Resources · Updated July 2026

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

Plain-English definitions of the operational, billing and affiliate terms used across the limousine, black car and chauffeur industry — the vocabulary behind every dispatch board, rate sheet and affiliate agreement.

Every operator evaluating limo dispatch software eventually hits the same wall — the vendor demo assumes you already know what 'affiliate farm-out', 'as-directed', 'deadhead', 'meet-and-greet' or 'PO billing' means, and half of those terms mean different things at different companies. Chauffeur dispatch software has its own dialect on top of that, borrowed from executive transport and airline operations. The 30 terms defined below are the vocabulary that shows up on every dispatch board, rate sheet, driver app and affiliate agreement in the US and UK limousine industry — written in plain English so a new dispatcher, corporate travel buyer or investor can follow the conversation.

Jump to: Affiliate & network terms · Operations & dispatch terms · Pricing & billing terms · Service type terms · Technology terms

Affiliate & network terms

Farm-out: Passing a trip you booked to an affiliate operator to fulfil — usually because it's outside your coverage area or capacity — for a negotiated split of the fare. The booking operator keeps the customer relationship; the fulfilling operator runs the trip.
Farm-in: The other side of the same transaction: accepting and running a trip that another operator or network booked, earning the agreed share. Healthy farm-in volume is how many small fleets keep vehicles utilized between direct bookings.
GNet: The most widely used affiliate network protocol in the industry. It lets different dispatch platforms exchange farm-in/farm-out trips electronically — trip details, status updates and billing flow between systems without phone calls.
Affiliate: Another operator you exchange trips with under agreed rates and service standards. Affiliate networks extend a local fleet's coverage nationally or globally without owning vehicles there.
Network / affiliate rates: The pre-agreed pricing between affiliates for farmed trips — typically the retail fare minus a booking commission of 15–30%, though splits vary by relationship and market.

Operations & dispatch terms

Deadhead: Empty, non-revenue miles — driving to a pickup, returning to garage, or repositioning between jobs. Cutting deadhead through smarter trip clustering is one of the fastest margin improvements available to a fleet.
Dispatch board / grid: The dispatcher's real-time view of every trip, driver and vehicle — typically a timeline or Kanban-style board where trips are assigned, tracked and closed out.
Spotting time: The buffer a chauffeur arrives before the scheduled pickup — commonly 10–15 minutes for ground pickups, longer for airport work.
Stand-by / wait time: Time the vehicle waits at the client's disposal beyond included allowances, usually billed in increments (e.g., per 15 or 30 minutes).
Duty of care: The corporate-travel standard requiring companies to know where travelers are and keep them safe — the reason corporate clients demand licensed, insured, trackable chauffeured transport with documented drivers.
Manifest: The passenger and trip list for a group movement or event — names, pickup points, times and vehicle assignments — often uploaded in bulk for roadshows, weddings and conferences.
Roadshow: A multi-stop, often multi-day itinerary for an executive team: one chauffeur and vehicle shadowing a tight schedule across many meetings, billed hourly or daily.
ASAP trip: An on-demand booking for immediate pickup, as opposed to a pre-arranged reservation — the closest the traditional livery world comes to ride-hail behavior.

Pricing & billing terms

Garage-to-garage billing: Charter pricing where billable time runs from the moment the vehicle leaves the operator's garage until it returns — standard for hourly charters.
Point-to-point: A flat or calculated fare for a single journey from pickup to dropoff, the standard model for airport transfers.
Hourly minimum: The minimum billable hours for a charter (commonly 2–4 hours, higher for stretch vehicles and weekends) regardless of actual use.
Gratuity / STC: Suggested tip or 'service charge' added to the fare — disclosure rules for automatic gratuities vary by jurisdiction, so how software itemizes it matters.
Fuel surcharge: A percentage or flat add-on tracking fuel costs; increasingly configured as a toggleable rate rule in dispatch software rather than hand-added.
Pass-throughs: Costs like tolls, parking, airport fees and waiting charges billed to the client at cost on top of the base fare.
Corporate / house account: An invoiced client account with negotiated rates, approved bookers and consolidated billing — the backbone of B2B limo revenue and a core dispatch-software feature.

Service type terms

Black car service: Pre-arranged chauffeured transport in unmarked luxury sedans/SUVs, the dominant corporate and airport product in the US market.
Livery: The traditional umbrella term for for-hire passenger vehicle services — limousines, black cars, chauffeured sedans and vans.
Private hire: The UK regulatory category for pre-booked hire vehicles (as opposed to hackney/taxi street hail), licensed by local councils with distinct driver and vehicle requirements.
Meet and greet: Airport service where the chauffeur waits inside the terminal with a name board, tracks the flight, and assists with luggage — a premium tier above curbside pickup.
FBO: Fixed Base Operator — the private-aviation terminal at an airport. FBO pickups serve charter and private jet passengers and involve ramp-access and security procedures regular terminals don't.
NEMT: Non-Emergency Medical Transportation — scheduled rides to medical appointments, a regulated adjacent vertical some livery fleets serve for utilization.
Shuttle / per-seat: Scheduled or semi-scheduled routes sold by the seat rather than the vehicle — a different booking and pricing model most limo platforms handle via a separate module.

Technology terms

Booking widget: The embeddable reservation form on an operator's website that quotes and books trips directly into the dispatch system. Its load speed and mobile usability directly move conversion rates.
Driver app: The chauffeur's mobile app: trip details, navigation, status updates (on location, passenger on board, done), flight information and payout visibility.
White-label: Software sold to run under your brand — your name, logo and colors on the passenger app and booking experience, with the vendor invisible to your customers.
Flight tracking: Automatic monitoring of arrival flights so pickup times adjust to delays without dispatcher intervention — table stakes for airport-heavy operations.
PWA: Progressive Web App — an app-like experience delivered through the browser and installable on a phone without app stores; increasingly used for passenger booking apps.

Limo software glossary — quick FAQ

What does 'farm-in / farm-out' mean in limo software?+

Farm-out is sending a trip your fleet can't cover to a partner (affiliate) operator; farm-in is receiving one from them. Modern limo platforms including Limozoft support affiliate trip sharing with partner rate management and reconciliation built in.

What is DUO (Duty of Care) in ground transportation?+

Duty of Care refers to a company's responsibility to know where its business travelers are and that they arrived safely. In limo software, DUO shows up as approver workflows, real-time trip status for the travel manager and safe-arrival pings after drop-off.

What's the difference between a limo booking widget and a passenger app?+

A booking widget is an embed on your public website used by first-time and one-off passengers to book quickly. A passenger app (web or native) is a signed-in experience for repeat and corporate passengers with saved cards, addresses and trip history.

What does 'flat-rate' pricing mean in limo software?+

Flat-rate pricing means one monthly fee per plan with every feature included, versus a base plan plus separately-billed add-ons like the branded app, extra dispatcher seats or payment tools. Limozoft is flat-rate; several legacy platforms are not.

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