Teddy’s Limo competes in diversifying car service market

As corporate travel has rebounded, so has business for a limousine service provider in Norwalk.

“Leisure travel lost 47 percent across the country, but corporate travel only lost a few percentages,” said Charles Wisniewski, president of Teddy”™s Transportation System, also known as Teddy”™s Limousine. “Corporate transportation, especially here in two of the top worst traffic areas in the country ”“ Fairfield County and New York City ”“ went lean during the recession. But corporate travel is bouncing back, and we continue to do a lot of airport services.”

Typically, Wisniewski said, corporate clients in Fairfield County leave families on Sunday evenings to make it to a meeting in Chicago or Boston by Monday morning. Most of Teddy”™s Limousines, which are silver Lincoln MKS sedans, start picking up customers at 4 a.m. to catch 6 a.m. flights. Customers who are traveling to meetings usually call a car service because they want to maximize the work they get done from door to door, he said.

With the advent of webinars and Google Hangouts, meetings are now conveniently being held electronically. However, face-to-face meetings will always have a place in the business world, Wisniewski said. In fact, corporate travel can increase a company”™s return on investment.

“A lot of people think that business travel is not as necessary now because of email and conference calling,” Wisniewski said. “But in reality, the successful executive knows that for every dollar spent on travel to see a client face to face, the return on investment is about $12, according to Business Travel News.”

In recent years, Wisniewski said his market is getting crowded. App-based startups are competing against his traditional limousine service and taking a chunk of his clients.

As ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft aim to make travel more convenient, one thing Teddy”™s Limousine won”™t trade in for extra dollars is ensuring it has an impeccable track record of safety and reliability, said Wisniewski, who believes that these car service apps are just a fad that will die out when money runs out.

“There are two ways to get a car for hire,” Wisniewski said. “Either have a dispatcher and well-managed fleet or like Uber have so many guys that there are always five cars around you.”

Teddy”™s Limousine maintains strict procedures for hiring drivers. It takes nearly 12 weeks for fingerprints and drug test results to come in, Wisniewski said. The Department of Motor Vehicles requires drivers to prove that they aren”™t suffering from fatigue and stress and that their eyesight won”™t be affected by long hours of driving.

Teddy”™s Limousine”™s fleet of 41 cars makes on average 135 trips per day with around 180 trips on a “good day.” Its busiest times are Monday mornings and Thursday nights when clients leave for business meetings and come back from them.

“We”™re still the fastest way to get corporate clients from Gate 5 back to their family,” Wisniewski said.

Teddy”™s Limousine started in Westport in 1932 as Teddy”™s Taxi, operating a small fleet of taxis in Westport and Weston before the Wisniewski family bought it in 1978. They renamed it Teddy”™s Transportation System after Wisniewski”™s father, Teddy, who passed away in 1995. The family divested the taxi fleet in 1985 and served a corporate clientele instead. Its operations expanded from Connecticut to New York, New Jersey and Illinois. The company”™s revenue has increased 19 percent from 2010 to 2013, accounting for an average annual growth of 6 to 7 percent.

“The demand is there and the service level is there,” Wisniewski said.

In recent years, Charles Wisniewski said his market is getting crowded. App-based startups are competing against his traditional limousine service and taking a chunk of his clients.