During my time with the Tradewinds band in North America, I ended up with some lovely “good news about Guyana” stories. One of them, going back almost a dozen years, has to do with Brian Bacchus , another West Dem boy like me from Hague; Brian from Uitvlugt but then involved with the Caribbean-American Passport Connection event in Orlando, Florida where they honoured outstanding Guyanese contributors to America The CAPC had been operating for years in that city as probably the best of the Guyana/ America associations, and Tradewinds had played for many of their functions organized by Sam Roberts (son of Guyana’s one-time Crime Chief Skip Roberts). In this event, at the Double Tree hotel, the CAPC was paying tribute to an array of GT folks who have done well in the US in a variety of businesses or community work. Frankly, I was very impressed at the range of abilities being recognized at the event, and I suspect that in fact most of these Guyanese, in a wide range of disciplines, are relatively unknown in their homeland.
In this case, however, I was not surprised to see Brian Bacchus, who operates Luxury Rides Inc, a limousine service, as one of the honoured group on stage. His is an impressive story, and one I have known about from the time we started playing for Sam Roberts’ group and Brian turned up at the airport to pick us up in one of his shiny limousines with a high reputation in Orlando as one of the top of the line. The Brian story is one of many Guyanese who migrate to another country, bringing their inventiveness and determination and, as one person at the Orlando event put it, ‘their broughtupcy’ inbred from their youth in Guyana.
Son of Raymond Bacchus, Field Manager for Uitvlugt Estate, Brian migrated to New York in 1983 with, as he put it, “a curiousity” about the rest of the world’s happenings. He recalls, “I had never worked in Guyana but once I got to New York I saw the need to educate myself and was interested in law. However, with no money to go to school, I got a job as a taxi-driver; also in play here was I knew a nine-to-five job was not for me.” Interested in the music scene, he soon switched over to working for a limousine service that catered to people in that industry, but ambition was pushing him. Brian recalls: “I spent about six months, watching how the business operated, analyzing the various aspects and filing it away, and in 1986 1 acquired my own limousine. My philosophy, still in place today, was to go beyond the standard transportation ingredient and concentrate on providing customers with the extra little courtesies and assistance – getting them tickets for an event; arranging laundry services, changing a flight, etc – I would do those extra things and that would turn them into regular clients instead of occasional ones. I gradually began to build up a clientele among the various entertainment people in their travels. One of my first big-name clients was Roberta Flack; she would request my limousine service whenever she came through and others were Kool and the Gang, the Beach Boys and Billy Ocean.”
However, the West Dem boy was not too fond of the hectic nature of New York, and in 1996, with an established clientele, he moved his business to Orlando. Brian recalls: “The first time I went to Orlando, once I hit the airport and saw the palm trees, and the tropical look, I realized that’s where I wanted to be.” Coming to his new location with many big music names already his clients, he quickly began getting work from Universal Studios and the Walt Disney operation, and eventually the University of Central Florida.
Today Brian operates 20 limousines (5 of which he owns outright) and has sub-contract arrangements with limousine services in other American cities. He says, “I never spent any money on advertising. I grew my business by this group of clients I had secured in New York and who were now recommending my services to the Universal and Disney people.” Organisa-tions of that scale are hard to break into, but Brian’s satisfied clients in the entertainment business were opening doors for him in his new environment. “I came there,” he said, “already known to some of the big names in music; from that, things really took off for me.”
Reflecting now on his success, Brian credits his Guyana upbringing. He particularly cites his father for instilling in him an ambition to be disciplined in his work and to make decisions based on analyzing a situation carefully. “It was also hammered into me by mother to be kind to people,” he said, “and with that background, reaching out to customers and determining their needs came naturally to me.” He called his operation Concierge on Wheels and saw that as the core of his business from the beginning. He says, “With that background, my reaching out to customers and determining their needs came naturally to me. I love the name ‘Concierge on Wheels’ and that name was the core of my service from the beginning.” His natural astuteness in business is reflected in a comment he made to me regarding his grasp of detail: “I mention to my chauffeurs to always perform their best, as you never know who’s observing.”
On my first encounter with him, Brian met me at the Orlando airport, where your transportation is usually waiting in line outside the terminal, but here Brian was with his sparkling Lincoln limousine parked inside the terminal in a secure area. It turns out that he pays to get special clearance which allows him to bring his vehicle inside adjacent to the baggage claim area,so as you pick up your suitcase, or electric guitar, the limo is actually only a few steps away, a convenience for the customer and superior service from the country boy from West Dem, competing in the big arena, and making waves outside; a diaspora success story, if I ever heard one. That’s Brian…if you go Orlando and need a limo, Brian is your man at Concierge on Wheels. In his field, he knows how it goes; and you don’t have to walk very far.
