Holiday and office party transportation across Canada

The December problem, and the company's duty

The office holiday party is the one night a year when a company invites its whole staff to drink together and then sends them home. The employer's duty of care does not end at the venue door - every provincial court has said so - and the practical answer is the one companies have used for decades: arrange the transport. A Sprinter or a coach from the office to the venue and a shuttle home at the end; sedans for the executives and the clients; a stretch limousine for the team that won the year's award. Booked as one plan, priced as one fare, invoiced once, and nobody in the company decides at midnight whether they are fit to drive.

We run holiday programmes in every city on this site through the last three weeks of November and all of December, and the vehicles for the busiest Fridays and Saturdays are booked by the end of October.

The shapes a holiday booking takes

The office to the venue and home. The most common: a Sprinter or a coach collects at the office at 6 pm, drops at the restaurant, the hotel ballroom or the venue, and runs a shuttle home from 10 pm until the room is empty - to a central point such as a transit station, or door to door for a smaller company. Priced as an hourly plan for the evening.

The multi-venue night. Dinner at one place, the party at another, a bar after: the Sprinter follows the group and waits, and the plan lists the addresses so the chauffeur is outside each door.

The client event. A company hosting clients at a gala or a dinner books a sedan per client or per couple, with the chauffeur's text so the host can call the cars to the door when the evening ends. On the corporate account, every trip is on the December invoice with the client's name.

The award. A stretch limousine for the team of the year, the office to the restaurant and home, the champagne where the province allows it. Small cost, large gesture.

The staff who do not drink. A sedan booked for an employee who is driving to the party and would rather not, or for the one who lives an hour out and has no way home at 1 am. The account books it; the employee thanks the company.

The family party. The same vehicles do the extended family's Christmas: the Sprinter that collects the grandparents, the cousins and the in-laws from four addresses and brings them to the dinner, and takes them home after, so nobody drives on the night and nobody argues about who does.

Vehicles for the season

The Executive Sprinter, fourteen seats, is the office-party vehicle: it fits a restaurant's forecourt, it has a proper luggage compartment for the coats and the gifts, and it runs the shuttle home on a loop. The mini coach for a company of a hundred. The stretch limousine for the award and the occasion. The Premium Sedan for the client and the executive. The Luxury SUV for a group of six with the ride height for a December night on unploughed streets. Every vehicle runs winter tyres, and the chauffeurs have been driving Canadian Decembers for years.

The safe ride home, in detail

The last movement of every holiday plan is the one that matters. We set the shuttle's first departure and its last with the organiser, print them on the invitation if the company likes, and run the loop until the last person is home - to a central drop such as a station or a car park, or door to door with the addresses collected in advance. The chauffeur will not leave a passenger who is unwell alone at a curb; the plan names the organiser's contact for the night. Provincial impaired-driving campaigns - MADD Canada's Project Red Ribbon runs through December - and every police service's holiday checkpoints make the same point the company's lawyer does.

Booking the December calendar

The busiest nights in every city are the Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays of the first three weeks of December, and the stretch limousines and Sprinters for those nights are gone by early November. The plan is booked with the venue: the date, the addresses, the numbers, the shape of the night, and the fare is confirmed in writing. A company running several events - the head office party, the regional dinners in three cities, the client gala - books them as one programme on the account and receives one invoice in January. The contact page is the place to start; the engine handles a single sedan or SUV for a smaller night.

Cities and their seasons

Toronto's parties fill the King West restaurants and the hotel ballrooms; the Distillery District's Christmas market adds an outing. Montreal's are in Old Montreal and the Plateau, with the Quartier des Spectacles' lights as the walk. Vancouver's downtown restaurants and the Canyon Lights at Capilano; Calgary and Edmonton at minus twenty with the warm Sprinter as the point; Ottawa's Parliament Hill lights; Winnipeg's Exchange District; Halifax's waterfront; Quebec City's German Christmas market and the Old City in snow, which is the most beautiful December drive in the country.

The rest of the year's parties

The same programme covers the summer party - the company picnic at a park, the boat cruise from the harbour, the golf day - and the milestone events: the retirement dinner, the anniversary of the company's founding, the product launch. The vehicles and the plan are the same; only the coats are different.

A company party, planned in one email

The organiser writes: eighty staff, the office on Bay Street, dinner at a King West restaurant on Friday the 12th at 7 pm, a bar afterwards on Ossington, home by 1 am, staff live across the GTA. The desk replies: two Executive Sprinters and a Luxury SUV at the office at 6:30; the restaurant drop at 6:50; the Sprinters wait and move the group to Ossington at 10; from 11 pm a shuttle loop from the bar to Union Station every twenty minutes until 1 am, with door-to-door for the fourteen who live beyond the transit lines listed in advance; one price, one invoice in January. The organiser forwards the plan to HR, and that is the transport done. The chauffeurs are told the night is a party and to expect singing.

The rules the chauffeurs work to

No alcohol in a Sprinter, coach, sedan or SUV in any province; the stretch limousine is the only vehicle where provincial law allows it, and only where the province permits it and everyone is of age. No smoking or vaping. A passenger who is unwell is not left at a curb; the chauffeur calls the organiser's contact and waits. A passenger who is abusive is not carried, and the organiser is told. Damage to a vehicle that takes it out of service is charged at cost. Every company's HR department has read these rules before and most print them on the invitation with the shuttle times; MADD Canada and the provincial impaired-driving pages say the rest.

Restaurants, venues and their curbs

Every restaurant district has a loading problem in December and the chauffeurs know the answers: the King West restaurants' side streets in Toronto, the Old Montreal cobbles where a Sprinter cannot turn and the drop is on the boulevard, the Gastown alleys in Vancouver, the 17th Avenue lanes in Calgary, the ByWard Market's one-way grid in Ottawa. The venue's own loading arrangement goes on the plan, and a hotel ballroom's forecourt is the easiest of all.

The client gala, on the account

A company hosting fifty clients at a gala books a car per couple from the clients' hotels and homes, with the host's mobile on every booking so the cars can be summoned to the venue's door when the evening ends, and every trip on the December invoice with the client's name. The meet-and-greet at the airport for the out-of-town client the afternoon before is on the same account; the airport transfer standard applies.

Winter driving, in one paragraph

December in Canada is the month the roads are worst and the parties are most. Every vehicle runs winter tyres, the chauffeurs have driven every December for years, dispatch reads the provincial 511 feeds through the evening, and a plan for a night with a storm warning starts the shuttle earlier and ends it later. A company that books the transport has done the one thing that makes the weather somebody else's problem.

The smaller company and the family

A company of twelve books a single Sprinter for the night on the engine; a family of eight books an SUV for the Christmas dinner with the grandparents collected first. Same standard, same chauffeur, same warm car at the door at the agreed minute.

Timing the night

The two decisions that make a holiday plan work are when the shuttle home starts and when it ends. Start it too late and the first leavers take a taxi and expense it; end it too early and the last leavers are stranded. The desk's rule of thumb, learned over many Decembers: first departure an hour after the meal ends, last departure half an hour after the venue's last call, and a loop every twenty minutes between. The organiser sets the venue's closing time; the plan does the rest, and a chauffeur who is asked at 12:50 whether there is one more run says yes.

Gifts, coats and the things people forget

A Sprinter has a luggage compartment and December parties fill it: the Secret Santa gifts, the coats nobody wants to carry into the bar, the cake. Tell the chauffeur what is in the back and it is looked after; anything left behind is held for thirty days and the organiser is told the next morning. Umbrellas, phone chargers and a lint roller are in every vehicle, because someone always needs them.

Booking a stretch for the December Saturday

The stretch limousine for the award-winning team, the office's own gala, or the family's Christmas Eve is the vehicle that runs out first in every city, and a Saturday in the first three weeks of December should be booked in October. A Sprinter or an SUV for the same night can usually be found into November; a sedan for a couple, the same week. The engine shows what is available; the desk finds what the engine cannot.

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