Undercover Boss (2010) s06e06 Episode Script
Empirecls
(Male announcer) Since premiering to nearly 40 million viewers in 2010, - more than 70 bosses - Oh, my God! (Announcer) have posed as subjects on a fake show to get honest feedback from their employees.
- All right.
- (Announcer) It's been shocking.
- [Cow mooing.]
- A lot of people smoke pot.
(Announcer) It's been challenging.
It's not the homeowner's fault that I get paid peanuts.
(Announcer) But it's inspired them to change their employees' lives forever.
I've decided to invest around $3 million - because of you.
- Thank you.
For real? Like, this is real? Without a doubt.
I am going to give you your own store.
Yeah.
Probably the best thing somebody ever did for me.
I have a check for $250,000.
Oh, my God.
(Announcer) Tonight, the latest boss to take this wild ride is David Seelinger Do I look funny? - You're, like, scaring me.
- Why? (Announcer) The Chairman and CEO of Empire CLS Chauffeured Services, an upscale global transportation giant.
Okay, are you ready? - Yes, girl.
- Yeah.
(Announcer) By joining his employees behind the wheel [All cheering.]
(Announcer) this titan of transportation gets to know the people who keep his company's engine running.
Watch your speed.
Oh, my God.
Sonny did terrible.
We got a cold problem here.
Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
- So he's just run over a car.
- Yeah.
And I had a porno shot in the back of my car.
Oh, my God.
What? (Announcer) What will happen when he finds that some of his employees need a refresher course in driver's ed? I'm born and raised in New York City.
I can tell you I've taken this route 100 times, so this is not out of the way.
I'm familiar with the city as well, bro.
But it's on the way home.
You're lying to me.
I'm beside myself.
I am absolutely beside myself.
(Announcer) Find out next on Undercover Boss.
(Announcer) With a base of operations in Secaucus, New Jersey, Empire CLS Worldwide Chauffeured Services is a global transportation leader.
[Dance music playing.]
This company takes pride in making sure their high-end clientele gets where they need to go.
In the driver's seat of this $150 million a year company is one man.
My name is David Seelinger.
I'm the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Empire CLS Worldwide Chauffeured Services.
Empire CLS is a provider of luxury chauffeured transportation.
We service some of the most recognizable people in the entertainment industry today.
Our headquarters are in Secaucus, New Jersey, but we service more than including London, Paris, and Milan.
We transport over a million people a year to destinations ranging from award shows to fortune 500 companies to your own home.
I don't think there is a place you can go that we can't pick you up.
I was born in Pennsylvania.
I was bullied a lot as a kid because, um, I was overweight and I developed an addiction to alcohol, um, and drugs.
And when I got into high school, it got worse.
I just I just couldn't do it.
So I dropped out of high school in the 9th grade, and it led me to a very bad place.
[Siren blaring.]
I attempted to take my life.
But, by the grace of God, I ended up in a hospital, and from there to a psychiatric center, and then from there to a rehab.
I've been sober, um, almost 30 years now.
I do think it was a miracle.
I was given this second chance, and I'm very grateful for it.
My very first job out of rehab I answered an ad in a paper to be a driver.
I drove about a year and a half, and I learned every aspect of the business.
I was the reservation manager.
I was a lead dispatcher, and as the business was growing, I was pretty much running the company day to day, and eventually I went from being an employee to being a partner in the business in about two years.
Good job, honey.
I have two daughters.
Madison is 13, and Dakota is 10.
She looks so good.
My wife's name is Michelle.
We've been separated about five years.
Both of them are such good girls.
We did something right, though.
I wish I had them more.
I think what happened was I focused on the wrong things.
Why, like, why aren't we divorced yet? I mean, it gets frustrating.
You know, everything's fine the way it is.
You know what? We do everything good together.
We just didn't do marriage good together.
- We just had no reason - Well, that's your opinion.
Your opinion is we didn't do marriage good together.
We didn't.
I live five minutes from the house that my wife and I built, which was sort of our dream home, you know.
But I live five minutes down the street.
I live in a condominium.
You're doing a good job, mama.
And things are fine the way they are.
I've always had my hair like this.
- Really short? - Yeah, so if you go long, I don't think anyone will recognize me.
I want to go undercover now because I feel a little bit out of touch.
I don't feel in touch with the dispatch center.
I don't feel in touch with the chauffeurs who make this business.
I don't feel the connectivity that I once had.
I miss it.
Oh, my God.
That's gonna look bizarre.
While undercover, I'll be posing as Sonny, the subject of a fake reality show trying to win money to start a new business.
That's very different, for sure.
I think people are used to seeing me two ways either in a suit and tie or they see me on my motorcycle.
So they're gonna see me sort of preppy.
I don't know how they'll spot me looking like that.
[Both laughing.]
- I look funny? - [Laughing.]
You're, like, scaring me! - Why? - I don't know.
You look so different.
Yeah, I know.
It's very different.
I have to get going, so I'm gonna take you guys to mama's, okay? Mm-hmm.
There's a saying in our business that you're only as good as your last ride, and it's very true.
One mistake could cost you an account.
Could cost you a lot.
Put your seatbelt on, Bo.
And I want to make sure that we haven't lost sight of that.
Today, I'm gonna be working with one of the chauffeurs at Executive Las Vegas, which is our affiliate in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This is a huge market for us.
We do a lot of entertainment business here.
We have that type of clientele here that's very demanding.
So I have to make sure that Executive Las Vegas is living up to the standards that we set for them.
I haven't driven as a chauffeur probably in 25 years, but it's like riding a bicycle.
You never lose it.
- Jackie? - Hello, hi.
- Hi, how are ya? - Hi.
- I'm Sonny.
- Hi, I'm Jackie.
Nice to meet you, Sonny.
I'm a chauffeur for Executive.
Okay.
Sonny is not a limo driver.
Sonny don't have that spunky look.
- Put that tie on.
- I'll put it on.
Sonny looked like a truck driver that put a suit on.
You're gonna get some drunks in the car.
You're gonna get some fools in the car.
You're gonna get all kind in the car.
Keep that smile on your face, okay? 'Cause that's what they look for.
Okay.
You think you're ready? I think I'm ready.
Okay.
We're gonna go in the Mandarin.
You're gonna get out.
You're gonna tell them - you're picking up Jane.
- Okay.
Talk to the doorman.
I'm here to pick up Jane.
Okay, thank you.
You're not picking up a corpse.
You're picking up somebody that's alive.
Smile.
Okay, okay, okay.
Hi, how are ya? I'm Sonny.
I'll be your chauffeur this evening.
Hey, Sonny.
Okay, where would you like to go this evening? - Polo.
- Polo? - Yes, thank you.
- Okay.
Watch your speed bumps.
You have clients.
Watch your speed.
Okay.
He should have said, "watch your head.
" Sorry about the bumps.
Oh, my God.
Slow down.
What's the speed limit? You're doing 40 round this curve.
Oh, okay.
Sonny did terrible on the first drive.
Where are we? I think we came in the wrong way.
Sonny is a horrible driver.
Sonny did not smile.
He need to relax.
You gotta open up.
Are you from Las Vegas, Sonny? Uh, yes, I am.
You gamble? Am I getting too personal? I'll be quiet.
Wow.
I'm sorry? Driving in a town that I'm not familiar with, I was focused more on the driving, so I could have been more engaging.
- Turn.
U-turn.
- U-turn.
We're gonna be late.
Sonny cannot chew gum, drive, talk to the customers at the same time, because there will be a fatality.
- Thank you.
- Thank you very much, sir.
It was a miracle that he had any tips at all.
I wouldn't have gave him two pennies.
That right there, you didn't do real good at all.
You got to loosen up.
You got to.
All right, I'll try and loosen up more.
No, you're going to loosen up.
- I'll loosen up more.
All right.
- You got to.
Jackie said I need to loosen up, so she took the next ride Hello.
and she did it the Jackie way.
Let's go.
Okay, are you ready? - Yes, girl.
- Yeah.
- Cheers to you.
- Whoo! You just have yourself a good time.
[All cheering.]
[Howling.]
All righty, then.
You come out here, and you have a little fun, and you go back, and do what you have to do.
- I'm in school right now.
- I'm going to beauty school.
Good.
For Las Vegas, I think Jackie's the perfect chauffeur.
- She was so engaging.
- You're almost there.
Aw, man.
It has been a pleasure driving you.
Jackie's got that special touch.
Here you go, Jackie.
This is for you.
- Thank you, thank you.
- Thank you so much.
She should train all the chauffeurs.
You see how you do it? - Yeah, I see now.
- That's right.
Do you like this job? - I love this job, you know? - You do? I do.
And I work construction, too.
You see this set-up on the street? - Uh-huh.
- I'm over that with the traffic - that have the flags.
- Oh, yeah.
Yeah, because you know what? I work hard for mine.
I have a daughter.
I was a single parent.
- You were? - Yes, I was, okay? Wait, how old were you when you had your daughter? I was 18, so I want to make sure my grandkids have the things they need, you know? - Of course, yeah.
- That's right.
Jackie works so hard to support her family.
She's got a great attitude, and is a wonderful chauffeur, and I want to make sure she continues to work with us for a very long time.
[Chattering, giggling.]
Hi, Claudia? - Hi.
- Hi, I'm Sonny.
- I'm your chauffeur.
How are you? - Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet ya.
How long have you girls been out here? Oh, since Friday.
Oh, my God.
You must be having a good time.
Oh, we love it.
Are you man-hunting? Yes.
Our dad said to us, "Don't come back with a marriage license.
" That was good advice.
Would you recommend getting married? Would I recommend getting married? - Yeah, what is the feeling? - Absolutely not.
- Why? - No? Wait, why? - Absolutely not.
- Just a second.
Have you ever been married before? Yes, I have.
I met my soul mate, and married her.
All: Oh! Wait, wouldn't you still be with her if she was your soul mate? No, sometimes you grow apart.
I thought it was real nice of Sonny to open up on his life.
Well, here we are.
All: Thank you.
That's what they want.
You got to show 'em the real Sonny.
You ever thought about getting married again? - I don't think so.
- Why? Why? Well, you know, I miss I miss my ex-wife.
Do you ever tell her that? Yeah.
But she said, you know, time you move on, and I just hang on.
Well, you know, Sonny, you can stay friends, but, you know, it just wasn't a strong root.
You know what? It was real strong.
Yeah.
I made a mistake.
What did you do? Did you cheat? Tell me.
Come on.
You know, I did I made a mistake, you know? And I-I don't even know if I still have even forgiven myself.
- Do your wife know you did that? - Mm-hmm.
Is that why your marriage went down the drain? Yeah.
I think so.
Well, you got to forgive yourself, 'cause if you don't forgive yourself, you can't go on with your life.
We all make mistakes.
We're human.
Yeah.
Jackie gave me a lot of things to think about.
You know, I've sort of been waiting around for something, and I'm not even sure what anymore.
And it's just time to move on, and just be happy.
You you worrying about your ex-wife, and she's not worrying about you.
That's the truth, isn't it? You the only one sitting at home looking like a dried-up prune.
You're so right.
I think the important message that I got from her was just get over it.
Like, get over yourself.
You know, just move on.
Quit having that look on your face like the whole world's dying, you know, 'cause it's not.
I learned more than just how to do this job from you today.
And it's going to be all right.
(Announcer) Coming up I'm familiar with the city as well, bro.
(Announcer) The boss struggles to contain his road rage when he meets an out-of-control employee.
You're lying to me.
(Announcer) And later I had a porno shot in the back of my car.
- What? - Oh, my God.
(Announcer) Sonny is shocked when a chauffeur crosses the line.
I didn't even know it was happening until he, uh, whipped out the equipment.
- What? - Yes.
I'm still here in Las Vegas, Nevada at Executive Limousine.
I'm here today to see the Assistant Fleet Director.
This job is critically important to me because the vehicles should be in top condition.
The chauffeurs should be very well trained in safety because if they're not, it could be very damaging to my company.
- How are you doing, sir? - I'm looking for Swan.
- I'm Swan, nice to meet you.
- I'm Sonny.
- Nice to meet you.
- Hey, nice to meet you, Sonny.
- Thanks for having me.
- All right.
I do a little bit of everything that has to do with the cars.
Today we're going to be doing a refresher course on the obstacle course.
- Okay.
- So if you're ready, let's go.
Sure.
I'm ready.
Sonny looks like maybe an insurance salesman.
This type of place, you're busy sweating your butt off.
The last thing you want is something around your neck, especially a tie like that.
Not my type.
(Swan) Basically, we start with a obstacle course refresher.
They're actually gonna drive the car through the course.
They get graded on it.
You have 100 possible for a perfect score.
- Okay.
- 80 is passing.
Okay.
So basically I'm gonna walk you through the course.
They pull the car up.
They have to stop between 18 inches.
That means their bumpers got to be right about here.
- Okay.
- If they go over it, points off.
Cones.
Five points each.
- Every cone you hit costs you five points? - Right.
This is the one that's the most fun.
Old-fashioned parallel parking.
- Oh.
- Now, you have six inches all the way around your car.
This would be a curb.
You hit the cone, five points off.
That's the obstacle course.
That's tough.
(Swan) Mr.
Wu.
Hi, Sonny.
Nice to meet ya.
I'm gonna be your side assistant.
- Okay.
- So it's all on you.
All right.
You got to get - at least 80 points.
- 80, oh.
- You ready? - Yes.
All right, let's go.
I think he's a little nervous.
(Swan) Yeah, they all are.
There you go.
Oh.
- Oof.
- There's five points.
I'm watching.
He may back into you.
That would not be good.
I'm a little concerned about Mr.
Wu.
Got a cone problem here.
Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
- So he's just run over a car.
- Yeah.
- Then he killed a pedestrian.
- Yep.
But I'm rooting for him.
He has one, two, three, four, five.
- 30 points.
- Yes.
Watch out, boys.
So he's minus 75.
- Yeah.
- He's basically failed already.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
So he can't drive these cars anymore? Well, he will be able to because technically, he just needs more instruction.
But now, wait a second.
So he's driving these cars already? - He was horrific here.
- Yes.
Yes.
But but they're gonna let him drive it? Yes.
And we make a recommendation to our supervisor.
This guy is so bad.
So bad.
I wouldn't even let him walk my dog.
Mr.
Wu failed miserably.
And I'm surprised that after that well, let's give Mr.
Wu a car, and he'll go out and drive today.
Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
As a company, safety's a huge focus for us.
- Did I pass? - (Swan) No.
Nope, you didn't pass today.
So I need to get to the bottom of this, 'cause I don't want any of the chauffeurs to put a passenger at risk.
All right, thank you.
All right.
We'd like some - maintenance work now.
- Okay, sure.
See if you can start it.
- I don't get anything.
- No.
So if I didn't get a clicking sound, I would stay with the battery first.
All right.
What brought you to Vegas? - Good at gambling? - Well, no.
The streets rolled up in New York after a while.
- The what? - Streets.
The only thing that was open was the bars.
- Oh, that's true.
- I don't drink.
You don't drink? No, I gave it up when I was 18.
(Swan) I started young.
- Oh, wow.
- The booze - was closer to killing me - Yeah.
than everything else.
And the only thing I wanted to be happy was a piece of land and a house.
So you came out here and bought a house, and We had one in the economy of '08.
Oh, and so many people lost their homes here.
Millions.
Okay, so what do you do? You pick your bootstraps back up - Let 'em take it.
- Go for it.
Yeah.
What's your dream job? - This your dream job? - No.
- What else do you want to do? - Rescue animals.
Everybody I have is an adoption.
- Really? - I have four dogs and four cats.
- I want to take care of the animals.
- That's your dream? That's that's where it is.
- There are so many things.
- Yeah.
Mirage has dolphins, okay? They have a trainer for a day, but it's, like, 600 bucks.
You should do that.
- 600 bucks.
- Oh, yeah, I know.
Sorry.
But, it's so cool.
I hope you get to do that.
Hey, I haven't given up on anything.
Yeah.
(David) Swan is awesome.
She's a tough bird.
And I tell you what, I don't think she complains about anything.
Come on, do the magic touch.
Well, I saw today that there are obvious problems with the way we certify the chauffeurs.
I know Swan's not responsible, but I need to find out who is.
[Engine starting.]
Hey, success.
Look at that.
(Swan) We did it.
(David) I'm in Secaucus, New Jersey, today, which is Empire CLS' corporate headquarters, and I'm gonna be working in the dispatch environment.
Hello, Jen, you got 'em, right? Dispatch is responsible for all the logistic decisions, dealing with customers, where the chauffeurs are going.
What's the address they gave you? - Looking for Anthony.
- Hi, can I help you? - Looking for Anthony.
- He's right over there.
My greatest fear being at this facility is that I will get caught.
I'm seen here a lot.
But hopefully, with this great disguise, I won't be seen.
- Oh, how are you doing? - Sonny.
- How are you? - Sonny, nice to meet you.
- Anthony.
- Nice to meet you.
- How are you today? - Good.
Good.
So are you ready to get started? - Yeah, I'd love to see it.
- All right, come on.
Have a seat.
I'll explain to you exactly how everything is set up over in here.
What we're looking at here is this is our main screen.
This is where we do all of our work from.
The number on the side means that's the chauffeur's driver number.
So what we do is when we're tracking this guy, make sure he's on location Okay, now if they're late, that's when we check on 'em.
So he's late? He's late really.
This guy should be there already.
You're gonna find out if he's telling the truth? So now I'm gonna check on him, and say, "Hey, Eric, how are you making out, bro?" Eric, brother, at 3271, I'm just checking in on you, sir.
How are you making out over to Newark Terminal C? Do me a favor, if you're running delayed, just give me the heads up, all right? So I can just give 'em a call and let 'em know.
The perfect dispatcher is somebody that can juggle a lot of things at one time.
Let me see if I can get you a price on that, all right? From speaking with customers, immediately speaking then to a chauffeur, to training.
I think you're ready for some live calls, man.
- I'm willing.
- Think you Let's do it.
- I gotta learn, I'm willing.
- Let's do it, you'll learn.
[Phone ringing.]
- (Phillip) Hello? - Hi, Phillip.
It's Sonny.
How are you? - (Phillip) It's who? - Empire CLS.
- Sonny, Empire CLS.
- (Phillip) Okay, what's up? - Are you on location? - (Phillip) No.
- Are you gonna be late? - All right, cool.
(Phillip) No, I'm not.
Thank you very much.
(Phillip) All right, no problem.
[Phone ringing.]
Hi, thank you for calling Empire CLS.
This is Sonny.
Who's calling? Rahman.
20940.
- Manhattan, okay.
- All right.
Hold on one second.
- Open up the trip.
- (Customer) It's a two-minute stop, sir.
Literally, two minutes.
Literally, two minutes? (Customer) I just have to get something from someone - It's a customer.
- (Customer) It's on the way home.
I've been a longstanding customer.
If you can do me that favor, I would appreciate it.
Ask him if you can speak to the chauffeur.
(Customer) Literally two minutes.
Okay, no, it's no problem, sir.
- No problem at all.
- Can I speak to the chauffeur? (Customer) And if I'm there more than three minutes, you can charge me.
I'm gonna have to take this one, bro.
Can I just speak with the chauffeur for one second, please? I just want to run something by the chauffeur.
(Customer) Sure.
- (Rahman) Yeah? - Is this on the way to his house? You don't have me on speakerphone, do you? I want to talk to you, not him.
Your opinion, bro, if you're there for a minute is it that big of a deal for you to make a quick stop? You tell me.
I want your answer.
I don't want him to tell me what we gotta do.
This is our company.
This is your ride.
So you could just let Mr (Rahman) Okay, hold on.
Hold on.
Hold on.
- Okay.
- (Customer) Hi, how are you? The fact is is the chauffeur's advising me that this is actually not on the way from JFK to the Bronx.
When Anthony was handling this issue with a passenger, that is a very simple thing to resolve.
The customer's right.
Make the extra stop.
(Customer) I'm born and raised in New York City.
I can tell you I've taken this route a hundred times.
So this is not out of the way.
I'm familiar with the city as well, bro.
I'm adding an extra stop.
There's no question within my mind.
(Customer) But it's on the way home! You're lying to me.
I wanted to grab the phone from him.
(Customer) Literally, ten feet.
And then that's it.
And I get right back on the highway.
[Chuckles.]
Sorry for laughing.
I'm beside myself.
I'm absolutely beside myself.
That is not the way I run my business.
I'm adding it.
This is actually not on the way from JFK to the Bronx.
(Customer) I'm born and raised in New York City.
I can tell you I've taken this route a hundred times.
So this is not out of the way.
You're lying to me.
I'm adding an extra stop.
There's no question within my mind.
I wanted to grab the phone from him.
- All right.
- The customer wants to make an extra stop and he's telling you that it's in-route.
The customer is always right.
All I know is I need a damn cigarette.
I don't know if you're a smoker or not, but I'm about to smoke three at one time.
[Coughing.]
This is a tough job, dude.
We don't get breaks.
Whenever there's free time, that's when you take a break.
Oh, so when you can, you do it.
Yeah.
When you can, you eat.
- Wow.
- You know, it sucks, but, hey, that's part of the job, so what are you gonna do? - Seems like you like it.
- [Chuckles.]
I enjoy the people I work with, let's say that.
The company makes millions of dollars, bro.
They don't look after their own.
They look after the people that are up top, and all of us little worms that are at the bottom, we're scrambling for a [.]
piece of bread or something that's not there.
I have applied for ten different positions at that company and they've passed me by on every single one of 'em.
Anthony feels like we've "stuck him in this rut.
" I see myself owning my own company, running my own company, me being my own boss.
You know what I mean? I don't see myself as some kind of slumpy worker for somebody.
I don't like it.
I think he's his own worst enemy.
Yeah, let's get the hell out of here.
I'm ready to go.
You ready? The one thing I always tell my employees is if your not satisfied with your job, and you don't respect the people you work for, get out because you're not doing me any favors.
None.
Back to freaking work.
At this moment, I don't know what I'm gonna do with Anthony.
I'm here today in Los Angeles to inspect the chauffeurs and make sure they're performing at the level they should.
This is the heart of the entertainment world.
Where our clientele's mostly high-level executives and celebrities.
So I need to make sure our chauffeurs are at the top of their game at all times.
- Sonny? - Frank? - Yes.
- Nice to meet you.
I'm an executive chauffeur and I'm gonna teach you everything there is to know.
I appreciate it.
My first impression was Sonny's hair was messed up.
He didn't look like chauffeur material.
When you first get a client, just make sure you make eye contact.
Once you get 'em in the car, ask 'em a preferred route.
So we got all our cleaning supplies.
After that, you can wipe down all the spots.
Okay.
My first impressions of Frank are awesome.
He vacuums the floor.
He's cleaning the rims.
Frank's pride in his job, that really made me feel good.
Okay, here comes some people.
Oh, okay.
Get professional.
Professional? I'll let you do all the talking.
- Mrs.
Lawrence? - Yes? - Hi, how are you? - Good.
How are you? - I'm Sonny, your chauffeur.
- Hi, I'm Sarah.
- Can I get your bag for you? - Sure, thank you.
Sure.
Put my seatbelt on here.
You going to Beverly Hills, ma'am? Yes.
Do you have a preferred route? Um, just not the freeway.
Okay.
It's pretty bumpy.
That was my fault, and I'm very, very sorry for that.
So how many days a week do you work? (Frank) Five.
Do you have any recurring clients that are so bad that you just don't ever want to work with them again? Yeah.
Could be anything from smoking pot, doing drugs, having sex in the car, I mean [Chuckles.]
And I had a porno shot in the back of my car.
- No way.
- Yeah.
- What? - Very professional.
- What? - Guy was Yes.
Oh, my God.
I thought his conversation with the passenger was very inappropriate.
One of the girls starts sticking her tongue in my ear.
- What? - Now, I'm - (Sarah) What? - Yes.
He's in a car alone with a woman.
There is no reason to tell her that there was porno filmed in a car.
It could be misconstrued as harassment.
There you go.
Let me get your luggage for you.
Beside the fact that he's sharing this with a customer, I'm still trying to figure out why the hell he allowed a porno to be shot in one of my cars.
That's cause for alarm on my part.
Okay.
- So we got one under our belt.
- Okay.
As soon as you pass Beverly Drive, we're gonna turn left there.
- She's at Chanel.
- Oh, it's a woman? When we picked up the two young ladies in Beverly Hills - Hi, I'm Sonny.
I'm your chauffeur.
- Hi.
- Nice to meet you.
- Good.
How are you? I was so nervous that he was gonna have another inappropriate conversation or hit on them.
Good? Hmm.
I always get nauseous when I'm a passenger.
Yeah.
Do you want some fresh air? Yeah, I think so.
Thank you.
Good job.
Oh, can you grab that please? - (David) Sure, of course.
- Thank you.
Go on, you get the bellman, I'll get the bags.
(David) I was really upset with Frank, but I think that he just needs to be re-educated on what is appropriate conversation.
We just have to talk to him.
And I'm sure that can be rectified.
- All right.
- All right, Sonny.
All in all, see, it was a good day, man.
So you been doing this a long time? - A long time.
- Yeah.
- A long time.
- Do you like it? I love it.
It's freedom.
- Nobody's breathing down my neck.
- Yeah.
I love my freedom.
I'm into low-riding, so I kind of, like, that takes all my attention.
I love to get out there, man.
I love to show my car off.
That brings me happiness, you know? I just I'm high on life, man.
Yeah.
I used to be really bad on drugs when I was younger.
- You were? - Yes.
I was a big drug addict in the early '90s.
- Really? - I used to do heroin and cocaine.
- So I was really bad.
- Oh, wow.
I was down to nothing.
Coming from nothing where nobody trusted me, my family, to actually somebody trusting me to work, it blows my mind, like, what I've accomplished, you know? I-I never thought I'd be alive to see 30.
You know, I never tell any people this, but 'cause you told me, I'm a recovering addict.
- Really? - Yeah.
But I've been sober almost 28 years.
Damn.
Good for you.
- Did you go to rehab? I went to rehab.
- No.
- No, man, I just had - You just a mother that constantly prayed for me.
And a lot happened.
It was it it was my grandfather passed away in '94.
- Yeah.
- And when he died, I just remember being at the funeral, and I was just, like, "I gotta get high.
" I That's all I thought about.
I was a pallbearer, and I was just couldn't wait to, like, put that coffin down and then just go out and get in my face.
I was the same way, man.
And I-I hated myself To this I don't even want to talk about it, man.
That's my only regret though.
Just I didn't get to say good-bye.
I was, like When I was talking to Frank, I felt like I connected with him because of my addiction.
My addiction was pretty bad.
I'm, you know, lucky to be here in this earth, this world because I tried to take my own life a long time ago.
And I never thought I'd amount to anything.
And to to be riding around Frank today and to see it, you know, like, out on the street, and really working, and how much pride he takes in it, and all the things that we do for the customer man, I felt really good.
We got one more job.
Gotta head out we gotta head out now.
All right.
Let's go.
The last couple of years have been challenging for a whole host of reasons, and personal, too.
And I've lost a little bit of touch.
I had definitely forgotten that I always walked around the office every day when I got to work.
And I was able to touch a lot of people, and say hello to a lot of people, and then they would sometimes say to me, "Oh, can I tell you something?" And I learned a lot.
Haven't done it, and I'm gonna go back to doing that right away.
(Frank) Man, I'm really honored you told me what you did.
(Announcer) Coming up The employees think they're going to decide whether or not Sonny deserves the money to start his own business.
How will they react when he reveals his true identity? - [Gasps.]
- Yeah.
Get the [.]
out.
Sorry for cursing.
I came so close to ripping that wig off.
This has been on way too long.
I learned so much from everybody that touched my life through this journey.
Oh.
I just feel like I want to jump out of my skin and change so many things in my life.
This experience has taught me that I can't ever lose touch with my employees.
They are the backbone of our business.
- Hi.
- Hi.
What are you doing here? [Laughing.]
I wanted to ask you how Sonny did.
Terrible.
Do I look familiar to you? No.
I mean you're a nice-looking guy, - but I've never seen you before.
- Oh, thank you.
Thank you very much.
- I am David Seelinger.
- Okay.
And I'm the Chairman and CEO of Empire CLS.
Oh, sweet.
Get the [.]
out.
Sorry for cursing.
You're Sonny, right? - Yeah.
- [Gasps.]
This is a show called Undercover Boss.
Oh, cool.
You had such an ugly wig on.
Oh, thank you.
[Laughs.]
Okay.
A little nervous.
Anthony, I have to tell you, I came so close to ripping that wig off.
The fact is is the chauffeur's advising me that this is actually not on the way from JFK to the Bronx.
(Customer) But it's on the way home.
You're lying to me.
It was completely inappropriate.
It's almost like you like conflict.
I was just trying to Uh, do you know what the problem was? I was trying to help the chauffeur 'cause I speak with the car with the chauffeurs on a personal level, and, you know, they they get upset.
Look, I get it.
But it just has to stop.
- Yeah.
- Bottom line.
Yeah.
Inside a professional business environment you can't act like that.
You'll stay in the same place and the way you presented it to me, like you're a victim.
- Yeah, well - You're not a victim.
I'm a victim of myself basically is what it is, you know? Why? Why? Talk to me.
Come on.
I've never had a break, all right? So, you know, I should be doing something better.
That's the type of person I feel I am.
I should be doing something better.
Anthony, listen to me.
You can excel.
It's not too late.
But you gotta change.
Yeah.
A lot.
The path you're looking for might be right here.
All right? And I'll work with you.
We'll meet in my office.
We'll talk about your future.
I'll write a plan for you to get there.
But you gotta do the work.
- Are you in? - I'm in.
- You promise? - I promise on my kids.
(Anthony) I realize my mistakes.
That was a major eye-opener.
This is the owner of my company telling me that, "I believe in you.
" That's huge.
It's a great feeling.
Great feeling to know that I have somebody on my side to help me get to where I want to go.
Swan, I had a great experience with you.
- Thank you.
- It was fantastic.
This guy is so bad.
I wouldn't even let him walk my dog.
You shared with me some of your personal story.
- Right.
- And one of them is just this amazing love - you have for animals.
- Right.
One of the things I want to do for you, Swan, is give you $10,000 that you can donate to a charity of your choice.
- Mm-hmm.
- An animal charity, I'm assuming.
Yeah, $10,000 is remarkable.
Your money will definitely help in that category.
Good.
Well, you do whatever you choose with it.
I'm actually ecstatic.
There's another thing I want to do for you.
You told me about this great love you have - for dolphins.
- Mm-hmm.
And you said you wanted to be a trainer.
Dolphin trainer for a day.
I'd like to give you $15,000 Wow.
to take a trip with you and your husband - Mm-hmm.
- where you can - swim with dolphins - Mm-hmm.
and train dolphins for a whole week.
Unbelievable.
I think the moon must be blue, because this is definitely cool.
[Laughs.]
Okay.
Tell me about what happened with your home.
My husband and I bought a piece of property in Arizona.
At the end of the construction loan, we asked him if we could refinance, because we were paying, like, 13.
5%.
He didn't want to refi because he wanted the property for himself.
The person who financed it basically took it away from you, - right? - Exactly.
What I'd like to do for you is give you $30,000 Wow.
to help you get to your dream again.
There's a million ways to say thank you, and none of them would be enough.
This blows my mind.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
(Swan) I'm still kind of, like, in shock because of David's generosity.
Thank you.
- Can I hug ya? - Yes.
(Swan) Owning land is important to me, because that gives me freedom.
David made it all a reality.
- Frank.
- Mm-hmm.
There's something that I have a tremendously big issue with.
And I had a porno shot in the back of my car.
- What? - Yes.
Oh, my God.
When it happened, I almost pulled the car over.
- Really? - Yeah.
Wow.
I don't think you have bad intentions, I don't, but what we're gonna have to do is send you through some sexual harassment training, so that you understand, certain things you say can become a problem.
Are you okay? You all right? No, I'm feeling real uncomfortable right now.
Tell me how you feel.
- I'm embarrassed.
- Why? [Scoffs.]
I can't believe I told you about me being, you know, an ex-drug addict.
Why, do you think I would judge you? Frank, we're brothers in this with the same disease.
You're also the owner.
No greater or less than you.
We're one and the same, man.
We're one and the same.
I think you're a great chauffeur.
- Thank you.
- You know, your hobby that you have I have a hobby too.
I'm into motorcycles because it helps me relieve stress when I go riding, you know? - I know the feeling, I know.
- You know the feeling? I'd like to give you $10,000.
[Scoffs.]
So you can do whatever you want to your car, to your lowrider.
- Seriously? - Yeah.
I feel like I'm in a dream.
Man.
I want to do something else for you.
I want to give you $20,000, okay, and I want you to use that at your discretion.
You need to do something for your mom, or you need to pay off some bills, or whatever it may be.
Oh, man.
[Upbeat music.]
[Sniffs.]
You're a good guy, Frank.
You're a really good guy.
[Sniffs.]
This doesn't seem real.
It is real.
Thank you.
All right.
- I'll give you a hug.
- Oh.
Will you hug a brother? - Of course.
- [Chuckles.]
(Frank) David's a great man.
I'm honored to work for him.
What a trip.
I never thought we'd have, you know, anything in common.
- I'm a hugger.
- Thanks, I appreciate it.
My life's definitely changed, 'cause first of all, I get to help my mom, which I love doing.
I mean, I try to help her as much as possible.
I'm, like, ecstatic.
I can't believe it.
(David) Jackie.
- [Laughs.]
- There's something about you that is just very moving.
Thank you.
And you are very, very good - at what you do.
- Thank you.
Okay, are you ready? - Yes, girl! - Yeah! You just have yourself a good time.
I want to do something for you, Jackie.
I'd like you to take your family, and I want to pay for an all-expense paid trip to any destination you'd like to go to.
Oh.
Thank you.
[Laughs.]
Thank you so much.
Oh, God.
[Laughs.]
Beyond just learning the things I learned about driving that car, something you said to me hit the nail right on the head.
What was it? You said, "You're living in the past.
" Yeah.
Life is too short.
- Mm-hmm.
- You've got to let go.
Somehow, it was that timing, but when you said it, I felt this weight off my shoulders.
[Clicks tongue.]
Oh, Dave.
You've had a profound effect on my life, in one day.
I can't even describe it, but I thank you for that very much.
And you have had one on mine too.
Well, God bless you.
God bless you.
And remember, Dave, I told you, I said, "You know, Dave, "you need to go out there, Dave, 'cause it's somebody for everybody.
" I don't care if it's a pig with a wig, it's somebody.
- A pig with a wig? - Uh-huh.
[Laughs.]
And there's somebody out there that would love to have you.
Do you want to marry me? [Both laughing.]
Well, I want you to know that I have something else I want to do for you.
Jackie, I would like to give you $40,000 to do what you choose with, whatever that may be.
Oh, my God, no.
- Yes.
- Oh, my God.
[Sobbing.]
You have changed my life so much, oh, God.
- You've changed mine.
- Oh, God.
You're amazing.
God bless you.
Thank you so much.
- [Sobbing.]
Thank you.
- God bless you.
God bless you.
(Jackie) Oh, this will be a memory that I'll never forget.
This is a lifetime change for me, do you hear me? When I say a lifetime change, I mean a lifetime change for me.
[Sobs.]
I'm so happy, I cannot stop crying.
- All right.
- (Announcer) It's been shocking.
- [Cow mooing.]
- A lot of people smoke pot.
(Announcer) It's been challenging.
It's not the homeowner's fault that I get paid peanuts.
(Announcer) But it's inspired them to change their employees' lives forever.
I've decided to invest around $3 million - because of you.
- Thank you.
For real? Like, this is real? Without a doubt.
I am going to give you your own store.
Yeah.
Probably the best thing somebody ever did for me.
I have a check for $250,000.
Oh, my God.
(Announcer) Tonight, the latest boss to take this wild ride is David Seelinger Do I look funny? - You're, like, scaring me.
- Why? (Announcer) The Chairman and CEO of Empire CLS Chauffeured Services, an upscale global transportation giant.
Okay, are you ready? - Yes, girl.
- Yeah.
(Announcer) By joining his employees behind the wheel [All cheering.]
(Announcer) this titan of transportation gets to know the people who keep his company's engine running.
Watch your speed.
Oh, my God.
Sonny did terrible.
We got a cold problem here.
Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
- So he's just run over a car.
- Yeah.
And I had a porno shot in the back of my car.
Oh, my God.
What? (Announcer) What will happen when he finds that some of his employees need a refresher course in driver's ed? I'm born and raised in New York City.
I can tell you I've taken this route 100 times, so this is not out of the way.
I'm familiar with the city as well, bro.
But it's on the way home.
You're lying to me.
I'm beside myself.
I am absolutely beside myself.
(Announcer) Find out next on Undercover Boss.
(Announcer) With a base of operations in Secaucus, New Jersey, Empire CLS Worldwide Chauffeured Services is a global transportation leader.
[Dance music playing.]
This company takes pride in making sure their high-end clientele gets where they need to go.
In the driver's seat of this $150 million a year company is one man.
My name is David Seelinger.
I'm the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Empire CLS Worldwide Chauffeured Services.
Empire CLS is a provider of luxury chauffeured transportation.
We service some of the most recognizable people in the entertainment industry today.
Our headquarters are in Secaucus, New Jersey, but we service more than including London, Paris, and Milan.
We transport over a million people a year to destinations ranging from award shows to fortune 500 companies to your own home.
I don't think there is a place you can go that we can't pick you up.
I was born in Pennsylvania.
I was bullied a lot as a kid because, um, I was overweight and I developed an addiction to alcohol, um, and drugs.
And when I got into high school, it got worse.
I just I just couldn't do it.
So I dropped out of high school in the 9th grade, and it led me to a very bad place.
[Siren blaring.]
I attempted to take my life.
But, by the grace of God, I ended up in a hospital, and from there to a psychiatric center, and then from there to a rehab.
I've been sober, um, almost 30 years now.
I do think it was a miracle.
I was given this second chance, and I'm very grateful for it.
My very first job out of rehab I answered an ad in a paper to be a driver.
I drove about a year and a half, and I learned every aspect of the business.
I was the reservation manager.
I was a lead dispatcher, and as the business was growing, I was pretty much running the company day to day, and eventually I went from being an employee to being a partner in the business in about two years.
Good job, honey.
I have two daughters.
Madison is 13, and Dakota is 10.
She looks so good.
My wife's name is Michelle.
We've been separated about five years.
Both of them are such good girls.
We did something right, though.
I wish I had them more.
I think what happened was I focused on the wrong things.
Why, like, why aren't we divorced yet? I mean, it gets frustrating.
You know, everything's fine the way it is.
You know what? We do everything good together.
We just didn't do marriage good together.
- We just had no reason - Well, that's your opinion.
Your opinion is we didn't do marriage good together.
We didn't.
I live five minutes from the house that my wife and I built, which was sort of our dream home, you know.
But I live five minutes down the street.
I live in a condominium.
You're doing a good job, mama.
And things are fine the way they are.
I've always had my hair like this.
- Really short? - Yeah, so if you go long, I don't think anyone will recognize me.
I want to go undercover now because I feel a little bit out of touch.
I don't feel in touch with the dispatch center.
I don't feel in touch with the chauffeurs who make this business.
I don't feel the connectivity that I once had.
I miss it.
Oh, my God.
That's gonna look bizarre.
While undercover, I'll be posing as Sonny, the subject of a fake reality show trying to win money to start a new business.
That's very different, for sure.
I think people are used to seeing me two ways either in a suit and tie or they see me on my motorcycle.
So they're gonna see me sort of preppy.
I don't know how they'll spot me looking like that.
[Both laughing.]
- I look funny? - [Laughing.]
You're, like, scaring me! - Why? - I don't know.
You look so different.
Yeah, I know.
It's very different.
I have to get going, so I'm gonna take you guys to mama's, okay? Mm-hmm.
There's a saying in our business that you're only as good as your last ride, and it's very true.
One mistake could cost you an account.
Could cost you a lot.
Put your seatbelt on, Bo.
And I want to make sure that we haven't lost sight of that.
Today, I'm gonna be working with one of the chauffeurs at Executive Las Vegas, which is our affiliate in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This is a huge market for us.
We do a lot of entertainment business here.
We have that type of clientele here that's very demanding.
So I have to make sure that Executive Las Vegas is living up to the standards that we set for them.
I haven't driven as a chauffeur probably in 25 years, but it's like riding a bicycle.
You never lose it.
- Jackie? - Hello, hi.
- Hi, how are ya? - Hi.
- I'm Sonny.
- Hi, I'm Jackie.
Nice to meet you, Sonny.
I'm a chauffeur for Executive.
Okay.
Sonny is not a limo driver.
Sonny don't have that spunky look.
- Put that tie on.
- I'll put it on.
Sonny looked like a truck driver that put a suit on.
You're gonna get some drunks in the car.
You're gonna get some fools in the car.
You're gonna get all kind in the car.
Keep that smile on your face, okay? 'Cause that's what they look for.
Okay.
You think you're ready? I think I'm ready.
Okay.
We're gonna go in the Mandarin.
You're gonna get out.
You're gonna tell them - you're picking up Jane.
- Okay.
Talk to the doorman.
I'm here to pick up Jane.
Okay, thank you.
You're not picking up a corpse.
You're picking up somebody that's alive.
Smile.
Okay, okay, okay.
Hi, how are ya? I'm Sonny.
I'll be your chauffeur this evening.
Hey, Sonny.
Okay, where would you like to go this evening? - Polo.
- Polo? - Yes, thank you.
- Okay.
Watch your speed bumps.
You have clients.
Watch your speed.
Okay.
He should have said, "watch your head.
" Sorry about the bumps.
Oh, my God.
Slow down.
What's the speed limit? You're doing 40 round this curve.
Oh, okay.
Sonny did terrible on the first drive.
Where are we? I think we came in the wrong way.
Sonny is a horrible driver.
Sonny did not smile.
He need to relax.
You gotta open up.
Are you from Las Vegas, Sonny? Uh, yes, I am.
You gamble? Am I getting too personal? I'll be quiet.
Wow.
I'm sorry? Driving in a town that I'm not familiar with, I was focused more on the driving, so I could have been more engaging.
- Turn.
U-turn.
- U-turn.
We're gonna be late.
Sonny cannot chew gum, drive, talk to the customers at the same time, because there will be a fatality.
- Thank you.
- Thank you very much, sir.
It was a miracle that he had any tips at all.
I wouldn't have gave him two pennies.
That right there, you didn't do real good at all.
You got to loosen up.
You got to.
All right, I'll try and loosen up more.
No, you're going to loosen up.
- I'll loosen up more.
All right.
- You got to.
Jackie said I need to loosen up, so she took the next ride Hello.
and she did it the Jackie way.
Let's go.
Okay, are you ready? - Yes, girl.
- Yeah.
- Cheers to you.
- Whoo! You just have yourself a good time.
[All cheering.]
[Howling.]
All righty, then.
You come out here, and you have a little fun, and you go back, and do what you have to do.
- I'm in school right now.
- I'm going to beauty school.
Good.
For Las Vegas, I think Jackie's the perfect chauffeur.
- She was so engaging.
- You're almost there.
Aw, man.
It has been a pleasure driving you.
Jackie's got that special touch.
Here you go, Jackie.
This is for you.
- Thank you, thank you.
- Thank you so much.
She should train all the chauffeurs.
You see how you do it? - Yeah, I see now.
- That's right.
Do you like this job? - I love this job, you know? - You do? I do.
And I work construction, too.
You see this set-up on the street? - Uh-huh.
- I'm over that with the traffic - that have the flags.
- Oh, yeah.
Yeah, because you know what? I work hard for mine.
I have a daughter.
I was a single parent.
- You were? - Yes, I was, okay? Wait, how old were you when you had your daughter? I was 18, so I want to make sure my grandkids have the things they need, you know? - Of course, yeah.
- That's right.
Jackie works so hard to support her family.
She's got a great attitude, and is a wonderful chauffeur, and I want to make sure she continues to work with us for a very long time.
[Chattering, giggling.]
Hi, Claudia? - Hi.
- Hi, I'm Sonny.
- I'm your chauffeur.
How are you? - Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet ya.
How long have you girls been out here? Oh, since Friday.
Oh, my God.
You must be having a good time.
Oh, we love it.
Are you man-hunting? Yes.
Our dad said to us, "Don't come back with a marriage license.
" That was good advice.
Would you recommend getting married? Would I recommend getting married? - Yeah, what is the feeling? - Absolutely not.
- Why? - No? Wait, why? - Absolutely not.
- Just a second.
Have you ever been married before? Yes, I have.
I met my soul mate, and married her.
All: Oh! Wait, wouldn't you still be with her if she was your soul mate? No, sometimes you grow apart.
I thought it was real nice of Sonny to open up on his life.
Well, here we are.
All: Thank you.
That's what they want.
You got to show 'em the real Sonny.
You ever thought about getting married again? - I don't think so.
- Why? Why? Well, you know, I miss I miss my ex-wife.
Do you ever tell her that? Yeah.
But she said, you know, time you move on, and I just hang on.
Well, you know, Sonny, you can stay friends, but, you know, it just wasn't a strong root.
You know what? It was real strong.
Yeah.
I made a mistake.
What did you do? Did you cheat? Tell me.
Come on.
You know, I did I made a mistake, you know? And I-I don't even know if I still have even forgiven myself.
- Do your wife know you did that? - Mm-hmm.
Is that why your marriage went down the drain? Yeah.
I think so.
Well, you got to forgive yourself, 'cause if you don't forgive yourself, you can't go on with your life.
We all make mistakes.
We're human.
Yeah.
Jackie gave me a lot of things to think about.
You know, I've sort of been waiting around for something, and I'm not even sure what anymore.
And it's just time to move on, and just be happy.
You you worrying about your ex-wife, and she's not worrying about you.
That's the truth, isn't it? You the only one sitting at home looking like a dried-up prune.
You're so right.
I think the important message that I got from her was just get over it.
Like, get over yourself.
You know, just move on.
Quit having that look on your face like the whole world's dying, you know, 'cause it's not.
I learned more than just how to do this job from you today.
And it's going to be all right.
(Announcer) Coming up I'm familiar with the city as well, bro.
(Announcer) The boss struggles to contain his road rage when he meets an out-of-control employee.
You're lying to me.
(Announcer) And later I had a porno shot in the back of my car.
- What? - Oh, my God.
(Announcer) Sonny is shocked when a chauffeur crosses the line.
I didn't even know it was happening until he, uh, whipped out the equipment.
- What? - Yes.
I'm still here in Las Vegas, Nevada at Executive Limousine.
I'm here today to see the Assistant Fleet Director.
This job is critically important to me because the vehicles should be in top condition.
The chauffeurs should be very well trained in safety because if they're not, it could be very damaging to my company.
- How are you doing, sir? - I'm looking for Swan.
- I'm Swan, nice to meet you.
- I'm Sonny.
- Nice to meet you.
- Hey, nice to meet you, Sonny.
- Thanks for having me.
- All right.
I do a little bit of everything that has to do with the cars.
Today we're going to be doing a refresher course on the obstacle course.
- Okay.
- So if you're ready, let's go.
Sure.
I'm ready.
Sonny looks like maybe an insurance salesman.
This type of place, you're busy sweating your butt off.
The last thing you want is something around your neck, especially a tie like that.
Not my type.
(Swan) Basically, we start with a obstacle course refresher.
They're actually gonna drive the car through the course.
They get graded on it.
You have 100 possible for a perfect score.
- Okay.
- 80 is passing.
Okay.
So basically I'm gonna walk you through the course.
They pull the car up.
They have to stop between 18 inches.
That means their bumpers got to be right about here.
- Okay.
- If they go over it, points off.
Cones.
Five points each.
- Every cone you hit costs you five points? - Right.
This is the one that's the most fun.
Old-fashioned parallel parking.
- Oh.
- Now, you have six inches all the way around your car.
This would be a curb.
You hit the cone, five points off.
That's the obstacle course.
That's tough.
(Swan) Mr.
Wu.
Hi, Sonny.
Nice to meet ya.
I'm gonna be your side assistant.
- Okay.
- So it's all on you.
All right.
You got to get - at least 80 points.
- 80, oh.
- You ready? - Yes.
All right, let's go.
I think he's a little nervous.
(Swan) Yeah, they all are.
There you go.
Oh.
- Oof.
- There's five points.
I'm watching.
He may back into you.
That would not be good.
I'm a little concerned about Mr.
Wu.
Got a cone problem here.
Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
- So he's just run over a car.
- Yeah.
- Then he killed a pedestrian.
- Yep.
But I'm rooting for him.
He has one, two, three, four, five.
- 30 points.
- Yes.
Watch out, boys.
So he's minus 75.
- Yeah.
- He's basically failed already.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
So he can't drive these cars anymore? Well, he will be able to because technically, he just needs more instruction.
But now, wait a second.
So he's driving these cars already? - He was horrific here.
- Yes.
Yes.
But but they're gonna let him drive it? Yes.
And we make a recommendation to our supervisor.
This guy is so bad.
So bad.
I wouldn't even let him walk my dog.
Mr.
Wu failed miserably.
And I'm surprised that after that well, let's give Mr.
Wu a car, and he'll go out and drive today.
Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
As a company, safety's a huge focus for us.
- Did I pass? - (Swan) No.
Nope, you didn't pass today.
So I need to get to the bottom of this, 'cause I don't want any of the chauffeurs to put a passenger at risk.
All right, thank you.
All right.
We'd like some - maintenance work now.
- Okay, sure.
See if you can start it.
- I don't get anything.
- No.
So if I didn't get a clicking sound, I would stay with the battery first.
All right.
What brought you to Vegas? - Good at gambling? - Well, no.
The streets rolled up in New York after a while.
- The what? - Streets.
The only thing that was open was the bars.
- Oh, that's true.
- I don't drink.
You don't drink? No, I gave it up when I was 18.
(Swan) I started young.
- Oh, wow.
- The booze - was closer to killing me - Yeah.
than everything else.
And the only thing I wanted to be happy was a piece of land and a house.
So you came out here and bought a house, and We had one in the economy of '08.
Oh, and so many people lost their homes here.
Millions.
Okay, so what do you do? You pick your bootstraps back up - Let 'em take it.
- Go for it.
Yeah.
What's your dream job? - This your dream job? - No.
- What else do you want to do? - Rescue animals.
Everybody I have is an adoption.
- Really? - I have four dogs and four cats.
- I want to take care of the animals.
- That's your dream? That's that's where it is.
- There are so many things.
- Yeah.
Mirage has dolphins, okay? They have a trainer for a day, but it's, like, 600 bucks.
You should do that.
- 600 bucks.
- Oh, yeah, I know.
Sorry.
But, it's so cool.
I hope you get to do that.
Hey, I haven't given up on anything.
Yeah.
(David) Swan is awesome.
She's a tough bird.
And I tell you what, I don't think she complains about anything.
Come on, do the magic touch.
Well, I saw today that there are obvious problems with the way we certify the chauffeurs.
I know Swan's not responsible, but I need to find out who is.
[Engine starting.]
Hey, success.
Look at that.
(Swan) We did it.
(David) I'm in Secaucus, New Jersey, today, which is Empire CLS' corporate headquarters, and I'm gonna be working in the dispatch environment.
Hello, Jen, you got 'em, right? Dispatch is responsible for all the logistic decisions, dealing with customers, where the chauffeurs are going.
What's the address they gave you? - Looking for Anthony.
- Hi, can I help you? - Looking for Anthony.
- He's right over there.
My greatest fear being at this facility is that I will get caught.
I'm seen here a lot.
But hopefully, with this great disguise, I won't be seen.
- Oh, how are you doing? - Sonny.
- How are you? - Sonny, nice to meet you.
- Anthony.
- Nice to meet you.
- How are you today? - Good.
Good.
So are you ready to get started? - Yeah, I'd love to see it.
- All right, come on.
Have a seat.
I'll explain to you exactly how everything is set up over in here.
What we're looking at here is this is our main screen.
This is where we do all of our work from.
The number on the side means that's the chauffeur's driver number.
So what we do is when we're tracking this guy, make sure he's on location Okay, now if they're late, that's when we check on 'em.
So he's late? He's late really.
This guy should be there already.
You're gonna find out if he's telling the truth? So now I'm gonna check on him, and say, "Hey, Eric, how are you making out, bro?" Eric, brother, at 3271, I'm just checking in on you, sir.
How are you making out over to Newark Terminal C? Do me a favor, if you're running delayed, just give me the heads up, all right? So I can just give 'em a call and let 'em know.
The perfect dispatcher is somebody that can juggle a lot of things at one time.
Let me see if I can get you a price on that, all right? From speaking with customers, immediately speaking then to a chauffeur, to training.
I think you're ready for some live calls, man.
- I'm willing.
- Think you Let's do it.
- I gotta learn, I'm willing.
- Let's do it, you'll learn.
[Phone ringing.]
- (Phillip) Hello? - Hi, Phillip.
It's Sonny.
How are you? - (Phillip) It's who? - Empire CLS.
- Sonny, Empire CLS.
- (Phillip) Okay, what's up? - Are you on location? - (Phillip) No.
- Are you gonna be late? - All right, cool.
(Phillip) No, I'm not.
Thank you very much.
(Phillip) All right, no problem.
[Phone ringing.]
Hi, thank you for calling Empire CLS.
This is Sonny.
Who's calling? Rahman.
20940.
- Manhattan, okay.
- All right.
Hold on one second.
- Open up the trip.
- (Customer) It's a two-minute stop, sir.
Literally, two minutes.
Literally, two minutes? (Customer) I just have to get something from someone - It's a customer.
- (Customer) It's on the way home.
I've been a longstanding customer.
If you can do me that favor, I would appreciate it.
Ask him if you can speak to the chauffeur.
(Customer) Literally two minutes.
Okay, no, it's no problem, sir.
- No problem at all.
- Can I speak to the chauffeur? (Customer) And if I'm there more than three minutes, you can charge me.
I'm gonna have to take this one, bro.
Can I just speak with the chauffeur for one second, please? I just want to run something by the chauffeur.
(Customer) Sure.
- (Rahman) Yeah? - Is this on the way to his house? You don't have me on speakerphone, do you? I want to talk to you, not him.
Your opinion, bro, if you're there for a minute is it that big of a deal for you to make a quick stop? You tell me.
I want your answer.
I don't want him to tell me what we gotta do.
This is our company.
This is your ride.
So you could just let Mr (Rahman) Okay, hold on.
Hold on.
Hold on.
- Okay.
- (Customer) Hi, how are you? The fact is is the chauffeur's advising me that this is actually not on the way from JFK to the Bronx.
When Anthony was handling this issue with a passenger, that is a very simple thing to resolve.
The customer's right.
Make the extra stop.
(Customer) I'm born and raised in New York City.
I can tell you I've taken this route a hundred times.
So this is not out of the way.
I'm familiar with the city as well, bro.
I'm adding an extra stop.
There's no question within my mind.
(Customer) But it's on the way home! You're lying to me.
I wanted to grab the phone from him.
(Customer) Literally, ten feet.
And then that's it.
And I get right back on the highway.
[Chuckles.]
Sorry for laughing.
I'm beside myself.
I'm absolutely beside myself.
That is not the way I run my business.
I'm adding it.
This is actually not on the way from JFK to the Bronx.
(Customer) I'm born and raised in New York City.
I can tell you I've taken this route a hundred times.
So this is not out of the way.
You're lying to me.
I'm adding an extra stop.
There's no question within my mind.
I wanted to grab the phone from him.
- All right.
- The customer wants to make an extra stop and he's telling you that it's in-route.
The customer is always right.
All I know is I need a damn cigarette.
I don't know if you're a smoker or not, but I'm about to smoke three at one time.
[Coughing.]
This is a tough job, dude.
We don't get breaks.
Whenever there's free time, that's when you take a break.
Oh, so when you can, you do it.
Yeah.
When you can, you eat.
- Wow.
- You know, it sucks, but, hey, that's part of the job, so what are you gonna do? - Seems like you like it.
- [Chuckles.]
I enjoy the people I work with, let's say that.
The company makes millions of dollars, bro.
They don't look after their own.
They look after the people that are up top, and all of us little worms that are at the bottom, we're scrambling for a [.]
piece of bread or something that's not there.
I have applied for ten different positions at that company and they've passed me by on every single one of 'em.
Anthony feels like we've "stuck him in this rut.
" I see myself owning my own company, running my own company, me being my own boss.
You know what I mean? I don't see myself as some kind of slumpy worker for somebody.
I don't like it.
I think he's his own worst enemy.
Yeah, let's get the hell out of here.
I'm ready to go.
You ready? The one thing I always tell my employees is if your not satisfied with your job, and you don't respect the people you work for, get out because you're not doing me any favors.
None.
Back to freaking work.
At this moment, I don't know what I'm gonna do with Anthony.
I'm here today in Los Angeles to inspect the chauffeurs and make sure they're performing at the level they should.
This is the heart of the entertainment world.
Where our clientele's mostly high-level executives and celebrities.
So I need to make sure our chauffeurs are at the top of their game at all times.
- Sonny? - Frank? - Yes.
- Nice to meet you.
I'm an executive chauffeur and I'm gonna teach you everything there is to know.
I appreciate it.
My first impression was Sonny's hair was messed up.
He didn't look like chauffeur material.
When you first get a client, just make sure you make eye contact.
Once you get 'em in the car, ask 'em a preferred route.
So we got all our cleaning supplies.
After that, you can wipe down all the spots.
Okay.
My first impressions of Frank are awesome.
He vacuums the floor.
He's cleaning the rims.
Frank's pride in his job, that really made me feel good.
Okay, here comes some people.
Oh, okay.
Get professional.
Professional? I'll let you do all the talking.
- Mrs.
Lawrence? - Yes? - Hi, how are you? - Good.
How are you? - I'm Sonny, your chauffeur.
- Hi, I'm Sarah.
- Can I get your bag for you? - Sure, thank you.
Sure.
Put my seatbelt on here.
You going to Beverly Hills, ma'am? Yes.
Do you have a preferred route? Um, just not the freeway.
Okay.
It's pretty bumpy.
That was my fault, and I'm very, very sorry for that.
So how many days a week do you work? (Frank) Five.
Do you have any recurring clients that are so bad that you just don't ever want to work with them again? Yeah.
Could be anything from smoking pot, doing drugs, having sex in the car, I mean [Chuckles.]
And I had a porno shot in the back of my car.
- No way.
- Yeah.
- What? - Very professional.
- What? - Guy was Yes.
Oh, my God.
I thought his conversation with the passenger was very inappropriate.
One of the girls starts sticking her tongue in my ear.
- What? - Now, I'm - (Sarah) What? - Yes.
He's in a car alone with a woman.
There is no reason to tell her that there was porno filmed in a car.
It could be misconstrued as harassment.
There you go.
Let me get your luggage for you.
Beside the fact that he's sharing this with a customer, I'm still trying to figure out why the hell he allowed a porno to be shot in one of my cars.
That's cause for alarm on my part.
Okay.
- So we got one under our belt.
- Okay.
As soon as you pass Beverly Drive, we're gonna turn left there.
- She's at Chanel.
- Oh, it's a woman? When we picked up the two young ladies in Beverly Hills - Hi, I'm Sonny.
I'm your chauffeur.
- Hi.
- Nice to meet you.
- Good.
How are you? I was so nervous that he was gonna have another inappropriate conversation or hit on them.
Good? Hmm.
I always get nauseous when I'm a passenger.
Yeah.
Do you want some fresh air? Yeah, I think so.
Thank you.
Good job.
Oh, can you grab that please? - (David) Sure, of course.
- Thank you.
Go on, you get the bellman, I'll get the bags.
(David) I was really upset with Frank, but I think that he just needs to be re-educated on what is appropriate conversation.
We just have to talk to him.
And I'm sure that can be rectified.
- All right.
- All right, Sonny.
All in all, see, it was a good day, man.
So you been doing this a long time? - A long time.
- Yeah.
- A long time.
- Do you like it? I love it.
It's freedom.
- Nobody's breathing down my neck.
- Yeah.
I love my freedom.
I'm into low-riding, so I kind of, like, that takes all my attention.
I love to get out there, man.
I love to show my car off.
That brings me happiness, you know? I just I'm high on life, man.
Yeah.
I used to be really bad on drugs when I was younger.
- You were? - Yes.
I was a big drug addict in the early '90s.
- Really? - I used to do heroin and cocaine.
- So I was really bad.
- Oh, wow.
I was down to nothing.
Coming from nothing where nobody trusted me, my family, to actually somebody trusting me to work, it blows my mind, like, what I've accomplished, you know? I-I never thought I'd be alive to see 30.
You know, I never tell any people this, but 'cause you told me, I'm a recovering addict.
- Really? - Yeah.
But I've been sober almost 28 years.
Damn.
Good for you.
- Did you go to rehab? I went to rehab.
- No.
- No, man, I just had - You just a mother that constantly prayed for me.
And a lot happened.
It was it it was my grandfather passed away in '94.
- Yeah.
- And when he died, I just remember being at the funeral, and I was just, like, "I gotta get high.
" I That's all I thought about.
I was a pallbearer, and I was just couldn't wait to, like, put that coffin down and then just go out and get in my face.
I was the same way, man.
And I-I hated myself To this I don't even want to talk about it, man.
That's my only regret though.
Just I didn't get to say good-bye.
I was, like When I was talking to Frank, I felt like I connected with him because of my addiction.
My addiction was pretty bad.
I'm, you know, lucky to be here in this earth, this world because I tried to take my own life a long time ago.
And I never thought I'd amount to anything.
And to to be riding around Frank today and to see it, you know, like, out on the street, and really working, and how much pride he takes in it, and all the things that we do for the customer man, I felt really good.
We got one more job.
Gotta head out we gotta head out now.
All right.
Let's go.
The last couple of years have been challenging for a whole host of reasons, and personal, too.
And I've lost a little bit of touch.
I had definitely forgotten that I always walked around the office every day when I got to work.
And I was able to touch a lot of people, and say hello to a lot of people, and then they would sometimes say to me, "Oh, can I tell you something?" And I learned a lot.
Haven't done it, and I'm gonna go back to doing that right away.
(Frank) Man, I'm really honored you told me what you did.
(Announcer) Coming up The employees think they're going to decide whether or not Sonny deserves the money to start his own business.
How will they react when he reveals his true identity? - [Gasps.]
- Yeah.
Get the [.]
out.
Sorry for cursing.
I came so close to ripping that wig off.
This has been on way too long.
I learned so much from everybody that touched my life through this journey.
Oh.
I just feel like I want to jump out of my skin and change so many things in my life.
This experience has taught me that I can't ever lose touch with my employees.
They are the backbone of our business.
- Hi.
- Hi.
What are you doing here? [Laughing.]
I wanted to ask you how Sonny did.
Terrible.
Do I look familiar to you? No.
I mean you're a nice-looking guy, - but I've never seen you before.
- Oh, thank you.
Thank you very much.
- I am David Seelinger.
- Okay.
And I'm the Chairman and CEO of Empire CLS.
Oh, sweet.
Get the [.]
out.
Sorry for cursing.
You're Sonny, right? - Yeah.
- [Gasps.]
This is a show called Undercover Boss.
Oh, cool.
You had such an ugly wig on.
Oh, thank you.
[Laughs.]
Okay.
A little nervous.
Anthony, I have to tell you, I came so close to ripping that wig off.
The fact is is the chauffeur's advising me that this is actually not on the way from JFK to the Bronx.
(Customer) But it's on the way home.
You're lying to me.
It was completely inappropriate.
It's almost like you like conflict.
I was just trying to Uh, do you know what the problem was? I was trying to help the chauffeur 'cause I speak with the car with the chauffeurs on a personal level, and, you know, they they get upset.
Look, I get it.
But it just has to stop.
- Yeah.
- Bottom line.
Yeah.
Inside a professional business environment you can't act like that.
You'll stay in the same place and the way you presented it to me, like you're a victim.
- Yeah, well - You're not a victim.
I'm a victim of myself basically is what it is, you know? Why? Why? Talk to me.
Come on.
I've never had a break, all right? So, you know, I should be doing something better.
That's the type of person I feel I am.
I should be doing something better.
Anthony, listen to me.
You can excel.
It's not too late.
But you gotta change.
Yeah.
A lot.
The path you're looking for might be right here.
All right? And I'll work with you.
We'll meet in my office.
We'll talk about your future.
I'll write a plan for you to get there.
But you gotta do the work.
- Are you in? - I'm in.
- You promise? - I promise on my kids.
(Anthony) I realize my mistakes.
That was a major eye-opener.
This is the owner of my company telling me that, "I believe in you.
" That's huge.
It's a great feeling.
Great feeling to know that I have somebody on my side to help me get to where I want to go.
Swan, I had a great experience with you.
- Thank you.
- It was fantastic.
This guy is so bad.
I wouldn't even let him walk my dog.
You shared with me some of your personal story.
- Right.
- And one of them is just this amazing love - you have for animals.
- Right.
One of the things I want to do for you, Swan, is give you $10,000 that you can donate to a charity of your choice.
- Mm-hmm.
- An animal charity, I'm assuming.
Yeah, $10,000 is remarkable.
Your money will definitely help in that category.
Good.
Well, you do whatever you choose with it.
I'm actually ecstatic.
There's another thing I want to do for you.
You told me about this great love you have - for dolphins.
- Mm-hmm.
And you said you wanted to be a trainer.
Dolphin trainer for a day.
I'd like to give you $15,000 Wow.
to take a trip with you and your husband - Mm-hmm.
- where you can - swim with dolphins - Mm-hmm.
and train dolphins for a whole week.
Unbelievable.
I think the moon must be blue, because this is definitely cool.
[Laughs.]
Okay.
Tell me about what happened with your home.
My husband and I bought a piece of property in Arizona.
At the end of the construction loan, we asked him if we could refinance, because we were paying, like, 13.
5%.
He didn't want to refi because he wanted the property for himself.
The person who financed it basically took it away from you, - right? - Exactly.
What I'd like to do for you is give you $30,000 Wow.
to help you get to your dream again.
There's a million ways to say thank you, and none of them would be enough.
This blows my mind.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
(Swan) I'm still kind of, like, in shock because of David's generosity.
Thank you.
- Can I hug ya? - Yes.
(Swan) Owning land is important to me, because that gives me freedom.
David made it all a reality.
- Frank.
- Mm-hmm.
There's something that I have a tremendously big issue with.
And I had a porno shot in the back of my car.
- What? - Yes.
Oh, my God.
When it happened, I almost pulled the car over.
- Really? - Yeah.
Wow.
I don't think you have bad intentions, I don't, but what we're gonna have to do is send you through some sexual harassment training, so that you understand, certain things you say can become a problem.
Are you okay? You all right? No, I'm feeling real uncomfortable right now.
Tell me how you feel.
- I'm embarrassed.
- Why? [Scoffs.]
I can't believe I told you about me being, you know, an ex-drug addict.
Why, do you think I would judge you? Frank, we're brothers in this with the same disease.
You're also the owner.
No greater or less than you.
We're one and the same, man.
We're one and the same.
I think you're a great chauffeur.
- Thank you.
- You know, your hobby that you have I have a hobby too.
I'm into motorcycles because it helps me relieve stress when I go riding, you know? - I know the feeling, I know.
- You know the feeling? I'd like to give you $10,000.
[Scoffs.]
So you can do whatever you want to your car, to your lowrider.
- Seriously? - Yeah.
I feel like I'm in a dream.
Man.
I want to do something else for you.
I want to give you $20,000, okay, and I want you to use that at your discretion.
You need to do something for your mom, or you need to pay off some bills, or whatever it may be.
Oh, man.
[Upbeat music.]
[Sniffs.]
You're a good guy, Frank.
You're a really good guy.
[Sniffs.]
This doesn't seem real.
It is real.
Thank you.
All right.
- I'll give you a hug.
- Oh.
Will you hug a brother? - Of course.
- [Chuckles.]
(Frank) David's a great man.
I'm honored to work for him.
What a trip.
I never thought we'd have, you know, anything in common.
- I'm a hugger.
- Thanks, I appreciate it.
My life's definitely changed, 'cause first of all, I get to help my mom, which I love doing.
I mean, I try to help her as much as possible.
I'm, like, ecstatic.
I can't believe it.
(David) Jackie.
- [Laughs.]
- There's something about you that is just very moving.
Thank you.
And you are very, very good - at what you do.
- Thank you.
Okay, are you ready? - Yes, girl! - Yeah! You just have yourself a good time.
I want to do something for you, Jackie.
I'd like you to take your family, and I want to pay for an all-expense paid trip to any destination you'd like to go to.
Oh.
Thank you.
[Laughs.]
Thank you so much.
Oh, God.
[Laughs.]
Beyond just learning the things I learned about driving that car, something you said to me hit the nail right on the head.
What was it? You said, "You're living in the past.
" Yeah.
Life is too short.
- Mm-hmm.
- You've got to let go.
Somehow, it was that timing, but when you said it, I felt this weight off my shoulders.
[Clicks tongue.]
Oh, Dave.
You've had a profound effect on my life, in one day.
I can't even describe it, but I thank you for that very much.
And you have had one on mine too.
Well, God bless you.
God bless you.
And remember, Dave, I told you, I said, "You know, Dave, "you need to go out there, Dave, 'cause it's somebody for everybody.
" I don't care if it's a pig with a wig, it's somebody.
- A pig with a wig? - Uh-huh.
[Laughs.]
And there's somebody out there that would love to have you.
Do you want to marry me? [Both laughing.]
Well, I want you to know that I have something else I want to do for you.
Jackie, I would like to give you $40,000 to do what you choose with, whatever that may be.
Oh, my God, no.
- Yes.
- Oh, my God.
[Sobbing.]
You have changed my life so much, oh, God.
- You've changed mine.
- Oh, God.
You're amazing.
God bless you.
Thank you so much.
- [Sobbing.]
Thank you.
- God bless you.
God bless you.
(Jackie) Oh, this will be a memory that I'll never forget.
This is a lifetime change for me, do you hear me? When I say a lifetime change, I mean a lifetime change for me.
[Sobs.]
I'm so happy, I cannot stop crying.