As-directed hire starts at four hours on most of the fleet, and six on the Rolls-Royce Phantom, the Cullinan, the Land Rover Defender 110 and the luxury Sprinter. A straightforward transfer from one address to another has no minimum, because it is priced against the route instead of the clock.
Category
Booking and pricing
Contact
+44 7775 554848 or info@firstclass-chauffeurs.co.uk
01/The short answer
As-directed hire starts at four hours on most of the fleet, and six on the Rolls-Royce Phantom, the Cullinan, the Land Rover Defender 110 and the luxury Sprinter. A straightforward transfer from one address to another has no minimum, because it is priced against the route instead of the clock.
That distinction is worth holding onto, because the minimum only exists in one of the two formats. People sometimes assume a short airport run will be charged as four hours. It will not. The block applies when you are buying a car's availability, not when you are buying a journey.
QA-01/Which vehicles carry which block
Which vehicles carry which block
The four hour block covers the E-Class, V-Class, S-Class, BMW i7, Range Rover Autobiography, Jet Class, Maybach S-Class and Rolls-Royce Ghost. Six hours applies to the Phantom, the Cullinan, the Defender 110 and the long-wheelbase Sprinter.
The reason is practical rather than commercial. The six hour cars are either specialist, in short supply, or need considerably longer to prepare and position. A Phantom does not get pulled out for ninety minutes and put back, and pricing it as though it could be would be dishonest.
Four hour minimum: E-Class, V-Class, S-Class and i7
Four hour minimum: Range Rover Autobiography and Jet Class
Four hour minimum: Maybach S-Class and Rolls-Royce Ghost
Six hour minimum: Defender 110
Six hour minimum: Phantom, Cullinan and luxury Sprinter
QA-02/When the minimum does not apply
When the minimum does not apply
Transfers are quoted as a route. Heathrow into central London, a station run, a drop at a restaurant and a later collection: none of these engage the block, however short they are. A twenty minute run costs what a twenty minute run costs.
This is why the first question when quoting is always about the shape of the day rather than its length. Two fixed points is a transfer. Anything with a maybe in it, an appointment that might run, a shopping route decided as you go, is as-directed, and the block appears.
QA-03/Getting value out of a four hour block
Getting value out of a four hour block
If you have booked four hours, use four hours. People routinely book a car for a two hour meeting, then discover on the day that having it for the afternoon changes what the afternoon can contain. A second meeting across town becomes possible; so does lunch that is not next to the office.
The other trick is to load the block rather than spread it. Four consecutive hours does far more work than four hours split across a morning and an evening, and it costs less, because the second half is not spent positioning a car back into town.
QA-04/What happens if you finish early
What happens if you finish early
You are held to the block you booked, and nothing more. Finishing after two and a half hours does not produce a refund, but it also does not produce a penalty, and the chauffeur will take you wherever you actually want to go with the time that is left rather than simply going home.
That is worth using. An early finish is a good moment for the awkward errand nobody wants to do on a Saturday, or the drop at a station that would otherwise have been a separate booking. The car is yours until the block ends.
Not as an as-directed booking, because the block starts at four. What you can do is book it as a transfer, which has no minimum and is almost always cheaper for a single short movement. Describe the journey rather than the duration and the right format follows.
Does the minimum block include the time getting to me?
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No. The block starts at your booked pickup time. The chauffeur will normally be in position several minutes before that, and on an airport or a difficult city start considerably earlier, but positioning time is never counted against your hours.
Can I split a four hour block across two days?
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The block is a single continuous period, so it cannot be halved across dates. Two short days are quoted as two bookings, and where that happens often, for instance a standing morning and evening pattern, an account with agreed rates works out considerably better.
Tell us the journey. We will send the price in writing.
Message us the date, the pick-up and where you are going. You will get a fixed written quotation with the vehicle, the chauffeur’s arrival time and what the figure includes — no form to fill in, and no estimate that moves later.
