Priyank & Pinky Patel, Kingston & Leatherhead
Finding the sweet spot between balancing career ambitions with personal life can be hard. There’s the desire to do a good job for your employer, the potential for career advancement and the related financial rewards all pulling you in one direction. Pulling in the other, there’s the need to find sufficient hours in the week to have a meaningful life outside work.
That was the situation in which Priyank Patel found himself. After graduating with a Maths degree, Priyank had been climbing the corporate ladder, working for several blue-chip companies. His burgeoning career had seen him reach the position of Operations Manager at DPD’s Southall site in London.
“It was a demanding job,” Priyank recalls. “I was responsible for all day-to-day operations, working 60 to 70 hours a week, sometimes seven days a week. There wasn’t much time for anything else.”
Making the most of your connections
Whenever Priyank needed a truck driver for one of his vehicles, his first port of call was his local Driver Hire office in Uxbridge. He worked closely with the franchisee, Ed Pockney. They had regular planning meetings and occasionally met socially. Whilst having a drink together, Ed, having observed Priyank’s work ethic, suggested that he’d make a great Driver Hire franchisee. “He said to me: ‘Instead of working to make money for someone else – why not do it so you’re the one profiting from your labours’.”
A seed had been sown. Priyank asked more questions and liked what he heard. “At the time, the Driver Hire Twickenham business was for sale , but I was engaged and due to get married. Whilst I was on a good salary at DPD I didn’t have enough money to get married and buy a business!”
Time to make the leap
In 2018, now married to Pinky, Priyank saw a new opportunity present itself, when the franchise owner of Driver Hire Kingston decided to sell his business and retire . “It was at a perfect time,” Priyank continues. “Pinky had just completed her Masters in Finance and Risk Management and was looking for a job. It meant that we could go into it as a joint venture.”
Whilst neither of them had any previous experience of running their own business, Priyank’s experience of transport & logistics at DPD provided him with good industry knowledge. Before doing her Masters, Pinky had been a senior customer consultant at Dixons Carphone – responsible for face-to-face customer service and sales. All useful work experience for the new franchisees.
“One of the things Ed Pockney explained when he first talked to me about a Driver Hire franchise was, ‘to be successful you don’t have to particularly smart or intelligent – just good with people. I thought, I’m good with people. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last ten years at DPD.”
Meetings with Driver Hire’s Franchise Sales Director followed, finance was arranged and Priyank and Pinky found themselves masters of their destiny. After completion of the franchise deal, as with all Driver Hire franchisees, Priyank and Pinky attended a two-week Foundation Course at Driver Hire’s Group Services headquarters. It taught them the key aspects of running a Driver Hire franchise, the road transport industry, and the world of recruitment. Once they’d taken over the business, there was ongoing support from Driver Hire’s Group Services team covering everything from invoicing, IT, HR, Marketing, Compliance, and Sales.
“To be honest our biggest initial challenge was balancing our operation,” says Priyank. “We had a tendency to over-promise to drivers in terms of work or over-promise to clients about driver availability.”
Immediate impact
The previous franchisee was achieving annual turnover of around £500k. In their first year (2019/20), Priyank and Pinky more or less doubled that. The Covid pandemic pegged them back a little, but post-Covid, as the economy recovered, they settled in and started to show just how good they are. Turnover has grown from £1.3m in 2021/22 to £2.1m in 2024/25., New customer acquisition is always important, but the growth they have achieved with existing clients, thanks to their focus on service excellence, has been especially impressive.
“We’ve developed an excellent reputation with our customers,” Priyank comments. “What we’ve learnt is, if you look after your people – drivers and clients – you’ll get excellent results. Forget spreadsheets, just get the right people on your team. Running a successful Driver Hire franchise is about being a matchmaker – finding the right person for a particular job. That’s what we do well, time and time again.”
Like any business start-up you’ve got to be prepared for some hard work. . “Initially it does take over your life. In the early days of the business, that’s all we talked about; all we did,” Priyank recalls. “The difference is, it’s your business and you’re using your entrepreneurial skills to make it grow for your direct benefit.”
Sustained growth
And, as the figures show, it is growing very nicely. Including himself, Priyank now has four people working in the office looking after admin, driver recruitment, payroll and sales. Combined they regularly find work for around 60 drivers which can go to 80 drivers at peak periods. Following the birth of their two children, and as their team has grown, Pinky has chosen to change her role within the business. She now works two days a week, chiefly from home, looking after the all-important compliance side of the business and customer relations.
“I was a graduate trainee at Argos,” says Priyank. “One of their mantras was ‘working together as one’. That’s what’s been at the forefront of our business. We focus on customer relationships, inviting some of them to our Christmas party. We once took a customer to recover their vehicle when our driver had run out of hours so they couldn’t legally drive back to the depot.”
Paying equal attention to the wellbeing of drivers is also a key part of Priyank and Pinky’s success story. “All our drivers receive a birthday card with a £10 Nando’s voucher in it,” says Priyank. “We’ve even done a bit of baby-sitting to ensure a driver could cover a shift for us! As a result, we’ve got drivers who’ve been with us for 6 or 7 years. They’ve had offers of permanent work but stay with us because they appreciate the regular work and feel part of the Driver Hire family.”
Innovation and future plans
Since buying the Kingston franchise, Priyank and Pinky have added Leatherhead to the office name. “It’s always been in our patch, “Priyank explains. “The area is close to Gatwick Airport, which offers plenty of opportunities for increased business. By adding Leatherhead to our name, it makes it clear that we’re a local supplier covering the area.”
Priyank and Pinky make full use of Driver Hire’s bespoke IT systems to increase efficiency within their operation. Out of hours they use the company’s online tool to find new candidates and register them, before completing a face-to-face interview. They liaise with clients on Zoom and Teams – something that can be done from anywhere, maximising flexibility and responsive service.
“The biggest daily challenge is finding the time to do everything that needs to be done,” says Priyank. “That’s why a team is so important. Running the franchise is still demanding – it’s fast-paced and no two days are the same. But it’s had a massive impact on my life in a very positive way. I still work full time in the business but my work-life balance is so much better. No longer tied to 60-to-70-hour working weeks, I have time to spend with my young family, and I’ve even had time to take up golf. Then there are the financial rewards too – I’m bringing in double or even treble what I was doing at DPD. I’d do the journey I’ve had with Driver Hire over the last six years, once, or maybe even two times, over.”
