How to Excel at Getting There

 

Ever stood, all dressed and packed and ready to go, impatiently glancing at your watch with each agonizing minute stretching out forever, and wondered if the car you hired to get you to the airport was going to show up on time?  Or at all?

The truth is, you hire a car and driver for important and special events to make your life easier and more enjoyable – not to get grey hair from upset – and unless you find a trustworthy service, there’s almost no point to the undertaking.

You should meet Fred Libardoni, owner of Pasadena’s Excel Limousine Service. As a former corporate executive (national sales manager for a California winery), Libardoni’s former life travelling the country and dealing with upscale vendors has colored his approach to creating a very attentive, very professional, very trustworthy limousine service.

His approach hearkens back to the days when drivers were chauffeurs and took their profession seriously, even passionately. Libardoni certainly does.

Libardoni says that building a great relationship with his clients means understanding the true nature of service that excels: of being impeccably groomed, arriving on time, treating clients with respect and within proper protocol, and being trustworthy.

Although the bulk of Excel’s trade is corporate – about 60% — the balance is working with “entertainment, high profile people” and what one could refer to as “local celebrities,” Pasadena-area residents.

In fact, Libardoni has been selected to drive for one celebrity so frequently that he became “Uncle Fred” to the celebrity’s children!

Libardoni jokes his limousines are like rolling Langham Hotels.

“We know if there’s a special soda they like, and we always have waters in the cars, especially for people coming from back travel,” says Libardoni. “The businessmen, we ask them, is there a certain brand of newspaper that they need so when they come back we always have the paper there for them. Any specialties, we cater to them!”

Most of Librardoni’s clientele have discovered him through word of mouth.

“Through a referral from one of my clients, I ran into a surgeon that did my knee operation ten years ago,” Libardoni says. “He’s very well known and lives in the San Marino area, so now I do all of his driving — it just multiplies!”

Next time you have to get to the airport – or church – on time, consider a limousine service with a friendly, local owner. Excel offers a great website for you to use.

“Right now, everything is Internet driven, so as of February this year there’s a new website which has online reservation. It’s very well user friendly and it gives all the information that anyone could ever want,” Libardoni says. (It can be found at www.excellimoservice.com)

“I’ve never had a complaint,” Libardoni says with a smile. “In the seven years I’ve had my own company here, I’ve never had a complaint.”

Excel Limousine Service, Fred Libardoni, President, Call Toll Free (800) 933-8707 or (626) 419-7001. For more, see:  www.excellimoservice.com