Driver Hire Celebrates Excellent Half Year

Franchisees at specialist transport and logistics recruiter, Driver Hire, are clearly benefiting from the improved economic outlook. After 26 weeks’ trading, over a quarter of its offices have already passed the half million turnover mark and two offices are passed a million. August and September delivered a blistering performance, with average weekly turnover just short of 25% ahead of same time last year.

And, according to Driver Hire’s Chief Executive, Chris Chidley, there’s more good news for franchisees: “The run-up to Christmas is Driver Hire’s busiest period of the year. Hard pressed parcel delivery companies turn to us for ‘final mile deliveries’ to homes and offices during the Christmas rush. If, as predicted, Christmas 2013 proves to be the busiest yet for online sales, we’ll be one of the beneficiaries. And it’s not just delivery drivers; as the economy picks up there’s been a general all round increase in the demand for temporary transport and logistics staff.”

Alongside its core recruitment business, Driver Hire is also a leading supplier of essential Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (Driver CPC) training. Since launching this service, it has trained over of 43,000 drivers and delivered over 300,000 hours of training. With the deadline for the first round of training now less than a year away, Driver Hire is experiencing a surge in demand. In 2012 Driver Hire trained 740 drivers and delivered 91 courses; in September 2013 it trained 2020 drivers and delivered 249 courses.  That is a 173% year on year increase in both courses and drivers.  October bookings are already well up on last year.

Ian Ware is the franchisee at Driver Hire Bradford. He added: “We were the first Driver Hire office to open and have just had our most profitable September in the past thirty years. That’s an excellent result, more than vindicating my decision to invest. What’s particularly pleasing is the broad-based nature of our growth, which is non sector specific.”

“These are exciting times for Driver Hire franchisees,” Chris Chidley continues. “What is doubly pleasing about our outstanding performance is that it’s not just the result of improved market conditions. Offices are winning new business on merit. If this continues, we could have the best ever trading week in the company’s history and, come April 2014, our best ever year. All of which will be a perfect way to celebrate our thirtieth year in business.”