AGENCY DRIVERS DRIVER HE
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Aspiring actor Scot Scott has given up treading the boards for a hopefully more permanent run as boss of his own driver hire franchise. Steve Banner meets the leading player.
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Think transport is tough? Try making a living as an actor. The intense competition you face for the plum jobs makes haulage look cosy by comparison, and you can forget any idea of earning megabucks. Some actors do, but the vast majority are on rock-bottom wages, with long spells of unemployment—or "resting" between engagements.
Driver Hire franchisee Scot Scott has sampled both the theatre and transport and has finally chosen the latter, albeit with one or two regrets. Today he supplies temporary drivers to transport operators in and around Wembley.
That's despite a stage and screen career that's included bit parts in "The Bill" and "Pie in the Sky." He also appeared in "Scarlet", a made-forSky-TV movie starring Timothy Dalton and Joanna Whalley. Kilmer, which was a perhaps bestforgotten sequel to "Gone With The Wind."
He even wrote and starred in a one-man show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival entitled "Asleep for Ten Years." It was about a man who dies and is reincarnat ed as a dog, and involved Scott appearing dressed in nothing more than a pair of swimming trunks and a set of artificial dog's ears. If you've got the nerve to do that, then you're clearly not afraid of a challenge; or of criticism.
"The critic from The Scotsman came to see it, and
didn't take to it too well," he retails. "When I
0 read the review the next day, I wanted to get on the train and go back to London.
E "But I believe in turning a negative into a 8 positive, and the show must go on, And the following clay critics from two other papers E saw it, and gave it a good write-up."
A former champion schoolboy athlete, 33year-old Scott first fell in with the luvvies when he was a transport manager. He'd started as a warehouse assistant— "My job was to tidy and sweep the place"—at the age of 21.
Ile found that many of the temporary drivers he was hiring were unemployed actors and musicians, and he became interested in their world. He went to a drama workshop, and eventually enrolled in a three-year drama course.
He too decided to combine freelance truck driving he holds an LGV1 licence—with acting, but when his first child was born, he realised he needed a more stable career. "Acting is still in my blood, and! still want to get involved with it, but realistically I'm not Denzil Washington or Wesley Snipes," he admits.
Scott also realised that he wanted to build up his own business. Some people would argue that becoming a small businessman is almost as precarious a route to prosperity as acting, but at least if you take out a franchise you're under the umbrella of a much larger organisation which can offer advice and support when times get tough.
Scott came across Driver Hire at a trade show at the National Exhibition Centre in October 1996. By May last year he was up and running, and his wife Patricia works alongside him.
Driver Hire appealed to him because it gave him the opportunity to make use of his transport industry experience.
"Working as a freelance driver I'd already built up my own client base, and got my name known around the Wembley area," he says. "I've always lived around here, and I was delighted when 1 was told by Driver Hire that this area was available."
When he took the plunge he had stopped working as a freelance, and taken a full-time driving job with United Biscuits. "When I left them they became one of my first clients," he says.
Getting drivers on to his books is proving difficult, thanks to the growing countrywide shortage, Scott admits. The driver drought has prompted him to advertise for them in national newspapers such as The Sun and The Daily Mirror, but even these ads don't attract many replies.
"For example, I had four calls from an ad I ran in Tfrw Mirror last Thursday morning and, after carrying out various checks, I had two drivers out on the road by Thursday evening," he says. "If I get one guy out from one ad, then I'm happy"
He's also had Driver Hire's promotional trailer parked on the big trading estate at nearby Park Royal for three days to drum up interest, and got quite a good response from that. About 70% of Driver Hire's national promotional budget is spent on driver recruitment and retention these days.
So what qualities do Scott and Driver Hire look for in a driver? "He's got to be reliable, but above all he's got to be safety-conscious," he replies; and image-conscious clients want temporary employees who look presentable.
He must have held the class of licence on which he is relying for work for at least two years, and exercised that entitlement as a temporary or permanent employee for a minimum of six months. Driver Hire always asks for references from previous employers, says Scott, always takes them up, thoroughly interviews all candidates, and the driver has to complete a written test of competence satisfactorily. The test addresses a variety of transport topics, from knowledge of the Drivers Hours rules to the ability to identify road signs correctly. Non-LGV drivers—van drivers, for example—also have to take a written test. Whenever he has time, Scott will go out with drivers in customers' vehicles and assess their skills.
How does he react to the frequent observation that people only go and work for agencies bemuse nobody else will employ them?
"I don't agree with it," he says, pointing out that many drivers prefer agencies because they like the variety "I've got at least five guys on ray books who have been offered permanent jobs and turned them down because they want to keep working with me,"
Guarantee
That's despite the fact that he cannot guarantee them work every single day. That said, demand for their services is such that most of them seem to be kept very busy
Once drivers are known to be loyal, competent, and client feedback about them is positive, they may be invited to become what Driver Hire terms Network Partners. Derived from the company's Approved Drivers scheme, it means they can enjoy a wide range of benefits more usually associated with fulltime employment, including discounted mortgages and private health and pension schemes.
Driver Hire is also setting up training cen
ties around the country so that its drivers can acquire the additional skills—lorry loader operation, for example—that so many of its clients desperately need. Ultimately it aims to have between 15 and 20.
The employment status of a temporary driver is somewhat unusual, and is not the same as being self-employed. To all intents and purposes he becomes a short-term "permanent" employee of the client, but the agency is responsible for paying him, and for income tax and National Insurance deductions from his wages.
Driver Hire is finding that more and more customers are making planned use of agency drivers to cover for holiday absences, for example, rather than ringing up in a panic at the last moment. But with all too many companies it's still the case that an agency man will turn up, have the keys to a truck flung at him, and be told to get on with it with no further elaboration.
He may be unfamiliar with both the truck and the route, yet for some reason the customer may be unwilling to spare a few minutes to explain to him just what is required.
Scott believes that a wise client will take care to use agency drivers on the easier jobs rather than the more complicated ones that may take some time to master.
"Why give him the most difficult one, when you know he'll come back with half the load still on board because he hasn't been able to find some of the drops? It's not cost-effective."
THINKING OF GOING ALONE?
• Driver Hire has 70 franchised operations countrywide, with branches due to open soon in Belfast and Lancaster. It is looking for a further 20, particularly in South-East England.
A transport industry background is useful to a franchisee, but not essential. The current crop of franchise holders includes former accountants, publicans, and even an ex-chef.
It costs £25,000 to acquire a franchise, and you'll need a minimum £10,000 to £15,000 of working capital on top of that, plus an office. In exchange for your investment, however, you get an exclusive post code area, Iwo weeks' training, and all the electronic office equipment you are likely to require; not to mention head office advice and back-up.
The franchise agreement lasts for five years, and can be renewed. Driver Hire levies an ongoing fee equivalent to 8% of annual turnover, including 1% which is paid into a central fund used for nationwide marketing.
An established franchise could turn over upwards of £2m a year. A newcomer should turn over a minimum £150,000 in his first year of trading, Driver Hire claims.
Based in Bingley, West Yorkshire, Driver Hire was founded in 1983, and is a member of the British Franchise Association.