Ground Transportation Podcast

2025 Year in Review: The Conversations Shaping Ground Transportation

• Ken Lucci and James Blain • Season 1 • Episode 66

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In this holiday year-in-review special, Ken Lucci and James Blain reflect on the conversations, guests, and industry moments that made this past year such a pivotal one for ground transportation.

From memorable origin stories and standout interviews to hard conversations about insurance pressure, safety expectations, and industry fragmentation, this episode captures the lessons operators can’t afford to ignore. The hosts revisit insights from across the podcast’s most impactful episodes, including reflections from major industry events and candid moments that reinforced why collaboration across transportation verticals is essential.

This episode is both a celebration of how far the podcast—and the industry—has come, and a thoughtful look at what must change for operators to thrive moving forward.

If you’ve followed the Ground Transportation Podcast this year, this is the perfect episode to reflect, reset, and look ahead.


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/

James Blain:

Yeah. Holiday special. Let's go. We will digitally paint in Ken's hat.

Ken Lucci:

Now it is the hair. I, I, you know, I don't do that. I don't do hats. Well, good afternoon everybody, and welcome to another exciting episode of the Ground Transportation Podcast. My name is Ken Luci and I am from Driving Transactions. We are a financial analysis and business valuation and MA advisory firm specializing in passenger transportation. I'm so pleased to be joined by my ables. Co-host James Blaine from P Training, who is a trainer extraordinaire of chauffeur and motor coach pilots in the industry. We're also blessed to have our producer, John Tieman, who is going to actively participate in this. He's behind the scenes on every one of these podcasts, keeping us honest and bleeping me out when I swear.

James Blain:

It is a full-time job, right.

Ken Lucci:

lot more than that. but he's gonna participate because we're gonna have a, our first look back show. We are going to look back at some of the highlights from the Ground Transportation podcast. So, John, take it away.

James Blain:

Yeah. Holiday special. Let's go.

John Tyreman:

It's the holiday special. This episode is coming out right on Christmas Eve, so we thought, hey, let's, let's dawn the Santa Hats and let's take a look back at some of the best e best moments of 2025. Maybe sip on some eggnog while we're at it.

James Blain:

We will digitally paint in Ken's hat.

Ken Lucci:

Now it is the hair. I, I, you know, I don't do that. I don't do hats.

John Tyreman:

Um, so, uh, f first of all, before we dive into some of the clips, I just wanna ask both of you like, is there a particular moment that maybe stands out to you from the podcast over the course of the last year?

James Blain:

Oh, Ken, you go first. You

Ken Lucci:

Well, I, I really enjoyed the, the episode we had with, uh, Dawson Rudder and Tammy Rudder from Commonwealth because he told his origin story, which I didn't know. Um, I also enjoyed the conversations we had with Brett Barron holds for the same reason. I mean, he told us his origin story and the fact that he, he was originally in finance, um, stocks and bonds. So I, I'd have to say those two, but there are so many. I mean, I enjoyed Matt Dawes. I mean, talking to Matt was fantastic. Uh, I don't wanna leave anybody out, but yeah, I think, I think those were the ones that, that were most memorable to me.

John Tyreman:

Okay.

James Blain:

I, I think for me, I had an aha moment. So I, I recently was elected onto the board of Greater California Livery Association, and, you know, we're, we're sitting there, we're, we're having a, a lunch before we go in and, you know, I was looking at the table and Tiffany Hinton was right across from me, right. Maurice Brewster was there. And,

Ken Lucci:

could I miss those two?

James Blain:

Yeah. And, and there's so many great people, but it's kind of like I've said on the, on the podcast before, like, you typically don't meet someone and go, yeah, hi, my name's James. I, I work with Pax. Here's the past 20 years of my life. Here's how I got in the industry. Here's my backstory. Here's what I do. Here's how I built my company. And so, you know, I think for me, and I hope the audience feels the same way, we get to meet people on a personal level. In a way that you don't typically do. And that was, that was for me. And, and one of my big things when we start these interviews, I always wanna start with a story. I always wanna understand where they are, what they do from where they came from. And I think for me, sitting in that room, seeing them, that was a huge deal. And I had this moment of, wow. You know,'cause I, and, and Ken, you probably feel the same way to me, it feels like we just started the podcast.

Ken Lucci:

It does.

James Blain:

feels like this is super brand new. And, and when I was there, I had this moment, I was like, oh, wow, you know, this new podcast. And then I realized we missed our one year anniversary. Like we didn't even realize we'd been doing this for a whole year. We didn't, we didn't have a one year anniversary because for us, we, we were still felt like we were getting to do it.

Ken Lucci:

Maya's time flown.

James Blain:

My god. I mean, it just, it just goes right. So, and, and

Ken Lucci:

Spending every minute with you goes by like seconds, James

James Blain:

So, so just so everyone's aware, Ken feels like we've been doing this 20, 30 years because I torture him. Just every episode Ken is just tortured by me, right?

Ken Lucci:

And to think that this, the highlight of my,

James Blain:

look, yeah. Like.

Ken Lucci:

highlight of my week.

James Blain:

Like you have no idea if we would've been recording Ken's face when I jumped on with this hat on, right? You would've thought, I mean, it was the look of like, this damn kid, right? This child. What, what am I gonna, but, but all joking aside, I think for us, one, I wanna thank everybody. Like we, we missed that one year anniversary. I wanna thank everybody that listens because I get people that come up to me and they tell me how much they love the podcast. They tell me how much they love the interviews. They tell me how much it means to them. So for me, I think probably if I had to pick a favorite moment, my favorite moment is every time someone comes up and talks to me about the podcast, because you know, I, I have days where I'm like, man, who would wanna listen to me? I can't believe people enjoy this. But it really means a lot to know that people are getting value and that all the work all the time, all the effort that John, that Ken, that myself, all of us kind of putting our heart and soul into this, that you guys really appreciate it. So that to me is probably my favorite.

Ken Lucci:

I don't even think I could count the number of people who have said that to me. I mean, I think it's in the hundreds that, and, and we've, and it certainly. Has helped us connect with new people who are interested in our service. But that's to me secondary. What's primary to me is when somebody walks up to us at a conference that says, you know, I am, I, I implemented what you talked about on the podcast, or, you know. The guests that you had on so and so. I really learned a lot from them and I've connected with them. So I think, I do think we're making a difference. I really think we're making a difference in the industry. The fact that we are partnering with chauffeur driven more on the surveys, on the data, um, I think we're doing a great service for the industry. Um, and yeah, I, I, I, we could not be more pleased with John. Is this gonna be his review by the way?

James Blain:

Yeah. Yeah.

Ken Lucci:

Is he getting a review? Is this his review?

James Blain:

Surprise. All right, so let's talk about your performance.

Ken Lucci:

No, because he's really the one that comes up with a lot of the ideas, the whole video clips I, uh, episodes.

James Blain:

hero

Ken Lucci:

Right. And he is a professional, he's a professional producer. And so it's, it's gone a lot easier. And let's just point out this soiree was James idea originally?

James Blain:

Oh God, I get blamed for everything.

Ken Lucci:

Right, but then it really, having John, having John involved, it's certainly taken it to a next level that, that I didn't anticipate

James Blain:

We, we, we couldn't have done it without John. And,

Ken Lucci:

no way.

James Blain:

I think one of the things that people don't realize is, you know, people think, oh yeah, you go, you record this podcast, it's great. You know, and I had a conversation with someone like, oh, it must be so easy. You go in, you record, uh, what they don't see. Yeah. All the work that goes behind, you know, the social media doing, you know, the editing and, and all of the bleeping of Ken and, no, I'm

Ken Lucci:

a full-time job.

John Tyreman:

Well, not only that, but the prep work on your end and knowing how to navigate the conversation and

Ken Lucci:

The questions we Right. And, and getting the people to agree to. Come on. We've, you know what? We've very, we've had a couple of scheduling glitches. Not many, but people have really wanted to be on the podcast, which says a, which says a lot. So let's get to the highlight

James Blain:

Yeah, let's

John Tyreman:

it.

Ken Lucci:

to the highlight reel.

John Tyreman:

And I, I love that you guys, many of the things that you brought up were moments that I planned to share with you, so I'm glad that you, that you brought some of those things up.

James Blain:

All in the same frequency, that same holiday frequency.

John Tyreman:

That's right. That's exactly right. So we're gonna do another screen share for us, and then for our audience, um, we'll, we'll bring in these clips. But this first clip that I wanted to share was from Ken's conversation with Matt Dawes.

Ken Lucci:

legendary Matt do.

John Tyreman:

This was episode 15 on

James Blain:

In the Sound studio, Les, what a boss.

John Tyreman:

So this was, um, Matt talking about the three business models of autonomous vehicles.

Matt Daus:

And these are sophisticated cars. When I got in them, I mean, they were going around in opposing traffic when someone was beeping and backing up into us. Like they are sophisticated. They, and you could, they have eyes behind their head and at every level, like octopi, I mean, basically you could see things that a driver can't see. They could things in the blind spots.

Ken Lucci:

And that'll be the argument. That,

Matt Daus:

the safety question has been answered. It is safer than a human driver. There's no question about it, but some vehicle technology is. Different and better than others. And we won't, you know, call names here, but, you know, the business models are also different. There are basically three business models. There's the robo taxi model, the Uberization, which is the Waymo cruise way now cruises out of the picture, Uber was smart to get out of doing it themselves and now being more like a platform. So their partnership with Waymo is where I think the future is going to be in the next five years is where they start cropping up in more and more cities. As using their own app waymo, but also as one of many ways to get around on the Uber app. And I think it's going to remain that way for a long time, but it is scaling and you will see it in New York. You will see it elsewhere. The mayor of New York wants this. I mean, he said that on his the night he was elected. There's more legislation and local rules that are very strict in New York City, so it's a lot of hurdles, but Waymo has the Uber type, you know, on demand model Zooks and Beef and you know, May Mobility, which has an accessible

Ken Lucci:

Yeah, Maymobility's up in Michigan, privately held at this point.

Matt Daus:

It's a very different business model. It's more shared mobility, multiple passengers. You're going to see those at airports retirement communities, college campuses. And it's going to be integrated into transit. Waymo, Waymo is really the only company left standing with Tesla has a different business model. That's the third business model. And I think there's a lot of confusion about where Elon is going to go with this. And I think, you know, to your point, we could talk about Elon for like an entire podcast.

Ken Lucci:

try to get them on, by the way, Matt. gonna be, you're gonna be on that episode when we get them.

Matt Daus:

We'll have to go. We'll just have to go down and hang outside the gate at Mar a Lago.

Ken Lucci:

Well, didn't that get, yeah, we be careful that.

James Blain:

Uh, has there been an episode that we didn't mention Elon? Like, I think we're, I think Elon's brought up on every episode that we've

Ken Lucci:

No, we have Elon Envy. There's no question about that, but, but let me tell you something. Getting Matt dos on the podcast to me was a milestone that we were onto something. Okay? Because

John Tyreman:

talk to him next week.

Ken Lucci:

we're gonna talk to him again next week, and he and I are doing a few more things together. But this guy is literally. The transportation regulatory expert and without question, the best transportation attorney in the country. So that was an an incredible episode, James. I noticed that you missed that episode.

James Blain:

it's all right. This is why we're bringing'em back. I will be there for that episode.

Ken Lucci:

Okay. All right,

John Tyreman:

And we will have to ask if his, uh, opinion on Elon Musk has changed.

Ken Lucci:

Agreed. Agreed.'cause there's a lot, a lot of things have

James Blain:

I, I don't know that we're gonna find Elon at Mar-a-Lago. We're gonna have to go hang out outside a different gate.

John Tyreman:

Yeah. This was recorded back when Doge was big,

Ken Lucci:

yeah, yeah. How quickly, how quickly they forget

James Blain:

The tables have turned.

John Tyreman:

All right, so this, uh, this next clip that, uh, I have is from after the CD NLA show in Vegas. Earlier this year.

Ken Lucci:

do we look tired or what?

John Tyreman:

did?

James Blain:

you can. You can feel the lack of energy through the screen, like just drained.

John Tyreman:

I think for me, and from my perspective, it was after that show and it was this moment. That I knew that we were onto something was because James, if you recall before the, the Vegas show, you had recorded like a, like a three minute bumper of like, Hey, if we see you at the show,

James Blain:

Our selfie challenge. Our selfie challenge.

John Tyreman:

selfie

James Blain:

Yeah. It was a big deal.

John Tyreman:

So let's, let's see how, um, what I'd love to do is show what your instant reaction to that was, and then let's, let's relive that a little bit.

Ken Lucci:

The people that you met on the floor, how was their attitude?

James Blain:

I think the attitude was great. You know, I, I can tell you big shout out to everyone that came to see us. Um, you know, I, I don't know that I've ever had that many people coming to see us. I think part of that is the podcast. I'm, I'm glad to say it sounds like everybody's enjoying it. I think the other side of that though is I think the show floor continues to grow year after year. I think the show continues to grow year after year. Um, I think the other thing and I'm gonna again, we're gonna take a little tangent. I had tons of people that actually took me up on my selfie challenge,

Ken Lucci:

Yeah. So did I, so did I.

James Blain:

but I will say, guys, you got to tag us. You know, you got the selfie. You've got it in your phone. You got to tag us. I would love to announce the winner today that we had, right? We were hoping to do that jointly. But we've, we've got all these selfies out in the wild that I don't know where they've ended up. Um, so post those,

Ken Lucci:

What is tagging the selfie? What is the process of tagging the selfie?

James Blain:

So there's a couple different ways that you can do it.

Ken Lucci:

Tell us technology

James Blain:

yes,

Ken Lucci:

Tell us Mr. Wizard.

James Blain:

the easiest way to do it is to make a post on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, um, now X, whatever your favorite social media is, and then just put the symbol and put ground transportation podcast. That's it. And then you just post

Ken Lucci:

whoa, whoa, whoa. You're telling me, you're telling me this whole thing about tagging. This is a revelation to me because it's not, it's not on a P and L or a balance sheet. You're telling me that I can post a picture. And then I can say the at symbol ground transportation podcast.

James Blain:

And, and you can, you can tag individuals that way. So the at symbol, you can put James, you can put Ken, you can put whoever you want and tag it that simple. Um, and then from that point, it's really easy. You, you've done it. You've tagged it. Then you can even go into the individual photo and you can actually tag people within the photos. So if you click on the photo, there's a little, it looks like a price tag up in the corner. Right. You click that tag and then you can click on the photo and tag people within the photo. Um, almost every platform's about the same. They all support kind of the at symbol. We are really, really easy because we have at ground transportation podcast on basically every platform. So

John Tyreman:

the.

James Blain:

so, so I think, I think that perfectly illustrates why we have to cover AI and technology so much on this podcast, because I remember there were so many people that were like, Hey, can I take a selfie? You know, and, and it was, it was almost humbling to me because I didn't think we'd have, uh, you know, lots and lots of people take us up on it. More people took us up on it than I expected. And all of these selfies still exist out there, and I don't know where they've gone

John Tyreman:

Well, here's a reminder. Yeah. Go

James Blain:

whole thing? Yeah, yeah, the whole thing. The whole thing was to tag, right. So that we'd know and we'd see the selfie. But I, I, I text so many selfies with people and then I'm like, where did they go?

John Tyreman:

Shout out to Paul Pastor Neck

James Blain:

He did.

John Tyreman:

he's the one who came the closest.

James Blain:

He, he did. Yeah.

John Tyreman:

So, um, I think, uh, I think now people are starting to tag us. I see men some mentions of ground transportation podcasts on social media channels. Um, and, and I see lots of comments from people, especially on LinkedIn. That seems to be the channel that most people are engaging with us on.

Ken Lucci:

Yes. Yes,

John Tyreman:

I'm curious Ken James, ahead of the uh, C-D-N-L-A show in Vegas in 26. Should we try the selfie challenge again?

Ken Lucci:

I think so. I do. I think so. I think, I think we should, and I think we better maybe give some instructions on properly tagging. Um, there's, there's no question based on the people that have talked to us and the people that mentioned the podcast that came up on two out of my four calls this morning. Um, people that I wouldn't think listen to the show, um. All the time. So yeah, I think we ought to do, we ought to try that one more time, but I am not, I am kind of shocked at how tired I, I look on that

James Blain:

We both look exhausted

Ken Lucci:

exactly, exactly. But I, nobody told me that. It looks like I'm in a hospital, uh, hospital bed with that big white chair. Anyway, that's, we don't have that chair anymore, so that's good.

John Tyreman:

That's

James Blain:

I will, I will tell you one thing, and, and I don't, I'm gonna put this out in the ether. I find if I put things out there that they sometimes come to fruition. I think one thing that I would love to do, and I, and I don't know which show is right forward or, or which, you know, which show to do it at, but I think that it would be really great. If we were able to do a live audience type episode to be

Ken Lucci:

I agree with that.

James Blain:

we're gonna do like a fireside type chat. So you've got Ken and I up there, you've got a guest up there, you know, and I think that'd be great if we could pull someone from outside the industry, you know, and we could say, Hey, you know, and maybe, you know, maybe one of the shows has a keynote speaker and after the keynote we can kind of pull them over. I think that for me would be not, I say it not because there's value in my world. Because I really feel like one of the hardest parts for me is when I go to these shows and I'm talking to these people, like I mentioned earlier, we're, we're looking into a camera right now. So to have the audience there, to have our listeners there, to be able to connect with everyone, to be able to make them kind of a part of what we're doing.

Ken Lucci:

we need to do a mixer. Maybe we need to look at it for 26. Look, the way the industry is changing, I think this is the year to do it now flat out. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna, John, record this flat out. I'm gonna do a call out to Elon Musk, okay? I will buy the most expensive Tesla that you make, and I will pay cash for it. If you come on the ground transportation podcast,

James Blain:

Ken, this guy builds rockets. You're gonna end up with a$10 million rocket in your backyard.

Ken Lucci:

okay. For,

James Blain:

The man builds rockets.

Ken Lucci:

fine. We'll

James Blain:

He's gonna Mars. NASA's not even gonna Mars except with like RC cars. He's taking people there.

Ken Lucci:

reissue the challenge.

James Blain:

He shot one into space.

Ken Lucci:

Elon Musk, I will buy the most expensive Tesla sedan. That you make, and I will pay cash for it if you come on this podcast and talk about your autonomous vehicles because we believe that you're gonna do fantastic things, but, uh, that are gonna impact our industry in great ways. But you, you, you are a man of the people. You know Joe Rogan, what does he talk about? And we're not smoking pot together, don't get me wrong,

James Blain:

If that's what it takes.

Ken Lucci:

James will smoke pot with

James Blain:

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I got the CDL. You don't have a CDL. I can't risk my CDL man. That's not legal yet.

Ken Lucci:

well

John Tyreman:

I've already volunteered to choke up with Elon if he comes on the show. So.

James Blain:

John will. John will do it. He'll even

Ken Lucci:

John, our produ, our producer, by the way, he'll probably wanna hire you away

James Blain:

By the way. He is not in a safety sensitive function, so as long as it's legal and the state, he records in we should be

Ken Lucci:

So John will toke up with you and I will buy the most expensive Tesla sedan. There'll be no moratorium on how long I keep it, and I will pay cash for it. If you come on this podcast, there's the challenge.

James Blain:

Yeah. And, and my challenge to myself is to figure out what Ken is doing to have that much cash on hand and start doing that.

John Tyreman:

Gotta get into financial services,

James Blain:

Uh, apparently. Yeah. Yeah. No, we, we we're doing it all wrong over here. I don't, I don't have that kind of cash.

John Tyreman:

All right, So I wanna share another clip, um, from earlier this year. Uh, this one is, uh, from our conversation with Eric. Cool Ball

James Blain:

And it starts with Ken Lucci doesn't wear shorts, so we know it's gonna be good.

Ken Lucci:

Eric Augh from Advantage Remarketing, one of my favorite people in this industry.

John Tyreman:

What I love about this clip, Ken, is you came in with some piss and vinegar and it was awesome, but then Eric claps back at you with the, and it was hilarious. This is probably my favorite moment from the show.

Ken Lucci:

But before we, we get into, uh, talking about advantage remarketing, I just want to say flat out, this is the only place in the chauffeur transportation industry that you can go for continuous education every single week. if you listen to the podcast, you'll pick up more tips in one hour on this podcast than you will, and for no money. You don't have to travel anywhere. You don't have to get a hotel room, you don't have to buy a conference ticket. So, uh, really, really happy to say we have had. Over 70,000 views of our shorts. Now I'm happy to introduce a very close friend of mine, uh, Eric Augh Advantage Remarketing.

Eric_Coolbaugh:

So it's my pleasure, Ken. Thanks for having me. And I can't believe 70,000. What

Ken Lucci:

70,000 downloads or views of our shorts, of our, our, our, our Facebook, uh, short videos.

James Blain:

And, and there you go. Let's clarify that. We don't mean like our literal shorts, right? Like the ones we're wearing, we mean like shorts on YouTube and whatnot. For the younger generation,

Ken Lucci:

Correct?

Eric_Coolbaugh:

you know Ken Lucci, he doesn't wear shorts.

Ken Lucci:

No,

James Blain:

had to go there. Had to go there.

Ken Lucci:

I rarely wear shorts

Eric_Coolbaugh:

I've, I've went to a sauna with him. Trust me. It's,

James Blain:

Oh.

Eric_Coolbaugh:

it's interesting.

Ken Lucci:

By the way, I don't know what the hell who got saddle

James Blain:

What did they say about this podcast to make you go that hard in the paint? Like Ken is, like Ken is selling it. Like his life depends on it. Like if you are not listening to this podcast, you have no life. You don't live under a rock, you are a rock. You're just, you're just dead weight. Like, my God,

John Tyreman:

By the way, the, the, I just wanna update the numbers. We've got over 170,000 views of our shorts,

James Blain:

Yeah. Yeah. People like our shorts.

John Tyreman:

in over 17,000 plays on our podcast since we launched. So we've grown a bit since then.

Ken Lucci:

170,000.

John Tyreman:

Yeah, across LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook.

James Blain:

wow. They like us. They really like us.

Ken Lucci:

Maybe I should rant more.

John Tyreman:

Step on a soapbox. Ken. Hey, is there, is there anybody that's gotten under your skin recently? Here's your

James Blain:

so, so before we do that, after that opening, did our views go up or down? We need to know. We need to be sure we're doing the right thing here. Did they go up or did they go

Ken Lucci:

Well, we obviously have gotten some attention based on the partnerships that we've created and the

James Blain:

Oh, absolutely.

Ken Lucci:

the fact that we've gotten some unbelievable guests, so maybe, maybe me tilting at the windmills really did work.

James Blain:

I think Ken, you just hit on something. I think, I think we'd be remiss if we didn't say thank you to all the guests, because I think that has been one of the biggest things for us and, and at least it's one of my favorite parts, is having these guests, having people from the industry on having, you know, all of these people that are willing to share their knowledge. And you know, nobody ever abuses the platform either. It's not like they come out here and they're like, they give a sales pitch. I mean, it's genuinely solid, valuable, good information.

Ken Lucci:

And, and, and I love the format because it's extremely conversational, and to me it's almost like the only thing missing is we're sitting on a, we're not sitting on a bar stool having a beer and. They're sharing a lot. Uh, a lot of the guests have shared things that I never thought they would, and it's been extremely, extremely productive.

James Blain:

Well, and, and that's like Mo, right? Mo shared all his big things. Right? As soon as that next big one comes out, we gotta have him back on and, and to be that forthcoming and to share, you know, a lot of these guys have shared their secret sauce. I mean, it's, it's a big

Ken Lucci:

and, and because they're secure in their success and they know that, and they know, like in Maurice's case, it can't be duplicated. Maurice is a huge part of the secret sauce. Secret sauce. Tiffany Hinton is a huge part of that secret sauce. Um, all right. What else do we have, John? I hope it's no more rants.

John Tyreman:

I wanna play a short clip from Charlie Horkey who teased his book on the podcast earlier this year. And then recently, uh, he came on with James and, and talked about the book release.

Ken Lucci:

living Legend. Talk about a guy that you can learn a lot from.

James Blain:

Well, and you talked about being secure in your success. One of the things, in my opinion that makes Charlie Horkey extraordinarily special is he's secure in his success and he learned from his failures.

Ken Lucci:

Oh, Phoenix from the Ashes Complete Phoenix from the ashes.

James Blain:

I, I went to dinner with him the last time I was in Vegas and we had a blast and Charlie's one of those guys, he'll share what he got right? He'll share what he got wrong. He'll share how he learned. He'll share where he is going, but he's one of those people that doesn't try. There's a lot of people that try to pretend that the failures or the issues or, you know, the problems never happen. Charlie owns them. Charlie laughs at'em in some cases

Ken Lucci:

lived through them. He's a stronger, he's a stronger man because of

James Blain:

a hundred percent.

Ken Lucci:

Play that clip. How big were you when the year that you ended up selling, how big was the business from a revenue perspective? Do you remember?

Charlie Horky:

yeah, it's 65, 70 million.

James Blain:

Wow.

Ken Lucci:

Phenomenal. So what was the secret? To go from fricking one car, you know, which would be two maybe back in the day would be a hundred thousand dollars a year in revenue. How do you go from 100,000 a year in revenue to 65 million?

Charlie Horky:

you're gonna have to read the book.

James Blain:

guys, If you're, if you're on YouTube, we'll pop it up on the screen or, or we'll drop it in the, show notes,

Ken Lucci:

Okay, so you gotta look at this Unbreakable path. Charlie Horkey. A story of loss, resilience, and the pursuit of greatness.

James Blain:

so give us the teaser for it, Charlie. Right. Because,'cause now that Ken has done that, I know I, I'm hanging on the edge of my seat

Charlie Horky:

I thought I had a story to tell and, and, um, and, and so I wrote it when I was away. And, uh, in the last seven years since I've been out, um, I, uh, I've learned that good stories are a dime a dozen. And that, uh, it's a one in a million shot to make a movie. And, um, you know, and, and the hung it was horrifying to me was that it's somebody else's version of your life. Like, you know, it's a screenwriter and we did pay for a screenwriter to write this, and he did now, like, it was spooky. It was, it was scary. I, I just, you know, and a, a, a really important client of mine said to me, you know, Charlie, these things last forever. Like, you know, is this, is, is this really how you wanna be represented, you know, Legacy. Yeah. Whatever that

Ken Lucci:

got, you've got an incredible story in the industry, and I don't think people realize because based on who's in the industry now. A lot of your contemporaries are long gone.

Charlie Horky:

yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, you know, what it converted to, I don't want to, you know, take off all your time about that book, but, um, was that I. I'd spent all this time doing it, and someone turned me on to Game Changer Publishing. And what I liked about them was that I thought I needed to tell the story better. And the way they do it is they record your book, so you speak it. So it took me like a week of like two hours a day to like be recorded. And then it's been a amount of editing. But what they do is, is what they did with what they did with this book, and it's not a bad idea, was that I was looking for a side hustle. The only reason I was interested in this book was a side hustle to maybe get us to become a speaker. I mean, I'm pretty sure I could get a gig,

Ken Lucci:

A hundred percent. 100%.

Charlie Horky:

you know, so the book was wrote more as a motivational piece, you know, get too close to the sun, you're gonna get burned. You know? Um, it, it, it is certainly the, the story from the time I was born until probably right about the time when I got out, you know? Um, but it's not in gory detail. It's not salacious, you know, I'm not saying, I mean, I mentioned people that are famous, but, but, but only because I. I was around them. Not, not because I was in any intimate settings with any of them,

James Blain:

They're, they're part of the story, right? They're part of the life. They're part of understanding it.

Charlie Horky:

right. Yeah, exactly.

Ken Lucci:

so let's back up a

Charlie Horky:

You, you might like him. I mean, you know.

Ken Lucci:

Trust me, I'm gonna love it.

James Blain:

Yeah. I'm definitely getting a copy of

Ken Lucci:

look, I, I, I honestly don't read nonfiction. I read business books and I read biographies because I believe that you can get, there's so much message with people's life's experiences. I frankly think that there's all the messages you need to live your life in the world. And it's, I, I don't know that the word to me, I don't believe that there's mistakes. You and I have had that conversation privately about things that change you, and frankly, that's gonna be our next podcast together because I wanna read the book first. But, you know, there's few things that we, you and I could, we could divulge

Charlie Horky:

Yeah. It, it, I think that, you know, I, I don't really know how to tell. That, that, that personal story. I mean, it comes to me more and more and, you know, I, I think I'm living it, you know, I'm, I'm in a better place, uh,

Ken Lucci:

No question. You're a phoenix. You're in, wait a minute, you're in Vegas, but you're a phoenix. You've literally risen. There's not too many people who have a successful second act the way you have no question about it. And it's because people be, because people believe the most important people from that period believed in you, believed in you.

John Tyreman:

So that was, that was Charlie Horkey from, uh, from earlier this year. And so next, um, I, I worked at a branding agency for about seven years and one of the biggest signals of that you have a strong brand is what your colleagues say about you when you're not. And so this next clip was essentially a four minute commercial for Pax training,

James Blain:

Which I was not even involved in,

John Tyreman:

James wasn't even involved in with Tim and Mike Rose on. Um, a Thorn between Two Roses was the name

Ken Lucci:

that happened to be probably in the top three episodes. And, and because I love those guys and they're both, we're very, very blessed to have them as clients and colleagues and, um, yeah. So that was a great episode.

James Blain:

Well, and talk about guys that give back. Right? I, I will tell you, I mean, so, so one, I am very lucky to have them as clients and advocates. But Mike and Tim are both, get it done guys. Right?

Ken Lucci:

oh, it's in the DNA.

James Blain:

they're very

Ken Lucci:

the DNA.

James Blain:

They're very active. I mean, if, and the other thing is they're the types of guys that if you say, Hey, I need help, they're not gonna give you some piddly, horrible advice. They're gonna tell you what they need to, what you need to do, and how you need to get there and what their experience is. And I have nothing but respect for both those guys. Plus they're, they're. Serious. But they're fun to be around.

Ken Lucci:

Uh, absolutely.

James Blain:

it done, but they don't just, you know, work isn't the only thing in their life, you know? Um, you've got Mike Mike's part of the fire department, right? He's a fire chief. I mean, there, he's giving back to the community. Same thing, you know, with Tim. Tim's actively involved. Tim went when they had the human trafficking issue and they were able to save somebody. I don't know if that ever came up with a podcast, right? You know, we worked with Tim and when we started doing human trafficking courses, they adopted it. They trained all their drivers, and what happens, one of the dolphin drivers is off work at a diner and literally he sees this gal with this guy and all the boxes get checked. He calls it in. They come in, this guy had come hiding offshore, came in to traffic. This woman, he called it in, did everything he was supposed to do. They saved this woman's life and they literally, they've got a human trafficker that now is hopefully gonna get behind bars. So you wanna talk about two guys to get it done? I mean, they're incredible. They're absolutely incredible.

Ken Lucci:

So the clip is from a thorn between two roses.

James Blain:

Who was, who was the thorn? I didn't make it to that one. Was that, was that you, John?

Ken Lucci:

No, that

John Tyreman:

It wasn't me.

James Blain:

Now. Now if I remember, I can't even name that one.

John Tyreman:

Oh, it was brilliant. I.

James Blain:

Oh, that was, that's such a classic name.

The Nice Brothers:

So, The tools are there. We have to adopt the the whole goal is you're trying to avoid the big one. As you mentioned. You were, you were distracted and looking at that in your vehicle, right? what we do is train. Okay. And James, I'm sorry you're not here today. We miss you too, because you do great work. Okay. Great work. James. Did I mention

Ken Lucci:

James, Blaine. James Blaine from PS Training does fantastic work.

The Nice Brothers:

does fantastic work. my Director of Safety and Compliance, Mike Davis swears by him and, uh, so many of our, fellow affiliates do, and, you know, our, fellow Hoffman companies as well. And the whole goal is about, avoiding the, uh, the big one. and as Mike mentioned, the new technology is now so much better. Every time that they come out with something, I then turn around and I torture Mike Davis, who works for us, and I say, Hey, Mike, look at this new feature that, you know, it says, please slow down when you get to a certain mile per hour. Or it says, you know, please wear your seat belts when you get in the car. It's, it's muscle memory as Mike's said. And, and there ways to avoid that. And, uh, it's really all we can do to try to, you know, ingrain upon them that the safety, uh, is, is very, very important. and insurance is what keeps us in business.

Ken Lucci:

Well, and, you know, I'll just give a shout out. I, I, I talk a lot to Tim Delaney. I talk a lot to the guys from research underwriter, Steve Freeberg and Andrew Don, and. Uh, they lament the fact that a lot of operators still think, well, you are going up on me and your price. These guys have no choice. There's no one clamoring to get into the commercial fleet insurance business, uh, last three years in a row for every a hundred dollars they've taken in the industry has collectively lost$104. It's not a sustainable business model. from a standpoint of, you know, you bring up PACS training, which I think is another, way to create a culture of safety. And James and I lament a lot about what we do, and someone will look at our product, our, our course, or our services, our financial, uh, review and profit improvement service. And they're like, that's pretty expensive. And I'm like, basically, we guarantee to improve your profits in James Case. To me that program is, it should have been, I wish it was around 20 years ago when I was an operator, but that program is a game changer for your operation. It tells your, your chauffeur department or your chauffeur's, individual chauffeurs that you are serious about a customer service, superior customer service, and maximum safety. I don't know why. Operators, again, they consider it an expense. Okay. When James can demonstrate, not that this is a commercial forum, but he can demonstrate the change in behavior when you implement all of the strategies that he has.

The Nice Brothers:

question

Ken Lucci:

it, is it the operators that perhaps are just, you know, they're in their own echo chamber. They've been doing this for so long. I haven't needed it up till now. What is it?

The Nice Brothers:

So, so I, I, you know, if you go back 20 years to Tommy MA's training videos

Ken Lucci:

God bless

The Nice Brothers:

and, you look at where it's come and, and now it's, you know, the PACS training program, which, you know, Bruce and James have built. So it went from, you know, how to be a chauffeur to how to be a safe chauffeur. And that's what it's about. It's. Provides that safety culture for your new employees. And I could tell you from a my limo perspective, after we implemented, you know, pax, we saw immediate, immediate improvement in service delivery, safety, quantifiable increases in survey scores across the board. So it was a fantastic, yeah. So you have to live it. It's, again, safety culture is, is something that, you know, is across the board in your company and you have to live it. But, for folks that don't adopt these platforms, whether it's James' or someone else's, you have to talk to other operators, see what they're doing, and talk to people that, that, you know, have adopted and say, you know, where have you seen the return on investment?

John Tyreman:

Alright, so, uh, our next clip that we have was actually from a recent episode that we did. Where James, you had been on the road for, I think it was like four or five weeks straight

James Blain:

I've been on the road like every month this year. It's insane.

John Tyreman:

yeah, it, it was right after the, uh, fall show for the CD and LA

James Blain:

Oh, is this the big epiphany?

John Tyreman:

in Dallas. And this was your, your big epiphany. So here comes James'. Aha. Moment.

James Blain:

we were there for NLA, we went and we saw all the representatives. Literally the very next day after being there with representatives, I was now going with TTA to see representatives. And for NLA we were asking for an insurance task force. And we got, ironically enough, right? Sharice Davids, I believe she's House of Representatives, democratic Party, state of Kansas. Don't quote me on that, I'm just going off top of my head. But her head of office, had been there for a long time. And he told me, he said, I'm gonna give it to you straight. You're asking me for a task force. Okay, what does that look like? How does it work? What does it do? You want an insurance task force? This is not even my problem. This is a state issue. The thought to me was, all right, so we've got a state issue, so we have a very easy way for them to kick it down. It wasn't collaborated and in a short span of time, I wasn't able to go with UMA, but UMA was there too. So we had TTA, NLA, UMA, so you have the motor coach operations, NEMT, taxi and Paratransit, and some smaller school bus, and the limo associations all converging, all asking for the same thing. At a roundabout way, what happens when we say, Hey? We've all come together as an industry. This is the shared problem. This is what we want a task force to look like. Here's a blueprint for it. We'd like you to endorse it. The whole game changes. Now let me be abundantly clear. Cornerstone did an incredible job and putting stuff together for us. TTA's side did an incredible job putting stuff together for them. But it's grown to a point where. We as an industry, have this opportunity to come together And say, these are the main issues. We're not gonna agree on all of'em. We're not gonna want the same thing on all of them. But if we become that squeaky wheel that gets the grease, and we're able to pool resources and time and money to do that, guys, there's a reason that the Amish can build a whole barn so quickly

Ken Lucci:

do we need them on the task force?

James Blain:

So look, here's the thing. For me, that aha moment was huge, and I'm at a point where I've been traveling every single month, right? We expect travel to increase, not decrease next year. Um, but I think for me, what what that came from is all of these different verticals, all these different associations, everybody's facing the same problem. And if everybody tries to reinvent the wheel

Ken Lucci:

On their own,

James Blain:

on their own right, we talked about, I, what's your favorite saying about the islands, Ken?

Ken Lucci:

Yep. Yep.

James Blain:

If you're, if you're, if you're an island, those are the most backwards companies we deal with. That's one of Ken's favorite things to say, and I love that because here's the thing, if as the passenger ground transportation industry. We don't come together, right? And we talk about the industry, we talk about the black car industry, we talk about the bus industry. We talk about NEMT, you talk about school bus, we talk about, but really those are, those are just verticals. Those are just segments. It's the ground transportation industry, right? The passenger ground transportation industry. And I a hundred percent believe that the better we can get about working together. The better we're gonna be. And I stand 120% behind that statement. I'm at all the different shows. It's not uncommon if I'm on the, I was on the bus industry safety Council call, you know, not too long ago, and they were like, Hey, uh, about the chauffeur side, and I'm happy to chime in, you know, if I am on the, I remember I was at, I was in California, I was doing an association out there. Hey, what about the bus side? I'm happy to try and bring those pieces in and try to be that bridge because the. Bigger we are in terms of working together as the industry, the more we're gonna get done and the more we're gonna solve.

Ken Lucci:

And it came crystal clear to me when, at the day on the hill for the chauffeur side, I was in town for that. And what, three days later you were in town for the motor coach guys,

James Blain:

no, I was there for tt, I missed Motor Coach this year,

Ken Lucci:

So you were there for TTA

James Blain:

TTA was the day after,

Ken Lucci:

the day after, and then the motor coach guys came into town.

James Blain:

Yeah. I can't remember if they were, um, I, I can't remember if they were the beginning of that month or the end of that month, but like within a month, you're all three of them.

Ken Lucci:

and Matt, that is probably your epiphany moment is definitely something we need to do something about because it, it, there's no question that if we can. Advance it and make it come to fruition. It could be a game changer. This morning, I was on the phone with an operator who's beside himself. He's a$1.8 million operator whose insurance just went up to$20,000 a month on 12 vehicles. Now, he didn't have a fatality, but he had a couple of issues. Obviously 240,000 on 1.8 million. Is just not su sustainable. And I, I said that to him and you know, he is got a few other debt issues that we have to try to help him with. But I said at the end of the day that funda, this has fundamentally changed your business because that should be more like 120,000, or even 90,000. And it's, it's definitely you. You can't sustain it. So this is a guy who's been in the business 25 years. So your epiphany moment is something that I think we need to build on, and I blame you if it doesn't happen.

James Blain:

Look, look, I, I think we're gonna get there. I have made it a very big point this year. You know, we announced our, our partnership with Lancer. I've got some exciting announcements coming with some other insurance companies that we're partnering with. I think the biggest thing, and this is really important, is that we have gotta double down as an industry. And when I say double down, I mean double down on doing it right. Double down on making sure that we're. Working with the regulators, we're working with people to get rid of the gypsy operators. We're working to get these things done because there's so many pieces that affect us all, and a lot of times it becomes very easy to just operationally put gliders on. I'm just gonna focus on me, I'm gonna focus on what I'm doing. And I think for me, the travel opened that up. And I think it might not happen tomorrow. It might not happen in January. We might not get it done in 2026, but this is something that even if the insurance crisis was solved tomorrow, this is how we get ready for and we're ahead of the next issue. Just because we solved the insurance crisis, just because we figured this out doesn't mean we don't all do that. If we're all working together as the passenger ground transportation industry and we're all coordinating on issues, they're gonna get solved 10 times faster, and we're gonna have 10 times better answers.

Ken Lucci:

A hundred percent great advice and I think that's a great place to to end for the day. It's been an exciting day. I am sorry I don't have my holiday hat on, but I'm with you in

James Blain:

We, we will see gi it on. You've been wearing it the whole time. You didn't even know it.

John Tyreman:

Yep. And that concludes our best of 2025 episode for the Ground Transportation Podcast. If you've made it this far into the episode, please follow the show on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. And leave us a rating. Leave us a review. That really helps us to grow the show. So thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you next Wednesday on the Ground Transportation Podcast.

James Blain:

Happy New Year.

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James Blain

Co-host
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Kenneth Lucci

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