Hourly charter

An hourly charter is a vehicle and chauffeur booked by the clock rather than the route, and nearly every operator sets a minimum, commonly 2 to 3 hours for a sedan or SUV, 4 or more for a stretch, sprinter or coach. The customer buys the vehicle's time; where it goes inside that time is up to them.

Hourly is the model for evenings out, road shows, weddings, site tours and any day with more than two or three stops. The operator is protected from an unpredictable route, and the customer is protected from a per-stop bill. The rate is per hour per vehicle class, and the minimum is what keeps a three-hour booking from turning into a chauffeur paid for an hour.

The arguments on hourly work are about the clock: when it starts, when it stops, and whether garage time counts. Many operators bill garage to garage; others bill from POB to drop and build the travel into the rate. The common mistake is leaving that rule off the quote and discovering the customer assumed the other one.

How liverybook handles it

Hourly charter is a service type in the tenant's configurable lookup tables, and the hourly base rate is set per vehicle class on the rate list, with rate groups applying seasonal schedules by month. The POB and drop transitions on the leg are in the event log, so the billed hours have timestamps behind them. Gratuity, tolls, parking, wait time charge and extras are added to the leg total before the invoice line is built. See bookings.

Related terms

• As directed
• Garage time
• Point-to-point
• Motorcoach