A private chauffeur service places a vetted professional driver - with one of our vehicles or with your own car - at your disposal for a defined period: a day, a week, a month or a season. You pay a fixed daily or weekly rate rather than per journey, the chauffeur works to your schedule, and the same person stays with you for the whole engagement. RutzLimo.com arranges private chauffeurs in 107 countries; book a day or request a longer engagement.
The difference between a private chauffeur and a car service
Most chauffeured transport is sold by the journey: this address to that address at this time, one fixed fare. It suits the airport run and the dinner reservation. It does not suit the day that has no fixed shape - the morning of meetings that might finish early or run late, the afternoon of viewing three properties, the evening that ends at a restaurant no one has chosen yet. For that day you do not want four separate cars; you want one chauffeur who waits, who knows where you have been and where you are going, and who has your bags in the boot.
A private chauffeur is that person. The engagement is by time, not by distance; the vehicle stays with you; and, on multi-day bookings, the chauffeur is the same each day, which is how they come to know that you like to leave for the airport earlier than the app suggests and that your daughter's car seat needs the top tether. On RutzLimo.com the private chauffeur is a class of reservation you can make on the engine for a day, and a service dispatch arranges by request for anything longer.
How the engagements are structured
| Engagement | Includes | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Day (8 hours) | Chauffeur and vehicle for 8 consecutive hours, 100 km / 60 mi of driving, all tolls and parking | A day of meetings, a family day out, a property tour |
| Half day (4 hours) | 4 consecutive hours, 50 km / 30 mi | A morning of appointments, a dinner and a show |
| Week (5 or 6 days) | Daily engagement each working day, one chauffeur throughout, weekly rate | A business visit, a film or fashion shoot, a conference |
| Month | 20 to 22 working days, one chauffeur, monthly rate, standing schedule | A relocation, a seasonal residence, an executive posting |
| Your car, our chauffeur | Chauffeur only, with the insurance arrangements set out below | Owners who want their own vehicle driven professionally |
Extra hours beyond the engagement are charged at the hourly rate shown on the hourly chauffeur service page; distance beyond the daily allowance is charged per kilometre or mile at the rate on the confirmation. Overnight stays away from the base city - a chauffeur who drives you from Milan to Lake Como and stays until the return - add the chauffeur's accommodation and meals at cost, agreed before the journey. The cost guide gives the daily benchmarks by region.
Choosing the vehicle
Because the chauffeur stays with you all day, the vehicle matters more than on a single transfer, and the choice is usually made by the shape of the day rather than by prestige alone.
An executive sedan is the right car for one or two people moving between offices in a dense city: easy to bring to a lobby door, easy to park, quick in traffic. A luxury sedan - S-Class, 7 Series - is the choice for a principal who will work or rest in the back for long stretches. An executive SUV is the family car and the winter car, with room for a pushchair, skis or a week's luggage, and the executive van with its facing seats is the vehicle for a small team that wants to hold a meeting between appointments. For a photo or film crew with equipment, the Sprinter with a chauffeur by the day is the standard arrangement.
Your car, our chauffeur
A growing share of private chauffeur requests are for a chauffeur to drive the client's own vehicle: a Bentley that lives in the garage in Monaco, a Range Rover at the country house, a family's own SUV during a stay abroad. We arrange this in most of the countries we serve, subject to two conditions. The vehicle must be insured for a named or any professional driver, which is usually a call to your insurer and a small additional premium, and the chauffeur must hold the licence category the vehicle requires in that country. Dispatch checks both before confirming, and the chauffeur is briefed on the vehicle before the first day.
Private chauffeurs for particular situations
Business visits. The most common engagement is a week for a visiting executive: airport arrival on Sunday evening, a chauffeur from Monday to Friday who learns the client's offices, the hotel and the two restaurants the executive likes, and the return transfer. On a corporate account the profile is held so the next visit begins where the last one ended.
Family holidays and multi-generational travel. A chauffeur with an SUV or a van for a family visiting a city or touring a region - the Amalfi coast, the Scottish Highlands, the wine country north of Cape Town - removes the hire car, the parking, the navigation and the argument about who drives after dinner. Child seats are fitted at no charge and stay in the car for the week.
Relocation and seasonal residence. Clients who spend a season in a second city - the Gulf in winter, Europe in summer - engage a chauffeur by the month rather than buying and registering a car, and keep the same chauffeur year after year.
Film, fashion and production. Directors, talent and producers on location are usually looked after by a private chauffeur for the length of the shoot, with the unit's Sprinters and coaches booked separately through the event transportation team.
Older travellers and medical visits. A private chauffeur for a parent attending a course of treatment in another city, who waits through each appointment and knows the clinic entrance, is one of the kindest things a family can arrange from a distance.
Diplomatic and delegation work. Delegations to summits and trade missions engage chauffeurs by the week, often alongside the global chauffeur service for the onward cities. Security coordination is described on the event and VIP page.
Who the chauffeurs are
Private chauffeurs are drawn from the most experienced tier of the operators in the LimousineWorldwide.Directory network, and are selected for a longer engagement on more than driving. They hold the professional licence their jurisdiction requires, they have passed a background check and a driving-record check, they speak English and the local language, and they have references from previous private engagements. Dispatch matches chauffeur to client on the shape of the engagement - a family wants a different temperament from a security-minded principal - and you can ask for a change at any point without explanation.
Working hours, rest and safety are governed by the rules of the country. Where a country's regulations limit driving hours - the European Union's rules for professional drivers, for example, published by the European Commission, or the equivalent provincial and state rules in Canada and the United States - a long day is served by two chauffeurs rather than one tired one, and we tell you when that applies.
Booking a private chauffeur
A single day with any vehicle class can be reserved on the engine on this page: enter the pickup address, choose the day rate for the class you want, and confirm. For a week, a month or a your-car engagement, use the contact page, call or WhatsApp us, and dispatch will confirm the chauffeur, the vehicle, the daily schedule and the total within one working day. Everything is fixed before you confirm and invoiced weekly or monthly on longer engagements; the cancellation terms for multi-day bookings are on the confirmation and in the terms.
What a private chauffeur does - and does not - do
A private chauffeur drives, waits, navigates, loads and unloads luggage, keeps the vehicle clean and fuelled, tracks flights and train times when your day includes them, holds a reserved table's confirmation number, and knows the entrance the concierge would have told you about. They will collect a dry-cleaning order or a pharmacy prescription while you are in a meeting if you ask. They do not act as a personal assistant, a security officer, a tour guide or a courier, and they do not carry passengers who are not on the reservation, because their insurance and their licence are specific to the engagement. If you need close protection, a guide or a runner, dispatch can arrange those through the network alongside the chauffeur; the event and VIP transportation page describes how the roles fit together on a larger move.
A week with a private chauffeur, as it usually runs
A typical five-day business engagement in Frankfurt begins with the airport arrival on Sunday evening in the same car and with the same chauffeur who will drive all week. Monday is offices in the city and a dinner in Sachsenhausen; the chauffeur waits at each, and the client's assistant in Chicago has the chauffeur's mobile number for changes. Tuesday is a day trip to a plant in Mannheim - the daily distance allowance is exceeded and the extra kilometres appear as a line on the weekly invoice at the rate on the confirmation. Wednesday the client flies to Munich for the day; the Frankfurt chauffeur does the airport both ends and a Munich chauffeur from the network does the middle, booked on the same reservation. Thursday is meetings; Friday the chauffeur takes the client and a colleague to the airport, and the colleague's onward transfer in Amsterdam is on the same account. One weekly invoice, in euros, with the client's cost centre on it.
Private chauffeur service for families and for older travellers
A family engagement is different in texture. The chauffeur meets the family at the airport with the child seats already fitted, drives them to the villa, and returns at the agreed hour each morning; the day is beaches, a market, a boat trip, a restaurant, with the car waiting at each and the wet towels in the boot. On the days the family does not need the car the engagement pauses, which is why weekly family engagements are often booked as five or six flexible days rather than seven consecutive ones. For an older traveller attending medical appointments in another city, the chauffeur knows the clinic entrance, waits through the appointment, and can be given a contact at home who is kept informed. Both are arranged through dispatch rather than the instant engine because the schedule needs a conversation.
Where the private chauffeur is available
The private chauffeur service is available in every country on the engine, with the your-car arrangement available wherever the insurance and licensing rules allow it. In cities with the largest network presence - New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Toronto, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Zurich, Dubai, Riyadh, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Sydney - a chauffeur for a week or a month can usually be confirmed within a working day; in smaller cities dispatch may need two or three days to match the right chauffeur, and will tell you when you ask. The airports page lists the gateways where the engagement usually begins, and the Global Business Travel Association publishes the duty-of-care guidance corporate clients ask us to apply to multi-day engagements.
Book a private chauffeur for the day - or ask about a week or a month
