Hourly chauffeur service in Calgary: YYC, the downtown towers, the Stampede and the road to Banff on the Toronto standard

Calgary, on the Toronto account

Calgary is the second city the desk's corporate accounts book most after Vancouver, and for a reason that is written on Bay Street's calendar: the energy industry's head offices in the downtown towers - the banks' and the law firms' Calgary offices beside them, the pension funds' and the private-equity firms' visits, the quarterly roadshows between Toronto and Calgary that the roadshow page plans - and, once a year in July, the Stampede, when every corporate account in the country sends people west for the ten days. A client who keeps a chauffeur by the hour in Toronto lands at YYC and finds the same thing waiting through the LimousineWorldwide.Directory network's vetted Calgary operator: the same three-hour minimum, the same flat rate, the same meet, one invoice. The Canada hub explains the network and the pillar page the hourly product; this page is Calgary.

YYC, and the meet

Calgary International in the city's north-east is seventeen kilometres and twenty-five minutes from downtown by the Deerfoot Trail and Memorial Drive, or by Airport Trail and the newer Stoney Trail ring road to the north-west's neighbourhoods, and the local chauffeur meets a Toronto arrival at the domestic or international arrivals hall with the plate and the name, thirty minutes' waiting on a domestic flight and forty-five on an international one included, as the Pearson page describes; YYC's pre-arranged ground-transport curb is the car's place. The Deerfoot's rush hour - southbound from 6:30 to 9, northbound from 3:30 to 6 - is the local chauffeur's daily problem and Stoney Trail the way around it.

The towers, the Plus 15 and the business day

Downtown Calgary's energy towers between the Bow River and the CPR tracks - the Bow, Brookfield Place, Eighth Avenue Place, Bankers Hall, Suncor Energy Centre, the TC Energy tower, the Calgary City Centre - are joined at the second storey by the Plus 15 walkway system, which means a winter business day of five meetings can be walked between towers in shirtsleeves and the car is needed at the start, the lunch and the end; an as-directed day of six to nine hours with the chauffeur waiting on 4th or 5th Avenue between the walked meetings is the booking the desk's accounts make, and a Calgary day that adds the Beltline's and the East Village's newer offices, the University of Calgary's research park and the Foothills medical campus, and the industrial companies of the south-east is the roadshow page's block with the Deerfoot's timing built in. The Calgary Petroleum Club on 5th Avenue and the Ranchmen's Club are the lunches, and the Fairmont Palliser's lobby at 5 pm is where the day's last meeting tends to happen without anyone having booked a room for it; the chauffeur waits on 9th Avenue and the corporate account bills the day on the same monthly invoice as the Toronto bookings that surround it.

The Stampede

The Calgary Stampede's ten days in July - the rodeo and the chuckwagons at Stampede Park, the grandstand show, the midway, the corporate tents and the pancake breakfasts across the city, the Stampede parade on the first Friday, the bars of 17th Avenue and the Cowboys tent - are the week the desk's accounts send their people to Calgary, and a Stampede booking is a multi-day arrangement with the same local chauffeur: the YYC meet, the hotel, the morning's client breakfasts, the afternoon's grandstand, the evening's tents, and the 1 am ride back with the chauffeur as the responsible party; the Sprinter for a team of twelve to the corporate tent, the group page priced per vehicle. Stampede's vehicles are booked in April; the Stampede's dates are fixed a year out.

A visitor's Calgary, by the hour

The Calgary Tower and the Glenbow's successor at the Arts Commons, the Peace Bridge and the Bow River pathways, Prince's Island Park, Kensington's and Inglewood's shops and restaurants, the Studio Bell National Music Centre in the East Village, Heritage Park's historical village, the Calgary Zoo and the Telus Spark science centre, Fish Creek Park, Stephen Avenue's restaurants and 17th Avenue's bars, and the Canada Olympic Park's ski jumps on the western edge: a six- to eight-hour tourist day in the SUV with the local chauffeur's order and the car waiting at each; the Tourism Calgary site has the seasons, and the mountains an hour west are the day the visitor came for.

The Saddledome, the arena and the Flames

The Scotiabank Saddledome at Stampede Park - the Flames, the concerts, the Hitmen and the Roughnecks - and the new Scotia Place arena being built beside it, McMahon Stadium's Stampeders on the north-west campus, and the Jubilee Auditorium's opera and ballet: an evening booking of four to five hours covers dinner on Stephen Avenue or in Inglewood and a game or a concert with the car positioned on Olympic Way or Macleod Trail before the encore, and the sports page's venue-exit rules apply. A Toronto account's client-entertainment night at a Flames game is the Sprinter.

The Trans-Canada west: Canmore, Banff and Kananaskis

Banff is an hour and a half west of Calgary on the Trans-Canada - a hundred and thirty kilometres through Cochrane's ranch country and Canmore's mountain town to the park gate, the Banff townsite, Lake Louise forty minutes further and the Icefields Parkway beyond - and Kananaskis Country's lodges and its golf course are an hour south-west on Highway 40; a Toronto family's mountain week is a one-way flat fare each way from YYC in the SUV, or a multi-day booking with the chauffeur staying, and the Banff page has the townsite, the Fairmont Banff Springs and the Chateau Lake Louise. In winter the Trans-Canada's closures and the park's roads are the local chauffeur's knowledge and 511 Alberta is the dispatcher's screen; the SUV has winter tyres from October.

Where the car waits, in a table

A Calgary day, timed (book 9)

8:00 YYC, the S-Class, a Toronto pension fund's partner off the 6:30 from Pearson (the two-hour time change working in her favour); the meet at domestic arrivals. 8:30 the Deerfoot; the Bow by 8:50. 9:00 to 12:00 three meetings walked through the Plus 15 - the Bow, Brookfield Place, Eighth Avenue Place; the car on 6th Avenue. 12:15 lunch at the Petroleum Club. 2:00 a law firm in Bankers Hall. 3:30 the Beltline; a private-equity office. 5:00 the Fairmont Palliser. 6:45 dinner in Inglewood; the car on 9th Avenue SE. 9:00 the hotel. Nine hours on the Toronto account's invoice; the 6 am flight home the next morning is a flat fare on the same confirmation.

The car

The network operator's fleet in the same classes: the Executive Sedan for the business day and the YYC run; the Mercedes S-Class for the partner; the Luxury SUV for the family, the mountains with the gear and the winter; the Executive Sprinter for the Stampede team, the Flames night and the conference delegation. The fleet page has the Toronto classes and the desk confirms the Calgary vehicle on the booking.

What it costs

The Calgary operator's class hourly rate times the hours, from three (five for a Sprinter), quoted by the Toronto desk at booking and billed with the Toronto bookings on the account's monthly invoice, plus Alberta's GST - the province has no sales tax - and the gratuity you set; no surge, no meter, and no tolls anywhere in Alberta. The rates page explains the Toronto number; the corporate accounts page the one-invoice arrangement; a Banff one-way is a flat fare the desk quotes.

Booking Calgary

A call or an email to the Toronto desk with the flight, the hotel and the days - the travel desk handles the Toronto-Calgary-Vancouver trip - or the booker with Calgary as the pick-up city; the desk confirms the local operator, the vehicle and the chauffeur's name the day before, and the plate text arrives at the meet. A business day two days ahead; the Stampede in April; Banff's Christmas week weeks ahead.

From our network: LAI - Calgary (YYC) operators · LimousineWorldwide.Directory - Canada · HotelsWorldwide.Directory - luxury hotels in Canada · VacationsWorldwide.Directory - Canada.