Hourly Chauffeur Service: Chauffeur by the Hour and As-Directed Car Service

Hourly chauffeur service: your car, your itinerary

Point-to-point transfers answer one question: how do I get from here to there? An hourly chauffeur answers a different one: how do I get through today? The car and chauffeur are reserved for you for a booked block of hours. You do not hail a ride between meetings, you do not move your luggage from one vehicle to another, and you do not explain to a new driver where the last stop was.

Hourly hire is also called chauffeur by the hour, as-directed service and disposal hire. In Toronto, the GTA and Ontario it is operated with the Enroutz.ca fleet and chauffeurs. In cities abroad it is delivered by a vetted, licensed and commercially insured local chauffeur partner, and the Enroutz.ca desk books, confirms and invoices it. A day in New York or London is organised the same way as a day in Toronto.

This page explains what as-directed service means in practice, how to plan a day around it, when it beats the alternatives and when it does not. If you already know the day you want, use the online booker; it shows the exact fare for your pickup and vehicle before you pay.

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What is an hourly chauffeur, and how does as-directed hire work?

The key difference from a transfer is that the stops are not fixed. You can name them in advance, or give them to the chauffeur as the day unfolds. The booked hours are the hours the car and chauffeur are reserved for you, whether the car is moving or waiting outside a building.

How the booked hours work

You choose a start time and a number of hours when you book. The block belongs to you. Driving, waiting and loading all happen inside it. That is the simple principle behind as-directed service, and it is the reason planning matters: an hour spent waiting for a meeting that runs late is still an hour of your reserved time.

Some practical points:

• Start where you want. The first pickup is any address: a hotel, an office, a home, Pearson.
• Finish where you want. The last stop need not be the first one. Many clients start at a hotel and end at the airport.
• Extensions. If plans change, tell the chauffeur or the desk early. Extensions depend on availability and are confirmed with you before they are added.
• Cancellations. The standard schedule applies from the scheduled pickup time: more than 72 hours' notice carries no charge, 72 hours or less 10%, 48 hours or less 50%, and 24 hours or less or a no-show 100%. Large events and conventions can carry a different deadline, which appears on the confirmation.

The booker shows the exact all-in fare for your pickup, vehicle and booked hours before payment. This page does not quote rates, because the right figure depends on those details.

Who books a chauffeur by the hour?

Hourly hire suits people whose day has several stops, uncertain timing or good reasons to avoid the hassle of parking.

• Business travellers with a day of meetings across the Financial District, Yorkville and the northern suburbs.
• Executives who work in the car between calls.
• Visitors on a first trip who want one chauffeur who knows the city.
• Families with children, strollers and shopping bags.
• Wedding and event hosts who need a car on call. See wedding chauffeur.
• Production staff who run unit moves. See film and TV production transport.
• Sightseers, who can combine the city with day trips. See private tours with a driver.

Corporate customers can put hourly rides on a company account with monthly invoicing; the corporate chauffeur service page describes that.

A sample Toronto day, with distances and times

The best way to understand as-directed hire is to see a day run. This sample assumes a visiting executive with a First Class Sedan.

08:00 The chauffeur collects the executive at a downtown hotel. First stop is a breakfast meeting in the Financial District, a few minutes away.

09:30 The executive needs to reach a client in Mississauga, roughly 25 to 30 km from downtown. Allow 35 to 60 minutes depending on the Gardiner Expressway, Highway 427 and the Queen Elizabeth Way.

12:30 Lunch in Yorkville, about 3 km from the Financial District. The chauffeur waits nearby; the executive does not need to coordinate a pickup.

14:00 A site visit in Vaughan, about 30 to 35 km from Yorkville. Allow 40 to 70 minutes in daytime traffic.

17:30 Back downtown for a dinner. The route avoids the Gardiner and Don Valley Parkway when they are at their slowest if there is a sensible alternative.

22:00 A late transfer to Pearson for an overnight flight, about 27 km, usually 30 to 50 minutes, often towards the faster end late at night.

Those figures are ranges, not promises. They show why hourly hire is valuable: the chauffeur knows how conditions change through the day, and the passenger does not have to.

Plan the day: what to tell your chauffeur

A few details make the difference between a good day and an excellent one.

1. Hard deadlines. Say which times cannot move: a flight, a board meeting, a school pick-up.
2. Soft preferences. Coffee, a quiet car, music, no music.
3. Luggage and shopping. Choose the vehicle by bags, not by prestige. Sedans take up to 3 passengers with 2 large and 2 cabin bags. A Luxury SUV takes up to 6 passengers and 5 to 6 large bags.
4. Who else is travelling. Child seats are available on request at booking.
5. Privacy. Our chauffeurs never photograph clients or post about a trip, and NDAs can be signed on request. See VIP chauffeur.
6. Next-day plans. If tomorrow's ride starts early, say so when you book, so the next pickup is planned with the same care.

Multi-stop days, shopping and errands

Shopping is where hourly hire quietly wins. A chauffeur can hold your purchases in the car between boutiques, and a Luxury SUV swallows a morning of bags. In Yorkville, along Bloor Street, and at the large malls in the suburbs, parking can eat time that is better spent elsewhere. A chauffeur who drops you at the door and returns when you call turns that time back.

The same principle works for school runs, hospital visits, a family day around downtown or an afternoon of property viewings. Because the car stays with you, the day can follow your plan, not the other way round.

Meetings, site visits and working in the car

If you work while you travel, hourly hire gives you a mobile desk. Most, though not all, vehicles have Wi-Fi, water and phone chargers, so tell the desk if a call or a document must work. A First Class Sedan or a Luxury SUV is a quieter place for a call than a lobby, and the chauffeur treats what is said in the car as private.

For senior executives, a day of back-to-back meetings is the classic case. The chauffeur knows the building entrances and the best place to wait. Your assistant knows the schedule. The desk is open 24 hours if anything changes.

For roadshow-style schedules, see roadshow car service; for conference weeks, meetings, incentives and conferences. The event listings on the Metro Toronto Convention Centre site show which weeks downtown will be busiest, and those are the days to build extra time into an hourly schedule.

Private touring and day trips

An hourly booking can leave the city. Niagara Falls lies about 130 km from the downtown core, and the drive normally takes 1.5 to 2 hours. Niagara-on-the-Lake, Hamilton and wine country are all within a day's drive. City to city car service covers longer journeys, and private tours with a driver covers itineraries.

For a longer day out of town, tell the desk the destination when you book. The vehicle class, the booked hours and the return time depend on it.

Hourly hire abroad

The same service is available in partner cities. A chauffeur by the hour in London, New York or Dubai is delivered by a local partner, and the Enroutz.ca desk handles the booking, the confirmation and the invoice. See the city pages for London, New York and Dubai, or the regional hubs for the USA, Europe and the Middle East. Enter any pickup worldwide in the booker; the desk confirms a fixed quote.

In the USA the chauffeur is a US-licensed partner, as Canadian vehicles cannot do domestic point-to-point work there. A day that crosses into the USA from Toronto starts and finishes with a Toronto vehicle.

Hourly hire compared with other ways to spend a day

When the answer is "two stops and an hour of spare time," individual transfers or a taxi are usually better value. The chauffeur versus rideshare page goes through the trade-offs honestly. Hourly hire earns its place on days with three or more stops, tight timings, luggage or privacy needs.

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Hourly hire versus a private driver for several days

An hourly booking suits a day or a part-day. For a week of meetings or a family holiday, a private driver arrangement over several days may be simpler, with the same chauffeur for continuity. The private driver Toronto page covers that, and chauffeur service Toronto explains what a professional chauffeur does from route planning to luggage. If you want the most formal car in the fleet, see luxury car service Toronto.

Getting to and from the airport on an hourly day

Many hourly days begin or end at Toronto Pearson. For an arrival start, the chauffeur tracks your flight and the free waiting window applies from landing: 60 minutes on international arrivals, 30 minutes domestic. See Pearson airport limo for terminals and drive times, meet and greet for a name board inside arrivals, and Toronto airport transfer if you are arriving from abroad. For other pickups the free waiting window is 15 minutes.

If you arrive from abroad, remember entry rules: most visa-exempt visitors arriving by air need an electronic travel authorization, and the Government of Canada's eTA page is the official source. For attractions and seasonal events worth building a day around, Destination Toronto keeps an events calendar.

Etiquette and expectations

• Be clear about the end time. Say when you need to be somewhere, not just when you want to finish.
• Share changes early. A moved meeting is easy to handle if the chauffeur hears early.
• Keep passports and valuables with you. A car is not a safe, however good the chauffeur.
• Alcohol. We never promise drinks on board; local law applies.
• Be realistic with traffic. A Friday afternoon in July on the Gardiner is a different drive from Tuesday morning.

Chauffeurs are professionals who work to your schedule. They do not need small talk, and they will follow your lead on conversation.

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