Driving short and long distances is something a Chauffeur does every day. I put anywhere from 300 to 500 miles on my vehicle every day. Sometimes the rides are short hops and sometimes they are long hauls.
Short Hops
The shortest hop I have ever driven a passenger was less than one mile! It was from the Newark Airport Marriott Hotel at Newark Liberty International Airport to “the old” Terminal A (before the new one opened on January 12th), at Newark Airport.
This ride was in 2019 and was booked by the Administrative Assistant of a Pharmaceutical Executive who booked the ride from their office in Germany, who did not know the hotel was literally inside the airport property.
Deja Vu
Oddly, I was dispatched to do the same type of ride from the Newark Airport Marriott to the airport itself. This time it was early February 2023, and a gentleman requested I pick him up with his wife and two children and their skis and drive them to Terminal C, Premier Access. He explained that he knew there was a free shuttle van from the Newark Airport Marriott to each of the three terminals (A, B, C).
“I know I could walk to the terminal from the hotel,” he told me, “but I’ve had too many bad shuttle-van experiences with screaming babies and an over-crowded vehicle that took forever to get from the hotel to the terminal.”
I drove the nice man and his family safely for the one-mile journey to the airport from the hotel. I was pleasantly surprised when the kind and generous gentleman gave me a $20 cash tip. That was the easiest Andrew Jackson I ever made.
Long Hauls
As a Senior Executive Chauffeur, I have driven as far north as Boston, and as far south as Washington, DC. Both rides take between four and five hours, and the drive back is empty. The farthest West I have driven for a pick-up or a drop-off is just outside of Pittsburgh.
Deva Vu All Over Again
I made the trip to Pittsburgh a few years ago when I picked up an older gentleman and his wife and brought them to Basking Ridge just before Christmas, 2017. They liked me so much (I’m so modest!) that they requested I drive them back to Pittsburgh from Basking Ridge the day after Christmas.
In late January of this year, I had a pick-up on a Monday morning at 9:00am, just outside of Pittsburgh. This was a six-hour ride, so I had to get up at 1:00am and make sure I was on the road within an hour, in order to get there on time, allowing time to fill up with gas in Pittsburgh.
The woman I picked up was very nice. We had pleasant conversations during the 6-hour drive from Pittsburgh to Poughkeepsie. At the end of the ride, the nice lady gave me a $20 cash tip for this long haul… the same tip I gratefully received from the generous gentleman at Newark for whom I drove the short hop.
The nice couple were fun to drive. We made a “bio break” pit stop and got gas. The lovely elderly woman was experiencing early onset dementia; I can’t tell you how many times she asked my name, but she was very sweet and a pleasure to have as a passenger.
The moral of this Street Story: No matter how short or long the ride is – whether it is a short hop or a long haul – always drive safely and provide the same level of exceptional customer service.
