Stretching It, Just a Bit : Southland’s 600 limousine firms take it to the streets--and the (legal) limit--in pleasing the whims of clients.

They call the limousine trade a service business, which means that on any given day a limousine driver may be asked to paint his car purple and cruise the city dodging teen-agers who are trying to smooch his right fender.

That job was given to Fleetwood Limousine Ltd. a couple of years ago when pop star Prince wanted to lease a limo for three months to publicize his “Purple Rain” album. When fans couldn’t get through the tinted windows to Prince, “they figured kissing the car was the next best thing,” says Alan Shanedling, president of the Westwood firm.

Accommodating the wildest of whims is all in a day’s work for the 600 or so companies of Southern California’s thriving limousine industry. To earn their customary $35 to $60 a hour, drivers must transport their passengers, swaddle them in luxury and fulfill whatever curious desires may seize them.

With its entertainment industry, weather and love of conspicuous self-indulgence, Southern California has always been a hospitable environment for the long sedan. But while it’s an easy business to enter, operators say it’s also easy to go bust, particularly if you can’t satisfy customers’ exacting demands for service.

And customers will ask for almost anything. A client of Afflair Wide Body Limousine Service once showed up with a bearskin rug and an overflowing champagne bucket and asked sheepishly whether the partition behind the chauffeur would guarantee the passengers’ privacy. The customer’s plan, it turned out, was to recreate a torrid love scene that took place in a limousine in the movie “No Way Out.”

“Basically, we’ll do anything the customer asks, so long as it isn’t illegal,” says Jim Phillips, owner of the Brea company, who had no objection to what the customer wanted.

Event Dictates Color

A driver for Dreams Unlimited Limousine Service in Los Alamitos was once paid to propose marriage to a woman. On instructions from her fiance, the driver met the woman at work, read a romantic poem of proposal and spirited her to the airport, where she flew to San Francisco for an evening with her future husband.

Another Dreams Unlimited customer paid to have a limousine carry her boyfriend around Southern California on an elaborate treasure hunt. She kept the hunt going for eight hours with a series of clues that led to destinations where the boyfriend found gifts and other clues.

White may be the color of choice for limousines in Southern California, but some occasions bring a run in requests for other colors. If the Dodgers are in the playoffs or World Series, there will be a run on requests for royal blue sedans; concerts by the rock group Pink Floyd inevitably bring a flurry of orders for pink.

Most of the limousine operators’ earnings come from ferrying customers to airports, handling corporate traffic and special events. The most important of those occasions are proms, weddings, bar mitzvahs and funerals.

The prom season is the biggest money maker for most small operators, a time when some can jack up their rates to $125 an hour because demand far outstrips the supply of cars. More typically, for an eight-passenger car an operator will charge $65 an hour, with an eight-hour minimum and a required 15% tip.

But earning this premium fee requires hard work and much diplomacy. Drivers often get caught in the middle between parents, who want the drivers to act as chaperons, and the teens, who want them to look the other way as they go drinking, hang out of the limo’s sun roof and generally make the night as wild as they have dreamed it would be.

While most teens follow the rules, operators tell horror stories of how youthful high spirits brought them ripped seat covers, broken TVs, scratched finishes and run-ins with the police. In popular prom-night cruising terrain, such as Newport Beach, police set up roadway checkpoints to keep an eye on the limousines and other traffic.

For the operator, “it’s the best night of the year, and the worst night,” said Marshall Clayton, owner of Dreams Unlimited Limousines.

The one- and two-car operators who are often so dependent on prom night make up most of the industry in Southern California. Only half a dozen limousine companies in the area have more than 20 cars, estimates Fleetwood’s Shanedling, who is vice president of the Limousine Owners Assn. of Southern California.

The history of Clayton’s business says a lot about the risks of the enterprise. In the 4 1/2 years since he founded Dreams Unlimited, he has bought out small limousine companies named Windsor, Caberet, Affluent and Unique.

“A lot of people get into the business thinking they can count on their friends to give them business,” Clayton said. “They find out all their friends want it for free.”

Expensive Overhead

The operators also quickly find out about the heavy expenses that they must carry if they want to operate legally.

In addition to prices that now run about $40,000 to $60,000 for a new Lincoln Town Car or Cadillac stretch limousine, insurance can cost $8,000 to $10,000 per car each year. Public Utilities Commission licensing fees run 0.75% of an operator’s gross.

“Put this stuff together, and it’s a killer,” said Harold Berkman, president of Music Express of Burbank, which specializes in show business clientele.

More than one-third of operators simply don’t pay those costs, a maneuver that allows them to charge $4 to $8 less an hour than legal competitors, according to Shanedling. Such “bandit” drivers are understandably a major gripe of legal operators.

This year, Los Angeles City Attorney James K. Hahn, in a campaign against illegal limousines, sued four companies for failing to have insurance and licenses, and other violations. Three have agreed to pay fines to settle the suits.

Also important for the business are the show business awards ceremonies, including the Oscars, Emmys and Grammys. The Oscars, for example, provide an evening’s work for about 800 limousines; by comparison, President Bush’s inauguration fielded 150 limousines.

But these glamorous occasions are also a source of frustration for many small operators, since the movie studios use their leverage as big customers to drive down rates for the limos that will carry their biggest stars.

“My observation is, sometimes the biggest stars ride around in the crummiest looking cars,” sniffed operator Phillips.