Would
you still be who you are

Tiffany Hinton (17:58):
Absolutely.
We will still be who we are.
Absolutely.
We will still be who we are.
And, and the reason that I'llexplain that in the inverse kind
of, because we have purchasedtwo companies.
Both of those companies were notelectric.
Obviously, they were combustibleengine, right?
when I came here, the focus thatI had was we're not for

(18:20):
everybody.
I don't want to be foreverybody.
There's there's plenty of moneyout here.
There's plenty of business.
I don't want to build a company.
That's for everybody.
I want to build a very nichebusiness.
I want only the people who wantwhat we want.
Only the people whose valuesalign with our values.
That is our client.
That is our avatar.
That is our target.
That's it Anybody outside ofthat?

(18:41):
Anybody can have them.
That's anybody's client.
That's not my client

Ken Lucci (18:44):
so how big is EV to that avatar, to that client?

Tiffany Hinton (18:49):
So that client, it's about 75, I would say 75%.
That's pretty much, that's whatI'm, that's, I mean, obviously,
anybody in the EV space knows wehave to get in SUVs.
They're not going to be electricuntil next year when I get a uh,
IQ, um, Cadillac Escalade.
but they're not going to beelectric and they knew that,
right?
And they also know we're gettingin the Sprinter.

(19:11):
It's not going to be electric.
Right.
So that's why I say we havethat, we have that little
segment where they understand.
I can't give you anything big inthis space, but if you're going
to get in a sedan, it's going tobe electric.
And I'm looking for the personwho wants that, or I'm looking
for the person who says theywant that.
That was an adjustment that Imade along the way was that I

(19:31):
found all these companies thatwere saying we have a commitment
to sustainability.
were sending out sustainablepackaging.
We're doing these things in ouroffice, and then I would go to
the meetings and I would say,well, I sat in the parking lot
and I saw your CEO leave in as550.
that looks like it is notelectric.
I'm holding your feet to thefire of who you say you are.

(19:52):
Like, are you really this ornot?
Right.
But those were my clients.
Those were my people.
Those are the people I waslooking for.
And like I said, we ended uppurchasing two companies that
were not electric.
They're fully converted now.
They love them.
They love electric and they singthe praises.
The majority, there's always acouple who are like, uh, they're
still iffy, but they haven'tstopped booking, right?

(20:13):
They haven't stopped booking.
They're not asking for anythingdifferent.
So that's what I'm, that's whatwe're hoping for.

James Blain (20:17):
Well, and it sounds like you guys have got something
that we're seeing happen in thefood industry, right?
In the food industry, there wasa big push for beyond meat.
There was a big push forimpossible burger.
There was a big push towards,you know, plant based vegan.
And it kind of led to the riseof the flexitarian, right?
The people that, you know, I'mnot giving up my steak.
It's not happening, but youknow, I'll opt to try and have a

(20:37):
salad more.
I'll opt to do that.
It sounds like you ran into thata little bit.

Ken Lucci (20:40):
Well, you, you, you put it into your lifestyle and
you make it a priority in yourlifestyle.
And I don't.
Unfortunately, the, the, thevehicle industry, the
manufacturing of automobiles isnot up to where every, you can
have EVs for everything, butit's interesting that it's so
big a part of your brand.
It's so big a part of yourbrand.

(21:03):
so if you had to.
Look, I know a lot of people,some people we've worked with,
but a lot of operators raced outand they bought an EVs, three,
and thought that there'd be awatershed of business basically
coming to their door.
What has been your success?

(21:23):
Is it because of the amount ofEVs and the emphasis you put on
it?
What's been the successivemotive compared to others who've
tried EV in the space.

Tiffany Hinton (21:33):
Well, you know what?
I want to be, I'm gonna becompletely honest and I'm sure
James is going to love this.
It's the training

James Blain (21:40):
Yes.
Big win there.

Tiffany Hinton (21:41):
I have been in every market.
I mean, I travel all the time.
And usually people want toimpress me, so if they have in
their fleet, they're going tosend an easy.
And I can tell you, the driversaren't trying, the drivers are
not trying to optimize the usageof the vehicle.
And as I tell anybody all thetime, my favorite spiel is.
Would you hire a carpenter or aplumber to work on your house

(22:04):
who doesn't know how to use ahammer or a wrench or the tools
that are required to do his job?
You wouldn't.
And I think that what ourindustry doesn't understand is
that electrification is a changein paradigm.
This is like going from thehorse to the Ford Model T.
This is not just a this is notjust another car.

(22:24):
This is a completely differentanimal and everyone in this
industry refuses to pause and dothe training that needs to
happen in order for you tooptimize the usage of this new
tool.

Ken Lucci (22:37):
Give us some examples.

James Blain (22:39):
Amen.

Tiffany Hinton (22:40):
I'll give you an example.
I'll give an example.
I was in Fort Worth, Texas inthe summer.
I think it was June or July, andit was 102 degrees at 5 o'clock
in the morning.
I came outside to my car and itwas a Cadillac Lyric and the
driver had the vehicle turnedoff.
So when I got into the car, itwas already sweltering.

(23:01):
He then turned on the airconditioning.
I'm obviously giving the mangrace.
I'm like, let's let the airconditioner kick in.
I'm not going to complain rightoff the bat.
Let's see what happens.
So it still was quitesweltering.
So after a little, we got on theroad and it was a little still
hot.
I said, do you mind turning upthe air conditioning?
The man said to me, This is anelectric vehicle, ma'am.
And I have two other runs afteryou.

(23:21):
I need to conserve

James Blain (23:23):
Oh,

Ken Lucci (23:23):
Oh! Oh!

Tiffany Hinton (23:27):
I need to conserve the charge.
I don't know if you understand,but everything is working off of
the same electric charge.
So if I turn off the air AC,it's going to run down the
battery.
In fact, he'd be interested inexplaining to me.
He obviously had no idea who Iwas, but

James Blain (23:39):
But that's not a you problem.

Tiffany Hinton (23:41):
no, it's a training problem.

James Blain (23:42):
Well, and no, but what I mean is, is as a
customer, right?
You know, it kind of goes backto, I mentioned flexitarians, I
want to save the environment,but I don't want to suffer to do
it.
And even if I'm willing to dothat.
It's up to me to say, Hey, youcan turn the AC down a little,
right?
Just because it's an electricvehicle does not justify that.
I mean, it's one of those thingswhere that also, it can be an

(24:06):
operational problem.
If he's worried about haveenough range.
Yeah, absolutely.

Tiffany Hinton (24:11):
the thing is, is if you're trying, so not to toot
my own horn, our drivers aretrained to maximize charge,
which means that when he droppedme off at the airport, if he had
10 minutes, he should havestopped at the closest charger
and he should have charged, buthe should, obviously he should
have turned air conditioning up,but this tells me that they
don't have a good charging planin place, or he's not aware of

(24:36):
what the plan is.
It also tells me that he doesnot know how to use the vehicle
properly, because obviously youshould have more than enough to
run the air conditioning.
The lyric has a good amount ofmileage on it, but he's not
comfortable with his tool.
He doesn't feel empowered inthat space.

Ken Lucci (24:53):
range anxiety.
Range

Tiffany Hinton (24:55):
Everybody has it.
Everybody.
They have it bad,

James Blain (24:58):
And let, let me ask you something else.
Cause one of the things, youknow, one of the big deals for
us is when we did the electrictraining, we spent a lot of time
on the electric vehicletraining, talking about plug in
hybrids and hybrids andeverything there.
But one of the things that wefound that was not just knowing
your tool, but was the servicewas a lot of these guys were
really struggling with the ideaof one pedal driving and being

(25:19):
smooth and understandingregenerative braking, because
you're now getting in a luxuryvehicle that has the power of a
Corvette or a Ferrari, and youdon't often touch the brakes.
So let me ask you, is thatsomething that you're seeing as
well?
Is it the driving styles beingalso

Tiffany Hinton (25:35):
Yeah, they're awful.
That's another.
Well, they asked me for, youguys asked me for an example.
That's my favorite one, the airconditioner.
But yes, they don't know how touse regenerative braking at all.
They don't understand howregenerative braking works.
But again, to me, that goes backto the training I teach my
chauffeurs.
this is your little home.
This is, this is your, this isyour space.
You need to have command of thisspace.

(25:57):
And if I'm a client, when I getin this car, you have my life in
your hand.
I need to believe that you knowwhat you're doing and you feel
good about it.
And I think a lot of thesepeople don't have that.
And you're right.
I have been car sick and somany, electric vehicles because
people love to send them to me,I guess I'm supposed to be, I
don't really care, but they sendthem to me and I'm like, this

(26:18):
guy doesn't know.
Actually, my son and I justtraveled to Boston and someone
sent us one.
And the guy was just like, myson was like, mom.
We're gonna have to get out.
I'm gonna die because the guywas just like, and I mean, you
know how Boston is.
There's

James Blain (26:30):
Oh yeah, stop, go, stop, go.

Tiffany Hinton (26:32):
Oh, yeah.
So, but one of the things we doin our training is our
chauffeurs, they ride in theback.
I want you to see how it feels.
I take two of them at a time.
Do you feel that?
Is that pleasant?
Is your stomach starting to geta little sick?
You can just roll down thewindow because certain things
you have to experience.
I can tell you, but until youfeel what it feels like, we're

(26:53):
talking about just straighttorque.
That's all this is.
This is torque.
When you hit the gas, it'storque.

James Blain (26:59):
Ferrari level power.
No joke.
Ferrari level power.

Tiffany Hinton (27:02):
This is, this is it.
And if you're not used to it, orif you don't think, I want you
to be present in your thoughtsthat there's someone in the
backseat and I want to make thisas smooth for them as possible.
I want to take every precaution.
I want to make sure when I'm onthe 405, I remember that the
third lane has that big dip.
And I take it easy becausethey're back there.
And I think that you cannotdepend on shots.

(27:24):
You cannot depend on airbags.
None of that's going to save youhere.
Right?

James Blain (27:29):
If we're using airbags, we got an even bigger
training problem.

Ken Lucci (27:32):
you know, it, it, to me it speaks of a commitment,
right?
Because I think a lot of peoplein this industry buy an EV to
check off a box, okay?
And I don't think you're gonnamake any impact at all in
reference to utilizing this toolto increase customer utilization
or increase your customer basewithout a commitment, right?

(27:54):
I mean, the people that have twoor three of them, visited a
network, a client that's of mineand they had, it was a sedan.
It, they got a great deal onthem and they have five of them
lined up.
And I said, what did you, whendid you get those lucid?
Lucid, lucid.
They said, we just got them.
And none of the drivers want totake them home because they

(28:16):
don't want to plug them in attheir house.
So, I mean, this is a company,wait a minute, wait a minute,
wait a minute.
Why did you buy them?
Oh, because we get a good dealon the lease.
Okay, I mean, what's the plan?
what's the plan?
What's your plan and commitment?
You know, is it me or does theindustry just treat it like
okay.

(28:36):
Well, it's just another car.
It's just another model I'mgonna buy one like it's when
SUVs came out the big SUVs cameout in 1999, I was used services
back then But to me, that's thewrong approach.
The approach is what is yourprogram?
But you guys started with theprogram.

(28:57):
You started with thedifferentiation.
so what would you say to anoperator who's making a
commitment?
to be firmly in the EV space.
first of all, do you have anysuggestions as to what to stay
away from for equipment?
Or what are the first thingsthat you should be doing?

(29:18):
You've obviously were on thebleeding edge of this.

Tiffany Hinton (29:21):
I, I tell people first educate yourself.
educate yourself and find outwhat aligns with your values.
Whatever your company corevalues are, first look for the
vehicle that aligns with thosevalues.
Because that's what is going toresonate with your clients.
So if you have clients who are,you know, I'm a Californian.
So everything is about names.

(29:41):
We care about names and we careabout what year and body style
and all that stuff.
So, to me right now, the bestelectric vehicle out right now
is the BMW.
BMW has the best product, in myopinion.
Right?
I love their product.

James Blain (29:54):
What wouldn't have expected

Tiffany Hinton (29:55):
And I'm a Tesla evangelist.
Tesla has proclaimed me a Teslaevangelist that I go around
teaching people to use Teslas.
And I do love Tesla.
I love it because it's tested.
I've had it for eight years,right?
I know what it's capable of.
It's never let me down.
know everything about it, but,BMW I think has created a
product that is, there is aseamless move out of a

(30:17):
combustible engine into a BMW.

James Blain (30:19):
It's a

Tiffany Hinton (30:19):
seamless.
Yes, because it looks, it looksexactly like what you're used
to.
There's very little, there's novery little change.
There's, there's only littlesubtle changes.
And I think that for the senses,it's much easier for people to
acclimate to that BMW than this,to any of the other electric
offerings, because the otherones have gone so far techie.
That people are like, Oh, myGod, there's a lot of buttons in

(30:41):
here.
There's no dashboard.
Where are things?
I don't know what I'm doing.
When you get in a BMW, it looksjust like the other five series
you saw.
It looks just like the otherseven series you saw.
There's very little difference.
And so I think that that is, Ilike that car for that reason.
But to your question, I thinkthat if beyond educating

(31:02):
yourself, I think what theseoperators have to do is they
have to figure out what is theirwhy.
Because if your why is not,authentic, right?
If your, if your why is to checkthe box, it's going to be an
epic fail.
If your why is just because youwant to tell people, I got one.
It's not going to do what youwant it to do.
You need to make sure that thisdecision is rooted in an

(31:25):
authentic place because it is achanging paradigm.
It is a total different monster.

James Blain (31:30):
So let's let's address the elephant in the room
then because we are gettingready to have a big political
shift in our country And I havealready heard people saying well
the EV thing is over as soon asBiden's out no more EVs That's
going away But I've also heardthe other side of that of
fortune five companies are notchanging over what they're doing

(31:50):
at a top level.
So what's kind of your opinion?
What does that future look likeknowing that we're going into a
political climate?
That's not going to push forthat as much.

Tiffany Hinton (31:58):
Well, like I've been telling everybody, all it
looks like to me is higherprices.
The tariffs on the part, theparts is going to get harder to
get because the tariff is goingto go crazy.
The cars themselves, if they'renot being fully built here in
the United States, which mostautomakers now what they're
doing is they're shipping theparts piece by piece, then
putting it together in theUnited States and calling it
American made,

Ken Lucci (32:19):
But most of the parts are from China.

Tiffany Hinton (32:21):
that's all of them basically.
So I think that we're just goingto see a rise in the price
point, but The, the companies,no, I get more requests for
sustainability.
all of these major companies Ideal with, a lot of luxury
brands, Dior, Louis Vuitton.
They run fully electricprograms.

(32:41):
They come to my city and they'relike, Hey, listen, we're doing,
a big photo shoot or we're doinga launch.
It's over five days.
I want 100 EVs.
I want 75 EVs, right?
some of my other big clients,they're like, Tiffany, we're
having this, people come in tolook at the company.
We want everything EV.
And so, no, I'm, I'm hearingmore sustainability

(33:01):
conversation, not less.
I'm not, I'm not hearing anyless

Ken Lucci (33:05):
Yes.
well, to your point, Tiffany,you know, the subject EV is it's
not singularly faceted.
it's a, it's a complete newmethod of thinking and
sustainability.
And my feeling, my feeling is.
The Fortune 500 companies andlarge public corporations have
made the firm commitment theyare going to, they're firmly in

(33:30):
that direction.
They're not going to changeregardless of a tax credit.

James Blain (33:34):
Well, and

Tiffany Hinton (33:34):
I don't think so.
I sit on panels.
I sit on panels with, peoplefrom the airline industry,
people from the hospitalityindustry, you know, from hotels,
even from the rent a car space.
Even though they have that, the,you know, they over judged what
they were able to do when theywent on a bottle of those EVs
and they had to pull them back,even they're still not shying
away from sustainability.

(33:55):
They're just looking for a moresustainable plan to reimplement
it, right?
Because they found out like,okay, well, people are not going
to go charge in places wherethey're not familiar with.
So we're going to have toprovide them with a map that
tells them where they cancharge.
We're going to have to put moretools in place.

Ken Lucci (34:11):
just a it's a different.
It's a difficult use case.
Rental is probably the mostdifficult use case.
You control the drivers.
The drivers should understandafter a period of time.
And I was shocked by whathappened with Hertz.
You're talking about Hertzhaving to, they went huge.
That was the president.
I think they went huge, but incorporate America,

(34:31):
sustainability is here to stay.

Tiffany Hinton (34:35):
Absolutely.

Ken Lucci (34:36):
100%.
To me, it's literally like,okay, tell me what your
insurance limits are.
Okay, tell me what yourbackground check policy is.
Okay, tell me what yoursustainability program is.
And if you go, you're not gonna,you're not gonna land one of
these companies.
I don't think you can fake it.
I think people out there, evensome of the bigger operators are

(34:57):
trying to fake it.

Tiffany Hinton (34:59):
They

James Blain (34:59):
And I think one of the things that we've hit on
that's really important here,though, is I think, you know,
kind of to your point, Tiffany,you figured out who your avatar
is, what you're looking for,because you do have those CEOs
that, you know, they wantsustainability.
But that's not, that's not goalone, right?
So you're going to have clientswhere you might have higher
level goals, but that'simportant to them.

(35:21):
You might be in markets wheremaybe that's not a big deal.
But I will tell you, I recentlyupdated my Amazon app.
And of course, like everybodyelse, you buy things off the
Amazon.
Now, even Amazon is trying topush shipping options based on
lower carbon, right?
Less boxes.
I mean, sustainability issomething that's, that's come.

(35:41):
and I'd love to hear what yourthoughts of what it looks like
in this new administration, butit just doesn't look like at a
corporate level, anyone's goingto back off of that.
So knowing that, what do youthink we will see kind of as the
changes?
coming forward as the regimechanges in the White House.

Ken Lucci (35:58):
regime is a good, that's a good way to

Tiffany Hinton (35:59):
That's a great game for it.

James Blain (36:02):
We're not political here, by the way.

Tiffany Hinton (36:04):
You know what I think is, I think it may become
a little difficult.
I think that, I think there maybe some, some challenges placed
in our way as far as what we'reable to do and what's easily
move forward.
But I think that people as awhole, are, I think it's a, I
think it's a groundswellmovement of individuals and, um,

(36:26):
you know, not to be political,but, you know, I think Obama
said it best.
It's what we do in our cities,in our town.
Right.
It's what we choose to do asindividual citizens, right?
That really move the countryforward.
And I think that that's whatwe're gonna see.
We're gonna see that the countryis already on that wave.
We're already, we're alreadydoing all this stuff, right?

(36:48):
And so all he, all he can reallydo is put up a few roadblocks,
but the people are gonna keepmoving.

Ken Lucci (36:53):
And, and, and by the way, the people who are already
in the movement to lessen carbonfootprint and to be more
sustainable are not worriedabout a 7, 500 tax credit on a
car.
they're worried about the whole,they're living their life based
on a holistic program.
Okay.
It's like, you know, you have aheart attack or you understand

(37:13):
your cholesterol is through theroof and you really could have a
problem.
Now you're changing your healthregimen.
These people have alreadychanged their health regimen,
whether or not they're going toget a tax credit or not.
It's a different story now.
You know, the billionaire brosmay have some influence on, on
the new regime about that 7, 500tax credit.

(37:36):
but, you know, you brought upAmazon, down in Florida, Amazon
is all electric vehicles.
Are they, are they electric outthere for, for delivery,
Tiffany?

Tiffany Hinton (37:45):
We have, we have some, I think we have too much
land mass to be completely, butI hear there's more electric in
San Francisco than we have inLA, but we definitely are seeing
the, I mean, but you know, wehave drones here that deliver
your Amazon packages.
So, you know, yeah, they'redefinitely

Ken Lucci (38:00):
We have drones in New Jersey too, but that's just not,
that's not, it's not doing anydeliveries.

James Blain (38:05):
It's a different, different animal,

Ken Lucci (38:07):
So, so you, you know, you hit upon something that I
think we have to address is, isthe potential for tariffs
because look, by all accounts,2025 is going to be a good year
for our industry.
Fuel, fuel is coming down.
interest rates are coming down.
Everybody watch your insurance.
but the wild card is if thetariff situation we could become

(38:31):
get in a tariff war, theretaliation is most likely going
to be on the auto parts.

Tiffany Hinton (38:39):
Yeah,

Ken Lucci (38:40):
agree with you that it's, you know, people have to
realize and do whatever they.
Have to do that.
Do you stockpile, do youstockpile anything or you, but
you have, you, but you havereally good relationships with
your Tesla providers, with the

Tiffany Hinton (38:53):
I have a great, I have a great relationship with
Tesla and I also have a greatrelationship with Tesla
authorized people.
So I make sure that I kind ofcover my bases on all points.
If Tesla can't help me, I canusually find an authorized
dealer who has something layingaround and people are used to.
I mean, you run 52 cars.
They kind of know she might need1 of these.
She might be where it goes.

(39:14):
So we would get her 1.
We'll get her 2 case.
She has to come back.
So.

Ken Lucci (39:18):
we want to hit upon one final subject that we could
do a full hour on is theautonomous vehicle, disruption,
if you will, or the trends thatare coming, what, what is your
opinion on how they will disruptthe chauffeur space?

Tiffany Hinton (39:35):
Well, I don't think there's going to be as
much disruption as people think.
Unfortunately, I think that, um,I think the biggest disruption
that people have experiencedalready happened.
It's uber, right?
the autonomous car as moredisruptive to uber than it will
be to chauffeur.

James Blain (39:52):
Why?
But, but why though?

Tiffany Hinton (39:54):
Because because when, if you are doing chauffeur
space correctly, it's thepersonal touch that makes it
special.
If we take out the pricing.
Then you lose the special sex,right?
And I'm, I'm

Ken Lucci (40:07):
restaurant.

Tiffany Hinton (40:08):
Right.
I've ridden in Waymo.
I think Waymo is great.
I will not lie to you.
It was a, the ride was amazing.
It was smooth.
It was very humanistic.
Like the, even the adjustmentsthat the autonomous car made, it
felt like a human was driving.
They weren't like, you know, uh,stiff.
the automation inside thevehicle, if you're a tech

(40:28):
person, you love the tech.
It's very, you know, to bewelcomed by the car, to be able
to start your own ride, you feelvery welcome.
Right.
Exactly.
It's the greatest.
They put your initials on thetop of the car when you're
approaching the vehicle.
It's this great customizedlittle thing, right?
and it's cheap.
The price point, incredible.
Can't beat the price point.
But, there's nothing that willever replace, really truly

(40:52):
replace humanity.

Ken Lucci (40:53):
No, they're, they're, not gonna, No, they're not gonna
get your luggage.
They're not gonna show up 15minutes before.
They're not, they're, they'renot going to meet you, meet and
greet inside.
They're not gonna go to anF-B-O-I-I, I agree with you a
thousand percent.
I think that it is the deathnail to the taxi industry,
because I still have clients inthe taxi space.

(41:14):
I fight with them all day that,that your demographic is dying
off the demographic of payingcash, no, no smartphone
utilization, et cetera.
And the funny thing to me onWaymo is the fact that Waymo has
their own app and now they'remaking deals to be on Uber's
app.
I think Uber, I think Uber willbe disrupted until the shift is

(41:35):
permanent fully over toautonomous.
I was in Phoenix the other dayThere are four or five hundred
of them sitting around up thereand the, but I took a couple of
Ubers in them in addition toWaymo and they said we are
seeing 40 percent drops in ourairport pickups and about 60
percent drops in Scottsdale.

(41:56):
So I agree with you

James Blain (41:58):
but that's there.
If I remember right and, andKen, correct me if I'm wrong.
It's Sky Harbor.
You had to actually, youcouldn't just go to, it was
easier to go down and grab anUber.
You had to go out to the, youhad to actually go.
Further to get the Waymo.
Is that still the case wherepeople are going all the way out
to like the economy lot

Ken Lucci (42:14):
I did my way most and I did my way most in Scottsdale.
I didn't do it at the sky at SkyHarbor, but I know a couple of
people, the NLA had the boardmeeting out there.
I know a couple of people did itfrom the airport.
I don't know where they had metthem.
the,

Tiffany Hinton (42:28):
it was that hard.

James Blain (42:29):
no,

Ken Lucci (42:30):
thing, the interesting thing today is, um.
A study just came out with thereinsurer UBS, if I'm
correcting, if I'm, referring toit properly where the Waymo
sponsored or assisted in thereport and basically these
Waymos are safer than, than ahuman driver.

(42:53):
That's what the report came outand said.
but so, you know, I think thatif the only correction I'll
make, or the only, the onlything where I think it could
hurt our industry is if, if youliterally are the, what I call
the A and B provider, theprovider that just takes you
from A to B and you're notdelivering a quality customer
experience, I think you're introuble.

(43:14):
I think you're going to bediluted by Uber black and then.
When autonomous hits you, youcould be disrupted by
autonomous, but at your level atthe high touch client level.
the top 5 percent level, I don'tthink it is, we're gonna see a
disruption.

James Blain (43:34):
Well, and I want to take that a step further because
I have something that keeps meawake at night and that's the,
and Tiffany, hopefully, you

Ken Lucci (43:42):
Just, Just, just, just one thing?
Hehehehehehe.

James Blain (43:46):
at night.
Right.
Okay, maybe it's a lot ofthings, but, you know, the thing
that keeps me awake at night isone of the big things that we
struggle with in our industry isteaching the chauffeur's
discretion, when to be seenversus when to be heard versus
when to have a conversationversus, you know, just being
there to serve.
And one of the questions that Istruggle with is if that

(44:09):
chauffeur isn't there driving,and that chauffeur is just
sitting in that vehicle to servethat passenger.
What does that do to discretion?
How do they balance that?
Or do we end up with a futurewhere that chauffeur's meeting
them before and after the tripat the end points?
You know, if we fast forwardthis, you know, 10, 15, 20
years, what does our industryactually look like?

(44:32):
I'd love to hear your thoughtson that.
Tiffany

Tiffany Hinton (44:34):
That I'm going to say that I'm kind of with you
on that about, what keeps me upat night.
It doesn't keep me up at night,but I definitely think that
things change.
Like, I said, things change, andI think that we have had, you
know.
All of the time of the world,there's, you know, there's been
a technology shift.

(44:56):
There's been when we went tofactories, that was a shift.
I think that we are in a timenow where there is great amounts
of shifting.
And I think that in this next 10to 15 years, we are going to see
huge shifts because as vehicleschange.
So will their operators or lackthereof.
And so will the location ofthose things.

(45:17):
Like I'm one of those people whostrongly believes that your
expertise is still yourexpertise.
At the end of the day, we canteach, AI to use our voice,
right, to, to, to follow thepattern of what we normally do.
What we can't teach it to do isto anticipate.
We can't teach it to go offscript.

(45:37):
Humanity is the only thing thatwill ever be able to go off
script, right?
So somewhere in the background,whether we're looking at a
screen to operate that Waymo orto give that that Waymo
instruction or to give thatvehicle instruction somewhere,
there'll be a person.
The question is, where will webe?
Will we be sitting in thatdriver's seat still, or will we

(45:58):
be in a different place?
Right?
And I think that the other thingis, is where do we want to be?
I think one of the worst partsabout this industry.
Is we are so entrenched in wherewe've been, we don't often
consider where we're going.
And if you don't make a plan, ifyou don't have a plan, you plan
to fail, you

Ken Lucci (46:18):
They played checkers They play checkers.
They don't play chess.

Tiffany Hinton (46:22):
exactly.
And I think that that's one ofthe things that the elements
that we're missing in ourconversation is we never talk
about how we are in a placewhere we can help form the
future.
We can form what this lookslike, but we've decided that we
rather stand in the mud and tryto keep this old thing going.
This old thing is dying.

(46:43):
You can't keep resuscitating.
It's only going to jump up somany times.
We need innovators in ourindustry to start looking
towards the future.
Where do we want to seeourselves?
Who do we want to be?
What role do we want to play intransportation in the future?
And then we have to start makingthe inroad to that place.

James Blain (47:01):
so what's that first step?
How do we get, you know, thefirst step of getting out of the
mud is you got to be able topull one foot out.
If, if someone's listening tothis and they're saying, Hey,
you know, I, I got lots of yearsleft or I don't plan to ever
sell.
Or I, you know, if you do planto sell call Ken, by the way,
but if you're going to be herefor a while.

Ken Lucci (47:19):
you're realistic.

James Blain (47:20):
yeah, but, but how do you, you know, we, we, it's
very hard to be at 60, 000 feetwhen we're used to being on the
ground working in ourbusinesses.
How do we step away and pullthat foot out of the mud and
take that next step of having avoice in what that looks like or
what that future is?

Tiffany Hinton (47:41):
Pay attention.
I think that's the first thing.
Pay attention.
I mean, I, I, I'm obviously the,in LA and I, I sit in these
meetings all the time andsometimes I wonder like, what
planet are you people on?
Like, are you, are you, are youin tune with what's happening in
the world around you?
Like pay attention, innovationis happening to you and around
you all the time.

Ken Lucci (48:02):
Whether, whether you realize it or not, I mean, it's,
you're a hundred percent rightin the, and it's a truism that
most real innovation happensfrom, it happens to an industry
by outside forces.
Okay.
And you know, I think the, thetechnology piece I do believe is

(48:22):
the first step.
We're still depending on toomany people to take the order
and to manage the order and todispatch the order.
And at the end of the day, weall know the technology can do a
better job at anticipatingtraffic patterns and, and no,
you're not going to have enoughtime to do that.
So I agree with you, but it'scommon regardless.

(48:46):
And my biggest fear is, and Iuse this analogy the other day
to someone who said, well,That's kind of scary.
I said, you know, there's stilla fantastic company that makes,
horses and buggies.
I just, I just bought a cannon,cannon wagon wheels from them
because I'm building a seven,uh, an 18th century cannon.
And there's a great, it'scalled, it's called, it's called

(49:07):
Hanson, carriages, right?
You know, at the end of the day,there's still companies that
make buggy whips, but theindustry's not growing.
Okay.
So when I look at the statisticson how the chauffeured space is
growing at 2.
67, that's just keeping up.
What are we doing to grow ourmarket share?

(49:29):
Because as we talked about atthe DC show, airline travel,
travel is growing by 5 percent ayear.
So we're not even half that.
So what are we doing to capturethe new flyers?
What are we doing to capture theyounger people whose travel is a
massive priority in their lifeis to travel.

(49:51):
I mean, my business partner isgetting married in Italy.
Okay, because he, that's, it's abig experiential.
So, you know, I agree withTiffany, we, we have to get our
heads up and look at where we'regoing.

Tiffany Hinton (50:05):
And, one of the reasons why we're failing
miserably in the market with theyounger people, which is the
major bulk of the market, isthat we want to adjust from a
technological, from a technologystandpoint.
We refuse to adjust.
These people want instantaneousanswers.
They do not want to callanybody.
They, they want an app that theycan depend on.

(50:25):
They want it to be costeffective.
They want to share it with theirfriends.
The fact that we are still usingoutdated technology to even
dispatch.
The fact that we, I mean, no,no, no dig on add ons, but the
fact that we even call it a addon,

Ken Lucci (50:40):
Right.

Tiffany Hinton (50:41):
Right.
is, is indicative of how far weare behind.
Oh, 40, 40,

James Blain (50:46):
Well, and, and I'm almost 40, right?
I'm not, I'm no young, but I'malmost 40 and that's what I
want.
I don't want it that hard.

Ken Lucci (50:53):
to say 35.

James Blain (50:54):
Oh, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.

Ken Lucci (50:56):
Tiff, Tiff, Tiff, Tiff is not going to see her
40th birthday for 7, 8,

James Blain (51:00):
no.

Ken Lucci (51:00):
12

Tiffany Hinton (51:01):
know what?
Listen, you just became myfavorite person on earth.
Okay.
I want you to know I'm at 49 inlike 10 days,

James Blain (51:08):
Oh, don't tell, yeah, yeah.

Ken Lucci (51:10):
you, wear it well.

James Blain (51:11):
thought you were younger than I was.

Ken Lucci (51:13):
Are you sure?
Are you sure you're in thechauffeured business?
Amen.
you, you, you hit, you, you hitupon something that I have to
deal with when I go to New Yorkand I do what I call private
equity speed dating, where Iwill stand up at lunch and I
will talk about the chauffeuredspace and talk about the growth
in the market for travelers andtalk about the growth in airline

(51:35):
passengers.
And they all do this.
They stand up.
And they waved their smartphonesat me and it drives me crazy
because I know what it is.
It's an antiquated customerservice experience.
Okay.
And to your point, the otherthing that we need to realize Is
all our friends in thecorporations that we have
relationships with that arerunning corporate travel

(51:56):
departments or our executiveassistants that they're being
replaced by kids that doeverything on smartphones

Tiffany Hinton (52:04):
everything,

Ken Lucci (52:05):
and the in my, you know, humble opinion, and I
think you'll agree the future ofmarket share growth in chauffeur
transportation is, the appexperience is.
A customer, corporate portalwhere you literally listen,
especially with some things thathave been going on, where you

(52:26):
can track your executives, trackyour employees, where they're
traveling to.
And tell me on your end,Tiffany, do you see interface
between the enterprise softwareand the actual vehicle?

Tiffany Hinton (52:37):
with the Tesla, I can't

Ken Lucci (52:40):
do you think you'll ever have a dispatch department
screen that's, that, willrecognize and interface with the
chauffeur saying, do you realizethat you've only got 71 miles
yet left, or do you realizeyou've got something going on in
the car?
Do you think

Tiffany Hinton (52:54):
So,

Ken Lucci (52:54):
be that level of diagnostics?

Tiffany Hinton (52:56):
so I would tell you, I absolutely do.
And I'm gonna tell you why.
So, I have participated in, nowthree different, studies with
three different automakers,where they are, in development
of such software, where they're,trying to basically centralize
everything that happens withthis, with this vehicle.

(53:19):
So, they want, when you go andbuy this vehicle, they want to
be the provider of the charge.
They want to be the provider ofthe maintenance.
They want to be the provider ofreal time diagnostic.
They want to be for everything.
They're trying to bring it allunder one roof so that you
essentially become a part of afamily of vehicles that are all
in this same ecosystem.

(53:40):
And so I can assure you thatthey are working very hard to
make that a thing.
And yes, I believe we will seeit.
Probably sooner.
probably sooner than whatpeople, people believe.
I mean, I think it's unfortunatethat like I said, there are so
many people.
I mean, you saw I was in thestate of industry panel this
year and they were just like, Idon't think it's going to
happen.
Like she says, it's not.

(54:02):
I can assure you that I sit incircles at tables with people
who are making sure that it isgoing to happen.

Ken Lucci (54:06):
And you know something, to your point, every
single day I get downloads fromFactiva on autonomous vehicles,
on AI, on dispatching.
And at the end of the day, Ithink the biggest problem is
what you've got is people thatare working in their businesses
and not on what, what is takingplace around them.

(54:27):
And it's, kind of sad.
It's kind of difficult for mebecause, you know, they, they
have certain expectations ofwhat their businesses are worth
when they go to sell them.
But I'm saying, do you realizethat you're spending 6 percent
of your total income on orderingin logistics?
Do you realize that you, you'vegot more dispatchers than You
know, practically Logan Airport.
I mean, you've got that manypeople dispatching and your per

(54:50):
transaction costs are 14.
So.
There's no question that I thinkit's all tied together.
I think the EV, I think the EVevolution and the, the carbon
footprint and the commitment tobeing carbon neutral, it's all
driven by data.
It's all driven by data.

(55:11):
And I do think AI is going tomake a big difference to us.
I'm waiting to see in use.
How it's going to change themodel so that, you know, tell me
something.
Why is it that I can, from myprescription from CVS, I call in
and I give a prescription numberand they repeat back to me what

(55:32):
it is and tell me it'll beavailable tomorrow morning at
nine o'clock.
And then they remind me at nineo'clock in the morning, why
can't I say to any reservationsystem, this is Ken Lucci, pick
me up at my house tomorrowmorning at seven o'clock, take
me to Salisbury, Marylandairport.
American Airlines flight 1067leaving at seven o'clock.
Repeat.
Jesus.
I mean, you see, it's maddeningto me.

(55:54):
And then I'll, I'll, I'll talkto the reservations software
people and say, well, it'scoming.
And there's an ad.
There's a, there's a servicethat does that, that we're
looking at it, or it's on theframework.
It's on the roadmap.
And they said, well, you know,nobody's using our, our existing
app can.
And I'm like, you don't evenhave an existing app.

(56:15):
What you have is a mobilewebsite.
You're not in the app store.

Tiffany Hinton (56:19):
No.

James Blain (56:20):
I'm going to, give a shout out to the Dozier
brothers out at Signature and toQuoteBot because, you know, one
of the big things there is oneof the people that I think, you
know, and for me, this is notif, right, it's when.
If you believe this is still ifand not when, right?
It's when and exactly what.
And the reason I want to bringthose guys up and give that

(56:42):
shout out is they have been ableto leverage that to where,
although you can't quite, andmaybe they've, they've got it
cracked now.
I haven't talked to him in awhile, but although you can't
quite call in and do that, theywere working on the technology
to where you could be messaging,send your message in and say,
Hey, I'm going into Loganairport.
I'm coming in at this time.
Okay.
And it would translate that toreservation.

(57:03):
So I think, I think we do havekind of like Tiffany said, we
have people that are watching.
We have people are looking, butI think Ken in your world, in my
world.
I, you know, we said earlier youhad maybe the 10 percent that
we're doing stuff, right?
I think it's maybe 1 percentthat are trying to live in that
world.
And that's why we just don't seethat much of it.

Ken Lucci (57:21):
that's a good point.
But see, the beauty is, is whenyou, so goes California, so goes
the rest of the country, as faras I'm concerned.
Some people are think it'sfoolish enough to think it
happens in New York as well.
I don't believe that.
I believe that all the tech Andall of the, the trends, both on
technology, culture, et cetera,start in California and they

(57:42):
move, they move forward, theymove, they move each.
The question is at, at whatpace?
but so if you had to,prognosticate, where do you want
motive to be in five years?
Where do you see motive?

Tiffany Hinton (57:57):
Oh, that's a good.
I want Motive to become anelectric fleet manager.
I would like to see Motivemanage electric fleets.
I think that we have built theinfrastructure and the know how
to become an expert in thatspace.
And so that is where my thinkingis, is that there are, you know,
corporations, there are othertransportation companies, and

(58:18):
they want to be in the fleetspace from an electric
perspective.
I think that's where ourexpertise is.
I think that's I think that'sour next step.
don't know if it will become ouroverarching thing, 1 of the
longer arms as time as time goeson.

Ken Lucci (58:34):
Very good.

Tiffany Hinton (58:36):
I told you, if you don't have a plan, then you
plan to fail.

Ken Lucci (58:39):
Well, you know, we, we, we covered a lot today.
First of all, you built acompany based on differentiation
and innovation.
Okay.
But you designed the brand andyou designed the, the value
proposition.
You didn't let it evolve on itsown.
So that to me is number one isyou designed the brand to tailor

(59:03):
towards and to target the, theavatars, the customer pro forma
or persona that you wanted, andthen you built, you built all
the systems around it.
So every operator out there.
You know, I think if you're analso ran operator where you're
not on Google page one, youdon't have a website and you

(59:24):
don't have any valueproposition.
If your only differentiator isprice.
I think you're in trouble if youcannot articulate and tell me in
a 30 second elevator pitch, whatdoes my brand stand for?
How am I different?
And I think that's why peoplehave gravitated to you.
I mean, there's other peoplethat have bought 10 EVs and

(59:46):
failed miserably.
Okay.
But, but look at what you'vedone.
You're five times the size and,but it's, you've built your
brand and that's an integralpart of your culture.
Is the ev and it's the, it's tobe sustainable, but you've
translated it that to theservice experience with with

(01:00:06):
your chauffeur.
and I feel bad for people thatthink the answer is$118,000
Escalade.
Oh, I've got this$118,000Escalade.
I'm now gonna take a lot ofbusiness from people who have a
$68,000 Suburban.
It's not about that.

James Blain (01:00:20):
Buy the right vehicle.
We talk about it all the time,Ken.
If we could beat it into people,we would.
Buy the vehicle you need, notthe one you think you need.

Ken Lucci (01:00:28):
Well, and matching, matching your brand persona,
matching your brand valueproposition to the client that
you want to attract.
I mean, that's to me more thananything.
Fundamentally, that's whatmotive did that from the, from
the get go.
It wasn't just about, Hey, I'mgoing to have EVs look at me.
It was, they built that intotheir entire culture.

Tiffany Hinton (01:00:49):
Exactly.
That's who we are.
That's our, that's our life'sblood.

Ken Lucci (01:00:53):
Well, listen, we've, we've only spent little bit of
time together, but I got to tellyou, you are one of the shining
stars of the industry.
You're one of the shining,you're one of the shining up and
comers in the industry.
So we're so happy that youdecided to, uh, visit our little
podcast.
So,

Tiffany Hinton (01:01:10):
happy you invited me.

Ken Lucci (01:01:11):
so if, people wanted to visit motive, just to see
what you're all about, what'sthe website?

Tiffany Hinton (01:01:17):
Motive.
com

Ken Lucci (01:01:18):
M O T I V.

Tiffany Hinton (01:01:20):
M O T E V

Ken Lucci (01:01:21):
Sorry.
I apologize.
M O

Tiffany Hinton (01:01:23):
E V.

James Blain (01:01:24):
just wanted to make you say EV one more time.
We

Tiffany Hinton (01:01:27):
V

James Blain (01:01:27):
how to spell it.

Ken Lucci (01:01:28):
There you go.
Good.

Tiffany Hinton (01:01:30):
You guys are great.
Thank you so, so much.
I had a blast on here.
You guys are doing great work,both of you.
Uh, it blows my mind every timeI talk to him.
It takes me like two or threedays to even figure out what he
just finished explaining.
So,

Ken Lucci (01:01:45):
well, this is, um, this is going to air before the
show for driven show, I'm hopingto see you out in Vegas and
continued success in 2025.
Let's not worry about thosetariffs or anything like that.
Just keep building the business.

James Blain (01:02:00):
Amen.

Tiffany Hinton (01:02:00):
so much.
I appreciate you guys.
It was great.
Thank you for listening to theground transportation podcast.
If you enjoyed this episode,please remember to subscribe to
the show on apple, Spotify,YouTube, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
For more information about PAXtraining and to contact James,
go to PAX training.com.
And for more information aboutdriving transactions and to

(01:02:23):
contact Ken, Go to drivingtransactions.com.
We'll see you next time on theground transportation podcast.