About this episode
John Maselli, national director of van sales at Model 1 Commercial Vehicles, the nationwide dealer that operated for 40 years as Creative Bus Sales, spent his first two years training more than a thousand New York taxi and black car drivers in wheelchair vehicle safety for the Taxi and Limousine Commission. His core warning is that owners buy the biggest vehicle they can, then watch it sit unfilled, burn fuel, and repel drivers who compare it to driving a tank. He pushes ADA compliant commercial vans over the secondhand personal use market and says stock on the ground ships in about 30 days.
Key takeaways
- Maselli was trained by Easter Seals to deliver the three-hour wheelchair safety course the New York TLC required of new drivers, running it twice weekly for close to two years.
- The secondhand market is full of personal use wheelchair vans that are not ADA compliant. There is no ADA police, but an incident in service turns that shortcut into litigation.
- Vehicle and contract are a chicken and egg problem. Incorporate first, then verify broker requirements, because the broker usually wants a vehicle before it will award the contract.
- Model 1 runs roughly 25 locations, keeps vehicles on the ground for delivery inside 30 days, and has shipped to customers as far out as Puerto Rico and the Bahamas.
- A minivan cannot carry multiple wheelchairs, so that need forces a full size van. Buying smaller first cuts the initial outlay and mirrors the microtransit shift toward single passenger runs.
Chapters
- 0:00 Introduction
- 0:51 John's background in the vehicle space
- 2:28 What is Model 1?
- 3:59 Model 1's consultative approach
- 6:27 Criteria to consider in buying vehicles
- 9:15 Common mistakes in buying vehicles
- 13:27 Stories of vehicle purchases
- 18:00 Steps in the vehicle buying process
- 20:00 Model 1's relationship building
- 21:57 Final thoughts
