Start from cost, not from competitors
Before choosing a model, know your cost per kilometre and per hour for each vehicle class: fuel, driver pay, maintenance, insurance, depreciation, permits and an allowance for empty return legs. Airport work in particular has a lot of dead mileage, because the vehicle often drives back empty. A price that looks competitive but ignores the return leg is a loss on every trip.
Once you know the floor, choose the pricing model that matches how customers buy each service. Most companies use several at once.
The five transfer pricing models
| Model | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Per-kilometre | Base fare plus a rate per km, by vehicle class. | Long-distance and irregular routes. |
| Per-hour | Hourly rate with a minimum number of hours. | Chauffeur “as directed”, events, roadshows. |
| Zone-to-zone | Fixed price between two zones (airport → city centre). | Airport transfers and hotel runs. |
| Slab | Price bands by distance or passenger count (0–20 km, 21–40 km…). | Simple, predictable pricing for agents. |
| Package | One price for a defined itinerary or day. | Tours, city tours, multi-stop days, pilgrim programmes. |
Per-kilometre
Transparent and easy to justify, but it exposes the customer to route uncertainty and makes quoting harder for agents who want a fixed number. Use it for long or unusual routes, with a minimum fare.
Per-hour
The standard for chauffeur and limousine work where the client keeps the car. Set a minimum (often two or three hours) and decide how you charge kilometres beyond an included allowance. Our limousine and chauffeur guide covers hourly bookings in more depth.
Zone-to-zone
The backbone of airport transfer pricing. Draw zones around the airport, the city centre, hotel districts and resorts, and publish a fixed price per pair and vehicle class. Customers and agents love it because the price is known in advance; you love it because it is easy to sell and to audit.
Slab
Bands by distance or by group size. Useful when you sell to many agents and want a short, stable price list, and for group transport where the vehicle changes with the number of passengers.
Package
One price for a full itinerary: arrival transfer, two days of touring and a departure transfer, or a full pilgrim programme between cities. Packages make the most sense when one booking has several legs.
Surcharges and extras: stack them, never compound them
Surcharges adjust the base price for when the trip happens; extras add things the customer asked for.
- Surcharges: peak hours, high season, night pickups and public holidays.
- Extras: waiting time, extra stops, tolls, parking, and items such as child seats or extra luggage.
A common mistake is letting surcharges compound: a night surcharge on top of a holiday surcharge on top of a peak surcharge, each applied to the previous result. Prices explode and customers complain. Decide your rule (for example, the highest applicable surcharge, or each surcharge applied to the base only) and let the software apply it every time. TransferArc applies peak, season, night and holiday surcharges without compounding.
Pricing for agents, corporates and retail
The same trip is sold at different prices to different audiences. The cleanest way to manage this is to keep a net price on the rate card and apply a markup by audience:
- Agents get a tier (for example Gold, Silver, Standard), each with its own markup on top of net.
- Corporate clients get a dedicated contract rate card agreed for the year.
- Retail customers see the public selling price.
Keeping net and selling prices separate means you always know your real margin per booking, per agent and per route. The agents and corporates page shows how tiers, credit and contract rates work together.
Why the quote must be locked
Transfers are sold in advance. If a customer is quoted in March for a trip in August and you publish new summer rates in May, which price applies? Without a quote lock, nobody knows, and the answer changes depending on who opens the booking.
A locked quote stores the exact rate card version, model, surcharges, extras, markup, currency rate and tax used at the moment of quoting. The booking keeps that price even when the rate card changes. Amendments create a new locked quote, so a change of vehicle or date is re-priced deliberately, not by accident.
Version your rate cards. A published rate card should never be edited in place. Publish a new version instead, ideally approved by a second person, so you can always see what price applied to any booking.
Currency and VAT
International transfer companies often quote in one currency and get paid in another. Store an exchange-rate snapshot with each quote so a currency move does not change a confirmed price. For tax, decide whether prices are shown inclusive or exclusive of VAT or GST, and let the country rules determine the rate, so the invoice and the tax return match the quote. More on this in e-invoicing for transport companies.
Putting it together
- Calculate cost per km and per hour for each vehicle class, including empty legs.
- Choose a model per service: zone-to-zone for airports, hourly for chauffeur, packages for tours.
- Define surcharges and extras with a clear, non-compounding rule.
- Keep net prices on the rate card and apply markup by audience.
- Version rate cards, approve them with a second person, and lock every quote.
The TransferArc pricing engine supports all five models, surcharges, extras, agent markup by tier, multi-currency and quote lock in one place.