Chauffeur price list template: how to build your rate grid

A price list is what lets anyone in your office give the same quote twice. Without one, prices live in the owner’s head, the phone answer depends on who picks up and an old quote cannot be explained. This guide shows how to build a chauffeur rate grid, table by table, and gives you a template to fill in.

How should a chauffeur price list be structured?

Build it as one main grid of vehicle classes against service types, then add short tables for fixed routes, surcharges, extras, and waiting and cancellation. That keeps each decision in one place. When fuel costs rise, you change the grid; when the airport raises its parking fee, you change one line in the surcharges table.

What goes in the main rate grid?

The main grid has one row per vehicle class and one column per service type. A typical layout, with illustrative numbers in a neutral currency unit:

Vehicle class	Transfer: base fare	Transfer: distance rate	Minimum fare	Hourly (min. 3 hours)	Day hire
Saloon, up to 3 passengers	25	1.20	35	40	280
Executive, up to 3 passengers	35	1.60	50	55	380
People carrier, up to 7 passengers	40	1.80	55	60	420
Minibus, up to 16 passengers	60	2.40	80	80	560

The figures are examples only. Work out your own from what each class costs to run; our guide on how to calculate a chauffeur fare shows the method.

• Base fare covers getting the car to the pickup and the start of the journey. You can include some distance in it.
• Distance rate is the price per unit of distance after that.
• Minimum fare makes sure the shortest trips still pay.
• Hourly is for bookings where the customer keeps the car, with a minimum number of hours.
• Day hire is a fixed price for a full day.

Describe each class by what fits in it. Customers choose by passengers and bags.

How do you set up fixed routes?

List the journeys you run most often as fixed prices between named zones, one row per route and one price per vehicle class. Airports, the city centre, main hotel areas and nearby towns are the usual zones.

From	To	Direction	Saloon	Executive	People carrier
Airport	City centre	Both ways	55	70	80
Airport	Business district	Both ways	50	65	75
Station	Airport	One way	45	60	70

Fixed routes are the prices customers compare most, so make them easy to find and easy to quote. For airport pricing in detail, read how to price airport transfers.

Which surcharges belong in the table?

Only those that reflect a real extra cost: night hours, peak dates, last-minute bookings and airport fees. Give each one a name, when it applies and whether it is a percentage or a fixed amount.

Surcharge	When it applies	Amount
Night	22:00 to 06:00	20% of the base fare
Holiday	Public holidays and listed dates	25% of the base fare
Last minute	Booked less than 3 hours before pickup	10% of the base fare
Airport fee	Pickup or drop-off at the airport	6

Write down the rule that percentages apply to the base fare only. Otherwise a night pickup on a holiday, booked late, multiplies three times and nobody can explain the total.

How should extras be priced?

Price extras by how they cost you: per booking, per item or per hour.

Extra	Charged	Example price
Meet and greet in arrivals	Per booking	10
Child seat or booster	Per seat	5
Extra stop on the way	Per stop	8
Extra hour beyond a booked hourly hire	Per hour	The class’s hourly rate

Where do waiting and cancellation rules go?

Put them in the last table of the price list and in your terms, in the same words. Cover the free waiting period at addresses and at airports, what you charge for extra waiting and in what blocks, when a wait becomes a no-show, and your cancellation deadlines and fees. Our guide on how much to charge for waiting time goes through the choices.

Close with a few general lines: whether prices include tax, how totals are rounded and any discount for a return booked with the outbound trip.

Download the chauffeur price list template

The template follows the structure in this article: the rate grid, fixed routes, surcharges, extras, and waiting and cancellation. Every figure in it is an example, to be replaced with your own.

• Download the chauffeur price list template for Excel (.xlsx)
• Download the chauffeur price list template as a PDF

Use the spreadsheet to work out and keep your prices, and the PDF to print or share a filled-in copy.

How does Odobase use a rate grid like this?

The Odobase price list is built on the same structure. You set rules by vehicle class and service type: transfer, airport transfer, hourly, day hire and round trip. Zones are circles on a map, and fixed routes run from zone to zone, one way or both. Distance pricing takes a base fare, included distance, tiers and a minimum fare. Surcharges by time window, weekday, date range, pickup or drop-off zone, airport fee and last-minute booking can each be a percentage or a fixed amount, and percentages apply to the base fare only. Extras, an extra-stop fee, a return-trip discount, prices including or excluding tax, one rounding step and client rate cards with start and end dates complete it, and “Test a price” shows the breakdown for any journey.