Corporate Car Service: The Executive Assistant’s Guide

An executive assistant should be able to answer who is traveling, when the traveler becomes ready, where the traveler must arrive, what the vehicle must carry, and who can approve a change. A calendar event rarely contains all five answers.

This guide covers individual-trip operations. If the organization is evaluating a standing arrangement, use the corporate car service account setup guide. For formal supplier comparison, use the ground transportation RFP guide.

Maintain a controlled traveler profile

Store the traveler's name, reachable phone, time zone, booking contact, approved notification method, accessibility requests, common luggage pattern, and documented preferences. Add a source and review date. Mark every preference as a request that must be confirmed for the actual trip.

Do not convert a previous assignment into a promise of the same chauffeur, vehicle, amenity, route, upgrade, privacy feature, or pickup method. Delete obsolete information and avoid storing personal details that are not needed to perform the trip.

Build one booking brief per movement

Create a separate movement for each airport arrival, hotel departure, meeting transfer, dinner, and return. Link them under one itinerary, but do not hide different readiness windows inside one note.

Plan backward from the must-arrive time

Ask the host when the executive must be inside, checked in, through security, or seated. Then account for unloading, walking, visitor registration, credentials, elevators, and the final host handoff. Keep curb arrival and meeting-ready time separate.

Request the street address, building, tower, entrance, floor, loading instruction, accessible entrance, and reachable host. A company, campus, hotel brand, or venue name is not a complete destination.

Handle airport arrivals as four events

Record scheduled arrival, actual landing, passenger ready, and passenger connected separately. Flight tracking follows the aircraft; it does not establish that the traveler has reached baggage claim, completed entry processing, collected bags, or arrived at the meeting point.

The confirmation should state the terminal, door or landmark, curbside or meet-and-greet method, traveler contact step, and fallback if the airport changes the curb. If a flight is canceled, diverted, or replaced, send the new itinerary and obtain an updated confirmation.

Coordinate accessibility across handoffs

With consent, provide the requested assistance, mobility-device dimensions, whether the traveler remains in it, lift or ramp need, transfer assistance requested, companions, bags, and communication preference. Ask the provider to confirm the actual vehicle configuration.

The U.S. Department of Transportation explains airline assistance duties for air travel. Airline, airport, ground vehicle, hotel, rail station, and destination support are separate handoffs. Assign and confirm each one rather than assuming one request covers the full journey.

Choose point-to-point or hourly service from the agenda

Point-to-point service can fit an independent transfer with a firm origin, destination, and passenger-ready time. Hourly service can fit a connected sequence when vehicle continuity, standby, several stops, or uncertain release times matter. Compare written quotes using the same itinerary.

Detailed Drivers has a 3-hour standard hourly minimum. A longer event minimum applies only when the confirmed booking states it. Put the planned service window and extension authority on the trip brief.

Control day-of changes

Name one primary change authority and one backup. A traveler, host, or colleague can report new information, but added stops, delayed releases, extensions, destination changes, and vehicle changes should follow the approved path.

Record requester, approver, time, affected trip ID, new instruction, and any price or availability consequence. Send one versioned update to the traveler, provider, host, and internal stakeholders who need it.

Share only the information needed

The Federal Trade Commission's business cybersecurity guidance recommends keeping only needed data, limiting access, protecting sensitive information, disposing of it securely, and preparing for incidents. Apply those principles to phones, itineraries, live locations, accessibility details, and identity documents.

Use role-based trip extracts: the traveler needs meeting instructions, the driver needs operational details, the host needs arrival information, and finance needs the approved billing reference. None necessarily needs the full executive calendar.

Close the trip with facts

Retain the final confirmation, approved changes, actual service events, exception record, and invoice. Reconcile the quoted itinerary against the final operated trip before assigning a billing error or service failure. Record unknowns as unknown until the evidence resolves them.

For recurring travel, review patterns without inventing conclusions. Repeated entrance changes may justify a better booking field; repeated late traveler releases may justify a different service structure. A small sample does not establish provider performance.

Keep Detailed Drivers policies visible

Airport pickups include 45 minutes of complimentary waiting for domestic flights and 60 minutes for international flights, beginning at actual landing, with flight tracking. Non-airport pickups include 15 minutes. Overtime is billed for the actual additional minutes at the applicable per-minute rate for your selected vehicle.

Sedan and SUV bookings receive a full refund when cancelled at least 24 hours before the scheduled pickup time. Sprinter bookings receive a full refund when cancelled at least 72 hours before the scheduled pickup time. Cancellations inside the applicable notice period are charged in full. Quoted all-in pricing includes gratuity, so an additional tip is optional. The confirmation controls the actual vehicle, route or service window, availability, price, and any reporting or account feature.

Executive assistant trip checklist

1. Confirm traveler phone, booker, date, and local time zone.
2. Collect flight or train details and exact meeting method.
3. Verify every address, entrance, host, and must-arrive time.
4. List passengers, bags, equipment, and accessibility requests.
5. Choose point-to-point or hourly from the complete agenda.
6. Name change authority and backup contact.
7. Retain the confirmed policies, price, and cancellation deadline.
8. Send role-specific instructions and one current version.
9. Track actual landing, readiness, connection, departure, and arrival separately.
10. Reconcile approved changes and the invoice after service.

Review corporate travel service, airport transfers, and hourly service. Use rate information for pricing context and submit the actual trip through reservations.

Frequently asked questions