As-directed executive chauffeur in Toronto

What as-directed means

As-directed is the industry's phrase for an hourly booking with no fixed itinerary: the car and chauffeur are at your disposal for the block, and you direct them as the day unfolds. It is the executive product. The assistant books the hours; the principal says "Bay Street" at 9 and "the airport" at 4 and "actually, dinner first" at 5:30, and the chauffeur simply goes. Nothing is re-quoted, no stop is an extra, and the invoice is the hours used at the rate on the confirmation.

It differs from the half-day and full-day bookings only in expectation: those pages assume you know roughly the shape of the day; this one assumes you do not, or that the shape will change. In practice most corporate hourly bookings are as-directed whatever they are called, and the corporate accounts page puts them on invoice.

A Toronto as-directed day

The chauffeur texts the plate at 7:40 and is at the Ritz-Carlton's Wellington Street door at 8. The principal gets in with a phone to an ear. First Canadian Place; the chauffeur takes the King Street loading bay, not the front, because the front is a fire lane. Forty minutes becomes seventy; the chauffeur texts the assistant, not the principal, to ask whether the 10:30 should move. Brookfield Place. Lunch at Canoe, fifty-fourth floor of the TD tower, where the chauffeur holds the car on Wellington because the valet is for guests staying the night. A 2 pm in Liberty Village, then a call from the principal: a client wants to meet at the airport hotel at 4 before their flight. Pearson's Sheraton, via the 427 rather than the 401 at that hour. Back to the Ritz at 6, dinner at Alo at 7:30, the hotel at 10. Ten hours, nine stops, three changes of plan, one booking.

What made the day work was not the car. It was the loading bay, the text to the assistant, the 427, the call about the client that was answered with "of course" rather than a re-quote. That is what as-directed buys.

Who books it

Visiting principals and their executive assistants, most of all: the CEO in from London or New York for three days who needs the city to work around a diary that will change. Investment bankers and their clients on a roadshow. Law firms hosting a witness or a client for a trial week. Private-equity and venture partners doing a day of site visits from the 905 to Kitchener. Family offices with a principal who does not drive in Toronto. Athletes and entertainers with a day of appearances. Diplomats and trade delegations with a programme that is a suggestion. In each case the common thread is that the day cannot be booked as transfers because nobody knows what it will be, and that the person in the back seat's time is worth more than the car's.

The car for an as-directed day

The Mercedes S-Class is the default: the rear cabin is an office, the ride is quiet enough for a call on the Gardiner, the rear seats recline for the 6 am start after a red-eye, and the car at the curb says what it needs to about who is arriving. The Executive Sedan is the same service in a less conspicuous car, and some principals prefer it for exactly that reason. The Luxury SUV is the as-directed car for a principal travelling with security, with a family, or in a Toronto January when the roads argue for it. The Executive Sprinter is as-directed for a deal team or a delegation that moves as one, from five hours. The fleet page has the detail.

How the chauffeur works an as-directed day

Silently unless spoken to; the principal's call is not the chauffeur's conversation. With the assistant as the second point of contact, so a change of plan can be handled without interrupting the meeting. With a working knowledge of every tower's loading bay, every hotel's side entrance and every restaurant's actual pickup point - the Four Seasons on Yorkville Avenue, not Bay; the Shangri-La's on Adelaide; Alo's on Spadina at Queen. With the car kept at the right temperature, the water cold and the newspapers in the door. With discretion as the whole of the job description: what is said in the car is not repeated, and a chauffeur who has driven a principal for a week can tell you nothing about them except that they were polite.

Every chauffeur holds a City of Toronto vehicle-for-hire licence, an Ontario G with a clean abstract and a criminal record check, to the standards of the Limousine Association International. For principals with a security requirement the desk can coordinate with an executive-protection team, and the SUV is the car for it.

The airport within the day

An as-directed day often starts or ends at Pearson, and the engine takes the flight number on an hourly booking: the morning pickup follows the airline's live arrival time, and the evening drop-off is timed to the check-in window. Where the airport is the only thing the day contains, a flat-rate Pearson transfer is cheaper than three hourly hours and the desk will say so. Where the airport is one stop in a day of nine, it belongs in the block. The Billy Bishop page covers the island airport, which is a different animal - ten minutes from King West and a ferry or a tunnel.

The as-directed day out of the city

The principal who wants to see the Kitchener operation, the client in Oakville, the board member's house in King City, the supplier in Hamilton: all are as-directed stops on the same block, and the area pages give the local detail. A day that becomes Niagara or Muskoka at short notice is also possible - the chauffeur simply drives, and the block is billed as used - though a planned day trip books better as a full day with the destination in the notes so the right chauffeur is assigned.

On account, with the assistant in control

As-directed bookings are made on a corporate account by the executive assistant or the travel manager: the traveller's profile holds the preferred class, the hotel, the flight details and the notes; the hourly rate for the class is on file; the dispatcher's number is the assistant's number for the day; and the invoice lands monthly by traveller and cost centre. The assistant can extend the block, change the class or add a second car by text, and the confirmation is re-issued by email each time so there is a record. Ontario's HST is itemised per trip for the input tax credit. The executive car service page covers the transfer side of the same account.

What it costs, and the honest comparison

The class hourly rate for the date, times the hours, plus HST and gratuity; nothing else unless you choose the 407 or a venue charges for parking. The rates page explains the number and the comparison page prices the nine-stop executive day against nine app rides booked by an assistant with a screenshot for each. The as-directed day wins on cost by the fourth ride and on everything else by the first.

Loading bays, side doors and where the car actually waits

Part of what an executive is buying on an as-directed day is a chauffeur who never has to be told where to stop. First Canadian Place: the King Street loading bay, not the Bay Street plaza. Brookfield Place: Bay Street, north of the Hockey Hall of Fame entrance, with the flashers on. TD Centre: Wellington. Scotia Plaza: Adelaide. The Four Seasons: Yorkville Avenue, not Bay. The Hazelton: Hazelton Avenue. The Ritz-Carlton: Wellington. The Shangri-La: Adelaide. The St. Regis: Adelaide. Alo: Spadina at Queen, briefly. Canoe: Wellington, the car circling once if a police officer objects. The Metro Toronto Convention Centre: Front Street south building lay-by. The Toronto Club, the National Club, the York Club: each has its own door and its own rule, and the chauffeur knows it. None of this is on any map; all of it is why the day moves.

The three ways to direct the day

Speak to the chauffeur. Text the chauffeur - the number is on the confirmation and the plate text. Call the desk, which relays. The assistant usually uses the second and the principal the first, and the desk is the fallback for when both phones are in a meeting.

What is not as-directed

A stretch limousine is not booked as-directed; it is booked for an occasion with a plan. A Sprinter with a deal team is as-directed but from five hours. A single airport run is a transfer. A day whose every stop is known in advance is a full day with an itinerary in the notes - the same product, but the dispatcher can plan parking. As-directed is for the day nobody can plan, which in Toronto executive travel is most of them.

From our network: VWD article - duty of care in corporate travel · HotelsWorldwide.Directory - hotel and conference centres · LAI article - private chauffeur services · LimousineWorldwide.Directory - limo companies in Canada · BookingWorldwide.net - Toronto hotels, flights and activities.

Official sources for planning: Destination Toronto · Ontario 511 - road conditions.