Limo company owner adds yacht charters. It’s all cruising, Miami-style

Weddings postponed from spring and summer are being rescheduled for winter months. Restaurants and clubs have slowly reopened after long COVID-19 shutdowns. All of this is good news for Lenin Fraga, owner of American Transportation and Limo Service in Doral.

His 22 vehicles sat mostly unused in a warehouse for six months. All but a few of his 20 drivers were laid off. In a normal July, he would book 70 to 80 rides per day. This year, he averaged 10 to 12 per week.

But business started to pick up in September, rising to 60% of his normal business. So far in November, it is close to 70%.

“They opened up a lot of bars and restaurants, so that has helped us,” Fraga said. “Weddings are starting up again, and even though they are smaller, people want to arrive at church and the party in a limo.

“We’re waiting for them to open up the ports so we can do cruise ship transportation and eventually we’ll resume doing groups and corporate events and conventions, because that is still at zero.”

Seeking an additional revenue source, Fraga, an avid boater, branched out to yacht charters. He established a second company called VIP Miami Yacht Rentals, and is encouraged, with about 25 reservations since early September.

He sold three limos and used that money, plus savings, to purchase a 40-foot and a 50-foot boat. He hired two captains and is taking his captain’s license exam in mid-November. The company offers four-hour, six-hour and eight-hour charters. Despite the increased business from early COVID-19 months, Fraga’s staff has been reduced in half, from 23 employees to 10. He went from seven in the office to three, and from 20 drivers to seven.

“I owned an old boat and during the pandemic we were going out a lot on the water to have fun and we saw all kinds of yachts out there and we could see they were charters,” Fraga said. “I thought, `Wow.’ So, I spoke to all the hotel concierges I know and they told me, `Yeah, that’s moving a lot. That’s what people are doing right now, they’re going on the water and yacht charters are fully booked.”

So, Fraga, decided to dive into the boat charter business.

“There’s a learning curve, but it’s basically a party on water,” he said. “We’re used to party on wheels, now we’re doing parties on the water. I have all the infrastructure in place to create reservations, to wash the boats, to give the same customer service to boat people that we had been giving to limo and party bus people.”

Fraga is optimistic his companies will survive.

“As long as they don’t close down the city again and keep it as it is, we’re going to be good,” Fraga said. “If they close down the city again, the venues and all that, we’re going to go back to a lot of trouble.”

Fraga said he is feeling “100 percent hopeful” since Joe Biden won the Presidential Election.

“We need to put our shoulders together and get out of this mess.”

This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 11:58 AM.