Tourism

Your journey is important to you

Whether your journey is for business or pleasure be sure that you use a chauffeur company that understands how important your journey is to you. You may think that it is impossible to assess a chauffeur service until after you have used it, by which time it might be too late! This is not entirely true; there are a number of pointers that can indicate whether you are dealing with the kind of company that will be right for YOU.

Types of chauffeur company

Chauffeur companies fall into 2 main classes:

 

1. Any Car Any Driver

    

   These are usually cheap but your journey will NOT actually be BOOKED. Driver and vehicle will be allocated close to your journey time on an “as available” basis. People using this type of service are the ones you see at airports wandering around looking for their driver. This is unlikely to be declared at time of “booking”.

    

2. Named Driver with Mobile Phone Number – Quality vehicle

    

   This is the most reliable type of service and is the one most often used by business people either for themselves or when it is necessary to send a car and driver to meet a valued client. Drivers are allocated one week prior to the date of service. Inevitably the cost for this high-quality service is higher since, in order to guarantee to be there for the customer, drivers cannot be used so intensively; possible delays caused by traffic or flight arrival times etc all have to be allowed for.

    

 

Choosing a reliable service

Your best guide to the type of service to expect from a company is to look for the following:

 

• Web Site

   

  A quality web site with good content, presented well with good grammar and spelling will indicate a professional company. The quotation form should ask you for full journey details including number of passengers and amount of luggage in order to allocate the right kind of vehicle(s).

   

• Response to Request for Quotation

   

  When you request a quotation for a journey you should expect a prompt response in the form of a well-written email clearly stating the fare and what you will get for your money.

   

• Booking Confirmation

   

  To confirm your booking you will probably be asked to submit credit card details so that the chauffeur company can have confidence that you are serious (this should be by way of a secure web page). Your card should NOT be CHARGED at this stage. Companies that do not ask for this assurance are likely to be of the “Any Car Any Driver” type (see above) and do not feel themselves committed to the service being booked.

   

• Written Confirmation

   

  When you confirm your booking you should expect to receive a written summary of the agreed journey so that you can have confidence that there are no misunderstandings.

   

• Final Confirmation

   

  About a week prior to the date of service, a good chauffeur company will send you a final confirmation, both to reassure you that you have not been forgotten and to give you the name and mobile phone number of your driver. Keep this document with you when you travel.

   

• Payment and Receipt

   

  Following the successful conclusion of the service, your card will be charged and a receipt sent to you.

   

 

Quality Process

All of the above represents a pretty comprehensive (and entirely necessary) business process. If you don’t get the feeling that this process is in place then look for a different chauffeur company.