Why you should bring your own driver overseas
If you work abroad you may well be working in an area of higher or high risk, and certain security measures may be provided for you. For most of us, we imprudently assume that the people handling our security are knowledgeable. When it comes to security – particularly security in high risk environments – “assume” might not merely make an “ass of you and me,” but can leave you kidnapped, injured, or dead. One area in which this is particularly true is the hiring of drivers.
Drivers have several responsibilities. One is to drive in a manner that is conducive to your safety. Security driving is a skill that requires a good deal of training, and if your driver has not been trained appropriately, you have a potentially serious problem.
There is an additional problem. In most cases where local drivers are hired, not only are they rarely appropriately trained, they generally don’t make a lot of money, and are constantly being warned that if they damage their precious car they will be in big trouble. The reason this is a problem is that one of the primary rules of driving in high-risk situations is that in case of trouble you need to keep moving. What happens when there is a hijack attempt, and someone blocks your car with their car? Ideally, the trained driver will ram the bad guy’s car, moving it out of the way (you can move a car two or three times your car’s size), and you will drive to safety.
This maneuver is not overly difficult and is pretty safe, but it does involve training (which is fun, but leaves a trail of wrecked training cars). If your driver has not been trained, however, they will not have the knowledge or skill to do what is needed. If your drive has been trained, but has been told their career depends on bringing the car home unscratched, they simply will not be able to ram another car. Your own trained driver, brought from home, will be able to do so, thus greatly increasing your chance of survival.
