What I Learned About Luxury at the Rolls-Royce School For Chauffeurs

Brake like a ballerina. Keep the fizz in the cup.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What I learned about Luxury at the Rolls Royce School
for Chauffeurs by Hannah Elliott read by Megan Trout. It's
nine a m. On a Friday, and I'm in a
mirrored suite on the thirty first floor of the win
en Core, Las Vegas, watching an Englishman named Andy McCann
practically pirouette across the carpet. It's like dancing. You move

(00:22):
the head and the body follows, he says, turning his
chest like a matador toward the November sun seeping through
floor to ceiling windows. Make it one smooth movement. It's theater.
This is no cirque de solat audition. Mc cann is
teaching me how to open a door. A driving coach
for Rolls Royce motor Car since two thousand and five

(00:44):
and its solo trainer since twenty twelve, McCann teaches chauffeurs
for tycoons and tech entrepreneurs in Texas and Taipei, Saudi
Arabia and Singapore. They learn the correct Rolls Royce approved
way to load luggage, hold umbrellas, chill champagne of age,
security threats, and yes, even open doors. Opening a Rolls

(01:06):
Royce door should be done effortlessly and in one move,
says McCann, his posh accent as crisp as his white
button down shirt. It's done with legs and alms. As
automakers like BMWAG and Mercedes Benz Group AG race to
achieve full autonomous driving, and the world's richest man, Elon Musk,

(01:28):
upsells driverlessness with his Robotaxis, McCann inhabits quite a different universe.
He sits outside too, pillars of thought running roughshod through
the car world. There's the full self driving camp pursued
by companies like Musk's Tesla Inc. Which promises to turn
cars into four wheeled mobility bots. Then there are those

(01:49):
who demand total front seat driving engagement, like the folks
at Portia AG who swear they will never eliminate the
manual gearbox that make some of their nine to one
to one sports cars so thrilling rolls. Royce offers a
third philosophy. It presumes that a healthy portion of its
clients will prefer the backseat to the front of the
roughly six thousand vehicles the company delivers globally every year.

(02:13):
Twenty percent go to owners who employ chauffeurs. The proportion
is even higher among owners of the five hundred and
seventy five thousand dollars Phantom extended wheelbase sedan. McCann's job
is to ensure their enjoyment of the ride is maximized
by the person they pay to take the wheel. We
make the world's best motor cars, he says. The weak

(02:35):
link is the driver. Training drivers is not as old
fashioned as it sounds. Part time chaffeurring is increasing globally,
especially in Asia, where new wealth in China and Korea
fueled Rolls Royce's year over year growth in twenty twenty three,
and in the Middle East, where highly profitable bespoke commissions
have achieved new record levels by both number and value

(02:58):
according to the company's latest annual report. It's not just
Rolls Best doing the driving either. On October twenty eighth,
luxury chauffeuring firm Black Lane GmbH raised sixty million euros
sixty five million dollars in funding from investors, including a
subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's public Investment Fund. The Berlin based

(03:20):
company allows clients to connect with professional drivers via mobile app,
website or hotline anywhere in the world. The appeal of
the chauffeur is the personalized care and acute attention. They
provide a certain human warmth and street level real world
intelligence that no robot, however advanced, can provide. It's the

(03:42):
experience of being welcomed and cared for by someone who
knows your preferences and can adapt in real time as
conditions change. Having a private driver is not just about
getting from A to B. It's about everything else that
happens along the way. McCann says a chauffeur is both
a travel concierge and an efficiency creating time saving advantage

(04:05):
on the day. Those who insist on the best chef,
messuse and bodyguard also appreciate the value of one of
McCann's graduates. For these wealthy individuals, the highest form of
automotive luxury is to be driven by a human. I
came to Vegas to see if I could make the grade.
The day started with a history lesson. Standing before a

(04:27):
TV screen, McCann flips through grainy images of stately coaches.
One shows T. E. Lawrence Lawrence of Arabia in his
Silver Ghost circa nineteen sixteen. At first, McCann explains, chauffeurs
didn't drive cars at all. They worked on trains. The
word comes from the French choffi to heat. It referred

(04:49):
to the stoker who kept the fires burning on steam engines.
As horseless carriages became popular around the turn of the
twentieth century, owners from Bristol to Bombay expected the people
already working in their home stables and local stations to
operate the new fangled machines. So Rolls Royce started academies
where clients could send stable hands and vallots to learn

(05:12):
everything from car maintenance and operation to etiquette like where
the lady of the house should sit. Many of the
lessons still endure. Striving for perfection is a basic component
of luxury. Everything that you do must be sharp, effortless,
professional and safe. McCann tells our class of seven who

(05:32):
will spend two hours learning the basics before testing our
skills driving through Valley of Fire State Park. The session
is a shortened version of the invitation only courses Rolls
Royce offers its best customers and VIPs. Fees are not
publicly discussed. If you're on time, you're late, McCann tells
us another of his shibboliths is. There may be what ifs,

(05:56):
but there should be no excuses. I take notes as
the sun climbs. McCann outlines some guidelines. Luggage should be lifted,
not rolled, to avoid tracking dirt. Bags must be loaded
before passengers are onboarded to safeguard the cases from potential theft.
A chauffeur should pay special attention to the rear view mirror,

(06:18):
which is positioned so as not to make eye contact
with passengers. That's for safety and discretion, and this unexpected instruction.
Never ask those in the back seat about their flight.
That's the worst thing you can ask anyone. McCann responds
to my quizzical brow when was the last time you
got off a metal tube and went, I've had a

(06:40):
great time. When you ask that question, you're immediately asking
the client to bend the truth. He keeps talking, I
keep scribbling. Focus on personalized details, like which water the
client prefers, sparkling or still, Pellegrino or Perier. Put bottles
in the doorknop a cup hole so there's space for

(07:01):
the client's own drink. Memorize the names of beloved pets,
level air vents and headrests ensure that music, if any,
and climate are satisfactory. Our refrigerators have two settings, six
and eleven degrees celsius, one for vined champagne, one for

(07:22):
non vented champagne. He says, you should know what time
of day the client will arrive and adjust accordingly. If
it's evening, you're probably drinking vintage, and that temperature should
be warmer. Driving, of course, is the job, but I
didn't realize that driving well starts with sitting. I have
never paid as much attention to where I put my

(07:44):
limbs as I do when I ascend an emerald green
colonin parked outside the wind. Mc cann directs me arms
outstretched and shoulders relaxed, hands at nine and three o'clock,
thighs parallel to the ground, pelvis uncurled, my toes, sit
lightly on the petals. It's not exactly the position I

(08:04):
take when I climb into ehem my own Rolls Royce
and all of nineteen seventy five Silver Shadow. I suddenly
realize that I've been throwing my car around Los Angeles,
less like I'm conveying a head of state and more
like I'm on the final leg of some off road
endurance rally and all my late breaking with blashed glory. Technically,

(08:27):
I tell myself that's okay, since Lawrence undoubtedly drove rough
with his rolls Royces during his legendary desert exploits. But
it's not okay for today and not to be witnessed
by this ever polished brit cringe. I need a major
mind reset. If you have any tension in your body

(08:47):
that will translate into the car, he says. At the moment,
I'm feeling so much tension it's forming tiny balls of
sweat along my spine. Apparently I've been doing this all
so wrong in my own Roles Royce that I'm lucky
I haven't killed anyone and developed crippling sciatica in the process.
We're weaving through the stripmall outskirts of Vegas. Now he's

(09:09):
in my ear saying I must pass the whiskey, gin
and tonic champagne test. This means I should be able
to break so imperceptibly that a champagne coop on the
hood of the vehicle would not spill its contents. Start
by practicing with whiskey in its traditional glass, then gin
before graduating to the bubbly. He says, it's a theoretical

(09:32):
exercise today, but I'm already working up the courage to
practice with my shadow when I get home. I visualize success.
Touch the brakes with the elegance of a ballerina. Focus
like a surgeon, keep the fizz in the cup. Breathe.
Don't let bad driving affect your good driving. McCann breaks

(09:56):
my reverie, noting I should allow more room between us
and the pre jutting ahead. We enter acres of red
monoliths and Joshua trees. As we put vegas behind us,
I can feel myself becoming steadier on the steering wheel
and more balanced around corners. Finally, I spy the picnic
tables of the lunch spot, where we'll rejoin the class indefatigable.

(10:19):
Mc cann keeps coaching. Never start or finish a journey
going backward. Unload passengers first, then reverse if you must
parking so the spirit of ecstasy remains front facing. It's
a sign of respect for Eleanor Thornton, the real life
model for the signature ornament festooning the cars that have
carried regents and rock stars since nineteen o four. You

(10:41):
could be thrown out of an event for parking her
against the wall. He says, I don't think he's joking.
We alight and mc cann produces a lint roller listing
essential items for chauffeurs, a pocket knife, microfibers, alkaline water,
a USB with music on it. I am beginning to
realize that for the passenger, luxury is absence, specifically the

(11:06):
absence of dirt and grime, of annoyance and disorder and inconvenience.
A good driver keeps you unfettered from such worries as
you pursue the day set before you. Under their command,
the car itself becomes a sanctuary. But the art of
chauffeurring also feels connected to a deeper concept which celebrates

(11:28):
the crafts people who create order and beauty out of
raw materials. It's Martha Stewart and her garden, Lucian Freud
and his oil paintings, the four thousand, four hundred dollars
Loro Piana cashmere throw blanket, such aspirational spaces and goods
derived from humble trades, gardening, painting, weaving that are masterfully

(11:49):
executed and as such highly prized. McCann showed me that
chauffeurring honors the connections we have with each other and
of the inherent dignity found in perfecting an old world vocation.
It feels like a refutation of an impending, cold autopilot existence.
I desperately wanted to refine this driving thing and prove

(12:13):
myself worthy to be counted among such company. Before leaving
Las Vegas. The next morning, I visit the valet desk
to pick up a package. It's a single white glove
with a gold R R pin, framed in black and
signed by McCann, the unmistakable sign that I passed. I'm

(12:33):
elated and a little surprised. Back in La I test
my learning, grabbing a real champagne coop from my kitchen
and setting it on the hood of my Rolls Royce
on the quiet street behind my house. If I'm honest,
I'm not quite up to McCann's exacting standards yet, but
I'm working on it.