Corporate accounts: hourly and transfer rates on file, one invoice

What a corporate account is

A corporate account turns chauffeured transportation from a series of purchases into a facility: the company's travellers have profiles, the company's rates are on file, the company's assistants and travel manager book without pricing each trip, a dispatcher watches every day's bookings, and the month is summarised on one invoice by traveller, cost centre and, where the company uses them, project or client codes, with HST itemised for the input tax credit. There is no fee, no minimum volume and no contract beyond the month; negotiated rates apply automatically from a volume threshold.

The account covers everything on this site: the hourly product in all twelve of its shapes, the flat-rate Pearson and Billy Bishop transfers, the city-to-city drive, the Sprinter for the offsite, the event night, and the same standard in sixteen Canadian cities and fifty-nine countries. The executive car service page describes the service the account buys; this page describes the account.

How the account is set up

An email to the desk with the company name, the billing contact and address, the first traveller's profile and, if the company uses them, the cost-centre or project codes. The account is open the same business day with a confirmation setting out the rates on file for each vehicle class - hourly and transfer - the invoicing terms and the dispatcher's number. Further profiles are added by the assistant by email at any time. A purchase order number can be held on the account for companies that require one. The first booking can be that afternoon.

Traveller profiles

Each profile holds the traveller's name and mobile, preferred vehicle class, home and office addresses, usual hotel, airline and frequent-flyer details for tracking, and notes - a child seat, a language, "prefers silence", "always Terminal 3". A booking references the profile and the rest fills in. The traveller receives the plate text before every pickup and the receipt after every trip; the assistant receives the confirmation and the changes. Profiles can be marked for a security protocol, and the as-directed page explains what that means in the car.

Rates on file

The account confirmation sets out the hourly rate for each class - Executive Sedan, Mercedes S-Class, Luxury SUV, Executive Sprinter, stretch - with the minimums (three hours for the first three and the stretch, five for the Sprinter), and the flat transfer fares for the company's usual runs: the office to Pearson Terminal 1 and 3, the office to Billy Bishop, the office to the usual hotels, the Convention Centre. Peak-date layers - TIFF week, playoff nights, New Year's Eve - are stated on the account so there are no surprises; the rates page explains what moves the hourly number. From a volume threshold the rates are negotiated once and applied automatically to every booking.

Booking on account

By the reservation engine on any page, with the account selected; by email to the desk with the traveller's name and the details; or by phone, 24 hours. Confirmations go to the assistant and the traveller by email. Changes - a later flight, an extended block, a second car, a different class - go to the dispatcher by text or phone and are made without re-quoting, with the confirmation re-issued so there is a record. Same-day bookings are routine for sedans in the city; the desk will say honestly when a Sprinter or an S-Class on a peak date needs notice.

The dispatcher

Every account has a dispatcher's direct number for the day. The dispatcher has the day's bookings, watches the flights, positions the cars for a roadshow, re-plans when a meeting overruns, and calls the assistant before the assistant has to call the desk. For a large day - a board meeting with twelve directors from six hotels, an analyst day with Sprinters - the dispatcher builds a running order from the company's programme and returns it the evening before.

The invoice

Monthly, by email, in PDF and in a spreadsheet: every trip by date, traveller, cost centre or code, pickup and drop-off or hours used, class, rate, HST, gratuity, tolls or parking if any, and total, with a summary by cost centre. Receipts per trip are attached or available on request. Payment by card on file, by pre-authorised debit or on thirty-day terms for approved accounts. The format can be matched to the company's expense system, and the desk has done so for the usual ones. A company that expenses ground transportation by project gets the project code on every line.

Travel policy and duty of care

Most Toronto companies write chauffeured ground transportation into the travel policy for principals, client-facing travel, early and late airport runs, and any trip where safety or time justifies it. An account with rates on file makes the policy enforceable and its compliance visible by cost centre. On duty of care: a named, licensed chauffeur in a commercially insured, City-plated car; a dispatcher who knows where every car is; a contract for the 5 am pickup; and the Limousine Association International's conduct standard. The Global Business Travel Association's guidance on ground-transportation duty of care is what most policies now follow, and the account is built to satisfy it.

The account across Canada and worldwide

The same profiles, rates structure and invoice cover the traveller in Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton and eleven more cities through operators vetted by the LimousineWorldwide.Directory network, and in fifty-nine countries through the same network - one desk, one standard, one invoice, with local rates on file per city. A multi-city roadshow or a national executive tour is one booking. The Canada hub explains how the standard travels.

Who has an account

Banks and their investment-banking divisions for roadshows and client days. Law firms for trial weeks and client hosting. Accounting and consulting firms for partners' travel. Tech companies in Markham, Mississauga and Liberty Village for visiting executives and candidates. Pharma and manufacturing in Mississauga, Oakville and Whitby-Oshawa for plant visits. Hotels for guests. Film productions for the call sheet. Universities and hospitals for visiting faculty and donors. Sports teams and their sponsors for game nights. Family offices for principals. Embassies and trade delegations. Any company whose people move around Toronto often enough that pricing each trip is a waste of an assistant's morning.

Account terms in one table

Small companies and sole practitioners

An account is not only for the bank. A two-partner law practice, a consultant, a physician, a realtor's team or a family office with one principal gets the same profile, rates on file and monthly invoice, and the same dispatcher. The threshold for negotiated rates is a volume; the account itself has none.

Opening the account today

Email the desk with the company name, the billing contact and the first traveller. The confirmation with rates on file follows the same business day; the first booking can be that afternoon. The contact page has the address; the FAQ has the questions companies ask first.

A month on a mid-sized account

Forty-two Pearson transfers, eleven Billy Bishop runs, six hourly executive days in the S-Class, two roadshow days with a Sprinter, a board dinner with eight hotel pickups, a client's Niagara day, and a Sprinter to a Vaughan offsite. Sixty-nine lines on the invoice, summarised under four cost centres, HST itemised, every line matching a confirmation, receipts attached. Reconciled by the finance team in twenty minutes. Two changes during the month - a later flight, an extended block - made by text and re-confirmed by email. One call to the desk, about a purchase-order number. That is what a working account looks like, and it is the executive car service product in its natural habitat.

Onboarding the travel manager

The desk walks the travel manager through the account once: the profiles, the rates on file, the engine with the account selected, the dispatcher's number, the invoice format. A short document sets it out for the assistants. Most companies are booking within the hour; the first month's invoice is reviewed together so the format matches the expense system before it becomes routine.

Data and privacy

Profiles hold what the booking needs and nothing else; travel patterns are visible to the company's own travel manager and to the desk, and to nobody else. Personal information is handled under Canada's PIPEDA and the privacy policy sets out the detail. A company can ask for its data to be exported or deleted at any time.

Closing or pausing an account

An account with no bookings costs nothing and can sit idle for a year. Closing it is an email; the last invoice follows and the profiles are deleted on request. Most accounts that go quiet do so because a company's travel paused, and they resume with the next booking without any re-setup.

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.