It isn't often that one hears about a monarch looking for a chauffeur. Adding this to our list of firsts, we hear that Queen Elizabeth II, the queen of England, is looking for one. The job, listed on the official website of the British Monarchy, involves working "as part of a busy and supportive team tasked with driving members of the Royal Family, Household officials, guests and official visitors."
Agreed, the job entails being in the proximity of not only Britain's royalty, but also some decidedly prominent people. However, what really excites us about this profile is the promise of access to some extremely special cars. The Royal garage includes 8 State limousines, i.e. 2 Bentleys, 3 Rolls-Royces and 3 Daimlers, and that's just for their official duties. Other cars in the fleet includes several Volkswagen "people carriers".
The website states that the 2 Bentleys, first of which was presented on the occasion of the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002, are used for most of her engagements. It further states "the one-off design, conceived by a Bentley-led consortium of British motor industry manufacturers and suppliers, was created with input from The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh and Her Majesty's Head Chauffeur."
Other than the Bentleys, there's also a Rolls-Royce Phantom VI (presented in 1978), a 1987 Phantom VI, and the oldest of them all - the Phantom IV, which was built in 1950.
As far as the remuneration for this 'live-in' opening is concerned, the 48-hours-per-week job will help the chauffeur earn about 23,000 - 24,000 pounds per annum. That's a CTC of about 23.12 lakh in INR.
Now, if you don't mind, I will retreat in to a corner to sob about not holding a UK driving licence.
