Back to Driver skills

When things go wrong, remember that you're the travelers' local liaison

Understand your role with travelers

  • A driver may be just an employee to the company, but to travelers he is often their immediate point of contact with Morocco, their tour and their operator. You're the bar.
  • You can set it high or low.
  • When something goes wrong, if you panic or become angry, the travelers feel it too.

Stay calm and coordinate vehicle problems

  • Stay calm first.
  • Explain what has happened in a clear voice, without pretending you have already solved it. Then inform the agency.
  • If the problem is a puncture and it is safe and practical to deal with it, the driver should have learned how to change a wheel.
  • Speaking five languages won't change a tyre for you.
  • If the vehicle has broken down seriously, the operator needs to help arrange an alternative.
  • When far from base, a locally arranged transfer or taxi to the guests' hotel may solve that night's immediate transport problem while a replacement is coordinated for the next day.
  • Do not improvise unsafe roadside solutions or promise transport the agency has not arranged.

Handle complaints and missing suppliers

  • Unhappy travelers happen too.
  • You can't magically make everyone happy.
  • Keep the relationship professional, deliver what was agreed and avoid escalating the tension with unnecessary personal argument.
  • If a supplier doesn't show up, communicate, contact the responsible operator and work through a realistic alternative within your authority.

Use alternatives and respond to emergencies

  • Experience gives you plan B, plan C and plan D.
  • Calmness gives you the chance to use them.
  • An immediate safety or medical emergency, of course, requires the appropriate emergency response, not merely a reassuring tone.

Tips from real experience on the road, not official training or certification. Always check current rules and safety guidance. Terms