Standards
Vetted Chauffeurs
Most people who apply to drive for us do not get through. That is the point.
How we choose
More Applicants Fail Than Pass
Choosing a chauffeur is the most important thing we do, so we take our time over it. The process runs for weeks rather than days, and more applicants fail it than pass. Background checks, references taken by phone, a driving assessment, training, and a probation lasting months — every stage is there to answer one question: can we trust this person to look after a client, on their own, on a bad day.
Why it matters
The Person Is The Service
A chauffeur spends hours alone with the people and the things that matter most to you. Children on the school run. A principal reading papers they would not leave on a desk. A guest who has never been to London before and is trusting a stranger to know where they are going.
Nothing about the car changes that. Two operators can put the same model on the same street at the same hour and the journeys will still not be the same, because the person at the wheel is not the same. That is why selection sits at the front of this company rather than in a compliance folder behind it.
So the question we are answering is narrower and harder than whether somebody can drive. It is whether we would put this person in front of a client we have made promises to — and then leave them there, unsupervised, for the rest of the day.
How we choose
Six Things Every Chauffeur Has Been Through
Each of these is a stage at which an application can end, and each of them has ended one. They are listed in the order they happen.
Background Verification
We verify identity, the right to work, criminal record and driving history to the standard required in each country — and we check them again at regular intervals.
References Taken By Phone
We ring previous employers rather than emailing them. People will say things in conversation that they will never put in writing.
Driving Assessment
More than a licence check. We assess how smoothly someone drives, how early they spot a hazard, and how calm they stay when a journey goes wrong.
A Probation Of Months, Not Weeks
At least three months of real work, watched closely, before a new chauffeur takes a client of their own.
Three Levels Of Clearance
Each level adds further checks and further training on top of the one below it, and some journeys can only be covered by chauffeurs at the highest level.
We Check Again, Regularly
Vetting is not something you do once. Licences expire and circumstances change, so we re-check every chauffeur on a fixed schedule.
The process
Weeks, Not Days
An applicant does not become a chauffeur in a week. The sequence below is worked through in order, and a stage that raises a question stops the process while the question is answered rather than being noted and passed over.
There is no fast track for an applicant who interviews well, and none for a week when we happen to be busy. The stage that gets skipped under pressure is always the one that would have caught the problem, so the order is fixed and the scheduling works around it.
- Application and identityWho the applicant is, established with documents rather than assurances. Nothing else begins until identity and the right to work are confirmed.
- Background verificationIdentity, the right to work, criminal record and driving history, checked to the standard required in each country.
- References, by telephonePrevious employers are telephoned rather than emailed, and the conversation is a proper one rather than a formality.
- Driving assessmentAn assessment of the driving itself: smoothness, hazard perception, and composure when the journey stops going to plan.
- TrainingProtocol, presentation, discretion and the practical detail of the work, before a client is involved at all.
- ProbationAt least three months of real work, watched closely, before a new chauffeur takes a client of their own.
- Re-checking, on a scheduleThe checks are repeated at fixed intervals for as long as a chauffeur drives for us.
Anyone can hire a driver. The work is in deciding who should not be driving for you.
Clearance
Not Every Journey Is Open To Every Level
Chauffeurs are cleared to one of three levels. Each adds further checks and further training on top of the one below it, so a chauffeur at the highest level has been through everything the two beneath it require and more.
The structure only means anything if it is applied. Some journeys can be covered only by chauffeurs at the highest level, and when one of those is arranged the pool we can draw on is smaller by design. That is a constraint we accept rather than a queue we quietly jump.
It also means that a chauffeur who is right for one kind of work is not automatically assigned to another. Progression between levels is earned through further checks and further training, and it takes as long as it takes.
Training
Before A Client Is Involved
Training covers the things a good driver has never had to think about. How a door is opened and how long it is held. Where to stand while waiting, and where not to. What to do with luggage, an umbrella, a wheelchair, a child seat. How to be present without being in the way.
Presentation is part of it and is not left to taste: a dark suit, a clean vehicle, and arrival before the client rather than alongside them. The standard is the same for a short transfer as for a long day, and a client should never be able to tell which of the two the chauffeur thinks they are on.
None of it is difficult to describe and all of it is easy to let slip, which is why it is taught deliberately, watched through probation, and expected for as long as somebody drives for us.
Conduct
Discretion Is A Trained Habit
The rear of the car is treated as private. Conversation is offered and never imposed, silence is the default, and a chauffeur who has understood the work does not need to be asked twice.
What is said, seen or carried in the car is not repeated — not to another client, not to a colleague who does not need to know, and not afterwards. Chauffeurs are trained in what confidentiality means in practice, and it is treated as a condition of the work rather than as good manners.
The same applies to everything around the journey. Addresses, names, itineraries and the fact of a booking at all are treated as private information, on the company's side as much as in the car.
Afterwards
Clearance Has To Be Maintained
Being cleared is not a thing that stays done. Licences expire, entitlements lapse and circumstances change with them, so every chauffeur is re-checked on a fixed schedule for as long as they drive for us.
Duty hours are part of the same picture. A chauffeur who has been driving for too long is a risk whatever their record says, so hours are managed rather than left to willingness, and a very long day may be planned differently or shared between two chauffeurs. That is settled before you travel rather than discovered on the road.
Where something does come up between scheduled checks, it is dealt with at the time. A standard that is only enforced at review is not a standard, and the last thing anyone wants to find out on a Friday evening is that a licence lapsed in March.
Questions answered plainly
Chauffeur Vetting, Answered
How Are Your Chauffeurs Vetted?
Through a sequence that runs for weeks rather than days: identity and the right to work, background verification covering criminal record and driving history to the standard required in each country, references taken by telephone from previous employers, a driving assessment, and training. A probation of at least three months of real work follows, before a chauffeur takes a client of their own.
How Long Does The Selection Process Take?
Weeks for the checks and the assessment, and then a probation lasting at least three months on top of that. We do not publish a fixed timetable, because a stage that raises a question stops the process while the question is answered rather than running to a schedule.
Do Most Applicants Pass?
No. More applicants fail the process than pass it, and that is the intended outcome rather than an unfortunate one. Every stage listed on this page is one at which an application can end.
What Does Background Verification Actually Cover?
Identity, the right to work, criminal record and driving history, verified to the standard required in each country in which we operate. Those checks are then repeated at regular intervals rather than taken once at the start.
Why Do You Telephone References Instead Of Emailing Them?
Because people will say things in conversation that they will never put in writing. A written reference tends to confirm dates and job titles; a telephone call is where the useful hesitation happens.
What Are The Three Levels Of Clearance?
Chauffeurs are cleared to one of three levels, and each level adds further checks and further training on top of the one below it. Some journeys can be covered only by chauffeurs at the highest level, which means the pool available for them is deliberately smaller.
Are Chauffeurs Re-Checked After They Are Hired?
Yes, on a fixed schedule, for as long as they drive for us. Licences expire and circumstances change, so clearance is treated as something that has to be maintained rather than something that was granted once.
Can I Request The Same Chauffeur Again?
You can ask, and where the same chauffeur is available for the journey we will arrange it. Availability is confirmed when the booking is made rather than promised in advance of it, because clearance level, duty hours and the requirements of the journey all bear on who can cover it.
Are Your Chauffeurs Employed Or Subcontracted?
Everyone who drives for Chauffeurs World has been through the process described on this page, at the clearance level the journey requires. The selection standard is the same whatever the arrangement behind it, and nobody drives for us who has not completed it.
How Do I Apply To Become A Chauffeur?
Through the chauffeur careers page, which the link at the foot of this one leads to. It is worth reading this page first: the process is long, it is meant to be, and the great majority of applications do not reach the end of it.
Arrange a journey
The Same Standard, Every Journey
Whoever arrives for you has been through all of it. Tell us where you are going, when, and how many are travelling; we will come back with the arrangement and a straight answer about anything that does not work as drafted.
