London, Ontario is a university and college city: Western University with its affiliated Huron University and King's University College on and around the campus in the city's northwest, the Ivey Business School on Western's grounds, and Fanshawe College on Oxford Street East beside the airport, together bringing tens of thousands of students to the city each September and their families for convocation each June. LondonLimo.net serves all of them: the airport runs and the move-in with a van of boxes, the parents' convocation weekend by the hour, the visiting speaker or examiner collected at Pearson with a name board on a departmental account, the varsity team's Sprinter, the formal's limousine, and Homecoming's alumni. This page is the campus geography and the academic year as the chauffeurs drive them.
The campuses, and where the car goes
Western's main campus sits between Richmond Street, Western Road and the Thames in the northwest, with University College's tower at its centre, the residences along Western Road and Sarnia Road, Alumni Hall on the west side for convocations, Western Alumni Stadium and the athletic centre, and the Ivey building on Western Road. Huron University is on Western Road at the campus's west edge; King's is across Richmond on Epworth Avenue; Brescia's former campus at the north end is now part of Western. Fanshawe's main campus is on Oxford Street East beside London International Airport, with downtown campuses on Dundas Street. The chauffeur knows each residence's loading zone, Alumni Hall's drop, the Ivey visitors' entrance and Fanshawe's gates; the neighbourhoods page covers Old North and the student streets between.
| Campus journey | Minutes | Sedan, planning figure |
|---|---|---|
| Downtown hotels to Western's main campus, Ivey, Alumni Hall | 12-15 | $40-55 |
| Downtown to Huron or King's | 15 | $40-55 |
| Downtown to Fanshawe's Oxford Street campus | 15 | $40-55 |
| Western or Fanshawe to London International Airport (YXU) | 10-20 | $45-65 |
| Western or Fanshawe to Toronto Pearson | 120-140 | $295-345 |
| Western to Fanshawe (cross-campus) | 20 | $45-60 |
| A convocation or parents' day, hourly, chauffeur waiting | - | $95-115 / h |
LondonLimo.net planning ranges before HST; the engine quotes the exact addresses and date.
The academic year, as the chauffeurs drive it
Late August and early September: move-in at the residences, orientation week, the YXU and Pearson arrivals of international students with two cases each. October: Homecoming and the fall convocation. December: exams and the flights home for the holidays. January: the return. April: exams and the exodus - the busiest campus week of the year for the airport runs. June: convocation over a fortnight of ceremonies, the parents' hotels full, the campus parking gone. Summer: the conferences, the summer school and the sports camps that fill the residences. Each has its own booking pattern and the events calendar has the dates.
Move-in: the van, the boxes and the residence loading zone
A student's move-in is a luxury van or an SUV with the room in boxes, the parents, and a chauffeur who knows which residence has a loading zone and which needs a cart from the desk - Saugeen, Delaware, Perth, Essex, Ontario Hall and the rest at Western, Huron's and King's own residences, Fanshawe's on-campus and the Oxford Street apartments. From a London address it is a fixed rate; from Kitchener, Windsor, Toronto or Sarnia it is the city-to-city rate with the van; from an airport it is the meet and greet with the bags.
International students and the airport arrival
The largest single group the chauffeurs meet each August is the international students: at Terminal 1 at Pearson or at YXU's carousel, with a name board and the student's name, a text to the parents in Delhi, Lagos, Beijing or Riyadh when the student is in the car, and the residence by the evening. A booking made on the engine from abroad in the parents' own time zone produces that; the airport pickup guide explains what the student will see, and the reverse run in April is the same booking mirrored.
Convocation: the family's weekend
Western's spring convocation fills a fortnight of June with ceremonies at Alumni Hall; Huron, King's and Ivey hold their own; Fanshawe's is at the Western Fair Agriplex. Families fly in, the hotels fill, and campus parking is gone by 8 a.m. A family's convocation day is an SUV or a van by the hour: the hotel at 8:30, Alumni Hall's drop, the ceremony, the photographs on the concrete beach and at University College, lunch at the Idlewyld or on Richmond Row, the reception, and the hotel or the airport. The prom and graduation page covers the formals and the graduation night.
Visiting speakers, examiners, deans and delegations
A department's visiting speaker landing at Pearson for a lecture, an external examiner for a thesis defence, a candidate for a faculty position, a visiting dean, a delegation from a partner university, a donor for a dinner: the corporate account - departmental in this case - turns each into a two-minute booking by the administrator with the flight number, a name board at the terminal, the hotel, the campus and the airport again, on one invoice by cost centre with the duty-of-care record the university's travel policy asks for. The corporate chauffeur service page describes the account.
Ivey: the executive programmes and the recruiters
The Ivey Business School's MBA, EMBA and executive programmes bring participants and recruiters to Western Road from Toronto and across the country weekly, and the Ivey Spencer Leadership Centre on Windermere Road hosts the residential programmes; a participant's Pearson run, a recruiting firm's day by the hour, a cohort's company visit to Toronto by Sprinter, and the Ivey ball's limousines are the bookings, on the school's or the company's account.
Fanshawe: the college's own calendar
Fanshawe's forty-thousand-strong community on Oxford Street East has its own rhythm: the September and January intakes, the international students who arrive at YXU next door, the trades and technology programmes' industry visits by Sprinter, the aviation programmes at the airport, the convocation at the Agriplex, and the downtown campuses' events. The college's proximity to YXU makes the airport run a ten-minute fixed rate.
Huron and King's
Huron University on Western Road and King's University College on Epworth Avenue are Western's affiliated colleges with their own residences, convocations and calendars; their students and families use the same runs, and their chapels and grounds are wedding and photograph stops the chauffeurs know.
Teams, tournaments and the Mustangs
The Western Mustangs' varsity teams travel to Hamilton, Waterloo, Guelph, Toronto, Windsor and Ottawa in season, and a team's Sprinter or coach with the equipment in the bays, the hotel and the return after the game is quoted from the schedule on the group transportation page; Fanshawe's Falcons and the intramural clubs book the same way, and Homecoming's game at Western Alumni Stadium fills October's second Saturday.
Formals, orientation and the student's night out
The faculty formals, the Ivey ball, the residence semi-formals, orientation week's events, the Homecoming parties and the end-of-exam nights on Richmond Row: the prom and graduation page covers the formal's limousine and the party bus page the group night, with Ontario's rules on alcohol and age enforced by every chauffeur.
The hospitals and the medical school
Western's Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry is embedded in University Hospital and Victoria Hospital, and the medical school's visiting faculty, residents' interviews, examiners and the research institutes' delegations are the same account bookings as the main campus's, with the hospital entrances known to the chauffeur.
Parents' weekends, Thanksgiving and the household account
Parents from Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and overseas visit for Thanksgiving, Homecoming, the winter and the convocation, and a household account holds the student's address, the parents' hotel and the standing airport runs for the year - the Christmas flight home, the reading-week trip, the April exodus - so that a parent in another city books in a minute. The black car service page explains the account.
Conferences, summer schools and the residences in summer
Western's and Fanshawe's residences host academic conferences, summer schools and sports camps from May to August, and a conference's arrival banks at Pearson and YXU, its hotel-to-campus shuttles and its excursions to Stratford or the wineries are quoted with a manifest on the group transportation page.
Three campus bookings, as they actually ran
An international arrival, August. A student from Chennai met at Pearson's Terminal 1 with a name board at 6:40 p.m., a text to her parents when she was in the car, and Saugeen residence by 9. Booked from Chennai on the engine.
A thesis defence, March. An external examiner from McGill landing at YXU at 9:40 p.m., met at the carousel, the Delta Armouries, the campus at 8:30, and YXU at 4. Four legs on the department's account.
Convocation, June. An executive SUV by the hour for a family from Vancouver: the DoubleTree at 8:30, Alumni Hall, photographs at University College, lunch in Wortley Village, the reception, and the hotel at 5. Nine hours; the grandparents never walked a parking lot.
Booking it
Campus journeys are priced on the reservation engine from any address; convocation days and visiting-speaker itineraries are booked by the hour or on a departmental account by the desk; the rates page has the in-city and airport figures.
Planning figures. Rates are LondonLimo.net planning ranges before HST; the engine quotes the exact addresses, date and vehicle. University, college and school names describe where we drive and imply no affiliation or endorsement; the institutions' own sites carry the academic calendar.
Three questions the desk is asked about campus bookings
Can the parents book from overseas and pay in their own currency? The engine takes the booking from anywhere and charges in Canadian dollars to any major card; the confirmation and the "in the car" text go to any number. Does the chauffeur go into the terminal? Yes, on an airport meet - a name board at the arrivals hall, help with the trolley and the bags, the car at the curb. Can a department pay by invoice rather than by card? Yes, on a departmental corporate account with monthly invoicing by cost centre and the traveller's name on each line, as the corporate chauffeur service page describes.
What the campuses look like from the car
Richmond Street north from Oxford past the Row's bars and the Old North houses to the campus gates, University College's tower over the trees, Western Road's residences and Ivey's glass, Sarnia Road curving past the athletic centre and the stadium, the Thames under the University Drive bridge, and, twenty minutes east along Oxford Street, Fanshawe's sprawling campus beside the airport's fence with the aircraft lifting off behind it. The chauffeur knows the campus's one-way loops, the Alumni Hall drop-off, the Ivey visitors' entrance and the residence loading zones; Western's and Fanshawe's sites publish the campus maps and the term dates.
Booking checklist
The campus and the building or residence; the date and time; the flight number and terminal for an airport meet; the student's name for the board; the number of bags; whether the booking is by the hour; the account, department or card; and a phone number in any country for the "in the car" text. The desk confirms in one email.
