Still Thinking......

It's been a while since the "old style" Town Car was bounced from the Lincoln lineup, to be replaced with the MKT Crossover.  The reception for the MKT has been tepid at best, and word on the street is that Lincoln has already set its sights on another version of the Town Car for 2014.  For companies like OML WORLDWIDE, this brand "volatility" poses a threat to any consistency we hope to have in our fleet, which may not seem like a big deal on the surface yet has some interesting ramifications.
As a refresher, a majority of livery vehicles on the road since the mid to late 1980's have been Lincoln Town Cars.  Sure there were some Cadillacs, Chryslers, and a Lexus or two, but the flagship was the Town Car.  On the plus side, every customer that used a limousine company probably knew what to expect when their car showed up since they were virtually the same from coast-to-coast.  On the management side of the equation, it was simple to value your services based on the fact that vehicle pricing was fairly stable.  Once you factored in items like insurance, chauffeur costs, repairs and maintenance, you had a baseline that was easy to understand.  That is starting to change as older Town Cars are being replaced you new vehicles from a variety of manufacturers at a variety of prices.  This is where it can get tricky.
Operators across the United States must make decisions based on how they want their company to be viewed by their clients.  If a company that has been running Town Cars decides to go "cheap", their clients will likely (at some point) start to ask..."What's in it for me?".  If the vehicle cost is 20% less...shouldn't rates go down proportionately?  Good question, at least from the consumer point of view.
OML WORLDWIDE has a long history of providing luxury transportation options to our clientele, and the loss of the Town Car will not change our approach.  While we haven't committed to a single vehicle as our anointed "replacement", we are doing our homework, and relying on input from our industry partners to establish a game plan that will take us from where we are now to where we want to be 10 years from now.  Whatever we do, we will do it with quality and luxury in mind.

Why We Need To Take Vacations

I enjoy my job, but I also like getting away from it once in a while.  That being said, I am probably in the majority of working Americans.  During the course of the year, I usually take about two weeks off for vacation.  This apparently puts me in the MINORITY, according to a CNNMoney article dated November 30, 2011.  This piece states that, while the average worker would earn 14 vacation days for the year, they would likely only use 12 of them.

Americans seem to be hardwired to work, and tend to be hesitant to take time off from their jobs.  There are a variety of reasons for this, but we differ from other countries in our approach to vacation time.  The article compares Americans to the French and English specifically, and it seems our European counterparts average more annual vacation time and manage to use almost all of it.  Good for them I guess, but not so good for us.

Everyone is different, but most of us function better when we're rested.  The daily grind of our jobs creates stresses within our bodies and minds that wears us down over the course of the year - physically and mentally.  Relaxing after work and on weekends can help, but in our "hurry up" world it is often difficult to get the most out of our down time.  So these stresses tend to pile up, ultimately damaging our health. 

So how do we "teach" ourselves that value of taking time off of work?  This may be harder than it sounds.  Many workers are protective of their jobs, and leaving it - even for a few days - creates more anxiety and stress than their job does.  Others suffer from a certain degree of paranoia...afraid that their absence will create opportunities for others to move into their roles, therefore making them expendable.  Whatever the reason, we need to learn that vacation time is something that we earn as workers and we should use it as a way to improve our quality of life and maintain our sanity.  

Start slowly, maybe a week at a time every 6 months.  Maybe a few 3-day weekends if your employer allows it.  But find a way to take all of your time.  If you work for a company that allows you to convert your vacation time into cash, do whatever you can to avoid taking that step.  Remember that time away from work has value too.  

As for me, I take my two weeks off...but I've earned four weeks a year, so I'm only using half of what I earned every year.  I can't explain specifically why I don't use all of my time, but this year I made a promise to myself to try.  It's August 9th and I have two weeks and a day left.  Wish me luck.