Roll Out the Red Carpet | Ray Tekii: Our Driver VIP Transfers | EP03

In this episode, your host Brett McCallum has a chat with Ray Tekii from Our Driver Vip Transfers, a luxurious and personalised stretch company servicing people from the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Byron Bay and beyond. Brett and Ray go into detail about the importance of other small businesses working as a team, how Our Driver got it's name and how the whole business came about.

Have a small business you want to share? Get in touch with us at [e-mail]

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Welcome to the MyBusiness Podcast, Australia's Small Business Podcast. We sit down with entrepreneurs, business leaders and owners to chat about their experiences and pull out some of their best stories and business wisdom. There’s a lot to be learned from our broad spectrum of guests from a wide variety of industries and niches. Join us and lets chat!

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Speaker 0 (0s): This podcast is brought to you by Media eight.

Speaker 2 (6s): Welcome to the My Business Podcast, where we sit down with local businesses and we talk about who they are, where they come from, and what inspires them to be in business. Goodday guys, I've got Ray Techie here today from our driver, v i p transfers. How are you? Legend? Very good, very good. Thank for having me, mate. Is this your first podcast?

Speaker 3 (28s): It is actually.

Speaker 2 (30s): Excellent. So how you doing? All right. You comfortable? Very

Speaker 3 (32s): Good

Speaker 2 (32s): And comfortable. Comfy in the chair and comfy on the, trying to be relaxed, mate. Just chill. It's all good. Nothing major, nothing major. So who are you?

Speaker 3 (40s): Yeah, like you said, our driver, v i p transfers. We got Lindsey, who are you? Who am I? Yeah, so I'm a born and raised Kiwi. Yep. But my background is of Cook Island descent.

Speaker 2 (53s): Okay.

Speaker 3 (55s): Been living in Australia for the last 14 years.

Speaker 2 (58s): 14. So you nearly local. Oh,

Speaker 3 (59s): I think I am a local. Yeah. When I go back they kind of go, Hmm, what is that sound you're making?

Speaker 2 (1m 6s): It's,

Speaker 3 (1m 7s): And then I try and then I try and put What do you mean? Yeah,

Speaker 2 (1m 10s): Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (1m 12s): So yeah, I've been here 14 years. Love the place. Love the place. I don't think I would actually go back to New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (1m 18s): No, it's a, it's a bit place here on the Gold Coast, isn't it? Definitely. So, definitely. So, and what, what have you been doing during the 14 years? What's your background?

Speaker 3 (1m 25s): So background, I've been in, I was in business back in New Zealand. Came over here, raised my family of four kids and I kind of just went into the workforce while in the workforce. I kind of worked for Tatra, did a few things with bar card as well. Did a, did did a stint with the New Zealand Earthquake Commission as well. Okay. When, when there was that massive earthquake in Christchurch with Christchurch Earthquakes.

And they did a lot of the stuff, the final payments and everything from in Australia. So I kind of helped out on that project. Awesome. And yeah, here

Speaker 2 (2m 6s): I am now. So now you're, you own your own business again. Yes. So back in business. Back in business. What's the business?

Speaker 3 (2m 12s): So we, we do airport, right? Airport transfer. We do VIP transfers. Okay. So yeah, limousines, catering for weddings through to birthday parties, hands and bucks and yeah.

Speaker 2 (2m 25s): So obviously if you do this, you must need cars.

Speaker 3 (2m 27s): Yeah, we definitely have cars.

Speaker 2 (2m 28s): What we've

Speaker 3 (2m 29s): Got, have you got, so we are working with a Superstretch F two 50. We are all, how

Speaker 2 (2m 35s): Many is that

Speaker 3 (2m 35s): Seat? That seat's 12. Then we've got

Speaker 2 (2m 38s): Comfortably, or am I

Speaker 3 (2m 39s): Squished? No, comfortably 14 squished. Okay. But then again, I mean, I say 12 if we've got the Polynesians, you know, my brothers and

Speaker 2 (2m 47s): Sisters there. 6, 7, 10

Speaker 3 (2m 50s): Max.

Speaker 2 (2m 51s): That's fair enough too. That's fair

Speaker 3 (2m 53s): Enough. And then we've got the exhale Hummer, which seats 20 and we've got a, a party mini, which has just joined the fleets as well. And that seat's well, 13, but I've just done some adjustments to the actual car. So now it's kind of more like a 12 seater. Okay. Whoever's got the, the front passenger seat. Yep. I gotta miss out on the party, so I just wanna say like, yeah, exactly. I just wanna say 12

Speaker 2 (3m 18s): Now. So I'm on a party bus, can I party? What's the rules?

Speaker 3 (3m 22s): Yes, you can party, you can definitely party B by O. We do, you know, we allow people to bring their own alcohol in there or their own beverages and yeah, we just take a slow cruise. Normally it's about an hour cruise Yep. To whatever event or, you know, occasion that got going on. And

Speaker 2 (3m 41s): So this time of year must be busy with all of the graduations and formal,

Speaker 3 (3m 44s): Well, we just finished, we just finished the year 12 formals last week. And that was just every single day. But in saying that, you know, with Covid that came through, a lot of schools kind of moved their formals around for the whole year. Yeah. So it, it actually went throughout the whole year. But in saying that, I mean the whole, you know, last week was basically the main week for majority of the schools and business of the formals Yeah. Of the formals. But it was massive. So

Speaker 2 (4m 13s): How did this happen? How did you get into this business? Well,

Speaker 3 (4m 16s): I've, I've had an interest in, in business, I happened to go through Facebook marketplace Yeah. And was just looking through there, come across a Hummer that was for sale, kind of reached out to the guys on, you know, on Facebook marketplace. And one thing led to another, and here

Speaker 2 (4m 37s): I am. And that's how it started and

Speaker 3 (4m 38s): That's how it started. But I, you know, I'd never actually, what's what's crazy is when I was young through school days and stuff, like everyone's, you know, when you get your first car and thing and, and you're, you're driving your friends around. Well, my first car was a van. Yeah. So I was actually already at that age carting people around, you know, and

Speaker 2 (5m 1s): In a good sense, in a good, we're not talking gaffer tape or that's in a good sense. Yeah. Well can, here all my friends are getting in my van. That's where exactly, that's where they're going. Yeah, of

Speaker 3 (5m 10s): Course. But, you know, and then as I was growing up, I was kind of like the sober driver majority of the time as well. And so when I've picked up this business and I, I first started when I, when I bought it, right. It was, I just wanted a business. I wanted something that could help me generate, you know, additional income and stuff. Yep. And I had a driver, well that driver ended up leaving and I was like, okay, well now it's my turn is step in. Didn't know what I was gonna expect, but man, I wouldn't, it was the best thing that ever happened.

Really. That's

Speaker 2 (5m 40s): Amazing.

Speaker 3 (5m 41s): I'm, I'm that type of person. I guess when you are, when you got that personality and you just want to see people have fun and you want to be amongst it as well, it kind of makes that just that difference for, for people. So,

Speaker 2 (5m 56s): So I ring in a book and I, and, and this, we see these big car pulls up the road. Yep. Yeah. You're in a suit or what are we, what are we rocking? It

Speaker 3 (6m 4s): Depends on the, on the situation. Like, you know, so if we're doing weddings yeah. I will rock up in a suit, you know, collared tie and everything like that. If it's like a birthday party, I may have like something without the actual,

Speaker 2 (6m 17s): The party vibes going on.

Speaker 3 (6m 18s): Yeah, yeah. You kind of dress to the occasion. Yeah. You know, so cool. Just to keep it, you know, I, I, for me personally, it's like however I dress is how I'm gonna be. So if I, if I've got the, the tie, the, you know, then I'm gonna be a lot more professional. If it's just a, like a, a non-color top with a suit jacket on, it's a little bit more casual, but still keeping that, you know,

Speaker 2 (6m 41s): Still keeping the professionalism, isn't

Speaker 3 (6m 42s): It? Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (6m 44s): So if it's a hens night, what are you wearing?

Speaker 3 (6m 47s): Modified abs would be like, just topless,

Speaker 2 (6m 49s): Just a gc. But I don't have abs, so I'm back in the suit. Is that what we're doing?

Speaker 3 (6m 53s): It's, it's look sharp.

Speaker 2 (6m 55s): Look sharp. I love that. I love that. So what do you hate about the industry? Is there anything that you can, that, that really frustrates you about this industry?

Speaker 3 (7m 4s): Not really. Not really. I mean, probably one of the, yeah, there's competitors. But see I've learned quite a bit over that, over the time that I've been in the actual industry itself. Is that when you connect with the other drivers, because there's always a, a, a flow of bookings that come through. Sometimes you can't actually like, manage it, right? Yeah. Or you can't handle it, so you gotta pass it on to someone else. Oh, cool. So I'm working with a couple of other guys that are in the industry and we just share.

So if I can't, if I can't handle it, then I'll pass it on to them. If they can't handle it, then they'll pass it on to me. So we kind of work in that whole, you know, we're just networking. It's good. It's good. I, I enjoy that. And I guess the frustrating part is when, when traffic traffic hits and then all of a sudden, sudden

Speaker 2 (7m 55s): You can't do anything

Speaker 3 (7m 56s): Again. And then, and then all of a sudden you're running behind in time. Yeah. And I, that's it. That's it. Apart from that, it's enjoyable. You know, you,

Speaker 2 (8m 4s): So what do you love about it?

Speaker 3 (8m 6s): The people. The people that actually get to experience our driver. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And you just, just the vibes, the vibes that people bring. I mean, you can, most people that get a limo or anything that where they can party in

Speaker 2 (8m 26s): Happy occasion. Exactly.

Speaker 3 (8m 28s): Exactly. So, you know that it's just gonna be straight off the bat good vibes and everything. I mean, I try and limit how many return trips I do. Yeah. You know, depending on what the occasion is. If they're gonna into a restaurant and, you know, there's the older people with, with the younger people, then I know then it's gonna be pretty

Speaker 2 (8m 46s): Civilized. I'm pretty good.

Speaker 3 (8m 48s): Yeah. Yeah. They're gonna get back in the car, there's gonna be fine. But if they're youngsters and they're going to like a music festival, I'm kind of like, yeah, we booked out. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (8m 55s): So here's number. Yeah,

Speaker 3 (8m 58s): Yeah, exactly. Got the app.

Speaker 2 (9m 0s): Oh, here's my mate. I give these jobs too. I mean, I love it. I love how there's a lot of love in the air Right. With this stuff. And the thing is, as you say, people only book them as usually when they're go into a good occasion, obviously they're sad occasions as well. So in those occasions, like whether it's funerals or those sort of things where people want to have large, probably the bus and that sort of stuff. Yeah. Is that difficult to deal with? Or how do you, how do you get there?

Speaker 3 (9m 25s): Not really. You, I've done a couple of those where someone's, you know, kind of utilized us to just move the people from point A to point B during the funeral. And I, I, I guess you just, you just kind of fit in with the, with the people and, and understand where they are at. You know, there's a, there's a warning process that they're going through, grieving process. So you kind of just support them while they're, you know, while they're getting in the car and just make sure that they have fun while they're actually in the car going from point A to point B and stuff, you know, and that just makes a bit of a difference if you are that, that type of person where you can at least bring a little bit of joy while they're actually with you at that time, then, you know, they, they have that experience as something that they can remember on that day as well.

And, you know, hopefully from there they, when they've got a, a better occasion coming

Speaker 2 (10m 23s): Up, I'll reuse you guys. Exactly.

Speaker 3 (10m 25s): Exactly.

Speaker 2 (10m 25s): Our driver, it's a great name. Where'd the name come from?

Speaker 3 (10m 31s): So I'm actually gonna tap into another business here. So there's a, there's a barber place called Our Family Barber. Yep. Alright. And I just like the way that that rolls off the end of the tongue. So when you're talking to someone and you know, people are like, oh, where'd you get your haircut done? You know, a lot of people will say, oh, our family barber, and I actually said it to someone before, was a friend of ours that was asking, oh, where do your kids get your, their haircut? I said, oh, I, oh, our family barber. And they were like, you got a family barber?

Speaker 2 (11m 2s): Of course I

Speaker 3 (11m 3s): Have. And I was like, I didn't actually hear it, but that it stuck in my mind. And I was like, it actually rolls that people actually think, oh, you got, you got a family barber. So when it's our driver, when someone says, you gotta call our driver, you know, automatically someone that has never heard that, they'll be like, you

Speaker 2 (11m 21s): Got driver.

Speaker 3 (11m 22s): Love that. I love that. So that's how that whole thing, you know, came about.

Speaker 2 (11m 26s): So what's the best ever story? There's gotta be one or two, at least of the best stories.

Speaker 3 (11m 33s): I've come across a few. Oh, there's so many stories, but the best ever story

Speaker 2 (11m 41s): There. The interesting thing about this, right? What I, what I think would be an amazing idea, and this is obviously podcasting. Yeah. And would be for you to do a podcast of all the stories, the stories, then the people want to hear this stuff because everyone always thinks, oh, what happens in the back of a limo? All right.

Speaker 3 (11m 58s): Stays in the back of the limo.

Speaker 2 (11m 60s): I love that. Obviously it can be, obviously it can sort of be no names or any of that sort of stuff, but, but people are intrigued by what happens in different businesses and what happens in this stuff. So what's your best ever story you can share with

Speaker 3 (12m 11s): Us? Look, probably a, a few weeks ago I took a crew to a, a music festival. And at the end of the music festival we were cruising back and they wanted to do a little bit of karaoke. So yeah. So we basically hooked the whole, the whole setup up, had the mic in the back and it was just bad singing all the way. But, you know, to the point where they, they enjoyed it that much that they wanted to have another 10 minutes just outside the house

Speaker 2 (12m 45s): Just to continue that. Just

Speaker 3 (12m 47s): To continue, you know? And they were like, oh, just gotta do one more song, one more song. And it was just like, well, let's just sit here and we'll just let that happen.

Speaker 2 (12m 54s): Yeah,

Speaker 3 (12m 54s): Why not? You know, so things like that. Yeah. But yeah, there's a lot, there's a lot that happens.

Speaker 2 (13m 0s): Have you taken any superstars in your, your limos or,

Speaker 3 (13m 5s): Yes, I've, I've had a few in there. We've had like boxing, like a lot of, a lot of sports. Sports people. Yep. They'll utilize it. I guess even business people. I've had the richest person in, in Australia actually. Okay. Be part of, you know.

Speaker 2 (13m 30s): And was she the most?

Speaker 3 (13m 31s): Yes. Very nice. Very nice. Very nice. And it was, it is, it's funny, I just saw a photo of her not long ago and a, she was in a red carpet event and I looked at it and I was like, and there goes that laptop. It seems like she doesn't go anywhere else without, it wasn't a laptop, I think it was just a massive iPad. Yeah, yeah. But even when she was in the car

Speaker 2 (13m 52s): On the red, red carpet. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13m 53s): Really. She still had it. And I was like, she just doesn't

Speaker 2 (13m 56s): Stop. No. And that's probably why she's one of the richest people in the world. So do people that inspire you, because as a businessman, do you find that other business people inspire you to

Speaker 3 (14m 7s): Oh,

Speaker 2 (14m 7s): Definitely. To do bigger, to do better.

Speaker 3 (14m 9s): Definitely. Definitely. You know, when you're talking to other business people as well and you know, they ask you, is this yours? And, and you kind of say yes. There's like a sense of that connection where you just start talking about each other.

Speaker 2 (14m 23s): To me it's like the little salute. Yeah, exactly. You're one of us. We, we can talk differently, not just a driver. You know what a and nothing against drivers always. No, that's right. But yeah, just gives you that little bit of credo.

Speaker 3 (14m 34s): But I've had that experience as well where someone's treated me like the actual driver and they're like, oh, your boss, your boss. Because you know how I was just saying that we share jobs, right? So they've obviously booked through their main person, but then the main person's like pass passed it on to me. And so they're like, like, your boss isn't your boss. And I guess ego kind of got me a little bit there, you know, I'm like, I don't have a boss buddy.

Speaker 2 (14m 59s): I'm the boss.

Speaker 3 (15m 1s): And then, you know, from that point as well, he actually was like, and the whole thing changed, like, isn't it amazing? Yeah, it was. It was. And I was just like, and I even told the guy after, I was like, man, he was bossing, you know, the boss and the boss and the boss. And I was like, I couldn't handle it. I was like, I gotta just kind of say no, I'm a boss as well. And yeah, it was, it was good though, like, you know, the whole, yeah, that whole energy or the, the whole communication just shifted and there was, yeah, there was that sense of respect kind of, kind of thing, which

Speaker 2 (15m 35s): Was good. And you should also respect drivers that don't own their own cars.

Speaker 3 (15m 39s): Oh. Without important. You know, I'm at that stage now where I need drivers and things, so I know how important they are to actually have in your business and finding good ones that will actually stay by you all the way through. They, they're rare to, they're rare to find those

Speaker 2 (15m 54s): Two. So that means if we find, if we see a driver in our driver that's been hard to find, they're good at what they do and they know how to handle themselves.

Speaker 3 (16m 1s): Yeah. Yeah. Well that's exactly what you'd want.

Speaker 2 (16m 4s): Exactly. Exactly. So what marketing do you do at the moment? How do you get business?

Speaker 3 (16m 8s): So a lot of our stuff is done through Google. Okay.

Speaker 2 (16m 11s): Edwards.

Speaker 3 (16m 12s): Yeah, Edwards. And I've just recently started doing a lot more in the social media. I've got a, my son who's doing our, our marketing. Okay. Our social media marketing at the moment. And that's now starting to get a bit of traction as well. But when you're looking at, you know, hiring a limo or anything like that, majority of the time you're gonna go into Google and you're gonna search up, you know, the

Speaker 2 (16m 40s): Majority of your life. You go into Google, don't you?

Speaker 3 (16m 42s): Well, someone said to me, if it's under a hundred dollars, they're actually gonna go through social media and actually see if they can find it through there. If it's over a hundred dollars, then they'll just go straight to Google and actually look through Google. And I was like, Hmm, I could, I can picture that. Because if I'm looking for something cheap, I'm like, Facebook marketplace first. Yeah. And then you just kind of look to see what's in there and, but yeah, anything more, you know, specific. Yeah. Then you, you're basically googling it. So, well

Speaker 2 (17m 10s): Now you're an official podcast are, you're gonna have great social media content that you can actually put out there, video, audio.

Speaker 3 (17m 16s): Oh, I'm looking forward to how the final cut comes.

Speaker 2 (17m 20s): Well, mate, I, I really appreciate you coming in to see me. I appreciate you jumping on the podcast today. How do people contact our driver?

Speaker 3 (17m 28s): Through the website, our driver.com.au or ours via mobile phone. But as you

Speaker 2 (17m 36s): Go through it, what's your

Speaker 3 (17m 37s): Socials? Our socials is our driver, v i p transfers. And that is on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. And I've just started putting through, oh there's, there's one thing that, that I am actually doing at the moment and it's, I think it's pretty cool. Yeah, you so, so what I've started doing is dropping the red carpet when we pick you up, we put the red carpet down,

Speaker 2 (18m 1s): Roll out the

Speaker 3 (18m 1s): Carpet. When we drop you off, we roll out the red carpet and the whole thing is around just that experience. And I, you know, I'm asking if we can video it for our socials and things. And if you go onto TikTok or you go onto Instagram, you'll start to see some of the things that we are actually putting together with that.

Speaker 2 (18m 20s): And what sort of hashtags are you using for that?

Speaker 3 (18m 22s): Hashtag red carpet, hashtag limmer experience. Hashtag What else have I done? Stretch Rides. Hashtag in style.

Speaker 2 (18m 31s): It's a, it's a great way to do it. And it also, a lot of the stuff you do is over the phone. What's, what's the phone number people can contact

Speaker 3 (18m 38s): You? 0 4 9 7 3 1 5 3 5 3.

Speaker 2 (18m 42s): And that's for our driver,

Speaker 3 (18m 44s): V i p

Speaker 2 (18m 45s): Transfers. V i p transfers. Thanks so much for your time today, mate. No problem

Speaker 3 (18m 48s): Sir. That's a wrap. Wrap. That's a wrap.

Speaker 1 (18m 54s): Thanks

Speaker 2 (18m 54s): For listening to the My Business Podcast brought to you by Media eight on the pod fire platform. If you wanna be on our podcast, please reach out to the team on all our socials at my business dot pod.