Markham from the driver's seat
Markham — north-east of Toronto across Steeles, from Thornhill's Yonge Street to the Rouge, with Unionville, Markham Centre, Milliken, Cornell and the 404 corridor between — is 35 to 55 minutes from Pearson, and the choice between the 407 across the top of the city and the 401 through it decides whether a peak-hour run takes 40 minutes or 90. Its black car trade is the airport, the 404's technology and head-office corridor, the Chinese community's banquet halls and weddings, Markham Stouffville Hospital and the downtown Toronto run.
Markham is where the 407 earns its toll. The city sits at the far end of the 401's worst stretch from Pearson — the entire width of North York and Scarborough — and the toll road across the top, from Highway 404 or Kennedy west to the 427, turns a 90-minute peak-hour airport run into 45. It is also a city with its own economy (the 404 corridor's technology companies, the head offices of the insurance and financial firms in Markham Centre, the Unionville and Main Street villages), its own communities (among the most Chinese cities outside Asia, with Cantonese and Mandarin spoken at home by a large share of residents, and South Asian, Persian and Korean communities beside them), and its own celebrations. This page covers the neighbourhoods and their pickups, the 407 decision in detail, the corporate corridor, the banquet halls, the hospital, the languages our chauffeurs speak, the downtown run, and a day worked through.
The neighbourhoods and their pickups
Markham Centre (Warden and Highway 7, the towers and the Pan Am Centre): the porte-cochères of the towers along Enterprise Boulevard and Birchmount, the Hilton Suites' lay-by, the Markham Civic Centre's loop, the Unionville GO. Unionville (Main Street's Victorian village, Toogood Pond, the estate streets): the village's restaurants with pickups on the side streets (Carlton, Fred Varley), the Varley Art Gallery's loop. Thornhill (Yonge and Bayview south of Highway 7, shared with Vaughan): the older streets, the Bayview and Leslie corridors' towers, the Thornhill Community Centre. Milliken and the south (Steeles to Highway 7, Kennedy to Markham Road): the plazas of the Chinese community — Pacific Mall, First Markham Place, Market Village's successor — and the subdivisions; pickups at the plazas' entrances and the door. Markham Village (Main Street North, the historic downtown): the village's shops with pickups on the side streets. Cornell and the east (Highway 7 east, the Markham Stouffville Hospital, the new subdivisions to the Rouge): the door. The 404 corridor (Highway 7 to Major Mackenzie, Woodbine to Warden): the office campuses' lay-bys. The Markham guide covers the 407 routes; the street notes are on dispatch's map.
The 407 decision, in detail
Markham to Pearson has two routes. The 401: south on the 404 or Kennedy to the 401, west through Scarborough and North York's collector-express system to the 427 and Dixon Road — 40 to 50 minutes overnight and midday, 70 to 95 at the peaks, and stopped dead by any collision in the express lanes. The 407: west from Highway 404, Kennedy or Warden along the toll road to the 427, south to the airport — 35 to 45 minutes at almost any hour, because the 407 rarely congests, at a distance-based toll that the engine shows before you approve it. Our practice for Markham: the 407 is offered on every airport booking as a line item, recommended at the peaks (6:30–9:30 a.m. westbound, 3:30–7:00 p.m. eastbound) and on any day the 401 is closed, and skipped overnight and midday when the 401 is fine. The 407 article explains the toll structure and the camera charge for vehicles without transponders (ours have them, so you pay the toll only); the Pearson to York Region guide works the decision hour by hour.
Corporate Markham: the 404 corridor
Highway 404 between Highway 7 and Major Mackenzie is one of the largest concentrations of technology and head-office employment in Canada — IBM's Canadian headquarters, the insurance and financial companies of Markham Centre, the pharmaceutical and electronics firms along Woodbine and Allstate Parkway, AMD, Lenovo, Honda Canada and dozens more — and their black car work is the Financial District's at a corridor's scale: the Pearson run (with the 407 approved on the account), client and executive pickups with meet and greet, hourly days for visiting teams, the Sprinter to a downtown client dinner, and the roadshow between a Markham campus and Bay Street. Corporate accounts hold the campus's lay-by and the 407 policy; the tech corridor article covers the King West–Waterloo axis that Markham's companies also travel, and the roadshow guide the investor days.
Weddings and the banquet halls
Markham's Chinese banquet halls — the grand rooms in the plazas along Highway 7, Kennedy and Woodbine, the halls of Markham Centre and the 404 corridor's hotels — host the region's Chinese weddings, with the tea ceremony in the morning between the families' homes and the banquet in the evening, and the halls of the Unionville and Markham Village churches, the Hindu and Sikh temples of the south and the estates of Unionville's and Cornell's countryside host the rest. The transport is the wedding page's with the city's specifics: a couple's car (often a premium sedan rather than a stretch for the tea ceremony's morning), Sprinters for the families between the homes and the hall, a stretch SUV for the party's afternoon, a bus for guests from the Markham Centre hotels, and the halls' plaza entrances on dispatch's map. Cantonese- and Mandarin-speaking chauffeurs are assigned to Markham weddings as a matter of course.
Markham Stouffville Hospital and healthcare
Markham Stouffville Hospital on Church Street at Highway 7 in the east is the city's hospital, with an entrance loop and the standing-order pattern for older residents' appointments; Mackenzie Health's Richmond Hill site is fifteen minutes west, North York General twenty minutes south, and the Toronto hospitals 40 to 60 minutes. The seniors' guide and the medical appointments article describe the weekly arrangements, which Markham's large communities of older Chinese residents use, with a Cantonese-speaking chauffeur the usual request.
Downtown Toronto for the evening
Markham to the Financial District is the 404 to the DVP and the Gardiner (35 to 50 minutes off-peak, 60 to 90 at the peaks — the DVP is the 401's equal for misery) or the 407 to the 400 and the Allen Road for Yorkville and midtown (40 to 55); a Leafs game, a Yorkville dinner or a Mirvish show is an hourly booking with the chauffeur waiting downtown and the arena or theatre guide's pickup. Markham's own evenings — Unionville's Main Street patios, the Highway 7 and Kennedy Chinese restaurants that draw the whole city, Markham Centre's rooms — are short hops with pickups on the side streets and at the plazas' entrances.
Languages and communities
Markham is among the most Chinese cities outside Asia — Cantonese and Mandarin at home for a large share of residents — with South Asian, Persian, Korean, Tamil and Filipino communities beside them, and our chauffeur team reflects it: a booking can request a Cantonese-, Mandarin-, Punjabi-, Hindi-, Farsi-, Korean-, Tamil- or Tagalog-speaking chauffeur, and for relatives arriving at Pearson from Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai or Taipei to visit family in Markham, meet and greet with a Cantonese- or Mandarin-speaking chauffeur and the 407 home is the booking we make most often for the city.
Richmond Hill, Stouffville and the neighbours
Richmond Hill is fifteen minutes west along Highway 7 or the 407 (the Richmond Hill guide), Stouffville and the countryside twenty minutes north up Highway 48, Scarborough fifteen minutes south down Kennedy or McCowan (the Scarborough guide), and Pickering twenty-five minutes east via the 407's extension. A Markham family's trip to a Richmond Hill dinner, a Stouffville wedding at a countryside estate or the Toronto Zoo at the Rouge is a short fixed fare.
A Markham day, in cars
5:30 a.m. — a Cantonese-speaking chauffeur in an SUV from a Milliken home to Terminal 3 via the 407 (approved at booking), thirty-eight minutes, a family bound for Hong Kong with eight bags. 8:00 — a 404 corridor executive to a Bay Street meeting via the 404 and DVP, waiting on an hourly clock. 11:00 — a Unionville couple's standing car to Markham Stouffville Hospital and the pharmacy. 2:00 p.m. — a Mandarin-speaking chauffeur meets a family at Door A with a name board and delivers them to a Cornell address via the 407 in forty-five minutes while the 401 eastbound is stopped at the 400. 4:00 — a premium sedan and a Sprinter begin a Chinese wedding's evening: the families from Thornhill homes to a Highway 7 banquet hall, the last drop at midnight. 6:30 — a Markham Centre couple to a Leafs game via the 404 and DVP, hourly, home at 11:15. Every trip a fixed fare, three via the 407.
Markham to everywhere
| From Markham Centre to | Route | Off-peak | Peak |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pearson | 407 west → 427 | 35–45 min | 40–55 (401: 70–95) |
| Financial District | 404 → DVP → Gardiner | 35–50 | 60–90 |
| Yorkville | 404 → 401 → Bayview, or 407 → 400 → Allen | 35–50 | 55–85 |
| Unionville | Highway 7 east | 5–10 | 8–15 |
| Richmond Hill | Highway 7 west or 407 | 12–20 | 20–35 |
| Scarborough Town Centre | Kennedy or McCowan south | 15–25 | 25–40 |
| Toronto Zoo | Steeles east → Meadowvale | 15–25 | 20–35 |
| Stouffville | Highway 48 north | 15–25 | 20–35 |
Booking a car in Markham
The engine prices any Markham address and shows the 407 option and its toll; the notes field takes the plaza, the campus or the hall and any language request. Corporate accounts set a 407 policy once; standing orders cover the weekly trips.
Pacific Mall, the plazas and the Chinese community's calendar
Markham's Chinese community's landmarks — Pacific Mall at Steeles and Kennedy, First Markham Place on Highway 7, the plazas of Kennedy, Woodbine and Highway 7 with their restaurants, supermarkets and banquet halls — draw visitors from the whole GTA, and their calendar — Chinese New Year's banquets and lion dances in late January or February, the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Taste of Asia festival on Kennedy Road in June, the night markets in summer — fills the plazas' lots and changes the pickups; dispatch has the dates and the chauffeur names the plaza entrance that is open. A dinner at a Highway 7 restaurant from downtown Toronto — the 404 up, forty minutes, a Cantonese-speaking chauffeur, the DVP home — is a Friday booking our Toronto regulars make.
Markham's students and Seneca
Seneca Polytechnic's Markham campus on Highway 7 at the 404 and the city's proximity to York University and the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus bring student traffic; a parent in Guangzhou or Shanghai booking a Pearson pickup for a child landing alone, with a Mandarin-speaking chauffeur holding the name board at Door A, the 407 home and a text at each step, is a booking we make from abroad for Markham every week of September; the unaccompanied minors guide describes the handover and the convocation article the June days.
Markham's countryside: Stouffville, the Rouge and the estates
North and east of Cornell the city is still countryside — the Rouge's headwaters, the Milne Dam conservation park, the Cedar Grove and Locust Hill villages, the estates and hobby farms along the 9th and 10th Lines, the wedding venues of the Markham and Stouffville countryside (the estate barns and the golf clubs' ballrooms) — and a black car booking there is a driveway pickup with a chauffeur who knows the concession roads and a stretch that photographs at a pond. The wedding page and the venue notes cover the estates; the Rouge's Toronto Zoo is fifteen minutes south for a family day.
Booking notes for Markham
Three small things. Approve the 407 on every airport booking; the engine shows the toll and the chauffeur uses it only when it helps. For the plazas and halls, name the entrance — the plazas have several and the banquet halls' porte-cochères are often at the back. And request the language at booking; Cantonese- and Mandarin-speaking chauffeurs take most of Markham's work and are assigned when asked.
