Short-term chauffeur hire from BlaakLane.com puts one chauffeur and one car at your disposal for a day or up to 29 days. In a business sedan it is $155 CAD an hour or $1,550 for a ten-hour day, all-in with taxes and a 20% gratuity. Each day includes 150 km, overtime is billed at the same hourly rate and the chauffeur stays with you for the whole job.
When short-term hire makes sense
A single airport run is a trip. A week of meetings, site visits and dinners is a job, and it is better run by one chauffeur who learns the schedule on Monday than by five drivers who each meet you once. Short-term hire is the middle ground between hourly bookings for a few hours and a monthly block for a standing need.
Typical short-term bookings in our home market and across the network:
- Visiting executives and directors in Toronto for a week of meetings on Bay Street, a plant visit in the 905 and a dinner in Yorkville.
- Investor roadshows that cover Toronto, Montréal and New York in three days; see financial roadshows.
- Film and television productions that need talent cars on the call sheet for the length of a shoot; see film, music and touring.
- Conference and summit weeks, when every hotel taxi rank in the city is forty deep and a held car is the only way to keep a schedule.
- Families in town for a wedding, a graduation or a medical appointment who want one familiar chauffeur for the visit.
- Delegations on a trade mission, where the same chauffeur and car follow a minister or a chief executive from the airport to the last meeting.
Rates for short-term hire
You can book by the hour or by the ten-hour day; the hourly rate is the same either way, so a day is simply ten hours at that rate.
| 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 CAD and all-in: taxes and a 20% gratuity are included. Highway tolls, parking and in-car Wi-Fi are added at actual cost. For a first-class sedan (Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7 Series or Genesis G90) a ten-hour day is $2,850; for an SUV Business Class it is $1,850; for an SUV First Class, $2,350.
Overtime, kilometres and out-of-town days
If a dinner runs late, the chauffeur waits and the extra time is billed at the same hourly rate: no surcharge, no argument at the door. Each day includes 150 km. A busy Toronto day rarely exceeds that; a day that includes a run to Kitchener-Waterloo and back might. Beyond 150 km, it is $3 a kilometre in a business sedan, $4 in an SUV and $8 in a first-class sedan.
When the job leaves the city, hours outside it are billed at the hourly rate plus 50%, and the chauffeur's hotel and a flat $100 travel allowance are added where the trip needs an overnight. A two-day board retreat in Niagara-on-the-Lake, for example, keeps the same chauffeur and car; the invoice shows the out-of-town hours and the room.
How a short-term job is run
- You send the outline. Dates, the first pickup, flights or trains, hotels, the meetings you already know about and the passenger list.
- We assign one chauffeur. The chauffeur is confirmed by name with the car's make, colour and plate, and a backup is held in case of illness.
- The schedule lives with the chauffeur. Changes go straight to the chauffeur or to the 24/7 desk; you do not rebook every leg.
- One invoice at the end. Hours, kilometres, tolls and parking itemised in CAD, with each day listed.
For arrivals at Toronto Pearson or Billy Bishop, the chauffeur tracks the flight and is waiting when you land; the airport run is simply the first hour of the job. Rail arrivals at Union Station work the same way.
The cars and the chauffeur
Choose a business sedan for one or two travellers, a first-class sedan for a principal or a client you want to impress, or an SUV for a family, a team or a security detail. Every vehicle is black, unbranded and four model years old or newer, and the full list of models and features is in the vehicle section below and on the fleet page. For a team of eight or more, an Executive Sprinter, Jet Sprinter or coach is quoted to the itinerary.
Chauffeurs hold the passenger-for-hire licence their city requires; in Toronto, limousine operators are licensed by the city, as the City of Toronto limousine owner licence page sets out. The national framework for vehicle safety is published by Transport Canada. Our own written standard, from background checks to dress code, is on the safety page.
Short-term hire in other cities
The same rate card and the same one-chauffeur approach apply wherever the network operates. A week in Montréal, Vancouver, New York or London is confirmed through a vetted local operator held to the BlaakLane.com standard, and run from the same 24/7 desk in Toronto, so your contact and your invoice do not change from city to city.
Getting the most out of a week with one chauffeur
A few habits make a short-term job run noticeably better.
- Share the calendar, not just the first pickup. Even a rough outline of the week lets the chauffeur plan parking, pick the right entrance at each building and time the drive between meetings against real traffic on the 401 and the Gardiner.
- Say who else is riding. A colleague joining for one day, a child seat for Wednesday, a client to collect from another hotel: each one changes the right vehicle and the right timing.
- Tell us about luggage on the last day. A business sedan carries two large cases comfortably; four people with golf bags need an SUV for the departure run.
- Use the chauffeur's mobile, not the app. On a held job, the quickest way to change the plan is a text to the chauffeur, copied to the desk if the change is large.
- Keep the release time honest. If the evening ends early, release the chauffeur; you pay for the hours used beyond any booked minimum, and overtime is only ever charged at the same hourly rate.
Busy weeks in Toronto
Some weeks empty the city of cars. The film festival in September, the holiday party season in December, major medical and technology conferences and the largest sporting events all put pressure on every chauffeur in the region at once. If your dates fall in one of those weeks, book as soon as you know them: a held chauffeur is confirmed by name, and that confirmation does not change when demand rises.
Cancellations
Measured from the first scheduled pickup: more than 72 hours before, no charge; 72 hours or less, 10% of the reserved service; 48 hours or less, 50%; 24 hours or less, or a no-show, 100%. Individual days inside a confirmed job can be moved with the desk subject to the same scale.
Short-term, monthly or yearly?
If the need lasts a few days or a few weeks, short-term hire is the simplest answer. If it repeats every month, a monthly block holds the same chauffeur for you without rebooking, and a yearly contract locks the rate. Every price for every option is on what a chauffeur costs. The National Limousine Association also explains how hourly and daily chauffeur pricing is usually structured across the industry.
