Rolling on to the Future, in High Style

By Mark R. Smith, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

To local viewers who see ZBest Limousine Service's commercials on television that feature beauty shots from tony spots around Baltimore, the company appears to target the local market.
That's true. It does. But there's more to the story these days, given the Glen Burnie-based company's recently intensified foray into the international market. That sector now accounts for about 15% of the company's business, up from about 5% just two years ago.
Noting that the company's business has traditionally canvassed the area between Washington and New York, Vice President Mert Onal said that ZBest will "take them as far as their wallets will take them," with a laugh.
But to Onal, the higher concentration on international traffic is just part of preparing for a future, as ZBest has also just acquired its first hybrid vehicle.
Nedra Mathews, international affiliate director for ZBest Limousine subsidiary ZBest Executive Global Transportation, said the implementation of a service called Saturn has helped make the move to garner more international business a success.
The software program gives users easy access to a server that provides international exposure, in this case to similar transportation companies or event planners.
Mathews, who speaks fluent English and Spanish (with some German and Tagalog thrown in), also finds using Xing, a web site that connects users to a global business base, "a great tool for networking." She employs the site to moderate a discussion group and glean referrals from other countries. "Our page even has a green section," she said.
It is also helping ZBest's international marketing efforts that the U.S. dollar is weak today "and international travelers are getting more for their money than usual," Mathews said.

A Simple Matter
ZBest has been in business since 1993, but didn't start canvassing the international market until recent years, said Mert Onal. "This year, we've hit it up pretty heavily. That's a market we want to exploit."
The effort has gotten a major boost from the recent addition of Mathews. "Our decision to target the international market was behind our decision to hire Nedra," Onal said.
ZBest has affiliates in 450 domestic cities and the arrangement it has created to address its European marketing effort is similar. "We're simply expanding our affiliate base," Onal said. "If you're going to Germany, all you have to do is call and tell us to book a ride for you there at 6 p.m. on a given night. We book and charge everything from here in Glen Burnie, including the tip."
Onal's hope is to eventually market ZBest as a global transportation provider. We would like to eventually make it a third of our total business," he said, noting that the company annual revenues stand at about $4.5 million.

Green Movement
The rest of the news at ZBest is just as timely, as Onal said the company is, to the best of his knowledge, "the first limo company in the country to have a hybrid Chevy Tahoe SUV limo built for us."
The $120,000 vehicle holds 14 passengers and, on the occasions where that's not enough capacity, the company will soon be able to offer a 20-passenger hybrid GMC Yukon. It's being built now at a cost of $150,000.
Onal said the hybrids get about 19 miles per gallon, as opposed to 14 miles per gallon for the rest of the company's fleet.
"We would like to be all hybrid by 2012," he said, adding, "but we felt like we were a green company in the first place. In our industry, we assess gas consumption by miles per person. When we have 14 people in an SUV, that takes several other cars off of the road."
Those numbers multiply quickly when you consider that the company's fleet includes anywhere from 40 to 50 limos, sedans and buses. Costs to the customer range from $80 per hour (plus gratuity) for a basic 10-passenger Lincoln Town Car to $150 per hour for the hybrids to $195 per hour for exotic vehicles.
The American Urological Association of Linthicum has been using ZBest in recent years, said Helen Hahn, convention and meetings coordinator, typically for local transport.
"But we also have the 4th International Congress on the History of Urology coming up here in early November," said Hahn, and ZBest will be transporting 60 of our urologists from the Sheraton BWI to our headquarters and various points in downtown Baltimore.
"And now that they have the hybrid SUV," she said, "I'll look into using it when circumstances dictate."

Profit Promise
Canvassing the international market has been an industry trend "for the past five years in major cities," said Richard Kane, executive director of the National Limousine Association and owner of International Limousine Service in Washington, D.C., noting Carey Limousine in D.C. (which has about 1,000 vehicles) and Boston Coach in Boston as the two main players, "but I would say that it's a new trend in this area."
His company has been marketing internationally "for three years," Kane said, "and it's the fastest growing part of my business."
He said that early success is common for companies that look across the pond for business.
"When companies decide to brand themselves in the international market, it becomes their fastest growing revenue stream," Kane said. "My business is up 10% to 15% - and I have not had to add one vehicle to my fleet of 110 to reach that level." He said that the travel agencies require limo companies to offer international service "or they won't get the jobs. So many major limo companies have purchased the inexpensive software that allows firms like mine and ZBest to compete with the bigger operators in this sector," like Carey.
And that's still news to much of the public. "Normally, when you think of a limo company, you think of proms, weddings and special events," said Walt Townshend, president of the Baltimore Washington Corridor Chamber, "but ZBest has really taken the business to the next level.
Noting that Mathews and "other people in the company" are bilingual, Townshend took his observation a step further.
"Many of us fail to see the international applications of how we operate a business, and they've embraced them," he said. "The world is not just the Corridor."