The difference between waiting and being ready

The whole point of a held car is the moment it is wanted, and that moment has a standard attached to it. Anything that requires the passenger to explain where they are, wait while a vehicle is retrieved, or stand outside a building for more than a few seconds has failed the standard regardless of how the rest of the day went.

A single message, or a call, and the car is at the door in the time it takes to walk out. That is the contract. Anything that requires the client to explain where they are or to wait while a car is retrieved from somewhere distant has failed it.

Which is why the parking decision at the start of a wait is the whole of the wait, really.

There is a conclusion to draw here that does not flatter anybody, and it is the honest one.

A good deal of this trade is sitting still, and the people who are best at it treat that as the job rather than as the gap between jobs. It is also why fatigue management matters: a chauffeur who has been ready for nine hours is more tired than the mileage suggests.

A booking for three hours that becomes five is an ordinary occurrence and it has to be handled without a conversation at the moment it happens. The client is in a meeting that has overrun and is not in a position to renegotiate anything, which means the terms for it should already exist.

A written quotation that sets out how additional hours are handled removes the whole problem, and it is the reason hourly work is quoted the way it is.