Limousine Taxi Business Plan

San Francisco Limo will offer limousine services in the San Francisco/Burlingame/San Jose area for customers seeking reliable transportation services. The company will gradually seize its service offerings in the competitive market of airport transfers and will specifically target customers who need sightseeing services, transportation of private school students, and elderly citizens. There is less competition in these markets; and the customers are less price sensitive, which will allow San Francisco Limo to charge premium prices for its services.

3.1 Competitive Comparison

The competition for transfer business to and from SFO Airport is strong. There are 59 limousine companies advertising in the San Francisco/Burlingame/San Jose Yellow Pages directory with the following advertising noise level:

• Full Column: 1
• Three Quarter Column: 3
• Half Column: 5
• Quarter Column: 9
• 1 Inch In-Column: 6
• Half Inch In-Column: 1
• Bold Lettering: 8

Of the Quarter column and bigger ads the market segments stressed are:

• Weddings: 11
• Sightseeing: 2
• Airport: All 18
• Proms/Bachelor Parties/Night on Town: 13
• Private School Student Transportation: None
• Assisted Living and Elderly Transportation: 1, and another mentioned handicap capability.
• Corporate: most all offer corporate accounts.

Clearly weddings, prom night/night on the town, and airport transfers are the most competitive. Elderly transportation, private school student transport, and sight-seeing are the least competitive.

At the time of this writing, a sampling of limousine services was undertaken to get a feel for the level of price competition. Eight companies were called in the San Francisco/Swampscott/Beverly/Burlingame area. Of the eight, there were answering machines at two of them. At a third, an elderly woman asked me to call another number. Of the five reached, the charges for a 4:30 a.m. pick up in Beverly for a trip to SFO were:

• Rolls Royce Limo Service: $75.00
• Admiral Limo: $90.00
• Custom Coach Airport Limo: $45.00
• Dependable airport limo: $50.00
• San Francisco Limo: $45.00
• Although it is a shared service, U.S. Shuttle will pick up a fare in Beverly: $22.

3.2 Sales Literature

At the present time no sales literature/brochures are available. Creation of these is a recommendation made in the section on Marketing.