West Suburban Limousine marks 50 years

WINFIELD - West Suburban Limousine will celebrate its 50th anniversary this fall.

Founded by Ray Hiltunen and Bert Homan out of a basement in Glen Ellyn in 1966, the company began with a handful of vehicles handling a few dozen trips per week. It quickly grew, and now more than 10 million people have used the car service over the years, with a 99.7 percent satisfaction level.

The company is still owned by the Hiltunen family, with the third generation now helping run the business from its Winfield headquarters. The company employs 30 full and part time people, plus works with more than 100 independent contractors.

"The key to our continued success is personal service," said Scott Simkus, WSL's vice president of operations. "It's become an extremely competitive industry, with suburban taxi cabs and app-based companies such as Uber entering the market, but we continue to see amazing loyalty from our clients due to the things we do better than anybody else, and the fact we do these things at an affordable price.

"We have full-time, professional chauffeurs, who have been trained, background checked, drug tested and fully vetted. The vast majority of our vehicles are less than two model years old, clean, and safe; and our insurance levels are five times the level of most Uber-X vehicles, or suburban taxis," he added. "We are an authentic, traditional chauffeur car service, which means our chauffeurs wear suits and ties, are on time, help with luggage, and get our clients from point A to point B in a safe and smooth manner. And the things we do for our corporate clients, from on-site dispatching at events, to customized reporting to match their accounting department's needs, is unmatched in the Chicago market."

For more information about pricing and services, such as airport transfers, weddings, sporting events and concerts, call (630) 668-9600, or book online at westsublimo.com