Limomangary

http://www.ny.aaa.com/safety/driver_training/story.asp?xml=workshops.xml&zip=12603

Above is a link to AAA/Auto Club of NY re: Driver Training Offerings

(Make sure to scroll to bottom to take part in my poll)

My industry is that of providing safe, quality transportation to clients that book with that expectation. The ability to provide, what I feel is the key component “Safe” transportation, is determined by a number of factors. Most of these factors hinge upon the ability of the driver of their (the customer’s) car and the other drivers on the road at the moment). While my company and most other transportation providers require a “standard of safety”, which includes driver capability, testing, training and monitoring, unfortunately that requirement only impacts roughly 10% of the vehicles on the road, that is “professional” drivers whom are licensed as such. Our industry standards do not have impact on the greater majority of other drivers on the roads daily. While I have faith that almost everyone on the road means well and has the intention of moving between their destinations in a safe manner, it is their skill as a driver (or a higher power) that actually dictates most outcomes of driver travel. That most important skill set, which includes knowledge that isn’t being given proper and necessary attention, after a driver completes their involuntary 5 hour driver education during the process of getting their driver’s license for the 1st time. While this is truth in fact, I do not blame the average driver themself, I place that blame solely upon the shoulders of each state that issues and regulates driver licenses. Its my opinion that each agency should make continued driver education and remedial training a necessity for every individual to maintain a valid driver license. I know those reading this are already thinking “so I’m going to have to pay more to keep driving?” or “who is going to pay for this?”. Actually, we are already paying for it by the fees we pay to the DMV to maintain our driver licenses everyday and the insurance fees to keep our vehicles on the road. Each state agency has its own standard requirement on the fees it collects, Driver Education if offered by the local DMV’s – Dept. of Motor Vehicles could and would be at no cost to each driver (again as a standard requirement) . When we consider the cost for, increasing insurance premiums as a result of more unskilled drivers on the road having accidents, downtime for repairs when a vehicle is damaged in an accident and possible personal downtime due to injury or loss of life, the trade-off of requiring & providing education on the rules of the road and defensive driving techniques just makes sense!

In closing, how many times have those that are “good drivers” asked the question “what the heck is that person doing, do they know how to drive?” While forming your opinion on this posting consider how many times you’ve said that and/or how many times you may have avoided an accident due to the un-skilled driving of someone else. Our roadways are seeing more and more volume every day; safety & driver education/re-education needs to increase right along with the number of vehicles on the road!

Let me know what you think?? 

Tougher economic times are the points in history in which savvy investors and the worlds greatest capitalists FIND their greatest gains on investments. They seek opportunities where their returns can be 100% to infinity; how do they find such opportunity when everyone else CHOOSES not to? They seek out undervalued markets and undervalued businesses (those that include newly created businesses that are short on capital but with well-developed plans; niche’ opportunities within established markets). An area that is of special concern and interest is funding of small businesses, that is those with designs on creating a large national or international product and creation of systems & numerous jobs in-turn those that can generate and sustain positive revenues. This time of economic difficulty and mistrust fostered by mismanaged corporations & funds, along with our new president, have both signaled the need to shift from focus on BIG Business as operated today to emphasizing the development of small businesses as the future for a return to our country’s greatness. In addition current BIG businesses can create only limited job opportunities due to potential redundancy, thus they generally look to ramp up revenues through shift in business philosophy and streamlining. Note that publicly traded companies, after laying-off workforce (downsizing) typically go through a period of great capital gains and increasing stock values. This almost seems to not make sense from an investor standpoint, because the company is now loosing some of its ability to manufacture its products or supply services, but closer looks reveal that a company, post-downsizing, actually gains in cash-flow value due to the salaries & long-term benefits now off and coming off the books from the number of displaced staffers. This increase in positive cash flow becomes an enticement to investors as the publicly traded company now has more capital with which to dedicate to R&D of new products, pay down debts and move more nimbly toward better profitability; most importantly now can yield dividends to its investors. In addition the investor sees the company as transforming to streamlined operations as typically more work and speedier product creation is called for and gotten on the part of the remaining work-force. In essence they have now created a more financially viable entity, one in which the investor sees the possibility of great gains. Today NY State Governor Andrew Cuomo issued his second “State of the State” address with  emphasis on economic growth of the state’s economy in 2012; he touted tourism as a key factor and Gov. Cuomo said “New York will keep the momentum going with a $200 million second competitive round of regional economic development awards in 2012…”

For more go to The Poughkeepsie Journal web-site link: http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20120104/NEWS01/120104014/Cuomo-Investment-economic-development-tourism-key-2012?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|PoughkeepsieJournal.com