Designating your private chauffeur
It usually hits you on an excruciatingly bright Saturday morning when you’ve slept just long enough for the life-altering headache to set in. In an instant, your mind races through a montage of Friday night’s revelry until you realize you haven’t the slightest idea where you left the car.
It’s this predicament that two new chauffeur services aim to prevent. Home James USA and Autopilots LA both launched this month with the same idea, imported from Europe: A chauffeur drives you home -- in your car -- then jumps on a collapsible scooter and leaves you to your hangover.
“It was a no-brainer in Los Angeles,†says Andrew Barrett Worland, co-founder of Autopilots.
“It’s the town tailor-made for this service.â€
Both companies are targeting the same group -- the club-hopping hordes with healthy disposable incomes -- and each claims the other stole the idea.
“It’s possible that it’s just an extraordinary coincidence,†says Jeremy Davey, co-founder of Home James.
Similar services, such as Scooterman and One for the Road in London and others in Berlin, have thrived for several years.
The two new L.A. companies developed their business plans around the same time (about three months ago), hired mostly actors as drivers and targeted some of the same cities for expansion (San Diego and San Francisco).
Yet while Autopilots serves neighborhoods from Silver Lake to Marina del Rey, Home James is focusing on Beverly Hills and West Hollywood.
“Obviously we’re playing up the whole Hollywood angle as it being the new cool, hip service,†says Davey’s co-founder and fellow Brit, James Gibb.
Home James’ chauffeurs are all men, all actors and models, and they all go by “James.†They drive Italian bikes. (The $2,195 Di Blasi, which weighs 64 pounds, travels about 30 mph, gets about 130 miles to the gallon and folds up small enough to fit in the back seat of a car.) A stylist is coordinating their look. And, not surprisingly, the company’s fares are higher, starting at $30 and, after March 31, requiring the purchase of a $100 annual membership.
Selling the concept here has proved more of a challenge than Gibb and Davey expected. At one restaurant, two clients “proceeded to try to get on the back of one of these very small scooters,†says Gibb.
“They thought these scooters were going to take them to the next bar.â€
There’s also the fact that L.A.’s image-obsessed, car-dependent scenesters are loath to admit when they’ve had too many.
So Gibb and Davey are pushing the “private chauffeur†angle, because everyone craves luxury, right?
“You’ve basically got a very good-looking crew in very good-looking suits,†says Davey. “That adds a sort of glamour to it. It’s helping people get home in a fun and playful way.â€
One driver, actor Seth Menachem, whose latest acting job involved eating an Egg McMuffin on a city bus, says the chauffeur gig beats the alternative.
“It’s much more fun getting paid to ride a scooter than working in a restaurant,†says Menachem.
Ten drivers were chosen from more than 200 applicants, says Gibb. All have professional driving experience and spotless driving and criminal records. (Autopilots drivers meet those standards and are tracked by GPS.) And each carries a digital alcohol detector.
More important, they look great on the scooters. Or, rather, they will once designer Scott Barclay finishes styling them. Right now each driver wears a chrome helmet and a tailored black canvas jacket over a white shirt and tie.
By next year they’ll have seasonal looks, perhaps turquoise for spring, white for summer and leather in winter.
Both Autopilots LA and Home James USA have websites. But while Autopilots is on call across the city, Home James has been booked for the private Tuesday night rooftop parties at the Hyatt on Sunset (a.k.a. “The Riot House†thanks to its historically rocker clientele), and Davey and Gibb are fielding offers from other party promoters.
“Unfortunately,†says Davey, “there’s never any shortage of drinking and driving.â€
