Tour Driver Guide London, England
Job description
Do you love to educate and entertain? Do you like meeting new people, and sharing your knowledge? Are you active, and based in London? Do you work well on your own, but are also a team player? Do you like driving? Then perhaps a role as a tour driver guide is what you’ve been looking for!?
No previous tour guiding or minibus driving experience required.
Who are we?
The English Bus is a small, family-run business offering small-group day tours from London to destinations such as Stonehenge, the Cotswolds, Oxford, Canterbury, Bath and more. We are currently the highest-rated tour company on TripAdvisor for scheduled day tours from London. We pride ourselves on our excellent reputation for operating informative, exciting and fun day tours to the best places our country has to offer. We operate small group tours only, so can guarantee excellent customer service to each person on every tour, giving them an experience that they will remember for a lifetime.
Who are you?
We are seeking a reliable, resourceful and charismatic person to join our small, friendly team to drive and guide small-group mini-coach day tours in England. Full accompanied tour training will be given, although a certain amount of self-study is required.
We have found that the most successful driver guides may have had any of a broad spectrum of backgrounds – they may have worked, for example, as actors, teachers, hospitality workers, city workers looking to escape or historians – but they have certain things in common: excellent communication skills, a passion for travel, a dedication to superb customer service and good driving skills. If this sounds like you, and you have the requisite skills to succeed, we look forward to hearing from you.
Duties & Responsibilities:
· Display a passion for Britain and an enthusiasm for showing our visitors the charm that our small isle has to offer
· Effectively communicate with and entertain our customers from all over the world
· Drive the top-specification company Mercedes mini coaches (16 seats) with due care and attention at all times for the comfort and safety of passengers and within the legal limits
· Carry out the legal safety and maintenance checks of the vehicles before each tour
· Consistently offer the highest levels of customer service to ensure each customer receives the best experience possible and to maintain our excellent reputation
· Go above and beyond the expectations of our customers
· Demonstrate a quick-thinking and level-headed personality, able to cope when situations don’t go to plan
· Offer walking and/or driving tours of some of the places that we visit
· Some previous knowledge of the places we visit would be preferred, but training will be provided (Stonehenge, Oxford, Bath, Stratford, Cotswolds, Canterbury, Dover and more)
· Demonstrate an eagerness to continually develop and improve your wide-ranging historic, cultural and social knowledge
· Join regular company training and development days
· Work with the sales and marketing team to provide constructive feedback for the benefit of the company and our customers to improve the quality of our service
· Be willing to work irregular hours, including some weekends and bank holidays.
You must live local to central London. Each work day is approximately 13 hours long and driver guides typically work 2 to 3 consecutive days followed by 2 to 3 days off.
If your application is successful, you will need to obtain a full PCV licence (D1 with no restrictions) at your own cost in order to begin work. Although a current PCV licence would be preferred, The English Bus can help organise full training and support for the right person. Alternatively, the licence can be obtained through an external driving school. Please note that a full car licence (B) is required to begin training for a PCV licence.
Successful applicants are generally retained seasonally (from March to October) on a contractual, self-employed basis and can be expected to work typically 3 or 4 days a week on the road during this time. Depending on demand, 1 to 3 days work a week is normally available from November to February. Once qualified and ready to work, solo guides are paid an extremely competitive daily rate (depending on experience, upwards of £220 per day + tips).
We only employ the very best, so if you think that could be you and you would like to apply, send us your CV and a detailed cover note explaining why you would be the right fit for us and what you hope to achieve by working with The English Bus. Promising candidates will be interviewed by telephone initially, and those deemed suitable for consideration will be requested to submit a short video presentation.
Salary: £220-260 / day commensurate with experience + tips
Job Type: Freelance
Salary: £220.00-£290.00 per day
Supplemental pay types:
- Tips
Application question(s):
- Do you love meeting and talking to new people on a daily basis? Do you have a clean driving licence?
- In at least a few sentences, can you tell us why you would be a great fit for the role of tour driver guide?
Licence/Certification:
- clean driving licence (required)
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Work Location: On the road
