Chaffeur business?

mattwillco1

Hello all, I am a Police officer, have a wife, two kids and a mortgage. I also have a quantity of money which I am considering investing into a very small business. Being a keen driver and having a friend who is already in the business, successfully so, I am considering starting up a chaffeur/private hire business.

I am an advanced driver, thanks to my job-related training, I have the capital to buy something second-hand, but luxurious (Audi A8, BMW 7-series, etc) and am aware of the hire/reward business insurance required.

I am used to driving 150 miles a day at work (with a 20 mile-each way commute on top of that).

I'm not looking intending on this to be a massive money earner, but simply a way of getting a bit of extra income.

I would be looking to do predominantly weddings and proms, but would not turn away airport runs.

Does anyone have any advice concerning this career?

mouche

No advice but I wish you were in my area to drop and pick up my child from nursery/ childminder. I am a non-driver and my childcare options become very restricted if I have to depend on public transport/ taxis. What I needed was a reasonably priced (less than taxis) regular driver who was CRB checked and reliable. Not sure if mine is a unique case but you might think of finding regular customers of this nature.

mattwillco1

Thankyou for your reply. That is something I never considered before, but certainly sounds like a viable option. I'll bear that in mind, definitely.

CLV

Starting a new business is exciting I wish you luck...

The only tip I can give you is make sure that the money you earn is worth it.

Remember you'll be away from your home / family and I'm guessing you won't have much free time either.

Just make sure it all adds up properly

Goodluck!!

Florasaurus

Sounds good!! I reckon with a luxury car hire you'd have to be in a city or the Cotswolds for your ideal market, but you need to be somewhere where you don't have too much competition, you'd need to research that

And then there's the insurance... I was chatting to the taxi driver who took me back from a night out + he said he paid about £2000 for insurance. Not sure if that was just car insurance or public liability insurance as well, and then there's fuel as well but I suppose if you're hiring out a luxury car you can charge more

But yeah, I like the idea!! Best of luck

harz99

Simple advice; go work driving for someone else in this field for six months to a year, record what you do in terms of hours/ mileage/pay types of job etc. Armed with this experience/ knowledge and your projected costs you will be in a much better position to judge both whether or not the work is for you, and more importantly whether you can make sufficient return on your investment to make it worthwile.

BTW, unless you are going to severely limit yourself to weddings/proms which tend to be infrequent occasions, forget the likes of Audi/BMW etc. you will be better of with a good spec people carrier - much more versatile.