Concerts, theatre and nights out - chauffeured, door to door

The problem with the end of the show

Twenty thousand people leave an arena at the same minute and open the same app. The fare triples, the nearest car is twenty minutes away, and the pickup zone is a scrum three blocks from the door. Every Canadian city has this problem - the Scotiabank Arena and the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Rogers Arena and BC Place in Vancouver, the Bell Centre in Montreal, the Saddledome and the new arena district in Calgary, Rogers Place in Edmonton, the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, the Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg - and the answer is the same: a chauffeur booked in advance at a fixed fare who is at an agreed point outside when the lights come up.

The same logic covers the theatre - the Royal Alexandra and the Princess of Wales in Toronto, the Stratford Festival, Place des Arts in Montreal, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, the Queen Elizabeth in Vancouver - the gala, the awards dinner, the restaurant that took three months to book, and the late bar afterwards.

How the booking works

Two ways. For a straight there-and-back - home to the arena, arena to home - book two transfers with the times; the fare for each is fixed by address and does not change when the show runs late, because the chauffeur watches the venue's schedule the way the airport chauffeur watches a flight. For an evening with more than two stops - dinner first, the show, drinks after - book an hourly chauffeur and the car is outside every door in turn with the waiting inside the time.

Tell us the venue and the event and the chauffeur will already know the pickup point that works: the arenas and theatres each have a spot where a pre-arranged car can wait legally, usually a side street or a hotel forecourt a minute's walk from the doors, and it is never the taxi scrum at the front. The text with the plate and the meeting point arrives before the encore.

Vehicles for the night

The Executive Sedan for two; the Premium Sedan for the anniversary dinner and the gala; the Luxury SUV for four to six; the stretch limousine when the night is itself the occasion - the birthday, the bachelorette, the concert the group has waited a year for; the Executive Sprinter for the office outing or the group of fourteen going to the game. The fleet page has the capacities. A stretch on a Saturday night in June should be booked weeks ahead; a sedan can usually be booked the same afternoon.

Concerts and festivals

The stadium shows - the Rogers Centre, BC Place, Commonwealth Stadium, the Bell Centre on a big night - end with road closures around the venue and the chauffeur's meeting point set back from them; we tell you the walk and it is shorter than the queue. Festivals are a different shape: Osheaga in Montreal on Île Sainte-Hélène, Bluesfest in Ottawa, the Calgary Folk Festival on Prince's Island, the Vancouver Folk Festival at Jericho, the Toronto Jazz Festival across the city. Each has a drop-off and pickup arrangement for pre-arranged cars and a time of night when the site empties at once; an hourly booking with a chauffeur who knows the site is the way to do a festival day.

Theatre and the arts calendar

The theatre crowd leaves more politely than the concert crowd but at the same moment. The Mirvish theatres on King Street in Toronto, the Four Seasons Centre for the opera and ballet, Roy Thomson Hall for the symphony; the Stratford and Shaw festivals an hour and a half from the city, which are city-to-city drives with the return built in; the Place des Arts complex in Montreal and the Grand Théâtre in Quebec City; the NAC in Ottawa; the Citadel in Edmonton; the Arts Club and the Orpheum in Vancouver; Neptune in Halifax. The chauffeur meets you at the doors or at the restaurant afterwards; the theatre's own website lists the running time and the chauffeur allows for the curtain call.

Galas, awards and the corporate evening

The black-tie dinner, the hospital foundation gala, the industry awards: a Premium Sedan to the door of the Fairmont Royal York or the Palais des congrès or the Hotel Vancouver, and a chauffeur outside at the agreed hour or on a text. For a company hosting a table, the corporate account puts every guest's car on one invoice and the meet-and-greet at the door on a standing default. TIFF in September turns Toronto's King Street into a fortnight of galas with road closures to match; a chauffeur who works the festival every year knows which doors are open on which nights.

The night that runs late

The show ends at eleven; the bar closes at two. An hourly booking runs as long as you like and the chauffeur has not had a drink. For a straight transfer home, book the time you expect and text the chauffeur if it moves; the waiting is charged at the class rate beyond the included fifteen minutes and it is still cheaper than the surged app. In smaller cities - Regina, Saskatoon, Kelowna, Victoria - the apps thin out after midnight and the pre-booked car is not a luxury; it is the only car.

Getting home safely

Every province runs a campaign about it and every police service sets up the checkpoint on the big nights. A chauffeured car is the simplest answer for a group: nobody drives, nobody argues about who drives, and the fare split between six is less than the parking would have been. MADD Canada publishes the provincial rules; we publish the fare in advance.

Venue by venue: where the car waits

Every arena has a pre-arranged-car answer and the chauffeurs know them. At the Scotiabank Arena the answer is the hotel forecourts and side streets north of Front Street, a five-minute walk, because Bremner Boulevard and the arena's own curb are closed after a game; at the Rogers Centre it is the Blue Jays Way side or the hotel on the Front Street side. At the Bell Centre it is the streets west of the arena rather than the René-Lévesque side. At Rogers Arena and BC Place it is the Georgia Street hotels rather than the Pacific Boulevard closures. At Rogers Place in Edmonton the Ice District hotels are the pickup; at the Saddledome the Stampede grounds' commercial entrance. At the Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata the pre-arranged lots are the only sensible pickup for anyone not parked, and the 417 back to Ottawa is slow for forty minutes afterwards. The venue's own website lists its accessible and pre-arranged pickup points - Scotiabank Arena's and Rogers Arena's are the two most people ask about - and the chauffeur's text names the spot.

The stretch limousine night

Some nights are the occasion in themselves and the stretch limousine is the point: the bachelorette, the thirtieth birthday, the group that has waited a year for the concert. Book it hourly, from the first pickup to the last drop, and the evening is priced as one fare. The stretch takes eight; the bar console and the ice are in the package; the music is yours by Bluetooth; alcohol is permitted where provincial law allows it in a licensed partitioned limousine and everyone is of age. The chauffeur drops at the venue's limousine curb - most arenas and the big theatres have one - and collects at the pre-arranged point after. The birthdays and anniversaries page covers the milestone version of the same evening.

Dinner first: the restaurants and the timing

The evening usually starts at a restaurant, and a chauffeur who knows the city's dinner geography saves the evening. In Toronto the King West and Ossington restaurants are ten minutes from the arena at 6 pm and twenty at 6:45; Yorkville and the Financial District are the other way. In Montreal, Old Montreal and the Plateau are on opposite sides of the Bell Centre and the Ville-Marie's closures decide which is quicker. In Vancouver, Gastown and Yaletown bracket Rogers Arena; in Calgary the 17th Avenue restaurants are a straight run to the Saddledome. The hourly chauffeur has the reservation time and the curtain time and plans the gap.

Late-night, and the cities where the apps run out

In the big cities the apps recover an hour after a show; in the smaller ones they never quite had the cars. A midnight pickup outside a downtown bar in Regina, Saskatoon, Kelowna, Victoria or London is a booking, not an app, and the pre-booked sedan is there at the agreed minute. For a group that does not want to fix the minute, the hourly booking keeps the car outside for as long as the night lasts.

Corporate nights and client entertainment

A company taking clients to the game, the concert or the theatre books it on the corporate account: a car per guest or a Sprinter for the table, the meet-and-greet at the hotel for guests from out of town, and every trip on the month's invoice with the cost centre attached. The host gets the chauffeur's text so the guests' cars can be summoned to the restaurant's door when the dinner ends, which is the small gesture that makes the evening feel arranged.

Booking the sedan for tonight

A Saturday-night sedan can usually be booked the same afternoon in the eighteen cities, and the engine shows the fixed fare to the venue in seconds; a stretch limousine or a Sprinter on a June Saturday cannot, and should be booked weeks ahead. Put the venue's name in the booking rather than its street address and the chauffeur's pickup point is set automatically. If the plan is dinner, the show and drinks, choose the hourly option; if it is there and back, two transfers. Either way the fare is known before you leave the house, which is the one thing the app cannot promise at eleven o'clock when the lights come up. For a group that wants the evening arranged rather than booked - the dinner reservation matched to the curtain, the after-show bar that will still seat twelve - the desk will build it by phone, and the chauffeur arrives with the plan already read.

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