Chauffeur Operator [1-10 vehicles]

This is always a closely-fought category in the QSi Awards. The judges find this is one of the hardest categories to call. It always attracts a strong entry of companies with a focus on personal service, and the successful entrants are those with a vital “x factor”.

It took a very special entry to win this category – and our Gold winner’s achievements are certainly special, considering the company has only been around for three years. But Bristol’s StarPrime Chauffeurs combines incredible attention to detail and an attitude of continuous improvement, adding 50 new clients in the past 12 months and becoming a powerhouse in the West Country.

Our Silver winner is a company that has used a combination of creative social media and oldfashioned personal service to treble its business and double its fleet to six cars in in the past year. Exeter’s Hilton Ames Chauffeurs also wins friends in its west country base through generous support for local charities.

As is so often the case in this category, our judges found it hard to get the shortlist down to a final three. So we’ve got a final four, with two Bronze winners.

The first goes to a traditional company that has kept growing by maintaining a personal and professional approach, building strong relationships in the tourism sector. The approach is keep it simple – and it’s paid off for Scotland’s MET Chauffeurs.

Our second Bronze winner is a textbook example of a professional, one-man chauffeur firm. Cirencester-based Door 2 Door has passed from father to son, and has kept on growing through looking after loyal, long-standing local customers. One client even asked owner Tom Hill to drive his pet dogs to Marbella in Spain – which certainly counts as going the extra mile!

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