Mercedes Drivers

[Venkatesh.C]

Ever noticed a Mercedes chauffeur ? Following most of the rules to the 'T'? They will amaze you with their impeccable signalling, driving courtesy, lane discipline and so on and so on.
Where do these guys come from?
Look at the driver chaffeuring his boss in a honda city or a ford ikon, he is such a rude brat who thinks that he is doing a favour to his boss and does not hesitate to thrash the already dented machine.
and we know that these guys are what we normally get when we ask for 'Drivers' for our cars.
So, i was wondering where do these Mercedes drivers come from? Is there a school where they are given some serums to brainwash them and make them sober drivers?

[1100D]

When you know each scratch on the car you are driving is worth more than ones annual salary. Even complete monkeys are going to drive sober.

[Venkatesh.C]

. True. But Seriously will that truth suddenly teach monkeys manners? Seriously? Is there a school or something where they are sent to?

Originally Posted by 1100D

When you know each scratch on the car you are driving is worth more than ones annual salary. Even complete monkeys are going to drive sober.

[skandyhere]

Apparently even monkeys know they're not driving a car that's seen dozens of times a day, and that the very realisation that it's an exorbidently expensive piece of metal. precious metal, you might say!

[shuvc]

Well it could be like this.
Say the drivers are quoted an annual salary of 1.2 lakhs (10K a month), with the clause that half the payment will be made after the completion of 1 yr, minus a % for every dent/scratch OR a 50% bonus, in case of no scratches !

I should go to sleep now

[BUSA]

Mercedes cars are big and not as easy as smaller cars to manouver could be another reason.

[speedy]

i had seen a chauffeur of a S350 and a CLS500 drive like a lunetic in bombay. i was thinking they should be sent to driveing school and who gave them a lisence.
my fathers chauffeur knows that it would be very expensive to repair the car if anything does go wrong (dents, bangs etc) so he is very carefull. the guy is with us for 20yrs now so we trust him enough to give him the mercedes to drive.
BUSA when i am in a hurry you cannot even begin to imagine how i drive the cadillac through the streets. the cadillac is 17 feet long and 6 feet wide. there is no power steering and brakes that would make you stop tomorrow also. so imagine what you can do with a modern machine that has nice brakes and power steering.

[lamborghini]

Hey guys,
AFAIK Mercedes offers a driver training program when a customer orders a new mercedes.
That option was offered to us when we bought our E class.
And for the record, all our driver's drive quite sensibly, no matter what car they are driving.
IMHO, people should really take the time out to judge how well a driver drives before employing him.

[Lukeskywalker]

Hmm, talking about drivers and their style of driving, was wondering how many of us have actually penalised a driver for fender benders or small scratches which occur in city bumper to bumper traffic?
fault could/ could not be the driver's, but he is anyway responsible for the upkeep of the car.
In my case, very few of the drivers I have employed have actually told me instantly that the car has had a scratch courtesy a careless 2 wheeler or some guy bumping into it in parking or a signal.
But, I have not so far penalised any driver (but for the occasional tongue lashing) for having damaged the car slightly.
Your opinions guys.

[Venkatesh.C]

@speedy, you probably saw a one off case. Majority of them stun you with their "Propah" driving skills.
However what @lambo says makes sense in Indian scenario. Which owner would like to spend 15k /30k every time they loose a ORVM or to get a paint job done.
@shuvc were you sober!! or are you from HR / Accounts? some calculations you have there. But makes sense. tell me wont the drivers ditch you the moment you start penalising them?
@Lambo, drivers are clever buggers, they would go 'Kamikaze' only when their owners are not around. Leave driver and a car alone you dont know what they can do. Behind my office is a secluded area. Every day at least a dozen drivers bring fairly expensive cars there and siphon off fuel right before my eyes. God knows what else they'd do. sell spares and put in junk in their place? Its a scary world. Trusty drivers are hard to find i guess. Decent ones even harder to find. Moral of the story, how much ever you screen drivers, you can never trust them

[Sahil]

Originally Posted by lamborghini

Hey guys,
AFAIK Mercedes offers a driver training program when a customer orders a new mercedes.

Really? I wasn't offered this option...is it an initiative from the showroom or the company itself?

[GTO]

Forget chauffeurs; anyone will change their driving style when driving an expensive car in our traffic conditions. The cost of damage is just too high to ignore.

That said, I second Lambo. Mercedes India did offer some kind of driver training program. Even Volvo does for its commercial vehicles.

[speedy]

GTO and LAMBO strange i was not offered this training program when i bought my car.

venkatesh i agree with you, both the cars that i saw were without the owners sitting in them. the drivers sure had turned kamakazi's at that point.
you do have drivers who would go the extra mile to get extra money (siphon fuel, tamper with the bill amounts). it is hard to get real honest drivers. i feel it is just the way you handle and train them. fortunately my drivers are not like that and they treat the cars like it is their own.

[aadix]

hmm.. dont agree.. drivers atleast here still drive even big cars rashly.. seen drivers drive the luxury cars like 800's when the owner isnt present...


ps: think the the driver training programme has been stopped... it wasnt offered to me when i picked up my c..

when asked they told me to send my driver to the showroom and they would give a few basic tips and instructions..

this was almost 1.5 years back.. not recently.

[androdev]

Very simple. It is all to do with the boss and not the cost of the car. These drivers never drive rash no matter which car they drive (to a large extent.) Boss will get angry if his economic times newspaper shakes while reading in the car.

Drivers who are not disciplined get fired. So ultimately the disciplined drivers settle with these owners (with better pay). Once the driver is found to be good, no one lets go off him. Not surprisingly, the disciplined drivers are the ones who work for the same boss for many years. Most of the drivers also take pride in the fact that they are the 'official' drivers of CEOs, Netas, etc. and owners trust them more than their own blood. A good driver is as good as a family member. A good cook is another key family member :-)