DrivenByQ – The Web Site

When we recently researched Social Media, it became clear that our web site (or shop window) drivenbyq.co.uk offering “Chauffeur-Driven Cars” needed updating to compliment our profile. We knew colour changes or photo updates would not be enough to differentiate DrivenByQ from other airport transfer providers.

Our site needed something better than that! When we first published a web site many years ago, our rivals were virtually non-existent on the Internet - customers still used Yellow Pages in 2005! If you search on the Internet today though, it seems everybody has an on line presence with Airport Taxi, Airport Transfer, Airport Chauffeur or Airport Shuttle services all easy to find – even some of our corporate chauffeur service rivals are starting to catch up!

We looked long and hard at our competitors both locally and nationally. We examined what their web site and marketing said about them. We asked how customers perceived them and more importantly, we researched how customers perceived us. What we found was very revealing because as a company, DrivenByQ reach out and connect with customers both psychologically and emotionally!

Our new shop window needed to mirror this. We wanted to express our values, our passion, our vision, our dedication; the commitment we give and we also wanted to echo the quality of service we provide. So, we redesigned the layout to be more tactile; we reduced the words on each page and then took photos in great locations such as Lake Vyrnwy, Porthmadog, the Horseshoe Pass and Snowdonia.

The images reveal our personal, one-to-one approach; they replicate how open we are, the reassurance we deliver and most importantly, the value it delivers to our clients. We have more pages to add to the new site but for now, we are really happy with what we have achieved.

Social Media

Last summer I attended a conference in Llandudno. Various people spoke and attempted to impart something useful upon the audience. By mid afternoon my frustration at the content was building until, somebody spoke about Social Media. In particular focussing on Twitter and Tweetdeck.

Up until this moment I honestly thought Social Media was just for teenagers or it was an extension of instant messaging. Once I realised though just how powerful Twitter is in connecting with people, I was consumed with enthusiasm and began investigating where it could fit in our organization.

I engaged with business leaders, web designers, gurus and marketing professionals and in particular, a PhD student from Glyndwr University. His analysis was concise and very clear. It suddenly put everything in perspective: Social Media isn’t something weird or tricky but simply a way to connect with people by using Internet technology as an extension of a brand or a service.

From this point on I had the confidence to start using Social Media in Ernest. We now have channels to connect with our consumers in a more virtually tactile way. Take this blog for instance; it is a great way to share technical knowledge, thoughts, feelings, experiences and issues affecting our business.

Then there is the Facebook page for sharing images from some of the places we go and things we do. Next is Twitter for posting useful information, important alerts or relevant stories and finally there is LinkedIn. This helps us to stay in touch with the business community and professional networks we build as part of our operation.

After doing all this, we realised our DrivenByQ web site was a bit out of date and needed a make-over but that is another blog for another day..

Who Wants Paper?

Very often these days when I’m at an airport waiting to meet a client, a number of other drivers will be stood around doing the same thing. It is always interesting to observe their methodology. One thing that really makes me cringe is when their mobile phone rings and they pull out a clipboard with a printed spreadsheet while trying to talk to a client.

The spreadsheet will normally have lots of hand-written notes on it with one or two lines of thick black ink through it. Not only do they hand-write their scribbles the first time (while holding a mobile phone) but they have to type them up later when they get back to the office.

I could understand working in this way ten years ago but with the technology available today is there any need? Surely efficiency is about handling information just once? The more you transpose it, the more chance you have of creating errors and it takes longer too.

At DrivenByQ our customer can update a journey on line and the details are fed directly to the driver’s web page at the same time. The driver can read the update securely on a mobile phone. It’s quick, simple and efficient with less chance of errors. Oh, and there is no paper involved either!

The Fantastic £85 Deal

The holiday market has a lot of competition for airport transfers at fantastic prices. Last year the recession forced many people out of full-time employment and some decided to have a crack at taxi driving or working a private hire office. The number of self-employed drivers at town centre offices increased. At the same time, the number of customers decreased.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that increased competition in a decreasing market means less money to go around! It’s just like more people trying to eat a smaller cake. Some established private hire drivers looked at new markets to sustain their regular turnover and one of the most obvious places was airport transfer – some drivers have a list of clients that take holidays so it makes sense to offer them the service at a competitive price.

Some drivers offer trips to Manchester Airport for just £85 return from our local area in Wrexham. That is a great deal for the customer! For the driver though, I'm not so sure?  There are costs which most people don’t calculate but I will share them. Let us assume you have a vehicle for which you paid £9,000 and you expect to cover 180,000 miles with it over three years. That will roughly give you: Vehicle depreciation of 5p per mile; Servicing and repairs of 3p per mile; Insurance costs of 2p per mile; Licences and car tax of 1p per mile and tyres of 5p per mile Therefore, the basic running costs are 16p per mile (as long as you don’t need any major repairs like a clutch at £1,000 a pop).

In an efficient car, such as a diesel (returning 44mpg or more, the cost of fuel would be at least £25 and the return journey would cover nearly 200 miles at the said 16p per mile (or £32). This leaves the driver with £28. Subtract £5.30 for the car park at Manchester Airport and we now have £22.70 for the best part of five hours work (which includes a 4am pick-up sometimes). Oh, and don’t forget to factor in tax and national insurance contributions and unpaid holidays.

Last year we stopped promoting cheap deals. We kept our prices where they needed to be and focussed on the corporate market. This year we are still in business, our volume has increased and more airport trips link-up. Our drivers are making a profit and they have plenty of regular sleep too! Wonder how long the driver with the £85 deal will be doing it for? Maybe they should spend money on advertising as well?

Flexibility

It’s been a few weeks since the last blog. When the Eyjafjallajökull volcano began disrupting air travel, we had a number of cancellations. We then had a few days when vehicles were simply parked up and didn't move. (We took full advantage and went on a photo shoot, preview on our Facebook page) Then, people who needed to get home began to contact us.

The next few weeks took our business in a different direction and pushed our turnover up to a record high. The journeys we completed were out of the ordinary as people needed to reach train stations, ferry ports and airports in other countries. We even took seven passengers to Madrid. Now this is all well and good but, our business model relies on us sub-contracting work to a network of people. Normally it’s just a few journeys and that is never a problem.

Our network of drivers are paid on a fixed day every month so they never have to wait too long. It is one of the key factors in our growth model. It is how we build such a reliable and motivated network - if our customers need vehicles at short notice, we can arrange it because our rates and payments to drivers are so good.

When we invoice customers we simultaneously pay our drivers and then wait for customers to pay us - they effectively use our credit - it’s how we make profit and keep everybody happy. However, when you need all of your vehicles and each one completes a high value journey; this has an impact on cash flow. The last six weeks have been incredibly busy and just like last year we have to monitor our cash-flow – unlike last year though it is not because we have a decrease in turnover, it is because we have a substantial increase!

We recently took on new customers; extended some payment terms for others; and took on more work from some existing customers too. The combination of all this has been a large increase in our outgoings and a very real need to monitor our bank balance! Luckily we have a lot of systems in place to constantly update us but, this was not necessarily an issue we planned for or ever experienced before.

We needed to be a little bit creative and look more carefully at our forecasts and plans. At the same time, it is an issue which swallows a reasonable chunk of time on top of a time when you have a lot less time. All in all though, a very positive issue to have and one we are very pleased to deal with.