How do I find private clients as a VTC or private-hire driver?

Where drivers stand

In 2024, about 71,300 VTC drivers worked on the platforms in France, and 76% of them used more than one app (ARPE, ONT3P observatory, 2024). Many have no direct clients at all. In a poll on the Uberzone forum (46 votes, not representative), 45.7% of drivers reported zero private clients, while 23.9% had more than nine.

Luck has little to do with the gap. What matters is whether the happy passenger had a way to call you the next day.

Where private clients come from

• Regular passengers: the 5 a.m. run to Orly, the station on Monday morning, the business trip that comes back every month. These are the rides that repeat.
• Hotels and businesses nearby. A hotel front desk, a restaurant or an accounting firm regularly needs a reliable driver to call.
• Word of mouth, when a happy client passes your number to a colleague or a relative.
• Online search. Passengers type "private driver Lyon" or "airport chauffeur Nice", and without a page in your name they land on someone else.

Five moves that work

1. Carry a business card with a QR code and hand it over as soon as a passenger asks how to reach you. They don't have to copy a number. See What should a chauffeur business card say?
2. Put your link where people look for you: WhatsApp status, Google Business Profile, email signature, Instagram bio.
3. Show a price for your usual trips. Passengers compare, and "Airport from…" reassures more than "on request".
4. Reply fast. A client left waiting ends up opening an app. A ready-written WhatsApp message (date, pickup, drop-off) saves you both time.
5. Keep a record of every booking: date, time, pickup address. In France that is the prior booking, and it is what makes the ride legal.

The limits to respect

During a ride ordered through an app, the app's rules apply. Don't offer the passenger to redo that trip off the app. You build your own clients alongside, never at the expense of the ride in progress.

No street hails either: a passenger who has not booked in advance cannot get in. See Can a VTC driver take direct clients?

And skip the promises you can't keep. Nobody manages to undercut the apps every time for long. Compete on punctuality, the car, and the fact that the client knows you.

What Chauffeur Pro does

Chauffeur Pro gives VTC and private-hire drivers a website, a QR code and business cards so their passengers book them direct, with no commission.

• Your page is ready in minutes from a template, and you edit it from your phone.
• A passenger who scans sees your services, with buttons to call or message you (WhatsApp, text, email). There is no app to install.
• The sharing kit (WhatsApp card, email signature, visuals) and the print files are included when you publish. Printed cards ship within France.
• No commission on your rides: you set the price with your client.

Chauffeur Pro is not affiliated with any ride-hailing app.