Leasetrader.com, a Miami-based company that facilitates the transfer of vehicle leases between drivers, just can’t resist the lure of Southern California’s oversized car market.
The company is finalizing plans to set up a branch office in the Los Angeles area and hopes to begin operations within the next six months.
Southern California is by far the company’s largest market with some 11 million licensed drivers and the most influential with big sales in foreign and luxury nameplates.
“Southern California is a trend setter market,” said Chief Executive Sergio Stiberman, noting the majority of leased automobiles are luxury vehicles often on short-term contracts as drivers seek the latest models.
The 10-year-old venture has relationships with most of the major leasing companies, helping them expedite the transfer between drivers.
Last year, the company facilitated the transfer of about 35,000 leases nationwide and executives expect to increase the number of transactions to 45,000 in 2008. The most popular cars on the company’s Web site are the BMW 3-Series and the Mercedes C-Class.
Los Angeles drivers have been able to use the Web site, but the company wanted a physical presence in its largest market in order to meet with prospective customers and grow the business.
Stiberman said Leasetrader.com has seen business increase as the struggling economy and collapsing housing market have made a number of drivers want to get out of costly leases. At the same time, there remain many willing buyers.
“You have people with life-changing situations that no longer need the vehicle they signed up for a year ago or a year and a half ago. There are tons of financial change situations,” he said. “We’ve seen a growth of people looking to downsize their vehicles.”
Bunker Bypass
Officials at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex last week approved a program that will encourage cargo ships to switch to more environmentally friendly fuel when they enter the harbor.
The two ports will commit a combined $18.5 million under the one-year program, which will cover the differential cost for cargo vessel operators to switch from heavily polluting bunker fuel to low-sulfur fuel when they come within 40 miles of San Pedro Bay. The program, part of the ports’ jointly adopted Clean Air Action Plan, will reduce particulate emission by 9 percent and slash sulfur oxides by 11 percent, officials said.
“This program will incentivize our customers to start the process of switching over to low-sulfur fuel well ahead of future state emissions rules,” said Geraldine Knatz, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, in a statement.
The voluntary program will last for one year. The California Air Resources Board has a pending regulation that would mandate the switch to low-sulfur fuel beginning July 1, 2009.
Currently, most shippers use bunker fuel, a sludgelike heavy oil that needs to be heated before it can be pumped into engines, which has made cargo ships the largest source of air pollution in the harbor.
The ports expect about 65 percent of ships to participate in the program.
The move is the latest effort by the harbor commissions to reduce port-related pollution under their clean air program. Earlier this month, Los Angeles officials approved a program to replace virtually all of the 16,800 short-haul diesel rigs at the ports with cleaner-burning models and require trucking companies to hire employee drivers. Long Beach officials had previously approved a truck program that would not require employee drivers.
Brazil-Bound
South Korean passenger airline Korean Air Lines Co. Ltd. announced last week that it will begin offering flights in June from Los Angeles International Airport to Sao Paulo, Brazil.
If the airline obtains government approval, it plans to offer three weekly nonstop flights to the Brazilian destination, a major economic hub and South America’s most populous city.
Jong Eun Lee, the company’s regional vice president for the Americas, said the service will bolster Korean Air’s standing as a major global airline.
Korean Air is the largest transpacific airline operating in Los Angeles and carries more air cargo at the airport than any other passenger airline.
Korean Air has served Sao Paulo previously, but that service was suspended shortly after Sept. 11, 2001.
In a prepared statement, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa attributed the decision to resume flights to his 2006 trade mission to Asia.
“The establishment of new international service from Los Angeles is a high priority for my administration and a focus point of our promotional initiatives around the world,” he said.
This marks the eighth time in the past few months that carriers have announced the start of international service from LAX. Analysts said the moves could help strengthen the airport’s ailing reputation, but they will also hamper efforts to redistribute Southern California air traffic to regional airports.
Staff reporter Richard Clough can be reached at
[email protected]
or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 251.
