50TH 8Pager LImo Issue - A-1 LimousineCOMPANY PROFILE / A-1 Limousine A-1 LIMOUSINE began with humble begin-nings on March 1, 1964, with just four taxi cabs and two limousines in the

32 | LIMO DIGEST | APRIL 2014

COMPANY PROFILE / A-1 Limousine

IN ADDITION TO diversifying their fleet,the Starrs have also prioritized innova-tion as a means to keep the companymodernized and competitive. For sometime now, A-1 has partnered withCarbonFund.org, one of the largestU.S.-based carbon offsetting companies,to create the Ride Silver Program. It isan optional program that essentially off-sets the carbon used on a client’s trip,rendering the entire trip carbon neutral.According to Jeff, more than 50 percentof their customers are now opting toparticipate in the Ride Silver Program.One of the other ways A-1 Limo is tak-ing a “green initiative” is with itsgarage’s heating system. “It’s beenabout eight years now,” says Jeff, “thatour garage has been heated by waste oil,so it significantly cuts down the cost ofheating by utilizing the waste oil thatcomes out of our vehicles.”

Such creative innovations really indi-cate that we have entered a new era of the

luxury ground transportation industry,and it is clear that the Starrs are mark-ing A-1 Limousine’s milestone 50thanniversary by demonstrating that theyplan on continuing to be leaders in thisnew era. With five decades of industrymileage comes a proportionate amount ofknow-how and grit, and with the compa-ny’s second generation of family leader-ship now taking the reins, A-1Limousine is poised to remain a fiercelocal and global competitor in the indus-try.

“I think the biggest challenge is thatthe east coast of the United States isprobably the busiest as far as limou-sines, sedans and buses go,” says Jeff.“There’s a tremendous amount of com-petition, so you’ve always got to be onyour feet, ready to compete.”

You can learn more about A-1Limousine at www.a1limo.com, and youcan wish them a happy 50th anniver-sary on Twitter @A1_Limo.

[TOP] A-1 Limousine’s Princeton headquarters.[RIGHT] Michael Starr supervises

a new delivery of vehicles.

Reprinted with permission of LimoDigest

A-1 Limousine Complimentary Copy

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800 367- 0070 Ext 2050Reprinted with permission of LimoDigest



LIFE ONTHE A-LIST

The Starr Family Business Reaches its 50-Year Milestone

by Adam Leitenberger

ast month marked A-1Limousine’s 50th yearin the ground trans-portation business, and

the company’s father-son leader-ship team sure has a lot to cele-brate. Theirs is a half century-long story of resilience and inno-vation, during which their com-pany came to be a householdname within the industry, andone of the top limousine servicesin the United States. Like anygood success story, the saga ofthe Starr family business comeswith some bumps in the road.

L

APRIL 2014 | LIMO DIGEST | 31

A-1 Limousine / COMPANY PROFILE

A-1 LIMOUSINE DEMONSTRATES that you can’t stay on topwithout giving back. A-1 is a proud and active memberof the LANJ, the PRLA, the NLA, the American BusAssociation. The company is also an active participantin many other travel-oriented associations related to itsclient base. The advantages of participating in industryassociations, according to President and COO JeffStarr, benefit everyone involved. “By being a part ofthese organizations,” he says, “you’re part of helpingthe industry self regulate, but when the governmentdoes need to be involved, you’ve got greater influence.It’s a good thing to do because it promotes our industryin a positive light to governments, so we don’t becomeover-regulated because they think we don’t care.”

In addition to its association involvement, A-1 Limo alsoworks with a variety of charitable organizations, bothlocal and national, including the American DiabetesAssociation, the Ronald McDonald House, and theEden Institute, a local educational facility for childrenwith autism.

Going ForwardBy Giving Back

caught us and everybody else offguard. So we’re now just starting togrow again, and hopefully there’snothing around the corner that willhit us in the head again. We have totry to climb back to, and hopefullysurpass, where we were before therecession.”

IN LIGHT OF THE PAST DECADE’S ECONOMIC CLIMATE, the Starrs havehad to rethink the company’s strate-gies and goals. “The short termgoal,” says Jeff, “is obviouslygrowth, rebuilding and continuingto improve. Long term goals are todiversify our services to make us alittle more recession proof.”

“We have branched out and diver-sified,” says Michael, “but the meatof the business is still the airport.I’d say that’s probably more than50 percent of the business.”Although A-1 Limo continues to doa tremendous amount of corporateservice, the team takes pride in theirability to “move large groups of peo-ple very efficiently and effectively”with their substantial bus fleet,which includes 22 full-size buses(56-passenger, 47-passenger, and36-passenger), 16 vans and a num-ber of shuttle buses. “For one of ourclients,” Michael recalls, “we movedover 7,000 people into and out of anevent within a four hour period oftime. We moved them in within ahalf an hour window, and then hadeverybody on the vehicles and out ofthe event in an hour. One of thelargest moves we did was puttingtogether a camp shuttle systemevent, and during the course of theevent, we moved over 34,000 peoplein the course of four days.”

About A-1

Worldwide A-1 Limousine has grown from its humble beginningswith 4 cars into a diversified fleet of over 220 vehicles with 350 employees to satisfy all your groundtransportation needs.

FOUNDED: 1964LOCATION: Princeton, NJVEHICLES: Sedans, SUVs, Vans,Limousines, Shuttle Buses,Motorcoaches & Limo BusesSTAFF: Over 350 employeesPHONE: (800) 367-0070WEB: www.a1limo.com



A-1 LIMOUSINE began with humble begin-nings on March 1, 1964, with just fourtaxi cabs and two limousines in the uni-versity town of Princeton, New Jersey.Technically, the company has historicalroots from around the turn of the 19thcentury, when it was a horse and buggytaxi service owned by Joseph E. Nuttand Son. Michael Starr and his wife,Marilyn, would eventually acquire andrename the business, and ever since, A-1 Limousine has been entirely ownedand operated by the Starr family.Michael currently serves as the compa-ny’s CEO, and his son, Jeffrey, whojoined the company in 1985, has servedas president and COO since 2004.

Local regulations would be one of thefirst obstacles the company wouldencounter in its early years, but byadapting to overcome this initial chal-lenge, the company was set on course tobecome the global limousine service it istoday. “In Princeton,” Michael recalls,“you couldn’t expand a taxi cab business.There have been 28 licenses since theystarted with taxi cab regulations, so youcouldn’t add any unless you boughtsomebody out.” Because A-1 was alreadymore of a limousine and sedan businessat this early point in its history, the com-pany made its final exit from the taxi cabindustry in 1971. “We moved out toRoute 1 in West Windsor Township, andthat’s where we’ve been ever since,” saysMichael. The company has also sinceseen the addition of an independent andfully operational second location inWhitehall Township, a suburb ofAllentown, Pennsylvania, with its owndispatch and maintenance centers.

Also in that game-changing year of1971, A-1 Limousine first adopted itsofficial tagline, “For People Going

Places,” which continues to define thecompany’s brand identity and missionto this day. Although they could nothave foreseen it back in the 1970s, thisslogan would later come to be utilized asthe official name of A-1 Limousine’sworldwide affiliate network, as well asits associated global travel informationwebsite.

“We have two different programs thatwork off of FPGP.com,” says Jeff, “thetravel information website and our affil-iate network.” The website functionsessentially as a hub for clients seekingworldwide ground transportation andinternational travel information.

The affiliate networkhas flourished into a largebut exclusive globalorganization of carefullyselected partners. “We usefully qualified services,”Jeffrey explains, “so inorder to be a part of ournetwork, they need toapply, and they need toprovide us with informa-tion regarding vehicletypes, the age of theirvehicles, driver trainingprograms, insurance,licensing, and things likethat.” In addition to carefully screeningthe fleets and operations of potentialaffiliates, A-1 Limousine also ensuresthat their affiliate partners prioritizesafety and service. “Regardless of wherethey are in the world, we verify that theyhave what is required to be legal foroperations in that part of the world. Wealso enforce quality control for each ofthose companies to make sure theyresolve any issues with clients, and if

Also in that game-changing year of1971, A-1 Limousinefirst adopted its official tagline, “ForPeople Going Places,”which continues todefine the company’sbrand identity andmission to this day.



they don’t, then they’re not part of thenetwork anymore.”

FPGP.COM IS ALSO THE HOME of an inter-active blog, on which clients, partnersand travelers can share their travel expe-riences or insight into a particular loca-tion. Additionally, it is home to theFPGP Travel Blog, a brand new market-ing initiative that just debuted lastmonth. A member of A-1 Limousine’sin-house marketing staff, RachelBranstrom, was recently announced asFPGP.com’s designated travel blogger,and her focus in that role will be simply“writing great stories about interestinglocations.” You can read Rachel’s inau-gural post about traveling to Sault Ste.Marie, Michigan, on the FPGP TravelBlog (www.fpgp.com/fpgp-travel-blog/).

“We’re always doing different types ofmarketing,” says Jeffrey, and in conjunc-tion with their recent addition of a staffblogger, the marketing department at A-

1 Limo has big plans to ramp up theirsocial media content in the comingmonths. “We’re on social networks, butit’s a limited amount of content we’reputting on there, so we’re looking tobring someone on full time to managethose outlets.”

FPGP.com and the slogan thatinspired it are emblematic of A-1 Limo’sability to balance timeless business val-ues and familial tradition, with theadaptability and innovation required ofa company that plans on staying in busi-ness for as long as this one has. On thatnote, while changes in operations andfleet composition are necessary for sur-vival in this business, some things, likeA-1 Limo’s company culture and corevalues, never change—nor should they.

“The culture here can be described inone word,” says Jeff, “and that’s ‘family.’My parents started the company, I’vebeen here since 1985, and two of mychildren work here part time while going

Michael Starr (left) and his son Jeffreypose in front of their diverse fleet.





to school. Within our organization, wehave several father/child andhusband/wife teams that work for us. Wejust have a very family-oriented compa-ny and mentality. The company wasstarted as a family business, and eventhough we have over 300 employees, it’sstill treated as a family business. Welook at our employees as part of ourextended family. All of our drivers areemployees, and the company owns andmaintains all of the equipment. Wedon’t use any owner/operators or inde-pendent contractors, and we haven’tused any since the company started.”

It is presumably this consistent “fam-ily-oriented mentality” that enabled theStarrs and their extended A-1 Limofamily to overcome the most dauntingchallenges they have had to face in theircompany’s 50 year history: the unavoid-able setbacks, shared by many compa-nies, stemming from the challenging

economic conditions we have seen sincethe early 2000s.

“Before the recession,” says Michael,“we had over 300 vehicles. Now we’re atabout 230 vehicles cur-rently.” The economicdownturn forced A-1Limo, like countlessother businesses, to cutback. In addition tohaving a much largerfleet, leading up to2001 the company alsohad 350 full timeemployees and 200 parttime employees. Pre-2001, Michael recallsbusiness reachingheights upwards of 600jobs per day. Post-2001, business had dropped to lows offive jobs per day. “It was a tremendousimpact, like it was for everybody in thisarea. Then the other two recessions

While changes in operations and fleetcomposition are necessary for survivalin this business, some things, like A-1 Limo’s company culture and core val-ues, never change—nor should they.

Documents

50TH 8Pager LImo Issue - A-1 LimousineCOMPANY PROFILE / A-1 Limousine A-1 LIMOUSINE began with humble begin-nings on March 1, 1964, with just four taxi cabs and two limousines in the