What is included in a Toronto limo fare — tolls, gratuity, wait time and fees

The list, in one paragraph

Receipts surprise people when the fare they were quoted turns out to have been a headline — a base rate that grew a fuel surcharge, an airport fee, an automatic gratuity, a toll nobody mentioned and the tax, and doubled between the website and the curb. The cure is a complete list, and this article is ours: every item the fare covers, described so there is no ambiguity about what "included" means; every item it does not, with how and when it is charged; the things that are sometimes included and sometimes not (the same chauffeur for a return trip, a specific vehicle, a language); and the corporate account's version, where several of the excluded items become included by the account's terms. It applies to point-to-point fares and hourly rates alike, with the differences noted.

Included: the chauffeur

A chauffeur who holds a City of Toronto vehicle-for-hire driver's licence and, for airport work, a GTAA permit; who has passed the background check, the driving-record review and the training the how chauffeurs are vetted article describes; who is in a suit or the fleet's uniform; who is named on your confirmation with a mobile number; who texts from the curb, opens the door, loads the bags, knows the route and the alternatives, drives the way the chauffeur vs driver article describes, and says goodbye at the door. The chauffeur's time — including the drive to the pickup and the return — is in the fare.

Included: the vehicle, in the class booked

The class you booked — executive sedan, premium sedan, luxury SUV, Sprinter — or a higher one at no extra charge if the class is unavailable (the upgrade is ours to absorb, never the passenger's to pay). A specific model within the class (an Escalade rather than a Navigator) can be requested and is honoured when the roster allows but is not guaranteed; the fleet page shows the classes. The vehicle is late-model, cleaned between trips to the standard the vehicle cleaning article describes, on winter tires from November to April, and maintained as the fleet maintenance article describes.

Included: fuel, the route and standard tolls

Fuel, whatever the price that month. The route by whatever road is fastest, including any detour around a closure — a chauffeur who takes the Lake Shore because the Gardiner is shut does not bill the difference. Standard tolls, of which the GTA has almost none besides the 407 (the airport's roads are free; the bridges are free). The 407 is the exception below.

Included: the waiting allowances

Fifteen minutes at a city pickup from the scheduled time — a hotel, an office, a home. Thirty minutes after a domestic flight's actual arrival and sixty after an international or transborder one, at any airport we serve, running from the airport's recorded arrival time; the flight delays article explains how tracking moves the pickup with the flight so that a delay costs nothing. For hourly bookings, waiting is simply time on the clock.

Included: flight tracking

Every airport booking with a flight number is tracked from departure; the pickup moves with the flight's estimated arrival automatically; dispatch texts on cancellations and diversions. No call from the passenger is needed. The flight delays article has the detail.

Included: child seats, luggage and the amenities

Child seats — infant, convertible and booster — installed before pickup when requested at booking with the child's age and weight; the child seats article covers Ontario's law and the fleet's seats. Luggage loading and unloading at both ends, carried to the door at a house and to a cart at the airport. Bottled water in the door, phone chargers (USB-C, Lightning and USB-A), Wi-Fi in the vehicles fitted with it, tissues, a first-aid kit, an umbrella, the climate and the music set to your preference, satellite radio; the in-car amenities article lists them and what can be requested.

Included: the paperwork

The booking confirmation by email with the fare, the HST and the line items; the chauffeur's text the evening before with the name, mobile and plate; the text from the curb; the receipt after the trip with every line itemised; for corporate accounts, the monthly statement that the corporate account billing article describes and the expense reports article explains how to use.

Excluded: the 407 ETR toll

Highway 407 is a privately operated toll road and its per-kilometre charge is the one road cost we pass through: offered as a line item on any booking where it could help (north of the 401, east of the DVP, west of the 427 at the peaks), with the estimated amount shown; approved or declined by you at booking; charged at cost only if the chauffeur actually uses the road; itemised on the receipt. The 407 article has the rates and the decision.

Excluded: waiting beyond the allowance

When the customs hall takes ninety minutes or a passenger is forty minutes late to a hotel pickup, waiting beyond the included allowance is charged in 15-minute increments at a quarter of the vehicle class's hourly rate, rounded to the quarter hour, itemised on the receipt and never mentioned at the curb. It exists because the chauffeur and vehicle are committed to you and not to the next booking; the flight delays article explains.

Excluded: meet and greet, extra stops, gratuity

Meet and greet — the chauffeur inside the arrivals hall with a name board — is a flat add-on covering the parking and the time inside; the meet and greet article explains. An extra stop on a point-to-point transfer is a stated fee, agreed at booking or by text; stops on an hourly booking are simply time. Gratuity is at your discretion — 15 to 20 per cent is the custom, added on the card, in cash or as a set percentage on a corporate account — and is never added automatically or solicited; the gratuity guide covers it.

Excluded: HST, shown separately

Ontario's 13 per cent Harmonized Sales Tax applies to the fare and the add-ons and is shown as its own line on the quote and the receipt; it is never hidden in the fare and never omitted from the quote. A company recovers it as an input tax credit with the receipt.

Not charged, ever

There is no fuel surcharge, no airport fee, no late-night or early-morning fee, no holiday fee, no weekend fee, no booking fee, no credit card fee, no "administrative" fee, no surge, no charge for a detour, no charge for an upgrade we make, no charge for a cancelled flight, no charge for a child seat, no charge for luggage, no charge for a name request that we can honour. The cheap limo service article lists these as the fees other headlines grow at the curb.

Sometimes included: the requests

The same chauffeur for a return trip or a regular booking: honoured when the roster allows, promised on a standing order and an hourly booking, not guaranteed on separate point-to-point trips. A specific vehicle: requested and honoured when available. A language: a chauffeur who speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Farsi, Russian, Hebrew, Tagalog, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French or another of the team's languages, assigned when asked and available, at no charge. A newspaper, a particular water, a temperature: noted on the account and honoured. None of these costs anything; some cannot always be promised.

The corporate account's version

A corporate account can write several of the excluded items into its terms so that its passengers see nothing at the curb: a set gratuity on every trip; the 407 approved as policy for the account's addresses; meet and greet standard for client pickups; a preferred chauffeur roster; and monthly invoicing with HST itemised for recovery. The corporate travel policy article covers what a policy should specify and the executive assistants' guide how the account's bookers use it.

Inclusions quick reference

The quote with everything on it

The engine shows the fare, the HST, the 407 line item where applicable and the add-ons you select, before you commit; the receipt shows the same lines plus what actually happened. The fares page has the principle and the flat rate article the airport version.

Long-distance and multi-day: the inclusions that change

For a long-distance fare — Niagara, Kingston, Muskoka, Buffalo — the inclusions are the same with two additions: a stated border-wait allowance on a cross-border run (the Buffalo article explains) and, where the car waits and returns, the waiting at the destination for the stated duration. For a multi-day chauffeur hire the daily rate includes the chauffeur's day and the vehicle; the chauffeur's accommodation away from Toronto is a stated line. The long distance vs flying article works the structure.

Occasions: what the stretch fare includes

A stretch limousine's hourly rate includes the chauffeur, the vehicle prepared for the occasion, the bar stocked with ice, glassware and soft drinks (alcohol is the passengers' own, permitted in a stretch's separate compartment), the red carpet where asked, and the decorations a wedding requests within reason; the stretch limousine guide and the wedding limo guide list the details, and a deposit applies to occasion bookings as the deposits article explains.

Booking notes on inclusions

Three small things. Request the child seats, the language and the meet and greet at booking — the first two are free and the third is a stated add-on, and none can be added at the curb. Approve the 407 as a contingency where the engine offers it. And read the receipt's lines; every one of them was on the quote or agreed by text, and if one was not, tell dispatch the same day.

A worked receipt: everything on one page

A Sprinter from Brampton to Terminal 3 at 4 a.m. for a family of six with three child seats: the receipt shows the Sprinter fare for the distance zone; HST at 13 per cent; nothing for the seats; nothing for the luggage; no 407 (the 410 and 401 were empty); no waiting (the family was at the door); a gratuity the father added on the card. The return ten days later at 11 p.m. with meet and greet: the fare; HST; the meet and greet add-on; fifteen minutes of waiting (customs with six passengers took seventy-five minutes against the sixty included — one increment); a 407 line (the 401 had an overnight closure at the 404 and the chauffeur took the 407 to the 410, approved at booking). Two receipts, every line explained by a sentence on this page.

See a fully itemised quote