The biggest mistake I have made is not hiring an HR person at the beginning, or understanding my own contract and treating staff as employees at dispute time. I have parted company with five drivers, three left quietly and I spent $2,700 paying two staff to leave. The first one took me to the lawyers and I got a lawyer, I should have got an HR person as lawyers did not understand the contracts. When meeting with my driver Sharon she said her husband was in HR and that is how I found Jim. Changed drivers from contractors to employees for the 1st of April

My drivers are employees They are on 40% commission and paid $15.50 hourly rate to wash the car and take them for COF or Wheel alignments. They keep the cars at their own houses and for the cars driven by two drivers over the course of the week swap the cars between them I use Smart payroll to pay my drivers and my admin lady Jennifer receives the time sheets from my drivers and enters it into Smart payroll, which is all in the cloud and has a great help desk. They take care of all the PAYE and Kiwisaver with IRD. When I am not sure how to reply to a driver I flick Jim an e-mail and he amends it to ensure it cover the legal bits. It is great to know I am now legal and my drivers now know I have back up.

My best drivers have been retired or have a partner that earns. Kay was a taxi Driver of 40 years Advertised on supermarket notice board On Neighbourly website I got Jennifer who answers my phone, from The Chamber of Commerce who have the contract to get people off benefits. Life unlimited Work bridge

Jennifer my admin lady Main role to answer the phone. and she keeps a time sheet usually coming in at 15 hours per week. $15.50 per hour At the weekend when needed I pay her $20 per day. She contacts all the ACC clients and books them in and for the ones who hours change on a weekly basis would ring around Wednesday to find out what the need for the follow week. She does all the payroll She updates all the statistics I keep on how much each car is earning which she gets from the time sheets the She keeps the petty cash receipts and collates the log book pages She keeps me informed on what the drivers are saying and doing and any comments from clients She rings clients to see how their trip went etc. Rings clients to see who wants to go on an outing She does the invoicing to the stage I go in and approve them and send them out. She helps update notes good and bad on my drivers that can be used at performance appraisal time – something I am formally setting up now. She enables me to work on the business not in it and saves my sanity