Traits of a Great Chauffeur
Following my 32-year corporate career in the supermarket industry, the Baby Boomer spent 20+ years in the transportation industry. More specifically, working with a company that provided black car service for corporate and retail clients. The fleet was made up of sedans, SUV’s, vans, mini-coaches, and coaches.
The company had to be recreated back in 2015 due to a period of substantial revenue growth. In order to accomplish this, we concentrated on two things: becoming more of a corporate entity by adding structure and opening the lines of communication within the company. In other words, we just got back to basics and Business 101.
Please allow me to digress for a moment as the training, development, and lessons learned while at Giant Food were always implemented in some form or fashion during my entire career whether at Bi-Lo, Wal-Mart, or JL as Giant was a great, great company “back in the day”!
By instituting these steps, the company continued its growth to a point where there were 50 drivers, 42 vehicles, and substantial added volume. The corporate structure which was instituted included a CEO, a General Manager, a Corporate Sales Manager, a Fleet Manager, a Chauffeur Manager, and a CDL Compliance Manager. We opened the lines of communication by meeting on Mondays and Fridays where on Monday we set our goals for the week and on Friday we evaluated our execution, as well as, prepared for the weekend business. These Round Table Meetings, as we called them, started and ended on time, there wasn’t any backbiting or finger-pointing, and everyone took responsibility for the performance of their area.
The major opportunities we faced was a consistency in the standard of service, eliminating the dreaded service deviation, having a zero tolerance for single vehicle incidents, fleet maintenance, and reducing unnecessary expenses.
In order to raise our standard of service, we created a Chauffeur Manual spelling out our expectations, built our Driving Team not settling for anything less than the best candidates, experienced some needed turnover for those who failed to conform to the new standard, introduced an intense and consistent training program with annual reinforced training seminars, created a Weekly Message which repeated to tedium our keys to continued success, creating a program of recognition, and the introduction of accountability.
To eliminate the dreaded service deviation, we required our Driving Team to perform their proper preplanning the evening prior to their scheduled runs, provide timely communication which was proactive vs reactive, and exercise excellent time management skills to avoid “pushing” and ensure your arrival to your pick-up location 10 minutes early. Upon examination, we found any service deviation which we experienced to be 100% avoidable by just following these three steps.
As far as having a zero tolerance for single vehicle incidents, which were proven to also be 100% avoidable, our Driving Team could never lose focus or become complacent. In addition, being in “reverse” was their enemy and, in spite of all the mirrors and cameras on and in our vehicles, we needed to exercise the GOAL method as we’d Get Out And Look just to be sure our way was clear. We also introduced the Single Incident Vehicle Policy which created an accountability.
Our major opportunity with fleet maintenance was an aging fleet and a fleet with a number of dents and dings and amenities that weren’t always operating properly. Another opportunity was evaluating our fleet for the proper mix, which vehicles needed to be sold, and how many vehicles we were going to buy. We “bit the bullet” and invested heavily in the fleet in order to meet these opportunities.
We concentrated on controlling our expenses by breaking down our monthly profit and loss statements line by line, creating a detailed budget, and sticking to the budget via daily monitoring where every expense had to be approved in advance. Our vendor agreements were reworked, we got away from leasing vehicles by now putting 20% down and purchasing them over 36 months saving thousands of dollars annually, we reduced the number of supplies we had on hand, and our banker provided us with the tools we needed to become profitable. We also tremendously helped ourselves by hiring the right people where the Driving Team was the “brand” that was JL, drastically reducing service deviations, eliminating expensive single vehicle incidents, and having the right fleet which was the envy of our competitors.
When bringing on new members to join our Driving Team we simply had a conversation to make sure they had the ability of taking on the personalities of our customers by being “chameleon-like”; that they were dependable; hard-working; oozed integrity; respectful; passionate; had self-pride; appeared to be more “selfless” over “selfish” in being a team player; and looked professional, acted professional, and were professional as our Motto was simply “Driven to Serve”.
It took us awhile to accomplish, but over time, we were able to provide our customers with two levels of service–good and great. Truly, the only difference between the two was experience which was gained over time by frequency and repetition. We provided all the tools and resources, policies and procedures, and checks and balances to ensure success in exceeding our customer’s service expectations each and every time. Being a professional Chauffeur isn’t hard, it’s just difficult to find folks who can provide consistent outstanding service over time.
We were very fortunate and proud, as you can attest to from the photo showing 18 Certificates of Service, for those who have served JL for a minimum of 6 years all the way up to 24 years which, in this industry, is a phenomenal achievement! Stealing from Giant Food, our Mission Statement was just “Quality, Value, Service”. Hiring us wasn’t cheap, in fact, it was expensive at $80/run hour in a sedan. Our “brand”, the Driving Team, was made up of Chauffeurs who were professionals providing an “Academy Award” performance in “wowing” their customers and creating “memories” at every opportunity. Their #1 priority was SAFETY, they were dependable always being 10 minutes early, knew where they were going and how to get there, polite, and discreet building a relationship with their customers. Over time, our customers knew they could count on us to provide that service which exceeded their expectations creating value.
So, then what are the traits of a Great Chauffeur? Especially, knowing our goal in our standard of service was to strive for perfection while excellence was accepted. Each Chauffeur realized that, no matter what, there was always room for improvement and practice does make perfect, that is, as long as you’re practicing the right stuff. A great Chauffeur knows there’s always room for improvement and doesn’t hesitate to self-evaluate their performance after every run hoping to find something they can practice in order to improve. A great Chauffeur will find a colleague who has earned the classification of being “great” using them as a “mentor” who would provide you with additional pointers. A great Chauffeur is much more “selfless” than “selfish”. At JL we developed a team environment where we needed to focus on “we” rather than “me” and showing respect for the individual.
Other traits include knowing SAFETY is the #1 priority at JL–this is non-negotiable. Punctuality where if weren’t 10 minutes early then we were late and we could never, ever be late. Knowledge, being a “concierge of the roadway”, required one to be on top of all things Central Virginia–the history, economics, current events, places to visit, things to do, restaurants, and coffee shops always being enthusiastically positive about the place we call home. Having the proper personality being the ultimate “people-pleaser” is about being personally humble while your customers always remain the center of attention. Knowing when to chat and when to be quiet, understanding the importance of being discreet, and practicing your softer skills set where you’re able to anticipate your customer’s needs without any spoken words. Finally, our customers expected us to be well-presented as that first impression is so very important. Paying close attention to professional dress, personal grooming, and maintaining vehicle interior cleanliness are essential to your presentation.
It’s obvious that being a great Chauffeur is so much more than driving from point A to point B. Just because it appears to be easy doesn’t necessarily mean that it is easy. There’s so much more to it than actually “meets the eye”.