As Managing Director of a company which is primarily concerned with corporate travel and courier work within the UK, I am constantly surprised by the attitudes of my contemporaries in the business and commercial world about the very emotional subject of personal transportation.
A Flex-Able chauffeur drive operator should be licensed by the local authority, should have the minimum private hire insurance required (possibly more insurance where key executives are being carried) and also be registered for VAT unless he is a one man band operation.
Most private hire drivers and proprietors are decent, honest people and extremely hard working, meeting more than their fair share of trials and tribulations during an average working day. However, every barrel has it’s share of rotten apples and we hear constantly within the business of drivers who are under insured, not properly insured or not insured at all. Also, some proprietors have contracts exceeding £100,000 annually yet do not charge VAT. There are those whose closest association with an MOT test certificate is the outside of the testing station which they pass each day during their journeys.
Without wishing to be alarmist, giving that these situations do exist, all companies which value their staff and their health, safety and welfare, should take steps to avoid using such “cowboy” operators.
Organisations which schedule high levels of travel, should follow Flex-Able’s ten point plan.
