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BCF newly elected Board Member Bill Yuhnke
In May, The Black Car Fund (BCF) announced the election of William “Bill” Yuhnke and Andrea Majer to its Board. Both new members were voted in unanimously by the Black Car Assistance Corporation, an industry trade group who is responsible for appointing six of the eleven board members for BCF.
Yuhnke is the president and CEO of Liberty Yellow Cab of Buffalo, as well as WEBR Radio 1440 AM. He has more than 35 years of experience in the ground transportation industry and currently manages the largest fleet of ground transportation vehicles in upstate New York. He is also a vice president, and longtime board member, of The Transportation Alliance and vice president of the Limousine, Bus, Taxi Operators of Upstate New York (LBTOUNY).
He has succeeded in expanding his company through diversification of its fleet to include paratransit vehicles; Liberty Yellow Cab of Buffalo is currently among the largest non-TNC bases of BCF outside of New York City. Yuhnke is also heavily involved in the local Buffalo community and established several programs such as:
BCF newly elected Board Member Andrea Majer
- The Safe Ride Program—Patrons are encouraged to surrender their car keys to bartenders in exchange for a free ride home, as well as a ride back to retrieve their vehicles the following day.
- Liberty Ride for Life Program—Citizens are offered rides to blood donation centers free of charge.
- Buffalo Bills Fans Safety Program—Transports football fans, who may have had too much to drink, safely back to their residences.
Andrea Majer is the executive vice president of Delux Transportation Services of Port Washington, N.Y. She has a career spanning nearly five decades in the limousine and taxi industry, beginning as a part-time driver while attending college working her way up to co-owner and COO of one of Long Island’s largest transportation companies.
Majer has played an important role bringing Delux into the computer age and assuring that the company maintains state-of-the-art technology in all areas. Majer has been given citations from the Town of North Hempstead, Nassau County Legislature, Nassau County office of the Executive, Long Island Center for Business and Professional Women, and many years of Lancer’s Safety Excellence Award.
Majer is also a proud member of the Long Island and New York communities. She currently sits on the Board of Project Independence, an initiative program of the Town of North Hempstead that affords many savings to its seniors. It provides a standard reduced fare, free transportation for weekly grocery shopping, and non-emergency medical transport for a nominal fee.
“I am excited to welcome Andrea and Bill, who are well-known in this industry, to The Black Car Fund’s Board,” said BCF Executive Chairman Berj Haroutunian. “The knowledge and experience that they bring to the Board is invaluable and will go a long way toward helping to guide The Black Car Fund into the future. We look forward to working with them to continue supporting our covered drivers.”
“I have known Bill and Andrea for many years, and I can say without a doubt that they are supremely qualified to serve on The Black Car Fund’s Board,” said BCF Executive Director Ira Goldstein. “They bring a wealth of experience, but just as importantly, they provide a valuable geographic diversity to this Board. Bill and Andrea are our first Upstate New York and Long Island-based Board members, respectively, and their election ensures that our Board represents all of New York.”
“After reviewing their resumes and qualifications, it was clear to me that Bill and Andrea would be extremely valuable additions to The Black Car Fund’s Board,” said The Black Car Assistance Corporation (BCAC) President Diana Clemente. “It’s no surprise that the rest of the BCAC felt the same and elected them unanimously. As an operator myself, I know first-hand how important the work that The Black Car Fund does truly is. With Bill and Andrea on board, I look forward to years of fruitful cooperation and contribution to the growth and success of The Fund.”
Visit nybcf.org for more information.
[06.10.22]
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Chauffeur-driven vehicles are the safest for-hire transportation in New York City, according to new research from global chauffeur service Blacklane. The company’s new report, “Which Ride Service is Safest?” provides a comprehensive look at crash data of the city’s five most common for-hire ride services from 2016-2021.
Blacklane CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Jens Wohltorf
“Chauffeurs are synonymous with professionalism, top quality, and attention to detail. Our research shows how those qualities translate into the safest rides,” said Blacklane CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Jens Wohltorf. “Chauffeurs’ defensive driving training and premium vehicles with high safety standards separate them from drivers of other ride services. We can quantify the difference in New York, and we are confident of the industry’s superior safety worldwide.”
Blacklane studied six years of data from New York City’s Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) across the most popular types for for-hire rides:
- Black Cars, whose trips were done by high-volume ride-hailing companies, including Uber and Lyft, 97 percent of the time.
- Liveries, pre-arranged service charging by a flat rate, time, or mileage.
- Luxury limousines, primarily rides from chauffeur companies in high-quality, late-model sedans and SUVs.
- Medallion taxis, more commonly known as yellow cabs.
- Street hail liveries, also known as green taxis.
The findings show that luxury limousines are:
- Least likely to result in injury in the event of a crash. Injuries could be to a passenger, driver, pedestrian, and/or cyclist.
- Least likely to be involved in a crash. For every 1 million miles with passengers, luxury limousines crashed 27.3 times. Other services crashed 29.1 to 66.1 times—up to 142 percent more often.
- Least likely to crash with a resulting injury. For every 1 million miles with passengers, luxury limousine crashes resulted in injuries only 3.8 times. Other services had injury-related crashes 6.1 to 15.7 times—63 to 317 percent more often.
“Kudos go to the New York City luxury limousine industry for its incredible safety record, which raises the bar for all for-hire passenger ground transportation services to help advance our Vision Zero goal,” said Matt Daus of Windels Marx “Hiring qualified and well-trained drivers, who operate the latest-model vehicles equipped with state-of-the-art crash avoidance technology, are key contributors identified in the Blacklane report, which helped make chauffeured rides some of the safest in town.”
The white paper can be downloaded here.
Visit blacklane.com for more information.
[06.10.22]
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- Category: Industry News
Starting June 12, the pre-travel requirement of a negative COVID test 24 hours prior to travel, regardless of vaccination status, is being lifted for international travelers coming to the US. This has been a hard-fought battle for airlines and travel associations that note that the test was an impediment to the travel sector’s continued recovery, especially when other countries had already lifted the requirement for receiving international visitors.
According to the US Travel Association (USTA), repeal of the testing requirement for all inbound air travelers is projected to add 5.4 million visitors to the US and $9 billion in travel spending through the remainder of 2022.
USTA President & CEO Roger Dow
“Today marks another huge step forward for the recovery of inbound air travel and the return of international travel to the United States. The Biden administration is to be commended for this action, which will welcome back visitors from around the world and accelerate the recovery of the US travel industry,” said USTA President & CEO Roger Dow. “International inbound travel is vitally important to businesses and workers across the country who have struggled to regain losses from this valuable sector. More than half of international travelers in a recent survey pointed to the pre-departure testing requirement as a major deterrent for inbound travel to the US.”
Like USTA, the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) has also been very vocal in its advocacy for overturning the testing requirement.
“GBTA heartily applauds the lifting of the US testing requirement, which has been a remaining key barrier impacting the return of travel. It is vital to global recovery that we continue to show that America is open for business and for business travel. Americans have been unwilling to take the chance of being unable to return to the US at the end of their business trip or vacation. This will also help to ensure we create an easy path forward for international travelers to return to the US for business, conferences, and meetings. We’ve made progress in returning to life and business and cannot afford to go backward,” said GBTA CEO Suzanne Neufang.
GBTA and USTA are among several associations that have met repeatedly with Biden administration officials over the past year on the issue.
Visit ustravel.org and gbta.org for more information.
[06.10.22]