What does a private chauffeur cost per hour, and when is it worth it?

Most chauffeur services do not put their rate on the website. I understand why — it invites comparison on a single number — but I find it irritating as a customer, so I do it the other way round. My hourly rate sits between € 45 and € 55, depending on the type of journey and how long it lasts. Below is where that figure comes from, and when it is wiser not to spend it.

What that rate is based on

I do not run a fleet. I drive your car, not mine. That removes the cost that weighs heaviest at a taxi firm or a limousine service: depreciation, insurance and vehicles standing idle. What you pay for is an hour of somebody driving, and nothing else. That is why it can sit lower on longer assignments than on a single evening run: the travel to you and the preparation weigh more heavily on a short job.

When a taxi is simply cheaper

One single journey from A to B, during the day, with no waiting, and you do not need your own car at the other end. Then a taxi or a ride service will almost always be better value, and I would tell you so. I am not a taxi and I am not trying to be one. Anyone going to the airport once and staying three weeks should not be hiring a chauffeur by the hour.

Where it tips

There are three situations where the sum falls the other way. The first is waiting: as soon as there is waiting in between — a two-hour meeting, a dinner, a visit — a ride service means paying for two journeys plus the uncertainty of whether anyone will be there afterwards. The second is several stops in one day. The third is that your own car has to come along, because things are in it or because it has to be back on your drive at the end of the day.

The sum with your own hour in it

This is the comparison that is rarely made. Say you have a day with three appointments across the country. Driving yourself costs you four hours behind the wheel in which you do nothing else. Being driven costs four hours at roughly fifty euros, so around two hundred euros, and leaves you four hours in which you can call, read or prepare. If your own hour is worth more than fifty euros, the sum works. If it is worth less, it does not — and then you should not do it.

What is not included

The hourly rate is the hourly rate. What comes on top is my travel to the pick-up address and back, where that falls outside the journey, charged through one for one on the basis of public transport or a taxi. Fuel, tolls and parking are your own car's costs, so they stay with you. I charge no surcharge for evenings, nights or weekends — if it has to happen outside office hours, it costs the same.

Multi-day or early starts

For longer or multi-day assignments I do not work with the hourly rate but with a price agreed for the job, because an eight-hour block is built differently from eight separate hours. The same goes for journeys that start before dawn or end deep in the night. You hear that figure in advance and it does not change along the way.

Why always the same driver

With a ride service you get somebody different every time and start again every time: explaining where you are going, how you like it, whether you want to talk or not. With me that is settled after two journeys. It sounds like a detail, but for most people who use this regularly it is the actual reason — not the price.

How to try it

One journey, no package, no subscription. If it suits you there are hour cards that work out cheaper per hour; if it does not, you have tried one evening and nothing more. That seems fairer to me than signing up in advance for a service you have never used.