What Makes a Good Chauffer

May 27th 2019

It’s about so much more than merely being in a Executive Car. Whether you’ve driving a luxury car for a special occasion or a comfortable car for business travel. Your customer will have high expectations of you – and rightly so. Read on for the characteristics that make Zedcarz chauffeurs a cut above the rest!

Highly Skilled geographical knowledge

Quality chauffeur car drivers are trained to drive with common sense in mind. You should arrive at your pick-up with the route from A to B already planned and prepared. Unlike a standard minicab driver, a chauffeur won’t just rely on Google maps or other mapping applications to plan the journey. An experienced driver will have a wealth of knowledge about major route and towns and major tourist attractions, including airports, stations and ports. He or she should also be knowledgeable about local amenities. This means that you should be able to get from A to B without the use of a navigation system and possibly only using the navigation system to find the final local destination only.

In addition, you should be keeping up to date with up to the minute traffic reports to ensure you don’t face roadworks or traffic jams on your journey. To ensure that you journey planning has taken this in account and continuously adapting the route to ensure minimal disruptions on the journey.
With something as routine as an airport transfer? You should be knowledgeable in ensuring you will have no problems negotiating parking, drop-off zones, pick-up point, meeting points or any other complications commonly found in airports. You will have an appropriate name board.
You will also be familiar with handy shortcuts.

Good Manners

A good chauffeur will make the customer feel special. A good chauffeur is one who is dedicated to professional, personalised service. Chivalry and good manners are to be taken pride in.
Politeness and humbleness are at the top of the list. In terms of greeting the customer. Polite conversation, spotting if the customer wishes to make conversation or not. Knowing what to talk about. For example, religion and politic are not a favourite subject to convers about.
Spotting if the customer has had a good or a bad experience prior to your meeting and ensuring that you do not aggravate the situation even more.

Good Service

Be there just before time to ensure that the customer is at easy that his or her ride is something they do not need to worry about. Letting the customer know that you are there but not rushing the customer. Do not keep pasturing the customer with continuous reminders that you are there and waiting. E.g. by phoning or texting or knocking.
You should away open car doors and boot if required. Assist your customer with their luggage. You should try to park the vehicle, so the customer does not have to walk far to get to your vehicle.

You should ensure your customer is as comfortable as possible throughout your journey, adjusting music, air conditioning or seatbelts to suit their needs.

safe driving practice

A good chauffeur is also a safe driver, proven by possession of a clean driving record and expert driving know-how in all conditions. Safety is paramount with any hired car service.
This is where a good chauffer must shine, all safe driving practices have to be applied. Never exceed the speed limits, never break to harshly, never driver to closely to the vehicle in front, never manoeuvre sharply etc. making sure that the driving and speed are adjusted to the driving conditions and weather. This is what turn a good driver into an excellent chauffer.
Does not get stressed in bad traffic. This can be difficult for the best of drivers, but a quality chauffeur knows how to manage stress. A professional chauffeur will remain calm and composed even in the worst inner city traffic. This is your job.
Do not use a mobile phone whilst driving. This may seem obvious, but a lot of regular drivers are guilty of using a phone while driving. Never will you see a professional chauffer using a mobile phone, no matter what the circumstance, and that’s what makes a good chauffeur.
Looking ahead
As a Chauffeur you will look much, much further ahead than most drivers, enabling you to spot problems well before everyone else.
This means that they can manoeuvre in plenty of time, avoiding the situation and keeping the average speed and avoiding the sort of last-minute lane changes that cause accidents and annoy other motorists and keeping your customer safe, sound and clam.
The key is to look as far ahead as you can, scanning back all the way to the car in front. This is a constant cycle – with frequent mirror and instrument checks – that becomes second nature very quickly.
Smoothness
The one quality that just about every customer will notice is how smooth the journey is. This is partly a function of the driver looking so far ahead and being able to avoid last-second manoeuvring.

The best chauffeurs will ease on and off the throttle and steer the car into bends with small, gentle movements of the steering wheel to avoid upsetting the car’s composure.
The very best will also feather the brakes as they come to a halt, releasing the pressure as the car finally stops, enabling their passengers to continue sipping champagne without spilling a drop on the leather seats. This last tip is well worth practicing, even if, like mine, your passengers are more likely to be drinking coffee out of a flask!
Be more tolerant
With better observation comes better anticipation, so you’ll notice the other aggressive drivers bullying their way through congestion well before they become an obstacle for you to avoid or comment on.
You might also find that this advanced knowledge means drivers like him become a small and insignificant part of your journey, your calm attitude leaving you free to let him in with a smile. Your journey time will not be affected but your mental stress will be dramatically reduced.
Yes, of course he’s an idiot who is driving very badly. Yes, he’s a bully and, very probably, a deeply unpleasant human being to boot. But he’s not your problem to deal with and only becomes one if you allow him into your life and life’s too short to let too many idiots into it.

Customer Privacy

Chauffer will always respect the customers privacy, no matter what your thought or opinion might be.