A chauffeur company wins corporate accounts by finding who actually books, which in small and mid-sized firms is usually an owner or executive assistant, and offering one rate sheet, one monthly invoice and a contact who answers. Prepare insurance certificates, licences and trip reports first. Start with company email addresses already in your booking history, avoid a blanket discount, and review each account once or twice a year.
How does a chauffeur company win corporate accounts?
Find the person who books or approves travel, offer one company rate sheet and one monthly invoice, and show that you can prove what you promise. Corporate customers buy for different reasons from travellers. A traveller wants a good car at a fair price. A company wants a supplier that makes no trouble for the person who booked it, keeps a record of every trip and can answer questions if something goes wrong.
The reward is repeat work with no advertising behind each booking, often on weekdays and at times when leisure work is quiet. The price of it is slower sales, paperwork and payment on invoice. It suits a company that can already run reliably every day, and it will show up any gaps in that.
Who actually decides?
It depends on the size of the customer, and this is where most outreach goes wrong. An email to a “travel manager” at a 40-person firm goes nowhere, because that job does not exist there.
| Size of company | Who books | What they care about |
|---|---|---|
| Small firms | The owner, or an executive assistant or office manager | Someone who answers the phone, and a simple invoice |
| Mid-sized firms | Executive assistants, with finance approving the supplier | Reliable service for their boss, and clean monthly billing |
| Large firms | A travel manager or procurement team, often through a travel management company | Compliance documents, reporting and a formal tender |
Start with the first two groups. Executive assistants are often the real buyers, as they book the cars, they take the blame if a car is late, and they remember who made their week easier. Law firms, consultancies, financial firms, private hospitals and companies with a head office near your airport are sensible places to begin, because their people travel often and they care how they arrive.
Large firms take longer. A formal tender may take months and may ask for coverage in many cities that a local company does not have. A national or global provider may hold that contract, and you may be better off becoming that provider’s local partner, as the guide on affiliate networks explains.
What should you prepare first?
Have these ready before you contact anyone, because the second email you receive will ask for them.
- A corporate rate sheet: your main routes and hourly rates by vehicle, with what is included in the price, and how long the rates hold.
- Proof of cover: your insurance certificate, operator licence and, where it applies, driver checks. A buyer may ask for a certificate of insurance, and may have someone review it.
- A way to pay: monthly invoices with a purchase order or cost centre on each trip, and a clear statement of your payment terms.
- A booking route: one email address or phone number that is always answered, and written confirmation of every trip with the driver’s name and vehicle.
- A plan for failure: what happens if a car breaks down or a driver falls ill, and who the customer calls at 5am.
- Reports: a list of trips per month showing who travelled, when and on which route, plus on-time performance if you can measure it.
Your booking system should produce most of this, as described in the limo booking software guide. Without one, you will spend your evenings building invoices by hand.
Corporate buyers use the words “duty of care”, meaning the employer’s responsibility for the safety of staff who travel for work. ISO 31030, published in 2021, is the international guidance on travel risk management, and summaries of it note that transport during a trip is part of that risk. You do not need to be an expert on it. You should be ready to say how you vet drivers, how you maintain vehicles and what you do in an emergency.
How do you get the first account?
Begin with people who already know you. Check your booking history for email addresses from company domains, because someone at that firm has already booked you and paid with their own card. Offer them an account: one invoice, a rate sheet and a named contact.
Then choose twenty companies you can serve well, ideally near your busiest airport. Find the executive assistant or office manager, and write a short, specific note: who you are, which routes you run for firms like theirs and what the account would make easier. Attach your rate sheet. Follow up once, and if there is no reply, leave it. Offer a first trip at your normal rate so they can try you, as a free trial would suggest your service is worth little. Check the rules on business outreach in your country before you start, because they differ.
Ask your hotel partners and existing customers for introductions as well. A hotel concierge knows which firms bring guests, and an assistant who likes you may well know three others. The Win hotel and agency work page describes how we run this kind of outreach for a client.
How should you price an account?
Set the rates by what the account actually costs you to serve, which is not always less than a one-off booking. Corporate work can bring steady volume and fewer empty hours, and it can also bring late changes, waiting and 30 or 60 days before you get paid. Include those in your numbers.
Avoid a blanket discount as your opening offer. A discount gives away your margin before you know how much work you will get, and it is very hard to take back. Offer a clear rate that holds for the year, and a better one for agreed volume when it has actually happened. The net rates guide and the pricing guide cover how to set these.
Agree the terms for changes in writing: how much notice a cancellation needs, what happens with waiting, what a no-show costs, and when your invoices are due. The no-show policy guide sets out what to cover. If a slow payer could leave you short of cash, set a credit limit, and take a card on file for smaller accounts.
How do you keep the account?
Accounts are lost through small failures, and often nobody tells you why. A review once or twice a year, with the numbers in front of you, gives you a chance to hear about problems. Bring the trips by month, your on-time record, and anything you changed. Ask who else in the firm travels, since one assistant’s good experience can spread around the office.
Use the same drivers where you can, and contact the assistant first when something goes wrong. Track the revenue from each account every month as well, because one customer with a large share of your income is a risk to manage. The repeat customers guide has more on keeping people coming back.