Member Article

Driver Hire franchise on the right track after strong two years

A local franchise of a national company based in County Durham is quickly exceeding expectations after seeing turnover jump by 40 per cent in its first two years.

Lisa Fleming bought the DL franchise for Driver Hire, a national network providing recruitment services to the transport and logistics industry, in 2011.

What started out as a sole business with a small army of drivers has turned into a four-man office team based at Carlton House, on Aycliffe Business Park, and more than 100 drivers on its books.

Driver Hire Darlington now supplies drivers to around 30 clients in the DL area.

The firm started with an annual turnover of £220,000 in year ending December 2011 which rose to £240,000 in 2012.

But this year it’s expected to jump to £380,000 – a rise of 42 per cent – with owner Lisa saying the firm’s performance is outpacing its original business plan.

She has already appointed new business development assistant Joe Carpenter to her team, while David Symington, who has been with the company since June 2012, has been promoted to recruitment consultant manager.

And Lisa plans to create two new jobs in the next few months to help her accommodate a growing client base.

“I set the company up as I felt I could make a real difference to the local transport and logistics industry,” says the ambitious 34-year-old, who’d previously managed a number of distribution centres before setting up her own business.

“Having worked in the industry for a lot of years and after sharing the frustrations of local firms growing increasingly frustrated with the poor service offered by other organisations, I felt I could do a better job and offer a really top service.

“I started out running it by myself and I’ve slowly added members of staff as I’ve gone along.

“We now have four, including myself, and I want to appoint two new administrators in the next few months to ease the workload and to help us expand the business even further.”

Driver Hire Darlington is part of a nationwide network of around 100 offices providing recruitment services to the transport and logistics industry.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Martin Walker .