What it takes to be an AmstelCab chauffeur

People assume the job is driving. Driving is the part most applicants already have. The rest — the minute you arrive, the things you do not say, the way a suit sits at six in the morning — is the job, and this is what it looks like from the inside.

Most people who write to us about driving for AmstelCab lead with the driving: a clean licence, plenty of time behind the wheel, comfortable in a big car. All of that is necessary and none of it is the point. Our chauffeurs are hosts who happen to be at a steering wheel. The guest in the back has usually flown overnight, or is on the way to a meeting that matters, or is somebody’s mother being collected at Schiphol on the booker’s behalf, and what they need is a calm, well-dressed person who has already thought about everything. This article is about that person.

Hospitality first, driving second

The difference shows in small things. A chauffeur opens the door and says the guest’s name, not “taxi for…”. The temperature in the cabin was set before the guest got in, and the radio is off unless asked. Water is within reach, a charger for the guest’s phone is already at the seat, and the route has been checked so that the first question is not “which way would you like to go?”. If the guest wants to talk, the chauffeur talks; if the guest opens a laptop, the car goes quiet for forty minutes.

Driving is the floor, not the ceiling. We expect it to be smooth enough that a coffee on the rear armrest does not spill, and unremarkable enough that the guest forgets about it — which is the highest compliment a chauffeur gets.

The four things we look for

• Punctuality. Not on time — early. A chauffeur is at the door before the agreed minute, engine off, so that the guest never waits and never wonders. For a Schiphol pickup that means being in the arrivals hall before the aircraft is at the gate.
• Discretion. What is said in the car stays in the car. Chauffeurs hear board discussions, family news and phone calls that were not meant for them; the correct response to all of it is silence, then and later. Many guests choose a name sign that says nothing at all, and the chauffeur never asks why.
• English. Every AmstelCab chauffeur speaks English well enough to hold a conversation, take a change of plan on the phone and explain the road ahead. Most of our guests are visitors, and a chauffeur who cannot be understood is not a host.
• Presentation. A dark suit, a clean shirt, polished shoes, and a car that looks the same at the end of the shift as at the start. The chauffeur is the first person from the Netherlands many of our guests meet, and often the last.

What a shift looks like

No two days are the same, but a typical one has a shape. It might begin with an early departure: a family in Amsterdam-Zuid with a morning flight, four cases and a child seat that was fitted the night before, driven down the A10 and the A4 and dropped at the right departure hall with time to spare. Then a Schiphol arrival, which is where the routine described below takes over. The middle of the day is often hourly hire — a visiting executive who needs the car and the chauffeur for a run of meetings between the Zuidas and the canal ring — or a long-distance leg to Brussels, Düsseldorf or The Hague.

Evenings bring dinners, concerts, the RAI in conference season and the hotel returns that go with them. Between rides the chauffeur is back in touch with dispatch, checking the next pickup, the traffic and the flight board, and keeping the car ready: a wipe of the seats, fresh water, the charging cable straightened. The last thing in every shift is the car itself, cleaned and, for the electric ones, plugged in for the morning.

The Schiphol routine

Airport pickups are the core of the work and the part with the least room for improvisation. Every AmstelCab chauffeur knows the sequence by heart:

1. Check the flight. Dispatch tracks it from the moment of booking; the chauffeur checks again before leaving, so that a delay moves the pickup rather than wasting an hour in the garage.
2. Park in the garage nearest the arrivals hall the flight feeds into, and walk inside. Schiphol has four arrivals halls, and the right one is decided by the flight number.
3. Stand where the guest will see the sign before the crowd: the guest’s name, a company name, or a blank card if that was the instruction.
4. Take the trolley at the doors. The chauffeur handles the luggage from the hall to the boot; the guest carries nothing but a coat.
5. Wait as long as it takes. Sixty minutes after landing are free, and a slow passport queue is not the guest’s problem or the chauffeur’s.
6. Confirm the destination, set off, and let dispatch know the guest is in the car so that whoever booked the ride sees the status change.

For departures the routine runs in reverse: the chauffeur checks the departure hall against the flight number before the car moves, allows for the traffic on the A4 at that hour, and drops the guest at the doors of that hall.

Salaried, in a company car

The industry mostly runs on freelancers with their own cars, paid per ride and left to find the next one. We do it differently. AmstelCab chauffeurs are employed and salaried, and they drive company cars — the same black Mercedes-Benz and BMW fleet the guest sees on the booking page, run by the company rather than by the person driving it. A chauffeur who is not chasing the next fare has time to walk a guest to the doors, wait for a late flight, or spend a quiet hour at a golf club.

It also means the chauffeur is accountable to dispatch and to colleagues, not to an algorithm. Rides are assigned by people who know both the chauffeurs and the guests. The terms of the role are set out on the recruitment page, along with the application form.

Who tends to fit

The chauffeurs who settle in quickest usually come from one of two places: a premium chauffeur platform, where they learned the standards but not the stability, or a private household or company, where they drove one principal and learned how to be invisible. Hotel and restaurant backgrounds fit too, for obvious reasons. What does not fit is anyone who thinks the job is mostly about the car.

If that sounds like you, the application is a short online form at amstelcab.nl/drive.

The job, in the end, is to make the ride the least memorable part of the guest’s day, and the most reassuring. Anyone can drive. Not everyone can do that.

Questions, answered

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