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When you require a professional driver to transport you to a specific event, meeting or location, you’ll have lots of different types of services to choose from. For those seeking executive cars, you’ll be faced with two specific options:

  1. An executive chauffeured car service
  2. A black car service

And while you might think that both services offer the same facilities, there are some very specific differences between the two.

To help you better understand what they are, we’ve put together a quick guide to explain the differences between these two popular executive transportation services.

Executive Chauffeured Car Service

With an executive chauffeured car service company, all cars are owned by the providers and the drivers are employed as direct employees of that company. This ensures that the provider has direct control over the quality of each vehicle and the standard of services delivered.

An executive chauffeur car company will require their drivers to wear a specific uniform (normally a black suit with gloves and a hat), which represents their high quality reputation.

The fleet of vehicles that an executive chauffeur company operates will usually include relatively new and luxury vehicles. There is an onus on the provider to ensure that all of these vehicles are cleaned and maintained mechanically to ensure the utmost safety and comfort of travelling passengers.

Black Car Service

A black car service operates differently. Their drivers and vehicles are usually all sub-contracted so the company does not directly employ the drivers or own any of their fleet of vehicles.

The company will operate a phone line and direct any bookings to their subcontractors, usually offering each job to whoever bids the lowest rate. The background checks conducted for black car drivers are not as stringent as those conducted for executive chauffeurs.

Given that they are serving only to drive vehicles and are not hired as direct employees of the company, the checks that are conducted often relate to their driving history and nothing more.

While a black car company will require that drivers transport passengers in specific types of quality black vehicles, the onus is on the driver to keep his/her car clean and maintained mechanically.

For this reason, the standard and comfort of a passenger’s journey can vary from driver to driver when hiring a black car service.

Why Choose an Executive Chauffeured Car Service over a Black Car Service?

Many people choose to hire a black car service as they are fast, easy to book and relatively inexpensive. That said; it often results in having to compromise on a comfortable, reliable, and professional service.

As executive chauffeurs are direct employees, it is in their interest to ensure reliability and comfort and to go the extra mile to meet the requests of their clients.

For a quick and inexpensive option, a black car service is fine but for a truly personalised, safe, friendly and dependable service, an executive chauffeur is the only way to go.