As part of our on-going series of features highlighting training courses on offer to the chauffeur industry, Editor, Paul Gibson takes five days out of his ‘normal’ routine to take part in an intensive Protection Driver course, aimed at chauffeurs looking to broaden their skill set.
So, you’re a chauffeur eh? You’ve got a driving licence (hopefully clean), a wardrobe full of expensive and not so expensive suits and you’ve probably made one of your largest ever investments in a sparkling, leather clad executive vehicle, probably with a three-pointed star on the bonnet.
Hopefully, you’ve been in the game a while and you’ve managed to find yourself a reliable and loyal client base keeping you busy week in, and week out. However, if you’re one of the many thousands entering our industry every month, how do you make your company stand-out from the rest?
We all know success doesn’t happen overnight – too many think a posh car and a website will light up the phone straight away and you’ll be chauffeuring rich clients happy ever after. Without going into all the in’s and out’s of what makes a successful chauffeur business (I’ll let my colleague Andy Dubberley deal with that), getting trained in a variety of different skills is the best way of promoting yourself to the clients you are targeting – therefore giving yourself more reasons to be chosen.
Just by quoting you have ’20 years of experience’ or ‘personal service’ just doesn’t cut the mustard any more, as clients are always looking to get more for their money. Personally, I would rather see a list of qualifications if I was looking for a driver or chauffeur specialising in a particular field – such as close protection.
Which brings me smoothly on to the gruelling five day course offered by SpeedSkills – a company run by a handful of ex-Special Escort Group riders who have protected royalty, dignitaries and celebrities in the city for decades. Father and Son duo, Roger and Mick Croome are both ex-Met Police. Roger Croome QPM (Queen’s Police Medal) served the Met Police for 32 years, and spent over 20 years working at the world famous Hendon driving school. Mick followed in his experienced Father’s footsteps to the driving school and then went on to become a member of the Special Escort Group and rewrote the protection drivers course in 2002. Other members of the team, Andy and Robin are all ex driving school or SEG instructors and now spend their time passing on their skills to chauffeurs.
SpeedSkills, based in Hertfordshire, carry out their training on a disused airfield just outside Hemel Hempstead. They realise a large percentage of the industry work near London, so their location was chosen to be easily reached from most parts of the country.
I was lucky enough to have previously spent a few hours with Mick, trashing one of his training vehicles around the airfield in an attempt to master the J-Turn, so I had a small head-start above the other four candidates on the course the week I attended.
Many chauffeurs have asked why they would need to learn to perform a J-Turn? When would they ever need to use this technique in their daily lives? Well, hopefully never! The aim of the J-Turn training is not only to educate in the capabilities of the vehicles we drive everyday, but also to get away from the big bad man who may be targeting you and your client in an attack. Of course, for most chauffeurs this is a very unlikely situation to be in, but if you work in the close protection world, or transport wealthy or vulnerable clients, the chances are greater.
Much of the training is focused on car control. Probably 90% of chauffeurs don’t realise what their vehicles are capable of and probably never used the systems preventing them from being involved in a crash. Many accidents occur by drivers simply not braking hard enough, and being scared of the ABS braking system when they actually come to use it in a real situation. When was the last time you felt your brake pedal vibrate as the ABS kicks in, or experience what your ESP actually does?
Mastering the J-Turn is certainly an art form, that none of us perfected, but it was certainly an eye-opener as to what can be achieved at a very low speed. Many think a J-Turn has to be Hollywood style and you’d have spin round in an impressive cloud of tyre smoke. The trainers encourage you to master this technique in as little space as possible – who’d thought a J-Turn can be carried out in as little as 25 metres and under 15mph?
Don’t fancy a J or Y-Turn when Mr Villain turns up in front of you? The high speed reverse is another technique given on the course. I would imagine our normal speed when we are in reverse is around 2 mph maximum? So, it’s obviously a shock when you find yourself being encouraged to reverse through a corridor of cones at almost 60mph! Just another technique that protection chauffeurs could keep in their ‘mental filing cabinet’ to use when needed.
As much as we all enjoyed breaking cars for two days with endless tyre changes, the time came to practice techniques all of us can use in our daily lives. So, for day three and four, we all jumped into our stunning new Audi A6 3.0 TDI to learn skills that should improve our clients experiences – hopefully without them even knowing.
Route planning, Recce’s, convoy driving, pick-up and set-down techniques and other anti hi-jack skills were all on the cards for the next two days. The aim is to not always rely on simply entering your destination into the sat nav, but use other tools such as an actual road map! Remember those? For those born after 1985, it’s a paper-based book with lines printed in it which is a birds-eye representation of our road system. Sorry if that comes across as patronising, but it was shocking how many people on the course had never picked-up a road map. These are essential for planning secondary routes and giving you a wider view of your route and any other options, if you are blocked by road works or closures etc.
For chauffeurs who work within a protection team, there are crucial skills you need. Communication, ability to drive in a convoy successfully, as well as skills of recognising a potential threat. These are all covered in a number of training exercises which are then put into practice on the second day of the on-road training.
A frosty airfield welcomed me on the fourth day, thankfully one of Mick’s special bacon sandwiches gave us brain food for the next exercise which saw us presented with a itinerary for a ‘VIP’ who was expected into the local railway station at 11:30am – just three and a half hours later! The aim is prepare routes, recce the locations and facilities and put into practice the convoy and protection training the last three days has given us.
It would be silly for me to give away what actually happens on this exercise, but it’s a great opportunity to work as a team and put together a plan to make the clients diary go to plan and deal with any surprises Mick and his team throw at you. And believe me, there are many to keep you on your toes.
On day five, be prepared for more pressure – but in a bit more light-hearted manner. This is when you realise how many skills you’ve digested and put them together against the clock. Back on the runway, a comprehensive course is put together which now includes blind driving – where the front and rear screens are covered (simulating a shot out screen, or an attack from a protestor with paint for example). Encouraging team work, the course forces you to not only use communication from your passenger, but also your mirrors and of course, sticking your head out the window to taste the bugs and grit.
The SpeedSkills Protection Driver course is hoped to be recognised as a BTEC Level 4 qualification in the very near future, so not only can you promote your new skills to clients but you will also have a recognised qualification to show potential employers and promote within your current business.
Spending five days with Mick’s team was an amazing experience. It was not only fun, but also encourages those important skills we all need as professional chauffeurs. For more information, visit www.speedskills.co.uk.
