4 minute read
Raising the chauffeuring standards – pourqoi pas?
The word chauffeur is something we Brits stole from the French. Much like we did with Calais back in the 14th century, perhaps as some kind of payback for 1066.
I digress. To call oneself a chauffeur in France means you've got a career. It requires four to five months of intensive and expensive training in the art of chauffeuring whereas here in the UK we get to pull on a tie, buy/lease/hire a Mercedes-Benz and print up five hundred business cards at Kwiki-Print. Voila! Nous sommes chauffeurs.
The clients will decide
Not that I can complain, for that was exactly my route into the industry. With no qualifications, long-term goals or contacts I pulled away toward my first airport transfer as a ‘chauffeur’.
To be fair, 28 years later I feel confident my longevity in the business qualifies my chauffeur status by default. Primarily, it is the clients who decide our fate, as you can call yourself anything you like but if you are no good at the job, the punters will only ever book once. Then you can call yourself ‘unemployed’. Or even ‘sans emploi’.
TfL (don’t worry, I am not Khan-bashing again) recently ruled that all private hire vehicles are soon to display various warning stickers in the car. Yes! ALL private hire drivers. Once again they are lumping the chauffeurs in with taxis. Peasants. These new vehicle adornments will provide the customer with driver information, how to complain etc.
These are efforts to limit the damage for fleets, but if you’re a self-employed chauffeur, your lovely Merc, Audi or Beemer could very soon be plastered up like a public bus. While I fully agree all taxi/private hire vehicles need to be visible to the public it surely cannot be the same for chauffeurs because all bookings are prebooked, via email or chosen booking platform.
Which means chauffeur companies know their clients and vice versa, so all information is available prior to any service taken.
Central licensing needed
Recently I was lucky enough to be invited to sit in on a panel looking at how the chauffeur industry can determine our trade as a stand-alone profession. My initial cynicism over elitism was quickly dispelled as better brains than my own talked through the issues at hand.
At the meeting we (mostly) all agreed that the industry, as a whole, needed a central licensing body. Presently, the system is far too disjointed with authorities such as TfL using government legislation to find ways to charge for services not needed or find ways to add punitive fines when possible.
It surely makes sense for us all to be singing from the same hymn sheet. The problem TfL have with ‘private hire drivers’ is that we are working in direct competition to Transport for London’s own infrastructure of the underground and bus network.
Secondly we felt it would make sense to introduce a standard into the trade. An industry ‘bar’ for us to attain before any candidate had the right to carry the title of chauffeur.
Steve Lynch at the Guild of Professional Chauffeurs has been valiantly flogging this horse for years. The GoPC have long tried to establish a code of conduct and minimum driving standard to the industry but all the time government do not attach an actual requirement it is too easy for us, myself included, to not justify the cost and time needed to apply.
Do not panic, we would seek to give ‘grandfather rights’ to those of us old dogs who cannot be taught new tricks, but look to smarten up our act going forward with the new members.
We are not talking about a club, association or union here. There are enough of those. We are talking about making the profession of ‘chauffeur’ something people will aspire to.
A recognised industry standard agreed by government that means when you say you are a chauffeur it is because you have earned the right and proved you are good enough.
What can we do?
Full disclosure, there are a few different groups looking to lobby the new government over these same issues. One comprises a conglomerate of big chauffeur companies. The problem with the big hitters taking charge over our industry is that we are in danger of jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
Most of us work for ourself for a reason: we don’t take orders very well. We need to be careful not to all be working vicariously for the big companies. The biggest issue we face is, as ever, apathy from you guys. Most drivers I have spoken to shrug and mutter ‘what can we do?’
We can do a lot, be vocal, get involved. Vive le chauffeur!
