00:00So we're here in Atcham and we're with a chauffeur business. Introduce yourself, sir.
00:04Hello there. Hi, my name's Matthew Davies. I've been a Shropshire Council licensed driver for the last 25 years.
00:11What is the name of your chauffeur business?
00:14Well, we're two Excel limousines. So over the years, we've catered for the markets that we've had,
00:21which has traditionally started out to be the American style limousines.
00:23We have the wedding cars. We still have all these. We have the classic American 1950s rock and roll pink Cadillac style cars.
00:31So we go across the board. And now we've just started into this new theme, which is going for the very high end.
00:38Sort of very professional, chauffeur-driven, private hire vehicles.
00:44This particular one seats up to sort of six passengers very comfortably in the rear.
00:47It's a brand new vehicle that's brought to an even higher spec with televisions.
00:55So many features inside that sort of take it a step above anything else that's sort of out there and available at this moment in time.
01:02This is one of a, you've got another couple of these coming on board, haven't you?
01:06This is our first one of a venture that we've done now with three of these vehicles.
01:10Yeah.
01:10So our chauffeurs are sort of going to work around the Shropshire area.
01:15So how many, Pete, how many chauffeurs do you have working for you?
01:17We actually have four all together.
01:19So sort of, we've got four chauffeurs and we're a family business.
01:22So, you know, we're small enough to make sure that, you know, we get that personal touch with all our clients.
01:28And if people out there are thinking, well, we could never afford a chauffeur-driven car, that's for like rock stars.
01:35And the clientele, you know, it can be people, we're having a little chat off camera, people just booking things for a special occasion.
01:43They might be going on a special holiday and rather than a regular taxi, they want to travel in a bit more glamorous.
01:49Absolutely, yeah, that's exactly right.
01:51Because if somebody's actually going for their anniversary or any sort of special occasion where they need to go to the airport or they may be going on a cruise or something like that.
02:03So they need to get to sort of, they go for a very grand cruise.
02:06And why not have the travel from the moment you leave the front door to actually to the cruise liner or wherever or to a business meeting refreshed and, you know, relaxed.
02:17When you arrive there with a real sort of look back at it thinking, wow, that was a real special, it was worth that extra bit of money just to have.
02:26And in many cases, it's not a great deal more money.
02:29Well, yeah, I mean, what we talk, it's not going to cost you 10 times what it would in a taxi, is it?
02:34Absolutely not.
02:35We're looking at some, perhaps, on average, twice the cost of a taxi.
02:39Which I think will surprise a lot of people, actually.
02:41It will do.
02:42It will, won't it?
02:43Yeah.
02:43So, yeah, and for that, you know, you've got so much flex, you know, because it's that little bit more, we've got a little bit more in the rate, we've got flex.
02:52So if your flight's running late or anything like that, you know, we don't greet you with extra costs and say, right, that's more for this, it's more for that.
03:01It's a price that you've got and it just, if things change for the day, if you go to a business meeting and it's sort of running two hours over or something like that, you know, we're just going to say, we're going to greet you the same profession.
03:13And it's going to sort of just carry the trip on and to see that you sort of have a great time with us.
03:20And so it's a whole range of spectrum of things you'll do, isn't it?
03:23Like you say, that special occasion for someone, weddings, funerals, you know, it can accommodate all, really.
03:30Absolutely.
03:31Yeah, across the board.
03:32So we keep the vehicles absolutely pristine.
03:35You know, they're kept within garages, air-conditioned garages.
03:39The pain work is absolutely faultless.
03:42And then the presentation of the whole thing.
03:44So, yeah, one day we could be doing a funeral and, you know, service with that.
03:49And then the next day we could be doing a wedding.
03:51Yeah, yeah.
03:52And people are getting absolutely best spoke service to sort of, you know, make their day really special.
03:58And if people saw a pink Cadillac around Ludlow the other day, that was your gang, was it?
04:05It was, yeah.
04:05Doing a promotion for the Febbers.
04:07So over the last 25 years, as I say, what we've really aimed to do and enjoyed doing as a family business
04:14is finding the kind of vehicles that people want for their special occasions.
04:20So whether it's our pink Cadillac, which, you know, it has a great sort of little niche market there.
04:28But it really fits the bill.
04:30You know, you have the rock and roll driver as well.
04:33So, you know, we've got the whole theme to that.
04:36And then we've got right across to the old-fashioned 1930 style Ford Model As, which are absolutely fantastic condition.
04:44And, again, the drivers are all, you know, we're all the same drivers.
04:48Chauffeurs, we're doing the same sort of high-quality service.
04:51Am I right in thinking you even offer like a little tour package as well?
04:56We do.
04:57We do.
04:57On our site, we actually have the, we have a guided tour so we can sort of pick people up from hotels
05:04first thing in the morning or mid-morning after their breakfast, things like that.
05:09Take them off for the day.
05:11Show them the sights that we've got locally around us.
05:13We've got so many great places.
05:15You know, we try and promote these places.
05:17You know, we've got the Ironbridge area.
05:20You know, there's so much.
05:21The museums run, Shropshire, Shrewsbury, National Trust areas, things like that.
05:25Then we can actually go there and take people there, have a lovely relaxed sort of time.
05:31Nice gentle cruise back.
05:33Maybe afternoon tea on the way back somewhere at a prearranged place.
05:37And then, yeah, make it a real memorable sort of day that will go down in their, in their life history of a special time.
05:46So just remind us again, if people want to find out a bit more, where do they find you online?
05:51Right, okay, yeah.
05:52So the best place to go, as soon as you put in number two, letter X, letter L, limos, then it just comes straight up there on Google.
05:59So, you know, you haven't got to put any sort of like little bits of extra in there to sort of make sure you get to the right place.
06:04It's just instant on the, on the internet.
06:07So you can find us there.
06:09You can see all about us.
06:10There's a, there's a about us page.
06:12There's the vehicles, the galleries.
06:14There's all sorts going on that, on that website that we can, you know, hopefully find something to really make a special time for you, you know, sort of thing.
06:22Yep.
06:24So just talk us through the vehicle that we've got here.
06:27It's a bit special.
06:28It is very nice.
06:29It's all very new with these first of our small fleet of new Mercedes AMGs that we've got coming.
06:36They are actually built with a new custom interior.
06:40So they actually have the cream leather to sort of make it a lot brighter and more airy in here.
06:45Lovely, huge space to sort of work within.
06:48We have TVs that are front and rear televisions, which are all linked to Spotify and everything else that Netflix, everything all on.
06:59There are multiple different chargers, but all, if you have your phones, whatever, for charging up to that.
07:06We've got the privacy curtains, which are, work really well.
07:09So if you're traveling through the evening, long distance, some sort of long, long ways that we're traveling, to seat seaports or something like that, the curtains can be drawn.
07:20The rear seats are all reclinable.
07:22Yeah.
07:23So you can recline back there.
07:25We have up above controls for your own climate, temperature, that's all within the back here.
07:32So you've sort of got some, get the temperature and everything exactly how you want.
07:36Yeah.
07:36And what's there, there's a very sparkly ceiling.
07:38What's going on here?
07:39It's just a starry night.
07:40Yeah.
07:40Well, we've got this feature, so if we're actually sort of, it's been included into this vehicle and also the other vehicles we're having, it can be turned off for whether it's a corporate event or something like that.
07:52But if you've got a nice family going to the airport who want to sort of have a bit of a theme to the start of their special sort of time that they're going on, then we've got the stargazing ceiling, which can give it real sort of air and a real buzz to sort of the travel that we're going to go on.
08:08So all our chauffeurs, I say, they sort of, they turn up, they do the airs and graces to sort of give you a nice sort of relaxed, enjoyable theme from your front door to the airport or to where business trip, wherever you're going, that you're fresh and you're ready to roll when you get to where you're heading for.
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