A day in the life of a Driver Hire franchise owner
Our franchisees quite often say that every day is different as a Driver Hire franchisee and that variation is one of the most enjoyable elements of running their own business.
Here’s an overview of a so-called ‘typical’ day in the office!
Morning:
- Arrive at the office at 07.30 and on to the phones straight away. Call our top customers early, to beat the competition, and pick up two bookings – a great start.
- Each day at 08.30 we have a team meeting to agree the day’s activities. Targets and diaries are updated and anyone visiting customers and prospects gathers the sales brochures, mugs and pens that always go down well.
- I share a responsibility for sales so I’m making two visits today. The first is to a new customer picked up by the central telemarketing team – a distribution company with about 20 vans delivering food around the North.
- I get lots of information about their requirements, so I can present a detailed proposal to them later in the week. There’s always competition for the business so I make sure to send high quality proposal documents, which helps to reinforce the quality aspect of our service.
- My second call is a regular account review with a long established client.I also update our workplace assessment while I am there – it’s important for our ISO accreditation and once again shows the client that we’re serious about quality and compliance. The customer is happy so I head back to the office.
Afternoon:
- The team meets over lunch and updates are exchanged – recruitment is a dynamic business and it’s critical that everybody is constantly kept up to speed.
- The afternoon, in the office, is just dealing with incoming calls, filling bookings and catching up on admin. I also interview two really good drivers. Their references were good so they’ll both be out working for me tomorrow.
- In many ways recruitment is a simple business. If we stay focused on sales and service, we should be successful. Whether we’re dealing with our customers or our candidates, it’s a question of looking after what we’ve got, and at the same time looking for a fresh supply! One thing’s for sure – this is a people business.
- We have a final team update before heading home, usually between 5 and 6pm. But of course, the Driver Hire service doesn’t end there. Many of my customers operate around the clock, so like every other Driver Hire office, we offer a 24/7 service. Whatever time they call, they’ll get a personal reply. We have a staff mobile, which we divert the phones to for ‘out of hours’ calls. We all take a turn on duty and tonight, it’s my turn.
- During the evening I take a call from one of my top clients. They want a van driver for 6am. No problem – I know I have a driver available and it’s sorted there and then. It’s been a hectic day, but rewarding as ever!
