Hire a Driver for a Wedding Day With Several Stops

A wedding day in South India is rarely one place and one time. There may be an early ritual at a temple, a muhurtham at a hall across the city, a lunch with relatives, a visit to the other family's home, and a reception in the evening. Driving yourself through all of this, in a good dress, with elders and children in the car, is tiring. A hired driver for your own car lets the family arrive fresh and on time. This guide shows how to plan the day in cities like Madurai, Trichy and Coimbatore.

Write the day as a list of stops

Begin with a simple list with times: where you start, each stop, how long you expect to stay, and where the day ends. Include the small stops, such as picking up an elder from a relative's house or collecting flowers and sweets. When you give this list to the booking, the driver can see which stops are close together and which are far apart, and can tell you if the plan has a gap that will not work in the traffic.

• Start time and starting address
• Each stop with its address and a landmark
• How long you expect to stay at each
• The last stop and the time the day may end

Choose the hours with some room

Driver hire is booked as 4 hours, 8 hours or a full day of 10 hours. A wedding rarely keeps to its schedule, so lean towards the longer block when the day has a muhurtham and a reception, or when you must travel between two towns. The fare for each length is shown on the booking screen before you pay, so you can compare them for your date and car.

If the early part and the evening part of the day are far apart in time, you may prefer two separate bookings, one for the morning and one for the evening. A long gap in the middle of one booking uses hours without use.

Plan the parking

Wedding halls fill their parking early on a good date. Ask the hall or the family where cars can stop, and whether a driver can wait close to the entrance. Tell the driver which gate to use, and give the name of a person at the venue he can call. If the hall is on a narrow road, as in the old parts of Madurai and Trichy, ask the driver to drop the family at the entrance and park a little away.

Seating, elders and children

Decide who sits where before the day. Elders usually need an easy seat and extra time to get in and out. Children need seat belts and, for the very young, a child seat that you bring yourself. Tell the driver how many people are travelling at each stop, because the number may change during the day. A car that is too full is unsafe and uncomfortable in the heat.

Keep the driver informed

Give the driver a phone number for the person who is in charge of the day, such as a brother or a cousin, in addition to yours. At a wedding the main family members are often busy and do not answer their phones. If a stop is cancelled or the muhurtham moves, one call lets the driver change the route.

Valuables and the car

Wedding days involve jewellery, gifts and cash. Do not leave them in the car while you are inside the hall. Give one person the responsibility for carrying them. Keep the car's papers in the car, and remove anything you do not want the driver to handle.

Safety and payment

Check the driver's name in the booking and match the number plate shown in the app. You can share the trip with a relative who is not travelling, so they can follow it live. You can pay in full, pay part now, or pay later where the booking offers it, and the cancellation policy is shown at booking. If the date moves, call Oray support as early as you can.

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