London, Ontario is a head-office city: Canada Life's Canadian headquarters and the banks' regional offices in the downtown towers, 3M Canada's headquarters on Tartan Drive, Labatt's brewery on Richmond Street, General Dynamics Land Systems on Oxford Street East, Diamond Aircraft at the airport, the tech sector of Digital Extremes, Info-Tech, StarTech and Voices, EllisDon's head office, Libro Credit Union, Trojan Technologies, the medical-device and agri-food plants, and the industrial parks along the 401 and Veterans Memorial Parkway. LondonLimo.net's corporate chauffeur service serves all of them: the visiting executive from Pearson, the site visit by the hour, the board dinner, the plant tour by Sprinter and the road show to Toronto, on a corporate account with one monthly invoice. This page is the corporate map as the chauffeurs know it, with the London Economic Development Corporation and the Chamber of Commerce as the authorities on who is where.
The business geography in one paragraph
Downtown holds the insurance and financial core - Canada Life's towers, the banks, the law and accounting firms, the RBC Place convention centre and the hotels - in a walkable dozen blocks between the forks and Victoria Park. The east side along Oxford Street East, Veterans Memorial Parkway and the airport holds the heavy industry: General Dynamics' armoured-vehicle plant, Diamond Aircraft's factory, 3M's headquarters and plant, the food and beverage processors, the logistics parks. The north holds Western, Ivey, the research parks and the hospital-research corridor. The south along Wellington Road, Exeter Road and the 401 holds the distribution centres, the auto suppliers and the newer industrial parks. The west holds the tech offices and the Innovation Park. The chauffeurs move executives between them in ten to twenty-five minutes, and the neighbourhoods page describes the ground.
| Corporate journey | Minutes | Planning figure, sedan |
|---|---|---|
| Downtown hotel to Canada Life, the banks, the law firms, RBC Place | 3-5 | $40-50 |
| Downtown to 3M Canada, Tartan Drive | 15 | $45-60 |
| Downtown to General Dynamics Land Systems, Oxford Street East | 15 | $45-60 |
| Downtown to Diamond Aircraft and the airport industrial park | 18 | $45-60 |
| Downtown to Labatt's brewery, Richmond Street | 5 | $40-50 |
| Downtown to the Innovation Park, the tech offices and Western's research park | 12-15 | $40-55 |
| Downtown to the Wellington Road and 401 industrial parks | 15 | $45-60 |
| An executive's site day, hourly, chauffeur waiting | - | $95-135 / h |
| London to Toronto Pearson, a board meeting or a flight | 190 km | $295-345 |
| London to a Toronto head office, downtown | 195 km | $320-380 |
LondonLimo.net planning ranges before HST; the engine quotes the exact addresses and date.
The downtown core: insurance, finance, law and the convention centre
Canada Life's headquarters campus on Dufferin Avenue and Queens Avenue anchors a core of bank regional offices, the accounting firms' London practices, the litigation and corporate law firms, the brokers and the consultancies, with RBC Place London as the convention centre and the DoubleTree and Delta Armouries as the executive hotels beside them. A visiting executive's day in the core is walkable, and the car matters at its edges: Pearson or YXU at the start, the plant on the east side in the afternoon, the dinner in the evening, and the airport again. The hotels page has the executive hotels; the venues page the convention centre.
3M Canada, Tartan Drive
3M Canada's headquarters and plant on Tartan Drive in the city's east receives customers, suppliers, executives from St. Paul and visiting engineers year-round; a visitor's day is the Pearson or YXU meet, the hotel, the campus visit with the visitor procedures the chauffeur knows, and the airport, on the company's or the supplier's account.
General Dynamics Land Systems and the defence sector
General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada's plant on Oxford Street East builds armoured vehicles for Canada and its allies, and its visitors - defence officials, foreign military delegations, suppliers, auditors and executives from the parent company - travel with security procedures, escorts and schedules the desk handles discreetly: a delegation's Sprinter from Pearson with the escort's seat, the hotel, the plant gate at the appointed minute, the dinner, and the airport. The Wolseley Barracks military presence and the plant make London a defence city, and the private jet and FBO page covers the corporate aircraft that land at YXU for it.
Diamond Aircraft and the airport industrial park
Diamond Aircraft's factory sits on the airport's grounds and builds aircraft for the world market; its customers, dealers, suppliers and the flight-training organisations that buy its aircraft fly into YXU commercially or in their own aircraft, and the desk's YXU and FBO pages describe the meet. The industrial park around the airport holds logistics, aerospace suppliers and the Fanshawe aviation programmes.
Labatt, the food and beverage sector and agri-food
Labatt's London brewery on Richmond Street is one of the largest in the country and receives executives, customers and trade visitors; the food and beverage processors on the east side and the agri-food companies serving the farm belt around the city bring buyers and auditors from Toronto and the United States. The wine, brewery and distillery tours page covers the craft side; the corporate side is a corporate account.
The tech sector: Digital Extremes, Info-Tech, StarTech, Voices and the Innovation Park
London's technology sector - Digital Extremes' game studio downtown, Info-Tech Research Group, StarTech.com, Voices, the Innovation Park's startups and the research park at Western - recruits from Toronto and abroad and hosts customers, investors and candidates constantly; a candidate's interview day, an investor's visit and a customer's tour are each an hourly booking from the hotel with the airport at each end. The LEDC publishes the sector's directory.
EllisDon, Libro, Trojan and the head-office cluster
EllisDon's head office, Libro Credit Union's, Trojan Technologies' water-treatment plant and offices, the medical-device manufacturers around the hospitals, the insurance brokers and the professional firms make a head-office cluster whose executives travel weekly to Toronto, Ottawa and the United States; the city-to-city page prices the Toronto day and the Pearson page the flight.
The manufacturing and logistics belt
The auto-parts suppliers serving Toyota in Cambridge and Woodstock, the Ingersoll plant and the Windsor and Michigan assembly plants; the distribution centres along the 401 at Wellington Road and Highbury; the plastics, metal and packaging plants on the east side: the belt's plant managers, auditors, customers and engineers are corporate bookings with plant-gate procedures the chauffeurs know, and the destinations hub covers the supplier towns along the corridor.
Corporate accounts, and how London companies use them
A corporate account turns the company's travel into standing bookings: the executive's weekly Pearson run, the visiting customer's meet, the site visit by the hour, the board dinner, the road show to Toronto by Sprinter, on one monthly invoice by cost centre with the traveller's name on each line and a duty-of-care record. The corporate chauffeur service page describes it; the group transportation page the plant tour and the conference.
The chamber, the LEDC and the business calendar
The London Chamber of Commerce's Business Achievement Awards, the LEDC's investor events, the Ivey and Western alumni dinners, the hospital foundations' galas, the Business Cares Food Drive's events and the trade shows at the Agriplex fill the business calendar; the events page has the year and the corporate page the gala table's transport.
Three corporate bookings, as they actually ran
A supplier audit, March. Two auditors from a Toronto firm collected at Pearson at 7:40 a.m., driven to a Tartan Drive plant for 10, the DoubleTree overnight, a Wellington Road plant the next day, and Pearson at 5. Four legs on the firm's account.
A foreign defence delegation, October. A Sprinter and a sedan from Pearson for nine officials and their escort, the Delta Armouries, the Oxford Street East plant at 8:30 with the security procedures pre-cleared, a working dinner, and Pearson the following afternoon. Two days, one invoice.
A tech recruiting day, May. A candidate flown in from Vancouver, met at YXU at 11:20 p.m., the hotel, the office at 9, lunch with the team, the office again and YXU at 6. Four legs by the hour on the company's account.
Booking it
A single corporate journey is priced on the reservation engine in seconds; a visitor's itinerary, a site day or a delegation is booked on a corporate account by the desk. The rates page has the corporate figures.
Planning figures. Rates are LondonLimo.net planning ranges before HST; the engine quotes the exact addresses, date and vehicle. Company names describe where we drive and imply no affiliation, endorsement or contract; the LEDC and the Chamber publish the directories.
Three questions the desk is asked by travel managers
Can our travellers book themselves? Yes - each traveller has a profile on the account, books on the engine or by text, and the charge lands on the company's monthly invoice under their name and cost centre; the assistant sees every booking. What about a visitor who is not our employee? A guest booking on the account, with the visitor's name and flight and the host's cost centre; the visitor is met with a name board and never sees a bill. What happens when a flight is late? The chauffeur tracks it and waits; the waiting time on a late flight is not charged, and the desk texts the host when the visitor is in the car.
The working drive: what the executive gets in the car
Wi-Fi and power at every seat, a quiet cabin with a chauffeur who does not make conversation unless invited, a rear seat that takes a laptop and a briefing book, water, and a schedule that is kept; the two hours to Pearson are two working hours rather than two lost ones, and the Pearson page describes the run. For a road show to Toronto with three colleagues, a Sprinter with a table and a screen is a meeting room on the 401; the fleet page has the cabins.
The corporate London from the car
The financial core's towers over Dufferin Avenue, the brewery's long brick frontage on Richmond Street, Oxford Street East's plants behind their fences with the aircraft factory's hangars at the end of it and the runway beyond, the tech offices' converted warehouses downtown and the glass campuses in the west, the distribution centres' white walls along the 401, and the research park's low buildings at Western's north edge: the chauffeur knows each campus's visitor entrance and gate procedure, and the LEDC publishes the industrial parks' maps.
Booking checklist for a corporate visit
The visitor's name and flight or the pickup address; the site and its visitor entrance; the hotel; the meetings' times; whether the day is by the hour; the dinner; the return flight; the account's cost centre and the host's phone number for the texts. The desk confirms the itinerary in one email and sends the host a text at each leg.
