As we near the end of 2017, we would like to thank all of our clients for your continued business and your hand in our successes this year. Protect My Car has had a record-breaking year, with many awards and recognition for what we have accomplished this year. But none of this would be possible without our clients, the trust you have in us with your policy and vehicles, and our incredible employees for their part in the success of our organization. Our employees spent 7,489,605 minutes on the phone, that’s over 14 years worth of helping clients! The claims department processed a total of 16,629 claims, paying over $5.3 million in repairs! As we move into the New Year, the sky is the limit and we cannot wait to see the growth that Protect My Car will make by this time next year.
In 2017, Protect My Car received many awards and recognition for the efforts of our employees and the growth that we have been able to achieve. The organization has been recognized on a local level and on a national level. Many members of our executive staff were awarded for the strides that they have made for the organization. Without the hard work of each employee, we would not have the awards and recognition that we can proudly display today.
On a local level, we received two awards from the Tampa Bay Business Journal. The first award we were honored with was being the 2nd Best Place to Work in Tampa in the Biggest Category (100+ employees). We have that award proudly hung in the main lobby of our establishment to show everyone just how much our employees enjoy working here. The second award we received was being #10 on their fastest growing companies in the Tampa area. As we continue to grow and bring on more employees, we continue to focus on the work environment to ensure that our employees are coming in and leaving happy. Neither of these awards would be possible without the work that our employees put in every day.
On a national level, Protect My Car was listed on the Inc. 5000 by Inc. Magazine at number #663. This was HUGE for our organization to really see the impact that we were making nationally. The award was based on the growth that we saw from 2013-2016, a whopping 688%! Not only were we featured on the Inc. 5000, but within that, we were listed 10th, for the fastest growing insurance company, and 7th, for the fastest growing business in the Tampa Metro Area. This recognition is the biggest award that we are proud of, as a company.
Members of our executive staff have also been awarded for their efforts and accomplishments within the company. Our President and Co-Owner, Joseph Rubino, was featured in the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Up and Comers List. This list recognizes exceptional business professionals, under the age of 40, for their business accomplishments. The Chief Technology Officer for Protect My Car, David Patterson, was featured in the top 25 Finalists for Tampa Bay Business Journal’s CIO of the Year. All finalists for this award must hold a Senior IT leadership position and have applied enterprise-wide IT solutions in a unique way to create a competitive advantage and drive company growth. At the same time that Patterson was announced a finalist, our Chief Operations Officer, Barbie Vandenheuvel, was awarded Business Woman of the Year in the category of Business Services. 52 women were named finalists among the different categories. Protect My Car, as a whole, could not be more proud of the executive team that has led us to the successes that we have accomplished.
As we brought the year to an end, we held our first company holiday party. For our holiday party, we decided to team up with the Children’s Dream Fund to continue our community support and raise money for their foundation. Not only did the executive team match the amount of money raised, but Protect My Car will be able to sponsor 2-3 wishes, as each wish ranges from $1,000-$1,500 and $3,000 was raised. This was a great end of the year wrap to the community outreach that we partake in continuously, with toy drives, food drives, and other programs that the company takes part of. Most employees have lived and/or grown up in the Clearwater/Tampa/St. Petersburg area, so helping the community is an important aspect for everyone.
We would like to again thank our employees and our clients for making this year possible. We would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and we can’t wait to see what is in store for 2018!