Add the newly enforced European working time directive, which cuts the maximum working hours of the week from 55 to 48, to an industry already suffering an estimated shortage of 60,000 qualified workers, and you have an opportunity to develop a huge amount of business. This is exactly what Driver & Warehouse (D&W) is doing, supplying short and long term drivers to the distribution industry.

The potential of the industry sector attracted D&W franchisees Carl and Georgia Sharp, whose friendship with D&W Chairman Mike Worsfold didn't prevent them from investigating the competition.

"We looked at all the options available," Carl emphasises. "D&W just came across as the right sort of people to work with. They're very down to earth, you can tell they know their business and their customers know that too. In fact we got in touch with their customers to get an idea of their reputation in the marketplace and found a very favourable reaction."

Signing the D&W franchise agreement for the Bristol area in February, the couple took the five day training programme and launched their business in the second week of March. "The training was fantastic and gave us knowledge of the structure of the business without feeling overloaded," reflects Carl. "The training is ongoing and we're visited every couple of weeks."

Carl identifies "getting customers and drivers" as the two elements that drive his business and concentrates as much of his time as possible on these two aims, so he is pleased that D&W's support frees him from the paperwork. "Even just sorting out the payroll is a full time job," he remarks, "so we're lucky D&W takes care of it, leaving us to concentrate on getting customers. In fact we're very satisfied with the support - D&W gives the personal attention you need. I'm on the phone to the D&W Directors or National Operations Manager three or four times a day and they've always got time for me."

D&W offers two commitments to customer service which raise it above its competitors - a 15 minute response time and 24 hour availability. "The 15 minute promise is a good selling point," adds Carl. "We promise an answer as to whether we can supply a driver within 15 minutes of a request being received.

This gives the customer time to find an alternative if we can't, and makes us the first phone call they make when a driver is needed. Add to that our 24 hour availability pledge and we offer excellent customer service."

In its first month of trading the Bristol franchise reported a weekly turnover of £1,600, and Carl is already setting ambitious targets.

"We've been going six weeks and we've won a new customer every week we've been in business," he enthuses. "Our primary target is to reach £5,000 per week this year and at this rate we're not worried!

However, the best performing franchisees have exceeded £15,000 per week, so we have set this as our goal for the business long-term."