Modern Slavery Statement

1. About this statement

1.1 Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires a commercial organisation with an annual turnover of thirty six million pounds or more to publish a slavery and human trafficking statement. Chauffeurz Premium Services Ltd is below that threshold, so we are not legally required to publish one.

1.2 We publish this statement voluntarily, for two reasons. Corporate and travel trade clients increasingly ask their suppliers for a position on modern slavery, and they are entitled to a straight answer. More importantly, the risks described in section 4 are real in our industry, and writing them down is the first step to managing them.

1.3 This statement covers the current financial year and is reviewed annually. It applies to Chauffeurz Premium Services Ltd and to everyone working on our behalf.

2. Our business

2.1 Chauffeurz Premium Services Ltd is a private hire vehicle operator licensed by Transport for London under operator licence number 010942. We arrange chauffeur driven transport in London and across the United Kingdom, including airport and cruise port transfers, hourly and multi day hire, private journeys and corporate travel.

2.2 We are a small organisation. Bookings are fulfilled through a network of licensed chauffeur partners, who are self employed or work through their own small companies, rather than through a directly employed driving workforce.

2.3 That structure is common in the trade and it is efficient, but it also means our exposure to labour exploitation sits mainly outside our own payroll. We treat it accordingly.

3. Our supply chains

3.1 The people and organisations we rely on fall into four groups.

• Chauffeur partners. Licensed private hire drivers, and the small operators some of them work through, who carry our passengers.
• Sub contracted operators. Other licensed private hire operators to whom we pass work when no partner in our own network is available.
• Vehicle related services. Valeting and cleaning, servicing, tyres and vehicle supply, which are labour intensive and locally sourced.
• Business services and technology. Our reservation platform, hosting, telecommunications, accounting, marketing and office supplies, some of which have supply chains reaching beyond the United Kingdom.

4. Where we think the risk sits

4.1 A generic risk assessment is worth nothing. The following are the specific risks we consider relevant to a London private hire network.

5. Our position

5.1 We do not tolerate slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour, or human trafficking in any part of our business or our supply chain.

5.2 We expect the same standard from every chauffeur partner, sub contracted operator and supplier. This is a condition of working with us, not an aspiration.

5.3 We will end a relationship with any partner or supplier who is found to be involved in such practices, and we will report the matter to the appropriate authorities.

6. How we check

6.1 Before a chauffeur partner carries a passenger for us, we verify their private hire driver licence against the licensing authority record, confirm the vehicle licence and insurance, confirm their identity, and confirm their right to work in the United Kingdom.

6.2 Every licensed private hire driver in London is required to hold an enhanced criminal record check as a condition of licensing. We confirm that the licence is current, and we re verify when it falls due for renewal.

6.3 We deal with the licensed individual directly. Where a third party seeks to arrange work, hold documents or receive payment on a driver's behalf, we ask why, and we do not proceed until we are satisfied with the answer.

6.4 Sub contracted operators must hold their own operator licence and confirm in writing that they apply equivalent checks, including to any driver they in turn engage.

6.5 We keep sub contracting shallow. Work is passed once, to a licensed operator we know, and not into an open chain.

7. Our contractual and payment controls

7.1 We do not charge a joining fee, a registration fee, a placement fee or any equivalent payment to a chauffeur partner. Work is offered on its merits.

7.2 We pay chauffeur partners into a bank account in their own name, or in the name of their own company. We do not redirect a driver's earnings to a third party. Where such a request is made, we treat it as a warning sign and investigate before paying anything.

7.3 Partner agreements require compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015, prohibit the use of forced or trafficked labour anywhere in the partner's own chain, and give us the right to end the agreement immediately for breach.

7.4 Partners are required to tell us if they become aware of a modern slavery concern connected with our work.

7.5 We favour suppliers who can account for their own labour practices, and we are wary of quotations far below the market rate for labour intensive services, because someone is usually paying the difference.

8. Training and awareness

8.1 The people who onboard partners and handle dispatch are briefed on the indicators of labour exploitation, including a third party controlling documents or payments, a driver who appears to have no access to their own earnings, signs of coercion, and inconsistencies between the licence holder and the person presenting.

8.2 Chauffeur partners are given the substance of this statement when they join the network, and are told how to raise a concern.

8.3 We review this briefing annually, alongside the statement itself.

9. Raising a concern

9.1 Anyone who suspects modern slavery connected with our business can tell us in confidence. That includes a chauffeur partner, an employee, a passenger, a supplier or a member of the public.

9.2 Concerns can be sent to contact@chauffeurz.london, marked confidential, or raised by telephone on +44 (0203) 826 4125, or by post to the registered office marked for the attention of a director.

9.3 We take every report seriously, we protect the identity of the person raising it so far as we are able, and nobody is penalised for raising a concern in good faith, including a concern that turns out to be mistaken.

9.4 You do not have to come to us first.

10. Measuring whether this works

10.1 A statement that cannot be tested is decoration. We track the following.

• The proportion of chauffeur partners whose licence, insurance and right to work have been verified and remain current. Our target is all of them, at all times.
• The number of payment redirection requests received, investigated and refused.
• The number of concerns raised, and what happened to each.
• The number of sub contracted operators who have given the written confirmation required by section 6.4.
• Whether the annual briefing described in section 8 has been delivered.

10.2 These are reviewed by the board when the statement is reviewed, and the statement is updated to reflect what the review found rather than repeated unchanged.

11. Approval