A Word from the President

Since 1986, our mission has always been simple: provide SAFE, DEPENDABLE service — and take good care of our employees along the way.

Airport Commuter Limo and Black SUV Car Service has been in business for 40 years. In the San Francisco Bay Area, we run our own fleet with our own employees — the drivers and vehicles you ride with belong to us.

Outside the Bay Area, we've built an affiliate network over the decades, hand-picking the best local limousine company in each major city we serve. These are companies we've vetted and worked with for a long time — so you get the local experience of a driver who knows the city cold, combined with the single point of accountability of booking through us. Because of our longstanding agreements, most of the time we can get you a better rate than if you called the local company directly. One phone call, one email, one reservation — and we handle your transportation almost anywhere in the country. Hassle-free.

Our business journey.

Back in 1986 I was working for a local limo company while finishing my B.S. in Electrical Engineering. I started an MBA afterward but never finished it — by then the work was too interesting to walk away from.

In 1994 I bought that company — one of the oldest in California, with a 3-digit CPUC TCP number you don't see on the road anymore.

That same year I put together a joint venture with San Francisco International and ran limo reservation booths inside SFO's baggage claim areas — right next to the airport's own information counters. You couldn't get that kind of direct-to-traveler presence at SFO today no matter what you paid for it.

I'd seen how well executive-style Town Cars were working in New York and London, so I brought the idea home. In 1986 I put the first Town Car on the road at SFO — I believe the first in the Bay Area. Before that, everyone around here was running long stretch limos. We helped redefine what "airport car service" looked like in this market.

The pattern repeated whenever Lincoln released something new. When the Livery Edition Town Car came out, we were first in Northern California to put a fleet of eight on the road. When Lincoln launched the Livery MKT in 2012, we did it again — twelve cars, first in Northern California.

In the early 2000s I launched the affiliate network — the same network we still use today, just broader. Hand-picked, reputable limousine companies, city by city, country by country, so one phone call to us could cover a traveler almost anywhere.

Around mid-2005 we put AirportCommuter.com decals on the rear windshield of every limo in our fleet. Competitors copied it within months. Eventually SFO asked us all to remove them, and we did — but for a few years, Airport Commuter was rolling billboards on every Bay Area freeway.

In 2016 I tried to build our own app — an Uber-style experience for chauffeur-quality car service. I hired a Silicon Valley firm; they quietly subcontracted the build to an Eastern European team. Two years of back-and-forth: fix one issue, break another. We were days from launch, with 200 cars and 200 phones already programmed, when I finally pulled the plug. Over $500,000 gone. We donated all the phones to charity and moved on. I don't regret trying. I regret not killing it sooner.

Then COVID hit, and Uber and Lyft took a real bite out of our volume. At our peak we'd run more than 78 cars and had 18 office staff. Today we're a smaller, leaner, more effective fleet — and I'm back in the office most days, running things myself.

I'll be honest with you: I'm happier this way. It keeps me busy, keeps me useful, and keeps the company alive for the families of drivers who've spent their careers with us. Most of our regulars, I know by first name. That's something an app can't give you, and something a scale-at-all-costs operation never will.

A note on pricing.

We are not the cheapest, and we don't try to be. What we are is a good deal for the money. If what you're looking for is the absolute lowest price, book an Uber or Lyft and save yourself the time of talking to a limousine company.

If, on the other hand, you care about safety, dependability, and an experienced professional chauffeur — especially when the passengers are your family — that's what we sell.

Most of our regular clients end up with the same driver on every trip. You'll feel like you have your own personal chauffeur. At most, you'll rotate between two or three drivers you already know — and genuinely enjoy riding with.

Your family members deserve to be transported in a reputable, safe environment.

As the saying goes: if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

Our philosophy with our drivers and office staff.

We pay the highest wages in the industry. The San Francisco Bay Area is expensive to live in — and we think the people who drive your family around deserve to live well.

We treat our employees like family. They get the time off they ask for, and we accommodate their schedules and personal needs whenever we can.

Believe it or not, we have two drivers who started with us in 1992 — still driving for us over 30 years later — plus two more from 2011. We probably have the lowest driver turnover rate of any limo company in the region.

That's who we are, and that's how we operate. Thank you for reading.