A luxury chauffeur service is chauffeured transport in which the vehicle, the chauffeur and the service around them are specified to the highest standard available in a city and delivered consistently. At RideRutz.com that means a first-class sedan or SUV under five years old, black and unbranded; a chauffeur who has completed the company's training and protocol programme and signed its confidentiality undertaking; a fixed rate that includes everything but tolls and parking; and a coordinator and dispatcher who answer at any hour, in every one of the cities we work in.
The word, and what it usually hides
"Luxury" on a car-service website usually means a photograph of a Mercedes. The photograph is honest as far as it goes: the vehicle matters, and a first-class sedan with a reclining rear seat, privacy blinds and a silent cabin is a different experience from a business sedan. But the vehicle is a purchase, and any operator can make it. What cannot be bought is the chauffeur's conduct over a ten-hour day, the dispatcher's answer at three in the morning, the door that opens before the passenger reaches for it and the route that was checked that morning - and those are what a passenger remembers. RideRutz.com's definition of luxury is therefore a written standard, published on the chauffeur training and protocol page, applied to every engagement in every city, and the vehicle is one line of it.
The standard, line by line
| Element | The RideRutz.com specification |
|---|---|
| Vehicle | First-class sedan (S-Class, 7 Series, A8 L, LS or equivalent) or executive SUV; black; unbranded; under five years; detailed before every engagement |
| Cabin | Temperature set from the profile; water; the day's newspaper in the passenger's language; phone charging; Wi-Fi where the vehicle has it; blinds; no scent, no music unless asked |
| Chauffeur | Vetted; protocol-trained; dark suit, white shirt, plain tie; greets by name and title once; silent unless spoken to; no personal phone in the cabin |
| Arrival | Fifteen minutes early; engine off; at the rear door on the pavement side; umbrella to the door in rain |
| Route | Checked the morning of the engagement; changes announced before the passenger notices; no navigation screen in the passenger's line of sight |
| Waiting | Where the car can return in two minutes; the passenger has the chauffeur's number |
| Confidentiality | Signed undertaking covering everything seen and heard; survives the engagement |
| Rate | Fixed before confirmation; includes fuel, waiting, cleaning and gratuity; tolls and parking at cost |
| Desk | A coordinator for accounts and events; a dispatcher who answers at any hour and can reach the chauffeur |
Luxury by the hour and by the journey
Most luxury engagements are hourly: a day of meetings, a shopping afternoon, a wedding, an evening at the opera with dinner before and a bar after, a tour of a city with a chauffeur who knows it. The car stays with the passenger, the itinerary is decided in the cabin and the rate does not move when the plan does. The rest are transfers - an airport arrival, a journey between cities - at a fare fixed by address and class. Both are booked on the reservation engine in the first-class or executive SUV class, and the rates guide sets out what each costs in the cities where luxury service is most often booked. For a principal who travels with staff, luggage or a protection officer, the executive SUV delivers the same standard with six seats; for a family or a working party, the luxury van with lounge seating; the fleet page shows every class.
The passengers
The luxury service is booked by executives and their assistants for the days when the executive standard needs the first-class vehicle; by hosts for the guests the VIP service is built around; by publicists for talent; by missions for officials; by families for weddings, anniversaries and the visits of parents and in-laws; by travellers who want a city shown to them by someone who knows it; by hotels and concierges for their guests; and by people who have decided that for one evening the car should be the least of their concerns. In every case the same standard applies, because it is written down and because the chauffeurs who deliver it are the same chauffeurs.
Luxury in every city
The models within the first-class class follow the local market - Mercedes and BMW in Europe and the Gulf, Cadillac and Lincoln alongside them in North America, Lexus and Toyota in Japan, Genesis in Korea, Rolls-Royce and Bentley on request in the cities that have them - and the standard does not. A first-class sedan booked in Toronto and one booked in Tokyo are held to the same specification, and the chauffeurs to the same conduct, because the specification is applied by every affiliate in the LimousineWorldwide.Directory network as a condition of fulfilling RideRutz.com's bookings. The destinations page lists every city with rates on the engine; the global chauffeur service page describes how a passenger's profile and preferences travel from one city to the next.
Where luxury stops and protection begins
A luxury chauffeur is trained to make a day effortless, not to make it safe against a threat. For principals whose security adviser calls for more - defensive driving, route reconnaissance, a driver who works inside a protection detail, a protected vehicle - the security-trained chauffeur service adds the capability to the same first-class vehicle, and the chauffeur vs security driver guide explains where the line falls. The luxury service does not pretend to be the other thing.
What luxury does not include
Gratuity is in the rate, and chauffeurs do not accept it separately, so a passenger never has the awkwardness of the envelope. Small talk is not included unless the passenger starts it. Opinions on the city, the traffic and the news are not included at all. The chauffeur's phone is not in the cabin. Photographs are not taken and social media is not updated. Branding is not on the vehicle. The luxury of a RideRutz.com car is largely the absence of things, and the FAQ answers the questions passengers most often ask about what will and will not happen.
Hotels, concierges and travel advisers
Hotels, concierge services and travel advisers place their guests with RideRutz.com on an account, so that a guest's profile is held once, the standard is guaranteed in every city the guest visits, and the hotel or adviser is invoiced monthly for its guests' journeys. The travel desk works with advisers who want flights, hotels and the ground on one file. Travel advisers accredited by bodies such as the International Air Transport Association will find the account's reporting compatible with their own systems; the corporate account page describes it. The service's appearance and conduct standards follow those published by the Limousine Association International, to which RideRutz.com and its affiliates subscribe.
Booking a luxury chauffeur
On the reservation engine, choose the first-class sedan or executive SUV, hourly or point to point, and see the fixed rate before you confirm. For a visit, an evening with a protocol element or a multi-vehicle occasion, send the brief and a coordinator will plan it.
An evening in the first-class sedan
The car is at the residence at 18:45 for a 19:00 departure, engine off, the chauffeur at the rear door. Inside, the cabin is at the temperature on the profile, the blinds are half drawn, water is in the console and the evening's programme, sent by the host, is on the seat. The chauffeur confirms the opera house and the drive time - twenty-two minutes at this hour, checked that afternoon - and says nothing further. At the opera house the chauffeur has already agreed with the front-of-house where the car may stop, has the door open before the passenger reaches for it, and takes the car to a side street where it can return within two minutes of a message. At the interval the passenger messages; the car is at the door for a drive to a restaurant across the city, the chauffeur having confirmed the restaurant's entrance and that it will hold the table for a late arrival. At midnight the passenger messages again; the car is at the restaurant's door; the passenger is home at 00:40. The receipt shows five and three-quarter hours and one parking fee, and the passenger has not thought about a car all evening.
Luxury for the traveller who wants the city shown
Not every luxury engagement is business. A traveller with a day in a city they do not know books a first-class sedan by the hour with a chauffeur who knows it: not a guide, but someone who can drive the coast road at the right hour, knows which museum opens early, which restaurant will seat a walk-in at one and which viewpoint is worth the detour. The chauffeur speaks when asked and drives when not, and the day is decided in the cabin. Hotels and travel advisers book this for their guests as often as executives book the working version, and the travel desk arranges the rest of the stay where the guest wants one file. Families book it for a wedding weekend, the visit of parents, a graduation; the vehicle is detailed for the occasion and the chauffeur briefed on the timings and the names.
The difference a coordinator makes
For a single journey the reservation engine and dispatch are enough. For a visit, an evening with several venues, a family's weekend or anything with a protocol element, a coordinator holds the file: confirms every venue's entrance and contact, plans the timings, briefs the chauffeur with a diagram rather than an address and is reachable throughout. The coordinator is included on multi-vehicle programmes and available on single-vehicle ones at a fixed daily rate; the gala and event transportation page shows what a coordinator does on an evening with a red carpet, and the FAQ answers the questions guests ask before their first booking.
