Limo & Chauffeur Industry Glossary: 30 Terms Every Operator Should Know

The limo and chauffeur industry has its own vocabulary — half of it inherited from livery, half of it born inside dispatch software. Below are 30 terms every operator, dispatcher and new hire should know, in plain English. Keep this page bookmarked.

Booking and dispatch

• As-directed: a booking with a start location and an hourly rate but no fixed destination — the passenger directs the chauffeur trip-by-trip.
• Point-to-point (P2P): a fixed pickup and dropoff at a flat or metered rate; the classic transfer.
• Hourly charter: a booking billed by time (usually with a minimum, e.g. 3 or 4 hours) rather than distance.
• Garage-to-garage billing: billable time runs from the vehicle leaving the garage to returning — standard for hourly and executive work.
• Deadhead: miles or time the vehicle travels empty (to a pickup, back to garage, between jobs). Cost, no revenue.
• Spot rate: the on-the-day quoted price for a specific booking, versus a contracted rate card.
• Standing order / recurring booking: a repeating trip pattern (e.g. Monday–Friday commute) set up once and dispatched automatically.

Affiliate networks

• Farm-out: passing a booked trip to another operator when you lack capacity or coverage.
• Farm-in: accepting and fulfilling a trip booked by another operator or network.
• GNet: the widely used affiliate protocol that lets different dispatch systems exchange trips electronically.
• Affiliate rate: the negotiated percentage split (typically 10–20%) between the booking operator and the fulfilling operator.

Airport work

• FBO: Fixed Base Operator — the private terminal at an airport serving charter and private jets.
• Meet-and-greet: chauffeur waits inside the terminal with a name board, tracks the flight, assists with luggage — versus curbside pickup.
• Curbside pickup: chauffeur waits outside arrivals in a designated area.
• Flight tracking: real-time monitoring of a passenger's flight so dispatch can adjust pickup time for delays.
• Wait time / grace period: the free minutes allowed after landing (typically 30–60) before wait-time charges begin.

Compliance and licensing

• PHV: Private Hire Vehicle — the UK category covering pre-booked chauffeur and taxi work.
• DVSA: Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (UK) — the body enforcing driver-hours, roadworthiness and audit rules.
• NEMT: Non-Emergency Medical Transport — pre-booked patient transportation, a growing chauffeur sub-vertical in the US.
• TCP / TCP number: California's Transportation Charter Party licence.
• DOT number: US Department of Transportation registration required for interstate carriers.

Pricing and billing

• Rate card: the operator's published prices for standard routes/vehicles.
• Corporate / house account: a monthly-billed customer with negotiated terms and central invoicing.
• Gratuity split: how the tip is allocated (all-driver, house share, per-role).
• STC: Special Terms and Conditions — a corporate account's negotiated rules attached to bookings.
• Auth & capture: the two-step card payment flow — authorise on booking, capture on trip completion.

Technology and workflow

• White-label app: a passenger or driver app carrying the operator's brand, powered by third-party dispatch software.
• Manifest: the day's list of scheduled trips per driver/vehicle.
• Turn-and-burn: an aggressive dispatch style where drivers move immediately from dropoff to the next pickup.
• Chain dispatch: assigning a driver a sequence of back-to-back trips to minimise deadhead.
• SLA: Service Level Agreement — the contractual response/uptime guarantee, most often with corporate accounts.

Frequently Asked Questions

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