A private chauffeur from BlaakLane.com is a personal driver reserved for you rather than dispatched trip by trip. Hire one by the hour from $155 CAD in a business sedan, by the ten-hour day from $1,550, by the month from $6,200 for 40 hours, or to drive your own car from $95 an hour. Every price is all-in: taxes and a 20% gratuity are included.
What makes a chauffeur private?
The word matters. A ride app sends whoever is nearest. A car service sends a different driver for each booking. A private chauffeur is a professional who is assigned to you and stays with you: the same person who knows that you take the Gardiner rather than the Lake Shore after six, that the second passenger is your assistant and not a guest, and that the rear blinds go down on the way to the hospital.
That continuity is the whole product. Everything else, from the car to the price, follows from how long you want the chauffeur to stay.
Three ways to hire a personal driver
1. By the hour or the day
For a single busy day, a visit or a week in town. You book hours, the chauffeur stays with the car outside each stop and moves when you move. In a business sedan it is $155 an hour or $1,550 for a ten-hour day; see short-term chauffeur hire for jobs of up to 29 days.
2. By the month
For a standing need: the daily commute, the school routine, a run of medical appointments, a posting. You reserve a block of 40, 80, 120 or 220 hours, and a named chauffeur and a backup are assigned for the month. A 40-hour business sedan month is $6,200; a full-time 220-hour month is $34,100. See the monthly chauffeur service and, for a twelve-month rate lock, yearly contracts.
3. In your own car
If you already own the car, our chauffeur drives it for $95 an hour, with a 4-hour minimum within the city, or from $3,800 a month for 40 hours. See a chauffeur for your own car.
Personal driver rates in one table
| All-in, CAD | Business sedan | First-class sedan | SUV Business Class | SUV First Class | Chauffeur only (your car) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per hour, within the city | $155 | $285 | $185 | $235 | $95 (4-hour minimum) |
| Per hour, out of town (+50%) | $232.50 | $427.50 | $277.50 | $352.50 | $142.50 |
| 10-hour day, within the city | $1,550 | $2,850 | $1,850 | $2,350 | $950 |
| Each km over 150 a day | $3 | $8 | $4 | $4 | fuel at cost |
All prices are in CAD and all-in, with taxes and a 20% gratuity included. Tolls, parking and Wi-Fi are added at actual cost. Overtime is billed at the same hourly rate. Hours outside the city are billed at the hourly rate plus 50%, with the chauffeur's hotel and a flat $100 travel allowance added when an overnight is involved, in our car or yours.
What a private chauffeur does in a day
A typical day for one of our personal drivers in Toronto might look like this:
- 7:10 Car outside the house, cabin at the temperature you like, the day's schedule confirmed by text the evening before.
- 7:40 School drop-off in Forest Hill, then the office on Bay Street.
- 9:00 to 12:30 On standby within ten minutes of the office; the car is washed and refuelled.
- 12:45 A client lunch in Yorkville, waiting outside.
- 15:30 A run to Billy Bishop airport to collect a visiting colleague.
- 18:00 Home, or dinner, or both.
None of those stops is a separate booking. The chauffeur already knows them, and if the day changes at 11:00 you send one message.
The person behind the wheel
A personal driver spends more time with you than almost anyone else on your staff, so the selection matters more than the car. Every BlaakLane.com private chauffeur:
- holds the passenger-for-hire licence required in their city; in Toronto, the city licenses limousine operators, as the City of Toronto limousine owner licence page explains;
- has a clean driving abstract and a background check renewed every year;
- is trained in defensive driving, passenger etiquette and the practical side of discretion;
- signs a personal confidentiality undertaking, and your NDA where you have one;
- wears a dark suit unless you ask for something less formal, and never wears branding.
We also match on the things that make a long assignment work: languages spoken, comfort with children or older passengers, experience with a security detail, and familiarity with the part of the city you live in.
The car
Our private chauffeurs drive one of four classes, each four model years old or newer and commercially insured: a business sedan (Lexus ES, Cadillac CT5 or electric Cadillac Lyriq), a first-class sedan (Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7 Series or Genesis G90), an SUV Business Class (Cadillac Escalade, Lincoln Navigator or GMC Yukon XL) or an SUV First Class (Escalade ESV, Navigator L, Yukon Denali or Cadillac Vistiq). The cards below list the features of each; the wider fleet, including Sprinters and stretch limousines, is on the fleet page. National vehicle safety and recall rules are set by Transport Canada.
Private chauffeur or ride app?
A ride app is a sensible choice for a one-off trip across town. It is a poor choice for a day with five stops, a child in the back, a confidential call or a client you want to look after, because you cannot choose the driver, the car or the timing, and the price moves with demand. A private chauffeur costs more per hour and is worth it when continuity, privacy and reliability matter more than the cheapest fare. The trade body for the industry, the National Limousine Association, lists the questions worth asking any provider before you hire.
How we match a private chauffeur to you
For a monthly or yearly assignment we do not simply send whoever is free. The account manager starts with a conversation about the routine, the passengers and the things that matter to you, then proposes a chauffeur and a backup with a short profile of each: years of chauffeur experience, languages, the kind of clients they have driven and the part of the city they know best. You meet the primary before the first day. If you would like to try two chauffeurs for a week each before choosing, that can be arranged.
The match is reviewed after the first month and at every quarterly review. Most assignments settle quickly; when one does not, changing the primary is a conversation with the account manager rather than a difficult one with the chauffeur.
Working with your office or household staff
A private chauffeur is often one part of a small team: an executive assistant who owns the diary, a house manager who knows the children's schedule, a security lead who sets the rules for arrivals. We work through whoever you nominate. The chauffeur takes changes from the people on the approved list, copies the desk on anything that affects billing, and never accepts instructions from anyone else, however plausible they sound. Approved contacts can change at any time with a message to the account manager.
Private chauffeurs beyond Toronto
The same hiring options are available across the network: a personal driver for a month in Vancouver, a week in Calgary or a summer in London, confirmed through a vetted local operator and run by the same desk. For the full price list with worked examples, see what a chauffeur costs in 2026.
Cancellations
More than 72 hours before pickup, no charge; 72 hours or less, 10%; 48 hours or less, 50%; 24 hours or less, or a no-show, 100% of the reserved service.
