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Prevost is celebrating the 32-year career of Ron Beverly in the motorcoach industry. Beverly worked with Prevost for 21 of those 32 years as a regional sales manager for parts in the South Central U.S. territory. He built a fantastic customer-base and is well known for putting customers first.
Beverly began his tenure in the motorcoach industry with Oregon’s Marathon Coach in 1988, where he worked in several different capacities within the parts division until 1997. That same year, Beverly made the move to Desert West Coach in Arizona, where he was responsible for disbursement and inventory management for all of their repair operations.
In 1999, former VP of Parts & Business Development Jack Forbes hired Beverly as one of the first regional parts sales managers when Prevost began creating a team to support regional customers with all their parts requirements.
“Since I had been a customer of Prevost including other manufacturers and suppliers previously, I had every intention of delivering a high level of service that I had expected as a customer. I believe I achieved that goal as often as possible. However, none of that would have been possible without the excellent support from the whole Prevost team. I was able to build very strong customer relationships throughout the region by working extremely hard to earn their trust and trying my best to deliver above their expectations. Being a strong advocate for our customers is tremendously important and I offered all the support possible in order to ensure the very best customer service to contribute to our customer's business success,” says Beverly.
He added: “I've always said ‘the reason we all have these jobs, is because we have customers’. I certainly wish all of the bus industry a speedy recovery getting back to the business that we all are committed to and all love after COVID-19. I will miss you all!”
With Beverly’s retirement, the Prevost parts regional sales managers have redistributed territories to be able to manage the transit, coach, entertainer, and motorhome customer base.
Tom Crowl, director of national parts sales says of Beverly: “Ron is and has always been a very strong advocate for his customers. If I were a Prevost parts customer, I would want Ron to be my representative. Ron will be missed on our Prevost team.”
“Ron has been an outstanding resource and friend for Prevost and the entire bus industry over the past 25+ years. He was always helpful and a great team player consistently going above and beyond for our customers,” says Vice President Corporate Accounts and Public Sector Jack Forbes. “We will miss Ron from the business aspect but also for his willingness to step up and play the guitar any time he had a chance. Good luck to Ron in his retirement plans!”
Visit prevostcar.com for more information.
[06.26.20]
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In a video posted on Facebook in early June, Scott Woodruff and Tim Pettit—owners of Majestic Limo & Coach and Chauffeurs of Distinction, respectively—shared the good news with their clients and industry peers that Majestic will proudly serve Chauffeurs of Distinction’s customers moving forward. In this move, Majestic also acquired the company’s phone number and website.
Pettit and his wife Grace founded their largely corporate-focused company more than five years ago that, at its peak, operated seven vehicles in the Des Moines area. Woodruff founded Majestic in 1996, which he runs with his wife Melissa. Majestic's fleet consists of vehicles ranging from sedans to motorcoaches and is the largest operation in the area.
A serendipitous conversation between the two Iowa company leaders—who often fed each other work and frequently collaborated over the years—led to a deeper discussion about the impact that the pandemic had on their respective businesses and what they hoped for the future.
“Last year, the pie was large enough that everyone had their piece—some bigger, some smaller, but we all worked well together. That’s unfortunately changed now,” says Woodruff.
“Being a smaller company, it made sense for my wife and me to come up with an exit plan not knowing the certainty of the recovery time,” says Pettit. “We realized that working 16-hour days just wasn’t worth it to rebuild what we had already built. We’re so proud of what we’ve accomplished.”
As it turns out, Woodruff and Pettit also have more in common than just the transportation industry: They also have backgrounds in law enforcement. Pettit retired after 22 years on the force before opening Chauffeurs of Distinction, while Woodruff still works part time for the Altoona Police Department.
Both companies have also been named by CITYVIEW’s Best of Des Moines as “Best Party/Event Transportation.”
“Scott is one of the sharpest business minds, especially in this industry,” says Pettit. “I thought of him as more of a mentor than a competitor. It was a great decision for both of us.”
Although there is the possibility of Pettit working with Woodruff at Majestic in the future, the husband-and-wife team are enjoying some much-needed downtime and taking care of family.
As for Majestic, Woodruff reports that he’s seeing an uptick in reservations. While primarily a corporate provider, he says they are excited to see an increase in retail reservations for larger vehicles and remain optimistic for the future.
Visit majesticlimo.com or chauffeursofdistinction.com for more information.
[06.23.20]
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Three days infused with knowledge and positivity! With many motorcoach companies still in a holding pattern due to the pandemic, the United Motorcoach Association (UMA) shifted into overdrive to help arm members with all the information needed to jump right back into business safely when travel resumes. Over three days between June 17 and 19, UMA hosted its Bus & Motorcoach Industry Virtual Summit: Ready. Aim. RESTART with daily sessions taught by dynamic speakers who focused on HR/employee best practices, sales, marketing, and financial issues. Participants were also offered a daily “tool kit” of resources that reinforced the sessions’ takeaways and created additional learning opportunities. As a bonus, registration included a complementary pass to LinkedIn Learning, which features thousands of online classes on everything from body language to social media.
The program, hosted by UMA President & CEO Larry Killingsworth and VP & COO Ken Presley, was designed to provide a combination of expert presentations, panel discussions, and breakout sessions. To ensure that operators are staying motivated and on the right track through the phases of recovery, there will be follow-up meetings held four, eight, and 12 weeks after the Summit.
The Summit was sponsored by Lancer Insurance, Spader Business Management, PAX Training, and Rellevate. Killingsworth also thanked ABC Companies, MCI, Prevost, and TEMSA for their support.
June 17
After a welcome message from Killingsworth and Presley, day one kicked off with a rousing keynote—Building a RESTART Mindset—from entrepreneur and motivational speaker Joe Calhoon, who challenged participants to consider their ideal future by “deciding to climb, camp, or quit—all acceptable options” depending on their circumstances. For those soldering on, he helped them explore the four dimensions of the adversity quotient. In the second hour, frequent UMA guest speaker Jim McCann of Spader Business Management focused on how companies can pivot in these changing times with his session Building Your Plan, Part I: We Were Doing Great … Until We Weren’t. Moving beyond the record year that many companies had in 2019, he offered his advice for “right-sizing” business and emerging in a strong position once travel moves again.
June 18
The second day began with another session from McCann, Building Your Plan, Part II: Creating Your Roadmap to Return to Profitability, which built on his seminar from Wednesday. McCann explored all aspects of operation with the 4 Quadrants of Total Success, including staff, company culture, customer loyalty, and management.
Next, sales training veteran Jim Pancero motivated participants to think differently about securing customers in How to Increase Your Sales (and Competitive Advantage) in Today’s Virus-Impacted World. He noted that the pandemic has hastened one of the largest cultural shifts in the past 50 years, and that all industries have been affected. He offered his ideas on improving messaging, marketing, and attitude.
In the final hour of the day, James Blain and Bruce Heinrich of PAX Training shifted the conversation to employees with their session Building the Right Team to Deliver an Experience, Not Just Passengers. With so many valuable employees on furlough, the PAX duo offered ways to keep staff engaged, set new expectations to meet novel challenges, and how to train for success as they return to work. Heinrich and Blain also spoke at the 2020 CD/NLA Show in Las Vegas this past February.
June 19
The last day launched with a panel discussion that included Alan Robinson of R&W Motorcoach, Ginny Orr of Golden West Travel, and Elizabeth Kamalakis of Coachlight Tours. In this session, Pulling It All Together: Finalizing Your RESTART Roadmap, the panelists offered an honest and often emotional take on what they are doing to prepare to relaunch their business as well as their very real frustrations and trepidations about the impact of the pandemic. Despite the frank conversation, the panel offered their optimism and renewed hope.
UMA didn’t let the virtual nature of the Summit get in the way of networking as breakout sessions and a final networking session between participants promoted dialogue about what they had learned and what their strongest takeaways were from the numerous sessions.
To wrap things up, Calhoon (who opened the Summit) joined Killingsworth and Presley to give their final thoughts and motivated operators with some much-need optimism as we all embrace the uncertainty and use this time to emerge stronger as an industry.
Visit uma.org/summit for more information. Follow-up sessions will be held on July 15, August 12, and September 9, and is included in the initial registration cost.
[06.23.20]