Service 15
Built around the call sheet.
Productions do not book a pickup time. They publish a document, and then they revise it. Ground transport for shoots, launches and press days, run by a dispatcher who has read the sheet before the day starts and reads the next version the moment it lands.
01 — The brief
A production day is a document, not a pickup time.
Ask a producer when the car is wanted and you will be sent a call sheet. Six unit moves, four crew calls, one talent call deliberately later than everybody else's, a lunch that may or may not happen at the location, and a wrap time written in pencil. The useful skill here is not driving. It is reading that page, working out which lines quietly imply a vehicle, and saying out loud which of them will not survive a Tuesday afternoon on the 101.
Everything starts from the sheet. Send it when you enquire — a draft is fine, a version you already know is wrong is fine. Dispatch comes back with the number of vehicles the day needs, the class each one should be, where they can legally stand, and the two or three moves that are tighter than they look on paper.
Crew and talent are two different problems. Crew move early, in numbers, with cases that need a tailgate. Talent move later, quietly, often on a schedule settled in the previous hour. Putting both groups in one vehicle saves a line on a budget and costs the day half an hour; we plan them as two flows that happen to share a dispatcher.
A vehicle standing still is working. Much of this job is a car parked at a location for eleven hours with the engine off. That is not waste. It is the difference between moving a person in four minutes and starting a round of telephone calls.
Send the sheet as it stands, not as it ought to be. We would rather plan from a draft that is wrong in three places than wait for a final that arrives at nine the night before.
More vehicles than one dispatcher can hold in their head is group transportation. Launches and press dinners with a guest list sit under corporate events. Fourteen people in a single vehicle is the Sprinter van.
02 — What we look for
Six lines on a sheet that decide the whole plan.
All six are already printed on the page you were going to send us. None of them is the pickup time.
- The unit base and its parking. Where a vehicle can genuinely stand for a day — a lot, a permitted kerb, or a structure with a height limit a Sprinter will not clear.
- Which calls are staggered. Two crew calls ninety minutes apart is two runs, not one larger vehicle. The sheet usually says so in a column nobody reads twice.
- What travels besides people. Camera cases, a rail of wardrobe, a cool box, a folding table. Nine times in ten the load decides the class, not the head count.
- Whether anyone flies that day. A flight number changes how a leg is timed, and an LAX arrival carries thirty complimentary minutes from the moment the aircraft is on the ground.
- The lines with a hard edge. A press call, a satellite window, a permitted closure. Most of a sheet can slide ten minutes; these cannot, so these get the buffer.
- Who is allowed to change it. One or two names, agreed beforehand, who can move a vehicle by telephone. Anyone else asking gets a polite no and a call to one of those names.
Second and third versions of a sheet are normal and cost nothing. The only revision that costs anybody time is the one we are not sent.
03 — On the day
How a shoot day runs from the dispatch desk.
You send the sheet, we send back a plan
Vehicle count, the class of each one, where each can stand, and a note against the moves that look tight. It arrives as a written schedule you can put in front of a production manager, not as a verbal assurance on a call.
Figures go in writing before a vehicle is held
Hourly chauffeured work starts from $85 per hour. A car held for a whole day, a split shift with a second chauffeur, a call before dawn: each is quoted for your dates, and the figure that counts is the one stated on your confirmation.
One dispatcher is named for the shoot
Not a rota and not a queue. One person holds the whole sheet, watches every vehicle on the day, and answers the telephone at four in the morning if the sheet changed at three.
Vehicles are in position before the earliest call
Standard practice is to arrive ahead of the printed time, engine off, out of the way of the trucks. Chauffeurs are given the unit base before they leave the yard rather than by text at the gate.
When the sheet moves, the plan is rewritten
A call goes back two hours, a location drops out, a second van is suddenly wanted at three. One telephone call to the named dispatcher does it, and you are told what the change does to the rest of the day before it is confirmed.
Afterwards, one itemised invoice
Hours listed by vehicle, with tolls and any lot or venue parking passed through at cost and shown on their own lines. Gratuity is never added silently, and nothing appears that was not discussed with you first.
Multi-stop days for a visiting executive rather than a unit are roadshow transportation. If what you actually want is a car and chauffeur at your disposal for a block of hours, that is hourly and as-directed work.
04 — Vehicles
Kit is the reason a sedan is usually the wrong answer.
Six classes, ninety-nine vehicles. On a production day the class is nearly always settled by what is being carried rather than by how many people are travelling.
Start with the load. Two people and a camera body fit a sedan. Two people, a camera body, a tripod and a hard case do not — not without something riding where a passenger should be. A Yukon Denali or an Escalade ESV carries six with the tailgate still usable, a Suburban carries seven, and a Sprinter carries fourteen with a day's worth of kit behind the last row.
Then decide what is held and what is released. A talent vehicle normally stays at the location all day, because being there is the entire point of it. Crew runs are often better as two timed legs with the vehicle released in between, which costs less and blocks nothing at the base.
Then the awkward question of access. A fourteen-seat Sprinter will not enter every parking structure in this city, and some hillside locations will not accept a long wheelbase of any kind. If the address is a problem we say so at the quote and send a class that fits, rather than discovering it at the gate.
Every capacity is listed on the fleet page. Eight or more people arriving together is the Sprinter van service; anything larger than one van is group transportation.
05 — Phase by phase
One vehicle, one day, read from the top.
This is a talent car on an ordinary location day. The phases are the ones every sheet has; the timings are whatever yours says they are.
| Phase | On the call sheet | What the vehicle does | Where it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-call | Nothing — this hour is ours, not yours | In position before the earliest name on the sheet, engine off, clear of the trucks | Unit base |
| Crew call | The first call, often before daylight | Brings crew and cases in on one or two timed legs, then is released or stood down | Hotel or car park to base |
| Talent call | A later call, sometimes moved that morning | Collects from a private address and arrives at the door rather than the gate | Address to location |
| Shooting | No transport lines at all | Held on location, engine off, chauffeur reachable on one call | On location |
| Lunch or a unit move | The line most likely to change | Moves whoever needs moving, or nothing at all, depending on which version is in force | Location, or a second location |
| Press window | A hard time nobody can slide | Timed backwards from the window with the buffer built in, not forwards from the last shot | Location to venue |
| Wrap | A time written in pencil | Stays until the last passenger is away, then one run home | Location to home |
| After wrap | Nothing | Cabin cleared and checked, hours logged against the vehicle, one invoice raised | Back to the yard |
Scroll the table sideways for all four columns.
A day with more moving parts than this — a shuttle from a distant car park, two units in different postcodes — is planned as group transportation, and a launch with a guest list is handled as a corporate event.
06 — Rates & questions
What it costs, and what producers ask first.
Hourly is the base. Chauffeured work starts from $85 per hour, and most production days are priced as hours by vehicle, because hours are what a held car actually consumes. A single leg for somebody flying in is often cheaper as a set price: Hollywood, Santa Monica or Beverly Hills into LAX from $125; Malibu, Irvine and Newport Beach from $150; LAX down to San Diego from $525. Whichever of the two is cheaper for what you have described is the one we quote, and every figure is confirmed in writing before the booking is accepted.
Day charges live on the confirmation, not on this page. A vehicle held for a full day, a split shift with a second chauffeur, an overnight standby, a call before dawn: each is quoted for your dates in writing. Send the dates and the shape of the day through the reservation form and the quote comes back in writing. We do not publish a day rate, and we do not improvise one on the telephone.
Passed through at cost. Tolls, lot fees and venue parking, itemised rather than folded into an hour. Nothing surges because it happens to be a Friday, there is no charge for using the telephone, and gratuity is never added without being discussed with you first.
Yes, and it is the first thing we ask for. Send the current version, draft or final, and dispatch comes back with the number of vehicles the day needs, the class of each one, where they can stand, and the moves that are tighter than they look. Send every revision after that as well.
That is the usual arrangement for a talent vehicle. It stands at the location with the engine off and the chauffeur reachable in one call, for as long as the day runs. It is booked as hours rather than as a transfer, from $85 per hour, and the hours on your confirmation are the ones that apply.
Only if you want them to. Crew tend to move early, in numbers, with cases that need a tailgate. Talent tend to move later, and often on a schedule decided that morning. We plan them as two flows with one dispatcher across both, which is usually faster and always quieter.
One telephone call to the dispatcher named for your shoot. A call moved two hours, a location dropped, a second van needed at three: the plan is rewritten rather than argued about, and you are told what the change does to the rest of the day before anything is confirmed.
We do not publish one. Hourly chauffeured work starts from $85 per hour, and a full day, a split shift or an overnight standby is quoted for your dates in writing. The figure that applies is the one stated on your confirmation, and nothing is charged that was not discussed with you first.
No. Every vehicle is plain and dark, with no livery, no roof sign and no lettering on the glass, so a car standing at a location says nothing about who is inside it or what is being made. Chauffeurs sign non-disclosure agreements and do not photograph or post anything about a job.
Anything not answered here goes to dispatch on (323) 799-3190, answered at any hour, or info@rgblacklimo.com. The mechanics of quoting, waiting and cancellation are set out in the terms, and the reasons for booking an operator rather than an intermediary are on why book direct.
07 — Reserve
Send the sheet. We will send back a plan.
A draft is enough to start with. You get a vehicle count, the class of each one, standing positions and the tight moves flagged — in writing, before anything is held.
(323) 799-3190Sheets that arrive overnight are read overnight. Or email info@rgblacklimo.com with the current version attached.