‘My reputation makes me a professional chauffeur’ I hear a few old sweats cry, but I’m afraid this amazing reputation you speak of has no bearing whatsoever on the safety of you, your passengers or other road users. You might well have driven everyone from A listers to Middle Eastern families and yes, of course that gives you some leverage to describe yourself as an experienced chauffeur, quite possibly one of the best if everything hinged on that alone, but yet again, experience is no guarantee that your standard of driving is anywhere near as good as it could, or should be.
The nitty gritty is that you are asking for clients to pay for your services and in return, you have a duty of care to those people sat in the back of your car. Let’s forget the badge on the bonnet, the bottled water, the copy of Tatler and the travel sweets for the purpose of this exercise because although all of the above is no doubt appreciated by your passengers, the one thing they deserve more than anything else is the right to be driven by someone who has a skill set which ensures they’ve got the best chance of getting from A to B in the most comfortable, efficient and safest way possible.
I’m concentrating on driving here because it’s the biggest and most important part of what we do but we could also talk about customer service, etiquette, first aid and security awareness, all elements of our profession which make the difference between a well trained and genuinely skilled all round professional and someone who is happy to plod along with the bare minimum.
So, why is training such an overlooked part of the chauffeur industry? In my view, it’s as simple as this… it isn’t a requirement. In any profession, there will always be those proactive individuals who want to be the best they can be and gain formal recognition of that fact. Not from an egotistical point of view, but because they take pride in what they do and genuinely want to be as competent as they possibly can be. It matters not whether we’re talking about a shop manager or a fast jet pilot, no one gets to stand out in their chosen field without a commitment to training and a willingness to improve themselves. So why should the chauffeur profession be any different?
