Private Chauffeur Service in Toronto

What is a private chauffeur service, and how is it different from a transfer?

The clients are specific: the executive who has stopped driving in the city and wants the same chauffeur every morning; the family whose two working parents cannot make the school run, the piano lesson and the orthodontist on the same afternoon; the visiting delegation from Dubai, Lagos or Shanghai with a week of meetings and a chauffeur who becomes the week's fixer; the parents in their eighties who have given up the car and want a standing driver for the appointments and the shopping; the film producer on a six-week shoot; the couple who have flown in for a fortnight and want the province without a rental car. Each has its own section below, and the corporate page covers the account that pays for most of them.

The executive's daily driver

The most common private chauffeur is the executive's: the pickup at the house in Forest Hill, Oakville or King City at 7.15, the drive to Bay Street with the calls made from the back seat, the car holding through the morning for the 11 o'clock across town, lunch, the afternoon's meetings, the 6.30 drive home or the 8 pm dinner and the 11 pm return — five days a week, the same chauffeur, the same car, on a weekly or monthly rate agreed in advance. The advantages over a company car and a parking space are the arithmetic and the hours: no downtown parking, no driving in the snow, and two working hours a day recovered in the back seat with the Wi-Fi and the phone. The chauffeur learns the executive's routes, the building's loading docks, the assistant's schedule and the restaurants' doors, and covers the airport runs on the same rate; the corporate account invoices monthly and carries a second chauffeur for the days the first is off.

The family chauffeur: school runs, lessons and appointments

The family chauffeur is the service Toronto's two-career households discover when the children's calendar outgrows the parents': the 8 am school run to Upper Canada College or Havergal, the 3.30 collection, the hockey practice in Etobicoke and the tutor in Leaside on the same afternoon, the orthodontist on Thursday, the grandparents' visit on Sunday. The chauffeur is the same vetted, licensed person every day — the parents know the name, the school knows the face, the children know the car — with the child seats fitted for the youngest and the family page explaining the seats. Families book it as a school-term retainer, a set number of hours per week at a weekly rate, with the chauffeur driving the family's own SUV or ours; the pickup at the school follows the school's own sign-out rules, and the parents receive a text at each drop.

The visiting delegation's week

A delegation from a partner company, a government ministry, a university or a family office arrives at Pearson for a week of meetings across the city, and the private chauffeur is the week's spine: the name board inside the arrivals hall, the Sprinter to the hotel, the daily schedule of meetings on Bay Street, in Mississauga, at the universities and in the suburbs' industrial parks, the dinners, the Niagara day at the weekend, and the departure timed to the flight — one chauffeur, or a lead chauffeur with a second car, on a weekly rate with the corporate account invoicing the host. The chauffeur becomes the week's fixer: the restaurant that takes a party of twelve at short notice, the pharmacy that is open, the route around the Gardiner closure, the mosque, the temple or the church for Friday or Sunday. Delegations from the Gulf, West Africa, South Asia and East Asia are the ones this service sees most, and discretion is the standard.

The seniors' standing car

The parents who have stopped driving are the private chauffeur's quietest clients and among its most loyal: a standing booking of two or three mornings a week for the appointments at Sunnybrook, Mount Sinai or the hospitals along University Avenue, the pharmacy, the supermarket, the hairdresser, the bridge club and the visit to the grandchildren — with the same chauffeur every time, the walker in the boot, the arm at the curb and the patience at the appointment's door that the accessible page describes. The adult children who arrange it, often from another city, receive the text at each door and the monthly invoice; the chauffeur becomes the person who notices when something is wrong. It is priced as a standing weekly rate for the hours agreed, and a Luxury SUV with the raised seat is the usual car.

Your car, our chauffeur

A private chauffeur does not require our vehicle. Clients who own the car they want to be driven in — the executive's own S-Class, the family's SUV with the seats already fitted, the collector's car that should be driven by a professional — book the chauffeur alone, who drives the client's vehicle under our commercial insurance and the City of Toronto's vehicle-for-hire licensing, with the client's own insurer notified as the policy requires. The chauffeur-only rate is lower than the rate with our vehicle, the chauffeur is the same vetted professional, and the car is returned to the garage at the end of the day with the tank where it was; the about page explains the vetting and the licensing.

The multi-day tour: a fortnight without a rental car

A couple or a family who have flown in for two weeks and want the province — Niagara and the wineries, the Muskoka lakes, Algonquin, Prince Edward County, Kingston and the Thousand Islands, Ottawa — book the private chauffeur for the fortnight rather than a rental car and a map: the chauffeur meets them at Pearson, drives the itinerary they planned or the one the chauffeur suggests, stays at the same inns on the road, carries the luggage and the wine, and delivers them back to the terminal on the last day. The daily rate covers the chauffeur and the car; the chauffeur's own room and meals on the road are agreed in the booking; and the long-distance page explains how the distances are priced when the tour is booked as a set of transfers instead. Visitors from the Gulf, Europe and East Asia who do not want to drive on the right, in the snow, or at all are the tour's usual clients.

Film, sport and the season's booking

Toronto's film and television production, its professional teams and its touring performers book private chauffeurs by the season: the producer or the lead actor with a chauffeur for a six-week shoot, from the hotel to the set at 5 am and back at wrap; the player traded to the city mid-season with a chauffeur for the first month while the car and the house are sorted; the touring artist with a chauffeur for the run at the theatres or the arena; the visiting professor for a term. Each is a defined period on a weekly or monthly rate through the corporate account of the studio, the club or the agency, with the private-aviation page covering the arrivals that come through the FBOs, and discretion — no photographs, no names, no social media — is a condition of the chauffeur's employment.

Discretion, security and the chauffeur's standard

A private chauffeur sees the client's house, office, family, schedule and conversations, and the standard is set accordingly: every chauffeur on this service is licensed, insured and vetted with a criminal-record check and a driving-record review, employed rather than sourced from an app, bound by a confidentiality undertaking, and trained in the routines that keep a principal's day quiet — the door held, the route varied when asked, the phone silent, the back seat never discussed. For clients with a security requirement the chauffeur works with the client's own protection team and the car is the one they specify; for everyone else the standard is simply the one a professional household expects. The network page describes the memberships that hold the standard, and the FAQ sets out the policies.

How a private chauffeur is priced

A single day is booked through the reservation engine as a day rate — a chauffeur and a vehicle for up to ten hours within the GTA, with the hours beyond it at the hourly rate in fifteen-minute units and the kilometres beyond the region priced as the long-distance page describes. A week, a month, a school term or a standing retainer is agreed by email as a weekly or monthly rate for the hours and the days you set, with the chauffeur-only rate for your own car, a second chauffeur for the first's days off, and the corporate account invoicing monthly. Tolls, fuel and taxes are inside the rate for our vehicle; gratuity is never added; the chauffeur's room and meals on a multi-day tour are agreed in the booking; and a period can be extended or ended with a week's notice. The rate is fixed before the period starts and does not change with the traffic, the weather or the hour.

What is included

Every private chauffeur booking includes the named chauffeur, the vehicle class chosen (or the chauffeur alone for your own car), fuel, tolls and taxes for our vehicle within the agreed region, the child seats, the waiting between legs, the airport pickups on the same rate with the flight tracked and the pre-arranged area at the terminal door, and the texts at each door to whoever arranged the service. Meet and greet inside the arrivals hall is included for a delegation's arrival on a weekly booking; gratuity is never added; a cancellation of a single day before the chauffeur is dispatched is free.

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