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- Requires excellent driving and customer care skills, and basic knowledge of vehicle maintenance
- Drive clients from place to place, making sure they are safe and comfortable
- May involve spending nights away, and working early mornings, evenings, bank holidays and weekends
Chauffeurs are responsible for all aspects of providing luxury transportation to a client, ensuring that their client is transported safely and quickly to their desired destination. Other tasks performed by the chauffeur include cleaning the vehicle, and monitoring weather and traffic to anticipate any issues they may encounter while traveling.
DAY-TO-DAY DUTIES
Your work will vary depending on your employer, but may include:
- Greeting clients and taking them to their destination
- Helping passengers with their luggage
- Helping passengers get in and out of the vehicle if required
- Providing journey information
- Ensuring that the vehicle is clean and well maintained for each job
If you work for a private household, you might take members of the family to school, work or social events. You may also have other duties, like shopping or light maintenance work. If you work for a large organisation, you may drive company clients or staff to and from meetings, or collect them from airports.
As a chauffeur at a limousine hire company, your work will depend on the needs of clients, and could include driving individuals and parties.
DAY-TO-DAY ENVIRONMENT
You may need to wear a uniform in this role. Earnings will depend on the contract, location and bonuses. Your hours could be very irregular. You may have to spend nights away, and work early mornings, evenings, bank holidays and weekends. Split shifts, temporary and part-time work is also common.
You'll need
Chauffeurs require excellent driving and customer care skills, and basic knowledge of vehicle maintenance.
You'll need a full UK driving licence and, usually, several years' driving experience. Some employers will expect you to have completed extra driver training, e.g. the Advanced Driving Test offered by the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM). Some employers may also have specific requirements, such as the ability to speak a foreign language or car maintenance skills. You may also need to pass background checks.
When applying for jobs, it may help you if you have previous experience of driving work, for instance as a driver for a taxi firm, the police or armed forces.
You could also take a specialist chauffeur training course with the British Chauffeurs Guild or the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).
You may need a private hire vehicle licence for some jobs.
CAREER PROSPECTS
You could go on to set up your own business or you could also be a 'lead driver' and train other chauffeurs.