The limo business is split between pure transport runs and luxury recreation jobs. The former is almost exclusively transfers with a smattering of busy businessperson running around. The second category comprises everything else, the kind of party and celebratory occasions the thought of 'limousine' conjurs in your mind.
We spend most of our time driving to and from airports, usually in sedans. At our place The Boss uses Lincoln Town Cars, but other shops use Cadillacs, Chrysler (whoops, Fiat) 300s and various models of SUV. No matter the vehicle type, passenger and chauffeur are in close proximity, much more intimate than being in a real limousine with its separate compartments.
So a useful driver skill is understanding the power gradient between the front and rear seats. Although we're separated by only three feet, a social, experiential, and wealth gap the size of an Antarctic crevasse lives in that space. Or perhaps it is better to say that the crevasse exists if the customer chooses.
In my experience, it is almost impossible to know whether a particular back-seater will choose to invoke the gap. As a rough generalization, the more wealthy the customer, the less likely they are to take on the role-play of "Me customer, You grovel." The one-off punter for whom a trip to Tampa in a Town Car is a big deal is way more likely to treat you like an insect than the multi-millionaire self-made woman who takes time to learn your name and perhaps share a laugh.
Until there is a foolproof people-meter that divines a customer's attitude towards the servants, the best policy is to speak only when spoken to. Even then, beware the crevasse.
Technorati: Chauffeur, Limousine Life, Servant, Customer
5 comments:
tell a fool something, sugar! i swear, i thought i was making everyone's life easier by keeping MY mouth shut! hell, i figure all my jokes and observations have probably all been spouted from the back seat before. as in, after hello, how ya doin chit chat, the driver didn't want to be bothered by ME! ;~D xoxox
Oh, no, Sugar, please don't think that. Although, now I think about it, you might have a good point.
Sometimes it is great to have chit-chat (as it would with you) but sometimes the silence is just beautiful.
Hmmmm. Now you've got me thinking. It really depends on the driver. I'm content in silence, but I know for sure that others are made most uncomfortable by it.
Interesting point. Happy day to you.
xoxoxo ;~D sugar, i'd have to sit in the front seat with you!
Maybe you wouldn't have gotten "Lost in the wilds of Venice" if the customers had been quieter? LOL
Most times I've used a limo it was to get to the airport; then I talk with the driver. A couple of times have been birthdays or anniversaries where we had four or more people in back; then I've left the driver to the driving. But, for me, there's never been a crevasse.
...which speaks volumes about your sociability, Don. The lack of crevasse, that is.
Interestingly, you hit upon one of the great customer favours you can do for your driver. Let him or her drive. That's the whole point, right?
*laughing*
I just love it when someone from the back pipes up "Did you just take the dot dot dot exit? You should have taken the dot dot dot exit."
Grrrrrr.
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