Premier Carriage is a responsible and forward thinking company and will do everything possible to ensure your wedding day goes exactly according to plan and to your wishes, however this is one of the most important days for the client, therefore the client should also do everything possible to ensure their day goes to plan.  The details in this FAQ 71 advises on the ‘human error’ side of issues, FAQ 15 deals with ‘unplanned last minute issues’ affecting vehicles and drivers.  The client must read these two FAQ’s as part of the Terms and Conditions of hire.

Let’s consider this possible scenario [1]:

Client books a Routemaster Bus for 64 people.

Premier Carriage sends the itinerary to both client and vehicle owner.

Premier Carriage receives [as required] confirmation from the bus owner that the itinerary has been received.  So, all good up to this point.

Since Premier Carriage received confirmation of receipt the bus owners computer loses all information stored and the bus owner then puts back in all information to the best of his knowledge, however due to human error your booking is not put back in, and therefore has now disappeared from the bus owners diary and as far as the bus owner is concerned he does not have a booking for your wedding date.

On the wedding day 64 people are now stranded as they will not know there is a problem until the time the bus was due to arrive.   Chaos and distress to all ensues !

So, why do we require you to Contact the Vehicle Owner Directly ?

If, as required, the client had contacted the owner 14 days prior to the wedding date to run over the details with the person/company actually providing the vehicle and service on the day the missing booking would have come to light and disaster on the wedding day would have been avoided.   Phoning 14 days beforehand is a safeguard, that works.   Do not leave this direct contact to a day or so before the wedding as there may simply not be enough time to resolve the issue, 14 Days is the time to contact each other.

Let’s consider this possible scenario [2]:

The client books a Rolls-Royce for their wedding car and completes the reservation form accordingly, they are then provided with a detailed itinerary which is Itinerary [1].  A month later the timings are changed so Premier Carriage sends a new confirmation Itinerary [2]  to both client and owner, the owner confirms receipt of update [2] to Premier Carriage as required.    A few months later the client changes the collection address so Premier Carriage sends a new confirmation Itinerary [3] to both client and owner, the owner confirms receipt of update [3] to Premier Carriage as required.

So far all is OK however people are humans and they sometimes make mistakes, on the day of the wedding the driver picks up the original confirmation Itinerary [1] as he has not destroyed these earlier itineraries on receipt of the new changes, so on this itinerary the changed timings and new collection address are not recorded.    Disaster on the wedding day when the car does not arrive as it has gone to the original address at the original time.  A very distressed Bride has to find some other way to get to the church at very short notice.   In addition to human error, changing itineraries frequently can cause problems to occur so this is why we require clients and vehicle owners to make direct contact with each other by phone 14 days prior to the wedding to run over the details, had they have done this the correct details in Itinerary [3] would have been discussed, the new correct details would be fresh in the owners mind and the problem with the obsolete itineraries [1] and [2] would not have occurred.

Many years of experience, and forward thinking by Premier Carriage have produced solutions to problems so they do not occur, this advice may seem unimportant to the client at the time but if the client decides not to take notice of our experience their very special day could end up as Scenario [3]   You can therefore prevent these type of human error problems happening to you.  Remember Premier Carriage ends its duty to the client and vehicle owner 28 days prior to the wedding day after the clients final balance payment has been made and transferred to the vehicle owner. From then onwards the Independent Vehicle Owner / Wedding Car Company providing the vehicle and service on the day will be taking over so it is always a good idea to run over the final details together directly and if a problem comes to light it can be rectified before it has chance to occur.   This is also a good opportunity to ask for the mobile number of the chauffeur who will actually be driving your vehicle as the owner may not always be the person driving, you should also check together the collection address, postcode, collection time and the amount of time you have allowed to fully complete the hire, although these details are already shown on your itinerary going over it once more is a safeguard to ensure the actual company you have hired is fully aware of how you envisage your special day to run.  Our T&C’s [3F] explains further the importance of booking sufficient hire time. We always recommend contact with the company providing the vehicle is verbal by phone,  not email or text.  However, if you do choose email or text ensure you receive a response, do not automatically assume the email or text has been received.  Phoning 14 days beforehand is a safeguard, that works.   As a further safeguard Premier Carriage sends a reminder to every ‘vehicle owner’ and ‘client’ two weeks prior to their wedding date to remind them to make direct contact with each other.  With these double ‘additional’ safeguards in place problems thankfully are very rare, but we would be failing in our duty of care if we did not advise how to ensure they do not occur.

FINALLY

HOW NOT TO RE-CONFIRM YOUR ITINERARY [a typical phone conversation]  NOTHING HAS BEEN RE-CONFIRMED IN THIS CONVERSATION.

Client – Hi, you’re providing my car on Saturday week for my wedding, just checking to see if all is ok !

Owner – Yes all is Ok I know the ceremony venue as I have been there before, so will see you on Saturday week.

Client – That’s great, thanks.  See you then.

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BELOW IS THE CORRECT WAY TO RE-CONFIRM YOUR ITINERARY  [a typical phone conversation]   THIS WAY ALL DETAILS HAVE BEEN CHECKED AND RE-CONFIRMED REMOVING THE POSSIBILITY OF ERROR.

Client – Hi, you’re providing my car in two weeks on Saturday 15th June, I am just checking to see if we can go over the details so all is OK on the day.  Please confirm you will be arriving at 15 Acacia Avenue, Portsmouth, PO1 2RR at 10am ready for a departure at 10.15am to St, Mary’s Church in Church Road, Portsmouth.

Owner – Yes that is correct, I have this on my itinerary

Client – After the ceremony we will be going to the Savoy Hotel, 23 Ocean Road, Portsmouth, PO13 5YY  and all should be finished by 1pm.

Owner – Yes those details are correct and I can see from the itinerary the hire is paid up until 1pm.

Client – If you need to contact me on the day my contact number at the collection address is 07800 007880,  Please can you let me have the drivers mobile number in case I need to make urgent contact on the day.

Owner – Yes of course, the mobile is  07890 000900

Client – Many thanks, see you at 10am on Saturday 15th