Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jonathan Westall. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

JONATHAN, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

Insurance costs remain uncheck. Insurance in the transportation industry is a single option marketplace with no caps on price or run rate affordability. Even with no incidents or claims it is not uncommon for policies to incur increases north of 10% per year. In addition the mandated requirements of multimillion dollar limits on both a large bus or SUV or even for hire sedan don’t make much sense as the liability and podetial for issue is much different. This is effectively putting operators out of business, or forcing them to create separate companies to mange each vehicle type.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have always been a builder… restlessly honing in on process improvement. I saw how inefficiently charter buses were being run in our local market and decided I didn’t want to play like that any more. I wanted it to be astable job for my drivers, where laws and regulations were followed. In addition they can count on paycheck and consistent work. On the customer side I wanted them to confidently know if they boo ka bus… that bus will show up…. its not a scam or hustle. We do what we say were going to do.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses.

I have, in my tour company days I bought a competitor. They had a similar operation as I did, but with horrible reviews, ratings, and the overall thought that they were a scam. But I saw they had some pretty lucrative contracts. So that made them attractive…. biggest learning lesson, check for UCC LIENS!!! I had no idea what those were and after acquiring the business realized the previous owner had taken monstrous loans out against the business and defaulted. I found out about them after purchase, but likely hadn’t paid out the full purchase price yet. I was able to settle all debts for the previous owner and learned a huge due diligence lesson.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I was a tour operator renting buses and he was the driver for a local company… funny enough we grew up 15 minutes form each other in Massachusetts but had never crossed path.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.discreetlv,.com
• Instagram: discreetpartybus
• Facebook: discreetpartybus
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/discreet-transportation
• Twitter: Discreetlv
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/discreet-transportation-paradise?osq=discreet+transportation

Image Credits

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