Of course there is nothing wrong with either service and both chauffeur hiring services and full time employed chauffeurs have an equal number of positives and negatives, however, there are a number of things one should take into consideration prior to employing a full time driver/chauffeur.

Unlike chauffeur hiring services, you will have a full time employee who will work on average a 40 hour week, and just like any other employee they will require 28 days of holiday, sick pay and so on, certainly nothing wrong with that, it’s least to be expected. You will also need to buy the mode of transport, pay for the fuel, upkeep, maintenance, parking…, and if you live in the London area you will need to pay the daily congestion charge, and though you likely work 12 to 15+ hour days, have meetings to go to, children to drop off to school, and social events to attend in the evenings and over the weekends, you will need to figure out a timetable that works best for both you and you driver. Whereas a chauffeur hiring service will provide you with a full time driver(s), the mode of transportation as well as covering all of the costs associated with owning and driving a car, usually for a maximum of 10 hours a day, inevitable there are laws and rules in place to take into consideration that limit drivers of goods and passenger vehicles to a maximum of 10 hours per day for obvious reasons, you can find out more on ‘drivers’ hours’ on the UK Government website HERE, but as a chauffeur hire company usually has a fleet of luxury passenger vehicles and drivers, you could in effect have a car and driver at your beckon call 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year.

Now as there are so many layers and variables to this exercise of comparing a private chauffeur to a luxury chauffeur hiring service I have attempted to break everything down (the best I can) into three ‘manageable’ bitesize comparisons, followed by my overview/conclusion. We will take a look at the approximate costs involved for a like for like service, understandably, there are drivers with varying levels of experience and cars with varying purchase prices and maintenance costs all of which play their part in the overall costs and service, but either way we can still get a pretty accurate idea based on our knowledge of the average user, so without further ado.

If you are considering for example hiring a full time relatively experienced chauffeur and buying a lower tier luxury vehicle like the Mercedes E Class 400d you would expect to pay roughly the following for the first year:

Please Note: The prices below are based on the average prices at the time of writing.

Mercedes E Class: £63,000

Annual Fuel – 66L Tank: £1.80 x 66 = £118.80 per week x 52 weeks = £6,177.6 p/a

Car Insurance: approximately £800 p/a

London Congestion Charge: £15p/d x 365 = £5,475 p/a

Road TAX: £490 p/a

MOT: £55 p/a

Servicing / Cleaning / General Maintenance Not Covered By Warranty: approximately £1000 p/a

Parking: Approximately £6.60p/h average 2x per day £2,409 p/a

Drivers Salary: £50,000 p/a

Total: £129,406.60

Now lets compare the above to our Mercedes E Class chauffeur hire services (https://www.llccars.co.uk/luxury-vehicles/mercedes-e-class):

Our Mercedes E Class chauffeur service currently costs £300 for 10 hours.

On a 40 hour week contract over the course of 12 months it will cost £57,600 

That’s a saving of £71,806.60 for 40 hours a week for the first year, but inevitably I am calculating the value of the vehicle in this equation, so to make it a fair trial, we will take a look at the cost excluding the entire value of the car which totals: £66,406.60 and include the cars depreciation instead, on average and depending upon the vehicle given the current semiconductor crisis, a car will lose up to 60% of it’s value within the the first 3 years, based upon our Mercedes E Class that’s £37,800 ÷ 3 which equals to £12,600 p/a + £66,406.60 which is a total of £79,006.60, which is still an astonishing saving of £21,406.60 per year.

But here’s the thing, in all reality most of you won’t need a driver for 10 hours a day, usually no more than 5 hours or 6 at a push, so you likely won’t spend more than about £28,800 per year which brings the total annual savings up to £50,206.60, that’s a lot of spending money.

Using our last method of calculation let’s take a look at the savings that can be made hiring a chauffeur driven Range Rover Autobiography, extended wheelbase.

Private Chauffeur Cost:

Range Rover Autobiography – EW: £178,220 ÷ 60% = £106,932 or £35,644 p/a

Annual Fuel – 90L: 90 x £1.8 = £162 x 52 = £7,776 p/a

Car Insurance: approximately £2,000 p/a

London Congestion Charge: £15p/d x 365 = £5,475 p/a

Road TAX: £585 p/a

MOT: £55 p/a

Servicing / Cleaning / General Maintenance Not Covered By Warranty: approximately £2000 p/a

Parking: Approximately £6.60p/h average 2x per day £2,409 p/a

Experienced Drivers Salary: £70,000 p/a

Total: £125,944

Chauffeur Hire Cost:

Range Rover Autobiography – EW: £750 per 10 hours x 2 = £1,500

£1,500 x 4 weeks = £6,000 x 12 Months = £72,000

Well that’s a saving of £53,944!

And for our final comparison the Rolls-Royce Ghost

Private Chauffeur Cost:

Rolls-Royce Ghost: £303,700 ÷ 60% = £182,220 or £60,740 p/a

Annual Fuel – 83L: 83 x £1.8 = 149.9 x1.5 times per week = 224.85 = £10,792.8 p/a

Car Insurance: approximately £5,000 p/a

London Congestion Charge: £15p/d x 365 = £5,475 p/a

Road TAX: £490 p/a

MOT: £55 p/a

Servicing / Cleaning / General Maintenance Not Covered By Warranty: approximately £2000 p/a

Parking: Approximately £6.60p/h average 2x per day £2,409 p/a

Experienced Drivers Salary: £80,000 p/a

Total: £166,961.80

Chauffeur Hire Cost:

Rolls-Royce Ghost: £1,200 per 10 hours x 2 = £2,400

£2,400 x 4 weeks = £9,600 x 12 Months = £115,200

That’s a grand saving of £51,761.80

There are no two ways about it, it is far more cost effective utilising a chauffeur hire service than it is employing a private driver and buying a luxury car. With a chauffeur company there is more flexibility with the hours as there is usually more than just the one driver and car available, and utilising a service like ours, you can rest assure the vehicle will be maintained to the highest standards, not only do we clean our vehicles inside out, top to bottom on the daily and or before our next appointment, we are (and I hate to say it) picky as to who can ride in our vehicles, they are not a playground for a drunken stag party, for people example.

The additional benefits of a chauffeur hire service like ours is the different array of vehicles available to you, if you buy your own vehicle you are essentially stuck with that one vehicle to be chaperoned in, and if you have friends or family coming to stay or are planning a weekend break away in the country, a 5 or 7 seater isn’t necessarily going to be big enough for the family, extra guests and all the luggage. So, before you consider employing a driver full time why not talk to us to see what tailored service we can provide.

To find out more simply call us on 0208 004 1555 or email us at info@llccars.co.uk