After eighteen months of waiting patiently for the return of business travel, September 2021 did not disappoint. Our sales increased by 350% and we had more drivers on the road simultaneously. Since April there has been a slight increase in travel but with the latest Covid-19 restrictions starting to ease, European travel has really opened up.
The first quarter of the year saw our volumes drop significantly. Some weeks, there were as few as just three jobs. Luckily the journeys were all long-distance and mostly to London Heathrow Airport. With the traffic on the roads being so scarce, it made the drive quite easy. A round-trip from Wrexham or Chester could be complete in as little as six hours.
The second quarter of the year saw more journeys to restaurants and train stations. Manchester Airport started to offer more routes and so there were more airport transfers to complete. The quarantine and isolation rules were still causing issues, but we still saw people flying. As well as the executives, many of our passengers are engineers who need to be hands on. They simply must be at the coal face to keep industry running.
As the rules around red, green and amber countries changed again in August, more routes opened and so too did our number of airport transfers. Despite the initial trepidation involved, business passengers ventured out to visit their colleagues and customers. The return of business travel had begun. The first people (after the engineers) were the senior executives. Gladly, once they had dipped a toe in the water, they gained the confidence to travel again.
Since the beginning of 2021, work as a chauffeur has been diverse. I have witnessed many people retiring (or semi-retiring) in search of a more meaningful life. For me however, all I want to do is work. The opportunity to visit so many different places and so many different environments (although strange) has been fascinating. As the return of business travel continues, I just hope the diversity remains and my contentment continues to grow.