Professional Driver

[Been Here Before]

So often reading the early development of the automobile, when companies were in competition to improve the marque, the manufactures used"professional" drivers.

What were the qualifications for a professional driver?

[tdump]

In the earliest days of the automobile, a "professional driver" probably amounted to anyone fool enough to take a little cash to mount up onto a mechanical contraption and run it.

[Allan]

Perhaps simply being able to drive, and being paid to do so. A bit like professional golfer, can play golf, well enough to earn prize money.

Allan from down under.

[Wayne Sheldon]

It was a strange and special time for humanity. Many millions of people stepping almost literally from the stone age into the modern age. Anyone born before 1880 knew hard work, they knew splitting wood, plowing fields the hard way, and moving heavy objects without heavy duty equipment. They mostly did not really understand mechanization. And most people in those days had some difficulty adapting to even crude machinery.
However, just like most kids and young adults today see computers as a normal part of life, and only some in our generation adapted very quickly to computers and programming? There were some people in the early years of the twentieth century that just fit into automobiles and other mechanical machinery. Some people are just born with a natural understanding of such things.
For many early years, often a child of twelve years old or less would become the family's designated driver, because dad could afford and wanted the prestige of owning a car, but wasn't comfortable actually driving it. When such things are all around you from before you are born? They seem to come naturally.
A "professional" driver could be almost anyone simply comfortable with driving and working on a car. Being a chauffeur was a relatively easy (for some?) and respectable job. In the early days of the automobile it demanded a great deal of trust, and the ability to do a lot of routine maintenance as well as roadside repairs. It wasn't all about sitting behind the wheel and enjoying the drive!
In the first two decades of that century, a lot of people made a good living at being a professional driver. And they did so doing a lot more than just driving a heavy truck (not to in any way disparage good truck drivers of any era!). Automobile dealerships often had "professional" drivers to deliver cars and teach customers how to drive and maintain them.

[Charlie B in N.J.]

The story I read years ago was that Billy Durant hired Louis Chevrolet as his chauffeur I believe to give him a salary but his real job was racing Buicks.