Hourly chauffeur service — one car, one driver, every stop

Who books this service

• Executives on multi-meeting days — Three meetings, two coffees, a lunch, and a call-in-car block — one chauffeur holds it all together.
• Shoppers, scouts and wedding parties — Dress fittings, florist, cake tasting, venue walk-through — no rebooking between stops.
• Event hosts — Pre-dinner cocktails, dinner, after-party, drop-home — one driver, no re-pickups.

What's included

• 4-hour minimum for sedan and SUV (6 hours for Jet Sprinter Van and Executive Sprinter), 15-minute increments after
• No mileage charge inside the booked window on standard local routing
• Chauffeur waits at every stop — no requeuing, no repricing
• Add-ons quoted live when they appear (child seats, extra stops that run beyond window)
• Fleet choice: Sedan $105/hr, Executive SUV $125/hr, Jet Sprinter $225/hr, Executive Sprinter $175/hr (rate card on /pricing)

What hourly chauffeur service means

Hourly chauffeur service — the industry also calls it 'as-directed' — is simplest to think of as leasing a professional driver and their vehicle for a block of hours during which the trip is yours to shape. There is no mileage meter running, no re-booking between stops, and an upfront quote with the price confirmed in writing before you book, even if the restaurant you chose turns out to be ten blocks further than you thought. The chauffeur waits with the vehicle at every stop, moves exactly where you say in exactly the order you say it, and absorbs the kind of real-world schedule drift that destroys point-to-point bookings. Hourly chauffeur hire, book a chauffeur by the hour, executive car service by the hour and luxury ground transportation for the day are all the same product — booked by vehicle class and hours.

When hourly beats point-to-point

The decision rule is simple: if the day has three or more stops with any waiting between them, hourly is almost always cheaper and vastly more reliable than booking separate point-to-point legs. Point-to-point charges per leg plus repositioning overhead and leaves you re-booking between stops; hourly charges per hour per vehicle class, and the chauffeur waits with the car at every address. For a day of two coffees, three meetings and a dinner, four point-to-point legs plus waiting time can cost more than a six- or eight-hour hourly booking in the same vehicle class; you also keep the same chauffeur all day.

The 4-hour minimum math

Chauffyr hourly bookings have a four-hour minimum for the sedan and Executive SUV, and six hours for the Jet Sprinter Van and Executive Sprinter. The reason is operational: once a chauffeur is reserved to a client for a day, the car is off dispatch for other bookings and the chauffeur is on a day shift. Below four hours we recommend point-to-point instead — it is cheaper for a single hop with a short wait. Above four hours, hourly is almost always right. Six- and eight-hour blocks exist on some vehicle classes with modestly better per-hour rates; the desk prices the right block at the quote stage based on the day you describe.

Hourly rate card

Chauffyr publishes published hourly rates per vehicle class across the California home-base network. In other markets, hourly is quoted live by the desk through the vetted local affiliate; rates land within a predictable band of the home-base card.

What hourly includes — and what it does not

Hourly includes the chauffeur's time, the vehicle, standard local routing inside the booked window, bottled water and climate control. It does not include venue parking passes (passed through at cost where paid parking is required) or add-ons like child seats or airport Meet & Greet; a 20% gratuity is added when you book. If a stop goes beyond the local service area (airport runs mid-booking, long intercity runs), the desk re-quotes the mileage before dispatch. Nothing is billed to you after the fact without a prior OK.

Overrun — what happens at hour 4:01

If the day runs over the booked window, the chauffeur stays with you and the overtime is billed in 15-minute increments at the booked class rate. The 24/7 desk texts you when the overrun starts, so you decide whether to extend or wrap in real time. Overrun is never surprise-billed on the invoice: the live text at the window boundary is the trigger. For bookings expected to overrun by multiple hours (long concert nights, late-dinner-plus-after-party), the desk pre-books the extended block instead so the hourly rate is applied to the full day.

Who typically books hourly chauffeur hire

Executives on multi-meeting days (three meetings, two coffees, a working lunch — one car for all of it). Wedding parties on the day (fittings, florist, cake, venue walk, back to hotel). Shoppers and scouts (four neighbourhoods, four stores, lunch stop). Event hosts (pre-cocktails, dinner, after-party, drop-home). Film and photo crews on scouting days. Private-equity partners on roadshow days. Each shape has one thing in common — the hours matter more than the miles, and the value is in holding the vehicle rather than losing and re-finding it.

Service area and local routing

Chauffyr defines a 'local' hourly service area for each market — typically the metropolitan footprint plus the primary airport. Routing inside that area is included in the hourly rate with no distance charge. If a stop goes outside the local area mid-booking (an airport run inside a city hourly day, a Lake Tahoe side trip from a Bay Area hourly, a Hamptons run from Manhattan hourly), the desk quotes the mileage uplift before the chauffeur reroutes and the client approves it in writing. The purpose of the local-area rule is to keep hourly honestly priced for the common case — a day of in-city stops — while giving the desk a transparent way to re-price true out-of-area moves without any surprises on the invoice.