Short-Term Chauffeur Hire in Toronto

What is short-term chauffeur hire?

The gap between a single airport transfer and a monthly account is where most visitors to Toronto actually sit. A partner from a New York firm lands on Monday, has meetings on Bay Street and in Mississauga, a dinner in Yorkville and a site visit in Waterloo, and flies home on Thursday. A family arrives from Vancouver for a two-week stay that includes a wedding, a day in Niagara and a lot of grandparents. Booking each of those trips separately means a new chauffeur every time and a new explanation every time. Short-term hire gives them one chauffeur, one car and one invoice for the whole visit.

If you only need a car for a few hours on a single day, our hourly chauffeur service is the shorter by-the-hour option, at the same rates. If the visit turns into a regular pattern, the monthly chauffeur service reserves the hours for you every month.

How short-term hire is billed

Short-term hire is billed by the hour, at the same all-in rates as every other program on this site. There is no block to buy and nothing to forfeit: you pay for the hours your chauffeur works. Here is the full rate table, including the out-of-town rates and the chauffeur-only option for clients who have access to their own car while they are here.

A few rules apply to every short-term booking:

• Overtime is fine. If the day runs longer than planned, the extra time is billed at the same hourly rate; there is no surcharge for staying late.
• Kilometres. Each day includes 150 km. Beyond that, extra kilometres are $3 in a business sedan, $4 in either SUV and $8 in a first-class sedan.
• Out of town. Hours spent outside the city are billed at the hourly rate plus 50%, and the chauffeur's hotel and a flat $100 travel allowance are added, for company-car and client-car bookings alike.
• Pass-through costs. Highway 407 tolls, parking and in-car Wi-Fi are billed at actual cost.
• Chauffeur only. Our chauffeur driving your car is $95 an hour within the city, with a 4-hour minimum.

Sample short-term budgets

Because everything is priced by the hour, it is easy to estimate a visit before you book. These examples use the published rates and assume all driving is within the city unless stated.

Add any extra kilometres, tolls and parking, plus the out-of-town rate where a day leaves the city. A two-day trip to a Muskoka resort, for instance, at eight hours a day in an SUV Business, comes to 16 hours at $277.50, or $4,440, plus the chauffeur's hotel and the $100 travel allowance.

Visiting executives landing at Pearson

The most common short-term booking starts with a flight number. Your chauffeur tracks the flight and is waiting at the GTAA pre-arranged pickup area outside the terminal door when you come through, Door A area at Terminal 1 or Door A at Terminal 3. Arrivals have 60 minutes of free waiting on international flights and 30 minutes on domestic ones, which covers most customs and baggage queues. If you would like the chauffeur inside the arrivals hall holding a name board, meet and greet can be added for a fee. Private jets arriving at the FBOs are handled through our private jet and FBO car service.

From there the chauffeur stays with you. A typical three-day visit might look like this: arrival and the drive to a downtown hotel on day one; meetings on Bay Street, lunch in the financial district and a dinner in Yorkville on day two; a morning at an office near the airport, perhaps at one of the Mississauga hotels along the airport strip, and the drive back to Pearson for an evening departure on day three. The car waits between meetings, so laptops, coats and samples stay in the boot rather than being carried between buildings.

The Waterloo corridor and other day trips

Many visiting executives have business outside Toronto as well: a tech firm in the Kitchener-Waterloo corridor, a plant in Hamilton or Cambridge, a winery visit in Niagara. Your chauffeur drives those legs too. Hours outside the city are billed at the out-of-town rate, and the chauffeur can stay overnight if the schedule needs it, with the hotel and travel allowance added as above.

Conferences, trade shows and events

Toronto hosts major conferences year-round, at venues such as the Metro Toronto Convention Centre downtown and the exhibition halls near Pearson. A short-term chauffeur solves the conference problem neatly: the delegate is dropped at the door each morning, collected for client dinners in the evening and taken between the venue, the hotel and the airport without waiting for taxis at the end of every session. Companies sending a team often book two or three cars for the duration, or a Sprinter for group moves; groups and coaches are covered on our Jet Sprinter and coach hire page and priced by quote. Galas and one-off evenings are covered on our event limo page.

Film and television shoots

Toronto is one of North America's busiest production centres, and the city's Film and Television Office issues permits for location shoots across the city. Productions working out of Pinewood Toronto Studios, Cinespace or a downtown location book short-term chauffeurs for talent, directors and senior crew for the length of the shoot. The chauffeur plans each day against the call sheet, knows the studio gates and the stage doors, and can wait through long days that run well past twelve hours. Overtime is billed at the same hourly rate, which keeps the production accountant's estimate simple. Talent bookings can run under a signed NDA; the NDA section below explains how.

Family visits, weddings and relocation weeks

Not every short-term booking is corporate. Families flying in for a wedding, a graduation or a long-awaited reunion use short-term hire to move grandparents, children and luggage between Pearson, the hotel and a string of family homes across the GTA, often in an SUV with room for six. Relocation weeks are another common case: a family moving to Toronto for a new job spends a week viewing houses in Oakville, King City or the Beaches, touring schools and opening bank accounts, and a chauffeur who knows the city turns that week from an ordeal into a series of appointments. Destination Toronto is a useful starting point for planning the days off between viewings.

Short-term hire compared with the other programs

Short-term hire sits between our single-trip and our longer programs. Choose it when the need has a clear start and end date, from one day to about two weeks. For a few hours on a single day, book the hourly chauffeur. For a regular need every month, the monthly block holds the same chauffeur for you. If you are staying in Toronto with access to your own vehicle, the chauffeur-for-your-car program puts our chauffeur behind your wheel at $95 an hour. A side-by-side comparison of all the options is in our chauffeur cost guide.

What to send us before you land

The better the brief, the smoother the first day. The details that make the most difference are simple:

• Arrival and departure flight numbers, including any change of plan the travel desk already knows about.
• The hotel and every address you expect to visit, even if the times are not yet fixed.
• How many passengers and how much luggage, so we can match the class: a business sedan takes three passengers and two large bags, while an SUV First takes six passengers and six large bags.
• Any child seats, accessibility needs or preferences about the cabin, such as a quiet ride for calls.
• Who should receive updates: the traveller, an assistant or both.

Changes during the visit are normal. Your chauffeur adjusts the plan as meetings move, and anything that changes the estimate, such as an unplanned day trip outside the city, is confirmed with you before it happens.

How to book short-term hire

1. Send us the arrival flight, the departure flight and the outline of each day: addresses, meeting times, dinners and any day trips.
2. Choose a vehicle class from the cards below, or ask us to recommend one for your group and luggage.
3. We confirm an estimate based on the hourly rates, the expected kilometres and any out-of-town days.
4. Your chauffeur is assigned for the whole visit and contacts you before the first pickup.
5. After the visit you receive one invoice listing hours, overtime, extra kilometres and actual-cost items.

Book short-term chauffeur hire

For complex itineraries, groups or confidential visits, call 1-877-508-3344 or send us the schedule and we will come back with a full estimate. For a single long-distance leg, our Niagara Falls route page shows what that trip involves.