After 14 years in the pet business, Mike Levin decided to make a change and started a new venture
By John Tredrea
This guy works hard and often. And he has for a long time. It surrounds him like an aura, helps form the expression on his face and his body language and voice inflections.
You know the type. When Hindus say "work is worship," they might have people like Mike Levin in mind. Occupied with the present, planning for the future, working with his family to take care of his family, and trying to take advantage of every opportunity for a laugh along the way.
"It really keeps you jumping," Mr. Levin said recently, arranging some papers at his desk. The phone rang. Continuing to arrange the papers and jot notes on some of them while he cradled the phone to his ear with his shoulder, he said: "You have an 11 o’clock flight? And what time do you want to leave? That’s fine, that’s no problem at all." After informing his caller some things about which gate, which terminal, etc., Mr. Levin hung up.
After 14 years in the pet business he and a partner owned three stores Mr. Levin decided five years ago to make a change and started a new venture: Levin Limousine. For the first three and a half years, he worked out of his home in Brandon Farms. A year and a half ago, he moved the enterprise to 142 E. Delaware Ave. in Pennington, where he lives with his wife Mindy she’s a driver, like he is and their 17-year-old daughter Carly.
"This is a great location," Mr. Levin said. "Everybody around here has to drive by us all the time. Everybody knows we’re here. It’s helped us get customers and drivers."
Levin Limousine has 15 cars and 15 drivers. Its task is easy to define. "We’ll drive anybody anywhere anytime," Mr. Levin said. "It’s 24-7."
They drive people of all ages and descriptions to weddings, parties, meetings, airports and proms. They have a courier service that does a lot of work for area attorneys. "The courier thing keeps you moving," Mr. Levin said. "A lot of it is on very short notice. We’ve never been late with a delivery."
He said he wants his company to be a part of the Hopewell Valley fabric. "A mom and pop business to give people and companies in Hopewell and Pennington what they want," is how he defines his mission. "There’s enough work in this area to support a business like this, so we try to earn that work. We try to provide the extras. We have candy, water, condiments and soft drinks and local newspapers in the cars for the customers. They can bring food in the cars if they want to."
Not long ago, Levin Limousine started working in a new area: service for the elderly. "We drive seniors to and from retirement villages, nursing homes, stores, movies, you name it," he said. Although he spends more and more time administering the business, Mr. Levin still does a lot of driving. "I enjoy it," he said. "And I want to know all of my customers, so I drive all of them myself on a regular basis. If a customer has a good rapport with one of our drivers, we certainly try to give that driver to them."
Some of the runs are long haul. "We go to Atlantic City a lot, have been as far as D.C. and Boston," Mr. Levin said. "I had a lady who had to get a meeting in Boston on very short notice. She didn’t even have time for a plane. I drove her there, waited an hour and a half while she was at her meeting, then drove her back. Driving never gets to me. Traffic I’m used to. We do train our drivers. They have to know their way around, where to park at the airports, things like this. They wear a shirt and tie, tuxedos for weddings."
He likes the job. "Every day is totally different from any other," he said. "You meet all kinds of people and go all kinds of places. You get to have a lot of interesting conversations about any subject you can think of. I’ve had people use us to get to concerts and then invite the driver along to the show, to use an extra ticket. Not bad! 99.9 percent of the people we deal with are very nice. If they want to talk, we talk to them. That’s a pleasure. If they don’t want to talk, if they need to work while we ride for instance, we use our common sense and leave them be. Some of our clients have become family friends. You keep seeing them around after having them as customers and wind up playing tennis with them, going out for pizza or getting together at some type of family gathering. It’s good when it works out like that."
An avid sports fan "I love football," he said Mr. Levin said he likes to spend time with the family when he’s not working. "Going to the movies, shopping," he said. "I like to play tennis and work out at the gym. We go to Atlantic City once in a while."

