Franchisees at specialist transport and logistics recruiter, Driver Hire, are clearly benefiting from the improved economic outlook. As the company approaches the end of the first half of its financial year, just short of a quarter of its 100 office network have passed the half million turnover mark. Two of those offices have already reached £1m. Its outstanding performance is spread across the UK, with offices from Inverness to Portsmouth all delivering impressive trading performances. As a result, Driver Hire turnover is 14% ahead of same time last year.
And, according to Driver Hire’s Chief Executive, Chris Chidley said there’s more good news for franchisees: “Our thirtieth year in business has already been an excellent one for us – and there’s plenty more to come. We’re now heading towards Christmas, our busiest period of the year. Last Christmas, online sales of non-food were up 17.8%. Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that online now accounts for 10% of all retail sales and were 10% up on same time last year in July. If this level of growth continues, Christmas 2013 could be the busiest yet for online sales. This helps Driver Hire. Goods purchased online have to be delivered by parcel companies to homes and businesses, increasing the need for ‘final mile’ delivery drivers. 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 just short of 41,000 drivers and delivered over 286,000 hours of training. With the deadline for the first round of training now less than a year away, Driver Hire is already experiencing high levels of demand from transport operators and individual drivers. It expects this to continue as the September 2014 deadline approaches.
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 none sector specific.”
“These are exciting times for Driver Hire franchisees,” Chris continues. “Our trading is now approaching levels not seen since pre-recession days. High profile national companies already choose Driver Hire because of our specialist knowledge and almost unrivalled access to drivers. But, an increasing number are also attracted to us because of our added value services such as training and free on-line tools to aid compliance with industry legislation.”