Memberships and network: how the far end of the booking is vetted

Why a network

A chauffeur service is local by nature - the chauffeur's value is knowing the city - and a client's life is not: the Toronto executive is in Calgary for the Stampede and Vancouver for the Roundup, the Rosedale family is in Whistler in February and Halifax for a Dalhousie move-in, the corporate account has offices in Montreal and Ottawa and a supplier in Detroit. The desk's answer is not to pretend to be a national operator but to belong to a network that vets one in every city, book it on the client's account to the same standard, and stand behind the booking. This page explains the four memberships that make that possible, the partner that handles the rest of the trip, and the sister brands, and it is the page to read before a first booking in a city the desk's own fleet does not drive.

LimousineWorldwide.Directory

The LimousineWorldwide.Directory is the worldwide directory of limousine, black car and chauffeur operators, and the desk's listing in it is how a Toronto client who keeps a chauffeur by the hour here can do the same in Vancouver, Montreal, London or Dubai through a vetted operator: every Canadian city and every country on this site is served through that network. An operator listed in the directory has provided its licensing, its commercial insurance, its fleet and its references; the desk books the operator it has used before or the one the directory's Toronto members vouch for, confirms the vehicle class and the chauffeur's name the day before, sends the plate text at the meet, and takes the call if anything at the far end is not as booked. The directory's join page is where an operator applies; the vetting is the directory's and the desk's both.

Limousine Association International

Membership in the Limousine Association International commits the desk to the association's standards on the things a passenger cannot check from the back seat during a ten-hour day: the chauffeur's licence of the class the vehicle requires and a clean abstract, the commercial insurance on every vehicle at the limits the province requires and beyond, the vehicle's annual safety inspection and its condition on the day, the chauffeur's conduct - suited, on time, the phone silent, the passenger's business the passenger's - and the operator's handling of a complaint. The association's join page sets out the standards; the desk's own chauffeurs are held to them in Toronto and the network's operators are expected to meet them at the far end, and the about page describes what that looks like on the day.

HotelsWorldwide.Directory

We are a member of HotelsWorldwide.Directory, the worldwide directory of hotels and hospitality. The membership works in both directions. Hotel concierges and guest-services teams use the directory to find a vetted chauffeur for a guest arriving at Pearson, checking out to Billy Bishop or keeping a car for the day. And our clients use it to choose the hotel at the far end of the drive - a Yorkville suite before a gala, the airport strip before an early flight, a Niagara-on-the-Lake inn on a wine day, a lodge in Muskoka. The chauffeur's notes carry the hotel's car-entrance and porte-cochere detail, so the pickup is at the right door.

VacationsWorldwide.Directory

We are also a member of VacationsWorldwide.Directory, the directory of destinations, tours and holiday planning. Travellers planning a whole trip find our day trips there, alongside the tours, resorts and activities at each destination: Niagara Falls, Blue Mountain, Prince Edward County, Stratford and the drive to Montreal. The chauffeur is booked here; the flights, hotels and activities around it can go through the travel desk. Both memberships put the car, the bed and the itinerary on one plan.

BookingWorldwide.net

BookingWorldwide.net is the desk's partner for the rest of the trip - flights, hotels, resorts, activities, packages and car rental - and the travel desk page explains how a search on this site's widget completes on BookingWorldwide.net with its own confirmation and how the desk times the chauffeur to it. It is a partner, not a subsidiary: its prices, its terms and its customer service are its own, and the desk's part is the chauffeur and the plan.

How a far-end booking is vetted, step by step

What "the same standard" means, and what it does not

It means the minimums, the flat-rate promise, the waiting rules, the meet and the chauffeur's conduct travel with the booking, that the desk confirms them with the operator in writing, and that the desk answers for the booking. It does not mean the identical car - the network's operators run the same classes, and an "Executive Sedan" in Halifax is a different make from Toronto's, as the fleet page's "or similar" says - and it does not mean the identical hourly rate, which is the local operator's for the class and the date and is quoted by the desk before the client confirms. The rates page explains the Toronto number; the Canada pages say that the desk quotes each city's.

The sister brands

The desk is one of a family of chauffeured-transportation brands that share the standard and the network: eellee8.com, the Toronto limousine and chauffeur sister brand; Onroutz.com, private chauffeured transport booked worldwide; and the directory and association above. The HotelsWorldwide.Directory and the VacationsWorldwide.Directory are the travel desk's partner directories for the hotel and the destination at the far end. A client who reaches the desk through any of them gets the same desk.

Where the network reaches

Sixteen Canadian cities on their own pages - Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Halifax, Victoria, Kelowna, Quebec City, Saskatoon, Regina, Whistler, Banff, Surrey and London - and fifty-nine countries on the worldwide page, from the United States and Mexico to the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Gulf, India, Singapore, Japan and Australia, each through the directory's vetted operator in the city the client lands in. A city not on the list is a call to the desk; the directory usually has it.

What to expect at the far end, in one paragraph

The confirmation from the desk with the operator's name, the vehicle's class and plate and the chauffeur's name and phone, the day before; the plate text at the meet; a suited chauffeur at the arrivals exit or the hotel's porte-cochère with the name on the board; the same three-hour block, the same waiting, the same flat rate you confirmed; the desk's number on the confirmation for anything that is not as booked; and the hours on the monthly invoice with the Toronto ones. It is the Pearson page's meet reproduced at YVR, YUL, JFK or Heathrow, and the corporate page explains the account it runs on.

Booking through the network

A call or an email to the desk - (833) 931-6688, support@torontoblackcarservice.net - with the city, the flight, the hotel and the days, or the engine with the city as the pick-up; the desk confirms the operator and the chauffeur the day before. Two days ahead for a business day in a Canadian city; a week for a country the desk has not booked recently; the Stampede, the Grand Prix and Whistler's Christmas weeks ahead.

The standard, printed

The rules that travel with every booking - the three-hour minimum for a sedan or SUV and five for a Sprinter, the clock from the client's door, overtime to the next hour at the same rate, waiting included inside an hourly block, thirty and forty-five minutes' airport waiting on a transfer, the flat rate quoted before the client confirms - are printed on the Terms page and explained on the pillar page; the desk sends them to the far-end operator with every booking and the operator's written confirmation of them is the desk's file. A network booking that departs from them is the desk's to fix, and the contact page has the number that fixes it.

Operators: joining the network

A chauffeur operator in a city the network does not yet cover, or one that wants the Toronto desk's bookings in a city it does, applies to the directory at its join page and to the association at its own; the directory lists the operator's licensing, insurance, fleet and references, the association's standards are the ones the operator commits to, and the desk's first booking with a new operator is for a client the desk knows well, on a day the desk can watch. It is how every operator on the Canada pages was added, and how the desk's own Toronto chauffeurs are held to the same document: the standard is one, the geography is many, and the confirmation the client receives reads the same in Halifax as it does in Yorkville. An operator that fails a booking is not booked again; the directory is told why; and the client is not the one who finds out. The network's value is measured in the bookings that went as confirmed, and the desk keeps that number where it can see it, city by city, operator by operator, and reads it before every far-end booking it takes.

From our network: LAI article - private chauffeur services · LimousineWorldwide.Directory - Canada · HotelsWorldwide.Directory - Ontario · VWD - approved limousine affiliates in Toronto · BookingWorldwide.net - Toronto hotels, flights and activities.

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