Corporate holiday parties: getting 80 staff home safely across the GTA

The holiday party, in one paragraph

December is the black car trade's busiest month and the holiday party its busiest evening — a company's whole staff at one venue, an open bar, a dinner and a dance, and a midnight when two hundred people want to leave through one door onto a street where the apps surge and the taxis are gone. A company that plans the party's transport plans the evening's end as carefully as its beginning: the shuttles that bring the staff from the office, the executives' cars, the two-stage departure that the coordinator runs from the ballroom's door, and the safe ride home for every employee that the company's duty of care requires and its HR policy states. A chauffeur who works December knows the venues' doors and their side streets, the two waves' timing, the coordinator's manifest and the January bill. This guide covers the venues and their doors, the executives' cars, the shuttles, the two-stage departure, the safe ride, the coordinator's manifest, the client-appreciation version, the head-office loop, the weather, the December fleet's horizon, the January bill, and a worked party.

The venues and their doors

The Royal York's ballrooms (the Royal York article's York Street conference entrance for the guests, the porte-cochère left to the hotel), the King Edward's Crystal Ballroom (Leader Lane or Victoria — never King), the Distillery's Fermenting Cellar (the Distillery District guide's Mill Street gate for the shuttles and Cherry for the principals; the Christmas Market's weekend closures), the Liberty Grand (Exhibition Place — the Liberty Village guide's King and Strachan or the grounds' roads when open), a King West restaurant's buyout (the Entertainment District guide's side streets), the Steam Whistle roundhouse (the CN Tower loop article's Bremner curb), the Hockey Hall of Fame (Yonge and Front — the Brookfield Place entrance and Front's curb east of Yonge), Casa Loma (the Casa Loma article's Austin Terrace gate and the Walmer staging), the Aga Khan Museum (the ROM and AGO article's Wynford forecourt), and the 905's banquet halls (the cities pages — the Vaughan, Markham and Mississauga halls with their own lots). The venue's door decides the shuttles' drop and the coordinator's staging street.

The executives' cars

The executives — the CEO who speaks at 8, the board member who attends, the partner who hosts a table — arrive by sedan at the venue's door at 7 (the executive car service article's tower pickup to the venue) and leave when they leave — at 10 with the first wave or at midnight with the last — by a car the coordinator calls from the staging street; the Toronto luxury hotels guide's doors serve an out-of-town executive's hotel and the privacy and discretion article's standard the executive who leaves early and quietly.

The employees' shuttles

The staff come from the head office (a Sprinter loop from the tower's lay-by from 6 to 7:30 — the executive car service article's lay-bys and the employee shuttle vs black car article's arithmetic), from a suburban campus (a limo bus from Markham or Mississauga — the limo bus vs Sprinter article), or from a transit hub (Union's York Street curb — the Union Station pickup guide); the shuttles drop at the venue's guest door and stage on the coordinator's street, and the group transfers article covers the vehicles' capacity for a staff of two hundred (fourteen Sprinter loads, or seven limo bus loads, in waves).

The two-stage departure

The party's end is planned as two waves: the 10 p.m. wave — the early leavers, the parents, the commuters to the 905 — called by the coordinator from the ballroom's door to the shuttles staged on the side street (two Sprinters to the head office's lay-by or Union, one limo bus to the Markham campus, the executives' sedans), and the midnight wave — everyone else — with the shuttles back from the first wave and the remaining sedans staged, the coordinator calling each vehicle by name as its passengers assemble; between the waves the vehicles loop, and a third wave at 1 a.m. for the die-hards is a Sprinter on the hourly that waits. The Scotiabank Arena guide's named-corner logic runs the staging street and the conference transportation article's coordinator model the waves.

The safe ride home

The party's open bar makes the company's transport its duty of care — the duty of care article's employer obligation, the HR policy that says no employee drives home from the party, and the two waves' shuttles and sedans that take every employee to a transit hub, a head-office garage where a spouse collects them, or — for the employees the policy names or the ones who ask — their own door in the women travelling alone article's and the passenger safety article's standard. A company that budgets the door-to-door rides for its whole staff spends a fraction of the party's bar bill and answers the question no HR director wants asked on December 15th; the black car vs Uber Black article covers the surge the apps charge at midnight in December and the reason the company's cars are booked instead.

The coordinator's manifest

The party's coordinator — the office manager, the executive assistant, the events team — sends dispatch a week ahead: the venue and its door, the date and the times (the shuttles' start, the party's start, the two waves' hours), the headcount by origin (the head office, the campus, the transit hubs, the executives' homes and hotels), the vehicles (or dispatch's recommendation), the drop-off points for each wave (the head office, Union, the campus, the named neighbourhoods for the door-to-door rides), the executives' names and cars, the coordinator's mobile and a second contact, and the cost code; the executive assistants' guide covers the booker's system and dispatch calls the coordinator the day before. The corporate account billing article shows the party as a statement.

The client-appreciation dinner

A company's December client dinner — thirty clients at a King West restaurant's private room, the Ritz's ballroom, Canoe's private dining or the Distillery's Loft — is the party's smaller cousin with the visiting clients itinerary article's hospitality: the clients collected from their offices and hotels by sedan at 6:30, the venue's door, and the return at 10 in the sedans staged on the side street, coded to the client-entertainment budget; the fine dining article covers the rooms and the Leafs game article the client evening that a December box night makes instead.

The head-office loop

A downtown company's party at a downtown venue is a short loop — the tower's lay-by to the venue's door, ten minutes, a Sprinter making the run every fifteen minutes from 6 to 7:30 and the reverse in the two waves — and the hourly with the what is included in a fare article's inclusions is the booking; a suburban company's party downtown is a limo bus's forty-minute run each way, and a downtown company's party at a 905 hall (the Vaughan and Markham banquet halls that the South Asian weddings article knows) the reverse, with the 407 article's toll road at 7 p.m.

The weather

A December party is a winter evening — the season's first snow on a Thursday in the second week, a freezing rain on a Saturday, the winter driving article's plan for the shuttles' loop and the sedans' staging, the winter tires article's fleet rule, and a coordinator who is told at 4 p.m. that the storm will add twenty minutes to the Markham bus's run and moves the party's start by fifteen; the winter storm plan covers the evening when the airport closes and the out-of-town executive is stuck in the city for the party after all.

The December fleet's horizon

The fleet's December Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings are committed from the month's first week — the parties' blocks first, the Christmas Market and holiday events article's events next, the Pearson holiday travel peaks' airport runs throughout — and a company that books its party's transport in November has the fleet; one that calls on December 10th has the partner operators under our dispatch or an honest no. The how early to book article puts the party season at the top of the year's peaks with New Year's Eve (the New Year's Eve article) and the event limo page books the block.

The January bill

The party's statement arrives in January on the corporate account — the shuttles' hourly, the executives' sedans, the door-to-door rides by employee's neighbourhood (not by name, where the company prefers), the 407 at cost, the gratuity set at booking, the HST as its own line, one cost code — and the corporate account billing article shows the format and the expense reports article the input tax credit the finance team claims; a company's party is the corporate travel policy article's clause on event transport, written once and applied every December.

A worked party

A downtown firm of 180, the Royal York's Canadian Room, the second Thursday of December, the season's first snow. 5:45–7:15 p.m.: two Sprinters looping from the firm's Bay Street tower's lay-by to the Royal York's York Street entrance, six loads; a limo bus from the firm's Mississauga office at 5:30, at York Street at 6:40 (the snow's twenty minutes built in); the managing partner and the guest speaker by sedan at 6:50. 10:00: the first wave — a Sprinter to Union's York Street curb, a Sprinter to the tower's garage, the limo bus to Mississauga with forty aboard, the speaker to the Ritz. 10:15–11:45: the vehicles loop and stage on York and Piper. 12:00: the second wave — the Sprinters to Union and the tower, twelve sedans to the neighbourhoods on the coordinator's list (Leslieville, the Beaches, Forest Hill, Leaside, Etobicoke, two to Oakville), the managing partner last. 1:10 a.m.: the last door. Seventeen vehicles, one manifest, two waves, no one on the snow at midnight looking at a phone, and a January statement with one code.

Holiday party quick reference

Booking the party

The event limo page books the party's block; the corporate car service page opens the account; the coordinator's manifest to dispatch does the rest; the corporate travel policy article supplies the event-transport clause. Book in November.

Book the holiday party's transport