WHITE-GLOVE SERVICE

Rolls-Royce: 120 years of excellence.

SAY YOU WANT TO CELEBRATE YOUR 120TH BIRTHDAY – WHAT would you do? If you are a person, you would most likely add special bunting on your wheelchair, but if you’re a car company – I mean, if you are THE car company, with one of the longest pedigrees and almost the longest history – you would need to do something special.

That was the conundrum facing Rolls-Royce recently, when they invited a small cadre of esteemed journalists (and me) to come to Las Vegas for three days to experience two of their latest and greatest creations.

Rolls-Royce has completed constructing the last iterations of their two-door models, which will no longer be produced – their Dawn convertible and their Wraith two-door luxury fastback. Still very much in production are their top-of-the-line Phantom and their next-in-line four-door Ghost. But the recent Sin City event was with their next-newest model, the Cullinan Series II SUV and their latest creation, the Spectre two-door Ultra-Luxury Electric Super Coupé. Yet the main focus of this gathering was on the proper care and feeding of both the cars and their occupants, which is accomplished by way of the exemplary “Rolls-Royce White Glove Programme and Chauffeur Experience.” Yes, that’s a real thing and it has been popular – in one version or another – almost since the company was founded. I was very pleased to have been able to partake of an abridged version of that program as part of our Las Vegas experience (apparently not all that happens in Vegas is meant to stay in Vegas).

Fortunately for us all, the chief instructor of the Chauffeur Academy was the inimitable And McCann, a product expert and trainer who has worked with Rolls-Royce since 2005. With an extremely eclectic background (he has worked with Formula 1 drivers and competitive skiers; his knowledge of how the human body reacts and how to make it work better is incredible), he is perfectly suited to instruct others on the proper movements and procedures to efficiently and flawlessly handle the tasks at hand. But why, in this day and age, are we even talking about chauffeurs? To take our hospitality host hotel for example, Wynn Las Vegas and the adjacent Encore Las Vegas, have ten Phantoms on order to add to their fleet of Rolls-Royces, all driven by graduates of the Chauffeur Academy. In fact, in the US, though eighty to ninety percent of Rolls-Royces are driven by their owners, the rest are piloted by a chauffeur (the percentage of chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royces is twenty to thirty percent worldwide). While some owners may have a full-time person whose job is to be the driver, many owners (and virtually all of the companies with fleets of Rollses), employ a car manager who looks after the cars and is periodically called on to be the driver. (Interesting fact: “chauffeur” is derived from the French word for “heat” and came from the name given to the person who stoked the fire on a steam engine of a train, whose job itself was not likely to involve wearing white gloves.)

So back to McCann’s program. The stated purposes were to give us familiarity with the Rolls-Royce lineup of vehicles, gain a working understanding of how the vehicles’ systems operated, a basic knowledge of the maintenance of the cars and, especially, the proper way to care for one’s passengers and to safely and comfortably arrive at Point B.

From the start, Rolls-Royce knew that the key to making a reliable car was to have someone who knew how to care for it. This included preventative maintenance – not just repairs – making the role of chauffeur a dual one.
Historically, the program included a fair amount of mechanical training. Even though the Rolls-Royces of the past were highly reliable for their time, they did need regular attention for adding oil, lubricating various moving parts and, especially given the early history of the ox cart paths – I mean, roads – how to change a tire. Due to the immense mechanical improvements over the past dozen decades, the emphasis is now on the desired personality traits of the drivers as well as the drivers’ skills in making the passengers feel cared-for but not intruded-upon. The first part of our program was held at a suite in the Encore tower, where McCann explained some of the steps of his extensive training program. As the chief trainer of the Rolls-Royce Chauffeur Academy, he has educated dozens of drivers who work for (or who want to work for) the owners of these luxurious cars. Some of the issues he mentioned were common sense, such as not parking the car too close to a wall or hedge so as to make entry and exit a challenge, or being sure to back the car in so that the passengers would approach the car from the front, as that is the most distinctive and elegant angle from which to see the vehicle. Other suggestions weren’t as apparent to many of us in the class, such as adjusting the inside rear-view mirror to not make eye contact with the back-seat passengers so that they wouldn’t feel “watched” or intruded-upon.

The second part of the program included the “field work.” Ensconced in the new Cullinan Series II or the equally new all-electric Spectres, we journalists drove (two to a car) an hour or so out of Las Vegas to the Valley of Fire. There, the initial test was for McCann to see how everyone parked.
We all (mostly) did fine, backing in equally between the parking lines, all front bumpers lined up in a row. It was a great photo op as well, with the juxtaposition of the world’s most-elegant cars and the rugged terrain around us on a bright and very sunny day.

The next test was to practice opening the rear door of a Cullinan to allow a guest to enter. Sounds easy, right? Well, true to the Rolls-Royce motto of “Effortless everywhere,” the plan was to open the door and make it look graceful and easy. “Arm extended, step back and pull the door handle in one flowing move, starting far enough forward so one can reach the door but far enough rearward so that one doesn’t block the occupant’s path,” we were told. After several attempts, even the clumsiest members of the group (no names will be mentioned here) were able to master the movement.

At the good-bye dinner at the sumptuous Delilah restaurant at the Wynn that night, each writer received the coveted framed white glove, personally signed by Andi McCann. What an elegant trophy to remember a very special trip, while piloting some of the most elegant cars on Earth.