Hourly Chauffeur Service in Saudi Arabia

What an hourly booking actually buys

An hourly booking is a block of a chauffeur's time and the exclusive use of one vehicle inside a single city. It is not a set of journeys. How many stops you make and in what order is decided as the block runs, not when you book it.

That is the whole difference between this and an airport transfer. A transfer sells one movement from A to B and ends. A block sells the hours, which is why the stops are never counted and why the vehicle does not go anywhere between them. On a short booking the waiting is not an extra you tolerate, it is the product.

The one per hour figure we publish, and what it is

We publish an extra hour rate for every vehicle we run. It is the rate that governs any hour past a booked block, and it is the only per hour number on our rate card. In Riyadh it runs from SAR 105 on a Toyota Fortuner to SAR 405 on a Mercedes S Class, with SAR 115 on a sedan, SAR 140 on a Lexus ES or a Hyundai H1, SAR 175 on a GMC Yukon and SAR 290 on a coach.

Short blocks under twelve hours are quoted for the specific booking, because a three hour block at nine in the morning and a three hour block at nine at night are not the same job. What we will not do is quote you hours when the day is cheaper, and the next section is the arithmetic that tells you which is which before you ask anybody.

When to stop buying hours and buy the day

Take the published twelve hour day rate for the vehicle you want and divide it by the published extra hour rate for the same vehicle. The answer is the number of hours at which the whole day already costs the same as the hours.

Do it across our Riyadh card and the answer is remarkably consistent. Every vehicle we run lands between about ten and twelve hours.

• GMC Yukon: SAR 1,725 a day against SAR 175 an hour, so the day wins from about ten hours.
• Luxury coach, 47 seats: SAR 2,875 against SAR 290, so the day wins from about ten hours.
• Lexus ES: SAR 1,495 against SAR 140, so the day wins from about eleven hours.
• Toyota Fortuner: SAR 1,150 against SAR 105, so the day wins from about eleven hours.
• Mercedes S Class: SAR 4,370 against SAR 405, so the day wins from about eleven hours.
• Ford Taurus sedan: SAR 1,380 against SAR 115, which is exactly twelve.

So the rule of thumb is simple and it holds across the whole fleet. Once a booking is going to run past about ten hours, book the twelve hour day. It costs about the same and you get the remaining hours anyway. On a GMC Yukon or a 47 seat coach the crossover arrives at ten, which is earlier than most people expect.

The full twelve hour rate card for every vehicle is on the pricing page, and the scope of a booked day is set out on the full day chauffeur page.

What an hourly block is genuinely the right unit for

Four shapes of booking, and they are the ones we are actually asked for.

A morning or an afternoon of meetings. Three or four movements inside four hours, with the car waiting outside each one. Counted as separate transfers this is both more expensive and slower, because each movement has to be summoned.

A property or site viewing round. Multiple stops, unpredictable timings, and a route that changes as the day goes. The block absorbs all of that without a renegotiation.

An evening. A dinner, an event, a return. The vehicle is held rather than released, which is the part that matters when the evening runs long and the city is busy.

A partial event day. A delegation that needs covering for the opening hours of a show but not the whole day. Larger group vehicles work the same way here, and are covered on the group transport page.

What sits outside an hourly block

Hours past the block, at the published extra hour rate for that vehicle. Intercity legs, which are quoted per route rather than by the hour, because a Riyadh to Qassim run is a different job from a city block. Airport meet and greet, which is priced as a transfer and is covered on the airport transfers page. Parking and venue access charges where a venue levies them. VAT.

Which vehicle for a short block

For one to three passengers with light luggage, a sedan or a Lexus ES. For three to six, or for anyone who wants to work in the car, a Toyota Fortuner or a GMC Yukon. For a principal, a BMW 7 Series or a Mercedes S Class. For seven to eleven, a Hyundai H1, a Hyundai Staria or a Toyota Hiace. Above that the block still works but the vehicle changes class, and the fleet pages set out what each one carries.

Roark operates hourly chauffeur blocks in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, and across the Kingdom on quoted routes. City coverage is on the Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam pages. To book a block, call +966 56 644 0190 with your city, your window and your vehicle class.