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L to R: Michele Nosko and Ken Presley of UMA Los Angeles, Calif.—The United Motorcoach Association’s (UMA) Motorcoach Expo at Travel Exchange took place in Los Angeles in mid-February. This was the 30th anniversary for this grandiose event. Chauffer Driven’s President and Publisher Chris Weiss was on hand to experience the conference’s many events as well as meet with old and new friends in the motorcoach and chauffeured ground transportation industries.
A variety of products and services were on display in the City of Angels, including full-size coaches, vans, shuttle buses, pre-owned coaches, transit buses, tires, safety products, brakes, parts and components, mobile electronics, seats and upholstery, insurance, and more. Not only did the Expo floor feature 189 suppliers, 50 of those companies were not on the floor in 2013 and 39 of those companies were exhibiting for the first time—a fabulous sign that the economy is coming back strong.
Sponsors for the event included TEMSA & CH Bus Sales, the Los Angeles Tourism Board, Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, Sardo Bus & Coach Upholstery, and Amador Stage Lines and Certified Transportation Services.
“Exhibit space was virtually sold out and that's a testament to the fact that Expo delivers the kind of quality buyers that suppliers have come to expect from us,” says Victor Parra, UMA president and CEO. “In Los Angeles, operators were able to see all of the established vendors they already do business with and at the same time, meet new vendors and see new products and services too.”
Parra continued: “Many operations are finding that it's necessary to diversify their fleets and offerings to meet consumer demand; at EXPO we helped them meet those needs. Along with the full-size coaches attendees traditionally come to see, we've had a variety of other equipment on the floor this year, like transit buses, midsize coaches, shuttle buses, and vans.
Next year’s UMA Motorcoach EXPO will be held in New Orleans, La., from January 18 to 22.
Visit uma.org or motorcoachexpo.com for more information.
3/14
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VIP Global's new digsMiami Beach, Fla.—VIP Global recently announced its move to a new office located at 1680 Michigan Avenue, Suite 700, Miami Beach. VIP Global’s new headquarters is ideally located to be minutes away from all of the major hotels in the South Beach and downtown areas.
“My team and I are excited to announce the recent move into our new South Beach location,” says Evan Blanchette, CEO of VIP Global. “As a rapidly growing company, we pride ourselves in making each of our affiliates feel like part of the family. Our new state-of-the-art offices will allow us to push the envelope even further, and provide our clients and affiliates with quality service and communication.”
Visit vipglobal.us for more information.
3/14
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Lawrence, Mass. —The Hudson Group, an application service provider for the ground transportation industry, announced that it has achieved Payment Application-Data Security Standard acceptance (PA-DSS) for its HGTS (Hudson Ground Transportation System) application suite for a second year in a row. This acceptance has been awarded by the PCI Security Standards Council, the governing body that establishes credit card processing and data security standards. With this acceptance, The Hudson Group and its HGTS application becomes the first ground transportation software system in the industry to be evaluated and accepted to the PA-DSS security standard (v 2.0) when deployed on Microsoft’s Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Operating Systems.
With a rise in the incidence of data breaches occurring around the world, credit card processors have begun enforcing the contractual obligation that merchants achieve PCI Compliance in their business operations. These PCI security standards help merchants to ensure that their customer data remains protected and secure. With Hudson's HGTS applications achieving PA-DSS acceptance, the process for Hudson clients to achieve PCI Compliance will now be easier.
“As fraudulent activity becomes more sophisticated and widespread, it is vital for software companies to take the steps necessary to ensure the safety of customer data,” says Mark Ustik, president of The Hudson Group. “At Hudson, we have always taken data security extremely seriously, which is why were able to achieve PA-DSS compliance status with minimal modifications to our core system. The advantages of obtaining this status will certainly filter down to our clients when they are pursuing PCI Compliance themselves.”
The acceptance achieved by Hudson is demonstrated by the fact that Hudson and its HGTS application suite is now listed on the PCI Security Standards Council's online directory of 'Validated Payment Applications' which may be viewed here.
Visit thehudsongroup.com for more information.