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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, June 5, 2001

Economy idles limo business

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

John Marn, left, a Duke's Limousine driver, picks up Reiko and her husband-to-be, Tetsuya Kaneko, at the Kahala Mandarin Oriental hotel to take them to St. Catalina Seaside Chapel at Sea Life Park for their wedding ceremony.

Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

The diamond earring in John Marn's ear, his shiny black suit and the spotless, 18-passenger stretch sports utility vehicle he maneuvers through traffic all belie the hard times that have fallen on Hawai'i's limousine industry.

O'ahu's competitive limousine industry has been a barometer of the economic problems over the past 10 years. Since January, at least three companies have gone belly up.

And with gloomy predictions for both Japan and the Mainland, even rougher days may lie ahead.

Marn finished washing down the 38-foot, stretch Ford Excursion at Duke's Limousine headquarters in Kapahulu and considered the state of his industry. The list of jobs in Marn's pants pocket said it all.

Duke's — O'ahu's biggest limo operation with 15 cars and 17 full- and part-time drivers — only had six trips scheduled for the day. Marn's name was on four of them.

"Business is definitely slow," he said. "Even if it's slow, you've always got to keep up a good appearance."

Proms, weddings and tourists

Prom season was good while it lasted — but it's definitely over. And the June wedding season has yet to kick in with any vigor.

It's always slow this time of year for limo companies. In the last few seasons, though, it seems to Kurt Tsuneyoshi, owner of Platinum Limousine, that the hard times have been stretching out longer and longer.

"Every single company is worried," Tsuneyoshi said. "We used to have 10 jobs a day. Now you're lucky if you get one or two. To survive in this business is really, really tough."

The Public Utilities Commission lumps limousines with other commercial operators, such as van and bus drivers. Therefore it doesn't have hard numbers for the number of limousine companies and limos.

But the companies believe there are an estimated 150 to 200 limousines are on the road in Honolulu at any given moment — most of them one-man operations that are undercutting prices of the three biggest businesses: Duke's, Platinum and Sharp.

There are business people looking for transportation, celebrities and movie stars, and local folks wanting a special night out. But Duke's, Platinum and Sharp depend mostly on Japanese tourists for at least 50 percent of their businesses.

"If the Japanese economy doesn't do good, we don't do good," said Eric Apaka, operations manager for Duke's. "For the last couple of weeks, we've been on the down slope."

Limousines are virtually unheard of in Japan. But in Hawai'i, Japanese visitors rely on them from the moment they step off of the curb at Honolulu International Airport to take them back and forth to their hotels, for shopping, all-day circle island tours and even simple trips through the McDonald's drive-through.

They can pay anywhere from a basic $70 an hour for a standard limousine, to $150 an hour and up for a more exotic, stretch sports-utility-vehicle that can carry an entire wedding party and then some.

Hard times for drivers

The problem for drivers is that Japanese tourists haven't mastered the art of Western-style tipping. And even Mainland tourists seem to be holding back, making it harder for drivers to make much money.

"Drivers seem to be getting the short end of the stick," said Tsuneyoshi, who has 10 drivers at Platinum Limousines. "A lot of them lately have been coming in and saying, 'I didn't get nothing.' That's not normal. I guess a lot of customers are saving their nickels and dimes."

Full-time drivers tend to earn between $20,000 and $25,000 per year, including tips. A hard-working driver with high-paying clients can earn twice that.

For the past seven years that he's been driving limousines, Marn's days sometimes have lasted from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m.

The job requires him to lug baggage, carry bridal bouquets, settle down drunken bachelor parties, play tour guide and tread lightly around rock stars. A pimp once hired him to drive around Waikiki — 60 circles in all — in order to check the street trade.

Marn, 31, thought about his job description as he wheeled the Excursion toward the Kahala Mandarin Oriental hotel to pick up a Japanese couple and take them to their wedding ceremony at the St. Catalina Seaside Chapel at Sea Life Park on the Windward side.

"A typical day can be a local wedding, mixed with a bunch of Japanese weddings, followed by businessmen looking for a night on the town," Marn said. "The hours can be really long. That's definitely the worst part — the long hours."

When times are hard at Duke's, he earns extra money for himself, his girlfriend and her 5-year-old daughter by moonlighting with his new printing business, by commercial fishing and with occasional jobs driving for music stars like Ricky Martin, Janet Jackson and Elton John for promoter Tom Moffatt.

Hard times and good deals

For the customers, a depressed industry means better deals.

Some companies have dropped their usual two-hour minimum trip. Others have cut prices. Some have done both.

Two of Sharp's white limousines pulled up to the Outrigger Hotels Maile Sky Court in Waikiki and Mitsue Miyano bounded out of one ecstatic, despite a ride that lasted nearly all day.

Miyano, who works in an office for a Japanese construction company, and 14 other Japanese tourists saw Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, Makapu'u and Pearl Harbor courtesy of their limousine ride.

"Because we came all the way to Hawai'i," Miyano said, "we wanted to see what a limousine felt like."

What she didn't realize was that the price per person was far below the typical $70 an hour rate.

For a seven-hour trip, Miyano and everyone else in her group paid $145.

That's just a little over $20 an hour. And at that price, the company barely breaks even, said Christine Kawasaki, who handles bookings for Sharp.

"Otherwise," Kawasaki said, "the cars just sit idle."

Dan Nakaso can be reached at 525-8085, or by e-mail at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.


Correction: A previous version of this story gave the wrong first name for Eric Apaka.