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Morgan & Mallet, a luxury household staffing agency, places private chauffeurs and personal drivers with high-net-worth households across the US. Hiring a private chauffeur needs to be taken seriously because it means trusting someone with your safety, your schedule, and your privacy.
Our co-founder Morgan Richez worked as a chauffeur before starting the agency which helps us understand exactly what our clients need from their drivers.
We place highly experienced, permanent full-time chauffeurs, proven at working with high-net-worth households. We interview the strongest candidates for 90 minutes, check 5 to 7 years of their work history, and do full background checks.
We find out from you exactly what you need from your chauffeur and base our search for drivers on that.
Contact us today to hire a chauffeur who you can trust.
What does a private chauffeur actually do?
A private chauffeur does your driving and looks after your vehicles and your schedule on the road. But driving is not all the job, only part of it.
A chauffeur keeps your cars serviced, insured, registered, fueled, and clean. They run errands. They pick up children from school and activities. They coordinate daily routes with the PA and stay in contact with any security teams.
Morgan, our co-founder, who drove for a principal in London before starting the agency, says the staff stay in touch all day:
“They are very connected by WhatsApp. You can make a WhatsApp group. They are very connected, especially with the PA as well, because the PA is the one who organizes the planning.”
Our own briefs for our clients looking for staff make for similar reading.
A Bel Air family we recruited for wanted the car kept stocked with water, tissues and charging cables, and a New York client needed airport runs to JFK and LaGuardia.
What three of our US chauffeur briefs asked for
| In the brief | New York 2025, entrepreneur | Bel Air 2025, family | New York 2026, family |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evenings and weekends | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Five to six days a week | No | Yes | Yes |
| Airport runs | Yes | No | No |
| Luxury car experience | Yes | Yes | No |
| Washing, fuel and servicing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Daily checks on the car | Yes | No | Yes |
| Maintenance records and dealerships | No | Yes | Yes |
| Water, tissues and chargers in the car | No | Yes | Yes |
| Errands | No | Yes | Yes |
| Luggage | Yes | No | Yes |
| Driving children | No | No | Yes |
| Helping when guests come | No | No | Yes |
| Years of experience asked | 5 | 5 | 3 |
Source: job ads for three of our US chauffeur searches, August 2025 to January 2026. How we count
In all our chauffeur searches across the world, 59% included errands.
Morgan Richez, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet:
“The chauffeur will take some initiative, to make sure there is a bottle of water [and a] magazine.
“[And] make sure the tank is full as well, in case you need to go somewhere else, because you can’t go to the [gas] station with your [principal]. You need to be organized.
“To anticipate is very important, and not to be on time but to be in advance. For example, if my principal used to say, ‘Morgan, you should be at 8:00 in front of my door,’ I will come at 7:30.”
Then there’s the hours. Contracts say five days a week. But in reality that’s not always the case.
An evening dinner can become a late night. Working on Sundays might be part of the deal.
Morgan Richez: “Sometimes your employer can say, ‘Can you come on Sunday?’ It’s not easy to say no, especially when you get a high salary.
“This is part of the deal as well: you get a high salary, but you need to be flexible at the last minute, anytime.”
Read a full example chauffeur job description here to find out more about a chauffeur’s normal duties.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, 64 chauffeur searches worldwide advertised 90 times, June 2022 to June 2026. How we count
What's the difference between a chauffeur and a personal driver?
A personal driver gets you from A to B.
A chauffeur prepares the car, plans the route, coordinates with your household, and keeps everything confidential.
Some families search for a personal driver or private driver. In a private household, that’s the same role we place as a chauffeur. Someone employed by you, not a car you book by the trip.
Morgan Richez, our co-founder: “You can’t open your GPS as a professional chauffeur, because it doesn’t look very professional. If you ask for a small street and a postcode very far, of course you can do that.
“But for example, if your boss says, ‘Morgan, I would like to go to Chelsea,’ and you don’t know how to get to Chelsea, you look stupid.”
For Morgan, the way a chauffeur drives matters most.
“If you get [a ride-hail car] in London, the way they drive is stop, straight, like that. You need to drive in a smooth way. When you accelerate, step by step.
“When you need to stop, you need to anticipate as well, because it’s very annoying when you’re in the back and the guy brakes at the last [second],” he says.
There are two types of role.
An executive chauffeur works for a company, driving a CEO or senior exec.
In Manhattan, almost everyone in finance seems to have one.
A family chauffeur works for a household, driving parents and children, coordinating with the nanny, working with whatever comes up in the day.
Our chauffeur searches for clients have naturally gone the same way. A third of our chauffeur searches worldwide (33%) were for an executive chauffeur, and 28% involved school runs or children’s activities.
Some families need both.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, 64 chauffeur searches worldwide advertised 90 times, June 2022 to June 2026. How we count
How much does a chauffeur cost in the US?
A full-time private chauffeur earns $80,000 to $130,000 a year in the private households we recruit for.
In our own briefs for clients, a New York entrepreneur offered a base of $80,000 in 2025, and a Bel Air family offered $95,000 to $130,000.
In 2026 a New York family offered $40 to $50 an hour plus health insurance. For a 40-hour week, that works out at about $83,000 to $104,000 a year.
Spread over 12 months, our report’s range comes to roughly $6,700 to $10,800 a month before taxes.
Security training can make a salary higher. Chauffeurs with military, police, or close protection backgrounds earn more in all the markets we recruit in. The same goes for vehicle experience.
Driving a big SUV is straightforward. A Rolls-Royce or a Porsche 911 is a different skill set, and candidates with that experience can be paid more.
Morgan, who did the job himself, sees the upside:
“The salaries are very good as well. You’re driving the most luxury cars as well. If you love cars, if you’re passionate about cars, this is a good [fit].”
On top of the salary, expect to pay payroll taxes (FICA), workers’ comp, and typically health insurance. Live-in roles pay a lower salary at the base but include accommodation and meals worth $20,000 to $40,000 a year.
Live-in chauffeur jobs are rare in the work we do, though. None of our US chauffeur searches for clients have offered housing, and only 14% of our chauffeur searches worldwide were live-in, mostly in Dubai and Kuwait.
If you want to calculate the salary of a chauffeur in your area, try our household staff salary calculator.
Source: our 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report, the pay offered in our US chauffeur job ads in 2025 and 2026, and our chauffeur job briefs since June 2022. How we count
Is hiring a personal driver worth it?
It is if driving takes up a lot of your day. School runs, office travel, airport runs and evenings out.
If you only need a car for an hour or two, it’s often simpler to hire staff whose main title is another role, but they can drive as well.
Many of our clients do just that. 39% of our US job ads for other household roles asked for a driver’s license.
In fact it was 86% of our ads for domestic couples, 70% for a household manager or a private estate manager, and 67% for a private personal assistant.
Over half of the families who came to us to hire a nanny (53%) wanted one who drives, and so did 47% of those who wanted to hire a butler.
Some families ask for more and want one person to cover two jobs. Outside the US we have searched three times for a butler who also drives, all in Dubai, and once there for a nanny who drives.
In Paris, a personal assistant job we recruited for that also needed driving had 175 applicants.
If driving becomes part of someone else’s job, it’s best to put it in their contract.
“If it’s just once, okay, you’re flexible. That’s nice. If it’s every day, change completely the list of your duties,” says co-founder Laurine Mallet.
Morgan, our co-founder, draws the line at loading one person with every job: “You can’t mix a PA job with a nanny one with a driver one. This is completely different.”
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, 309 US job ads for other household roles, 2022 to 2026, and our searches worldwide that combined two roles. How we count
Should you hire a chauffeur yourself or use an agency?
You can try yourself. You’ll likely get hundreds of applications. Most won’t have private household experience.
The numbers in our own data show that you are likely to get a lot of applicants. A standard chauffeur ad of ours gets 106 applicants, when the average for all the roles we recruit for is 45. Only personal assistant ads get more candidates applying.
Our busiest chauffeur ad, in 2025, had 792 in Paris. It takes time to filter all these applicants and even then, you need recruitment experience to properly vet a shortlist.
In the US the numbers are smaller but the gap isn’t any different. 52 applicants per chauffeur ad, against 37 for the average US ad of ours.
| Job ads | Applicants per ad |
|---|---|
| Chauffeur ads, every country | 106 |
| All our ads, every role | 45 |
| Chauffeur ads in the US | 52 |
| All our US ads | 37 |
| Our busiest chauffeur ad (Paris, February 2025) | 792 |
Morgan Richez: “For every 100 applications we receive, maybe two or three are top-tier. It’s so easy to apply now through Indeed or Google Jobs, you just press a button.
“So we receive a lot of applications, but 90% have never worked in a private household.”
The screening alone is a full-time job. Driving record checks, reference calls, employment law. And the one thing you probably can’t assess on your own is discretion.
A chauffeur is in your car every day. They hear business conversations, family arguments, financial details. You really need to be comfortable with them around at sensitive times.
We test this in every interview we do. We watch how candidates talk about former employers. If they’re name-dropping or sharing details about a previous principal’s life, we know they’ll do the same in your household.
Laurine sometimes asks a question a good chauffeur should refuse to answer.
“When you were a chauffeur, you heard a lot of things about your boss, about his private life. What was the most incredible thing you heard about him?
“That’s a question I shouldn’t ask, but I do it on purpose, to see if he’s going to respond,” says co-founder Laurine Mallet.
It’s one reason we decline most applications.
Source: applications to Morgan & Mallet job ads, 2022 to 2026: 3,695 ads across all roles worldwide, 448 of them in the US. How we count
How do you hire a personal driver?
To hire a personal driver for your home, the best way is to start by writing down the things you need from the role. This includes the hours, the cars, who they’ll drive and where, and the pay.
Then advertise the role, check each applicant’s license and references, and test-drive a shortlist before you make an offer.
Experience is how you can filter from the start.
Two of our 2025 searches for clients in New York and Bel Air wanted experience of five years or more of driving private clients, and a 2026 New York search wanted three years.
Points on a license should be looked at too.
“As a recruiter, we need to check these things,” says Morgan. “We need to ask for the number of points.
“And of course, if you’ve got eight points or 10 points, we won’t introduce you to the clients. This is too much.”
The last step is a test drive, with you, your PA or your household manager in the back.
“When you’re talking about a chauffeur, there is a test for half an hour or one hour.
“You take the chauffeur: ‘Okay, drive me for one hour around [town], go to this place,’ to make sure he knows the place, and the way he drives as well.
“It can be the principal, it can be the PA, it can be the house manager. It depends on the organization,” says co-founder Morgan Richez.
Once you’ve made your choice, the chauffeur is your employee, so you’ll need a written contract and payroll in place before the first day.
Of course you can do this all yourself, or you can hire a chauffeur agency to do the work for you.
Source: job ads for three of our US chauffeur searches, 2025 and 2026. How we count
What should you look for when hiring a chauffeur?
Ask the candidate to drive you for an hour. How is their driving? Are they composed in traffic? Was it a nice experience? Comfort is important.
In New York, they should know Manhattan without Waze. In LA, they need to know freeways and distance between counties. Morgan Richez: “The airport is almost the most complicated thing.
“You’ve got a last-minute [departure], you need to be there, and sometimes you need to anticipate. I never missed any flight, because if you miss a flight, your employer is going to be upset.
“Even if it’s not your fault, he’s going to be upset.”
We verify what cars each candidate has driven before and for how long. If you own a Bentley or a performance car, you need someone who knows how to handle that weight and power.
“The major difficulty is when the [chauffeur] needs to drive and manage a luxury car, like a sports car, Porsche, Ferrari, this kind of brand,” Morgan explains.
“It’s very easy to drive a Mercedes or a big BMW, but when it comes to a very luxury car, we need to find someone who has these skills already.”
In Los Angeles, many families want a chauffeur with a security background. Military or police experience helps.
Your chauffeur should notice their surroundings, spot things that don’t seem right, and know when to change a route without being asked.
The rule is, never start a conversation. Wait for the principal to speak first. Never comment on anything you overhear.
What should you expect in the first 90 days?
Most placements that don’t work go wrong in the first three months. The problem is usually communication, not the hire.
Your chauffeur might not know if they’re doing well because nobody told them. They might not understand your preferences yet because nobody explained them. That’s what our check-ins are for. We stay in touch with both sides during that period.
Morgan Richez: “When they hire chauffeurs, they say it’s going to be a 9 to 6 job.
“But in fact it’s not possible, because you need to be there before, and sometimes you finish very late, because they’ve got a meeting and you need to wait. So it can be long hours. It’s not a 40-hours-a-week job.”
All of our US chauffeur briefs were clear and honest about it (we advise this), asking for evenings and weekends, and two chauffeur roles we recruited for set the week at five to six days.
We help with contracts, payroll setup, and connecting you with employment lawyers in New York, California, Florida, and other states.
Three-month replacement guarantee, with a check-in at 10 days. If it doesn’t work, we find someone new at no extra cost.
Once a chauffeur settles in, they most often stay. The chauffeurs on our database stay 3.8 years in each job on average.
Morgan puts it simply: “If I spend five or 10 years with you, I know exactly every single journey you are going to do, in advance.”
Source: The Morgan & Mallet Household Staff Industry Report 2026, and job ads for three of our US chauffeur searches, 2025 and 2026. How we count
Where can you hire a private chauffeur in the US?
Morgan & Mallet places private chauffeurs and personal drivers in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, DC, and anywhere else our clients have homes.
Households across Texas often need a driver who can cover long distances between Dallas, Houston and Austin.
A chauffeur search for a client, in January 2026, was for a New York family whose chauffeur would plan the days beforehand with the family office.
The work was mainly to drive the parents and children around the city, with some trips over the tri-state area.
When they had guests, the chauffeur helped out serving drinks and set the table. 128 people applied for this role.
Two other example roles we recruited for were in 2025: an entrepreneur in New York City who needed private and business driving (54 applicants), and a family in Bel Air (77 applicants).
Across the world we have posted 90 chauffeur ads in eight countries since June 2022, with 9,512 applicants.
We receive a strong amount of new requests for chauffeurs too. 6% of the US hiring requests from 29 April to 17 June 2026 asked for a chauffeur.
New York is the busiest market for us. Traffic, parking, and the pace of the city don’t make it practical to drive yourself if you need to get anything done between meetings.
In Los Angeles the issue is distance, rather than traffic at a standstill so much. A principal’s day might cover three counties. Entertainment industry families also need chauffeurs who understand privacy.
Morgan sees the same pull in both big cities:
“Especially in the big cities like New York or Los Angeles, the traffic is very complicated. People don’t want to drive anymore, and they don’t have the time to drive.
“So they would like a very good chauffeur, to work in the back. They’ve got the computer, they can work in the back, and the driver can drive them.”
Demand for chauffeurs in Miami is more seasonal. Families who spend time between the northeast and South Florida need chauffeurs who are willing to relocate in the winter.
Demand for chauffeurs in San Francisco is often from tech entrepreneurs.
A lot of them run electric fleets, so EV charging logistics are now part of the job.
Morgan Richez: “If you’re looking for a very nice chauffeur in New York, Los Angeles, London or Dubai, it’s very easy to find a chauffeur. But when it comes to smaller cities, not easy to find.”
For the Hamptons, Greenwich, Aspen, or Palm Beach, searches can take longer. You might need to offer a live-in arrangement or a higher salary to get the right person in these areas.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs and applications, June 2022 to June 2026, and the hiring requests families sent us, 29 April to 17 June 2026. How we count
Private chauffeur job description
This is the type of job description we would write for a family hiring a full-time, live-out private chauffeur (also called a personal driver) in Beverly Hills. It shows what’s in a brief and what’s needed to be covered.
Our real Bel Air search in 2025 was a lot like this.
The family wanted the chauffeur to have five years of experience working for HNW or UHNW clients, a California license with a clean record, and someone who knew the roads from Bel Air to Pacific Palisades.
Example of a private chauffeur job description
The example is a security-focused family chauffeur hire.
About the role
A high-net-worth family is hiring a private chauffeur for their home in Beverly Hills. The job is mostly driving the family’s son safely to and from school, after-school activities, and other locations across Los Angeles.
The school commute crosses Westside traffic twice a day, so route planning and timing are very important. Some adult driving comes up, but the school-and-activities run is most of the role.
The role is full-time, live-out, with occasional Saturday work and hours flexing around the family’s calendar.
Responsibilities
Driving and routes
- Drive the family’s son safely to and from school, activities, and any other places on the daily schedule
- Plan routes ahead of each journey, with backup options for traffic, weather, and last-minute changes
- Drive smoothly so the child can travel comfortably
Vehicle and security
- Keep the car clean inside and out, fueled, serviced on schedule, and registered up to date
- Carry out daily pre-drive checks (tires, fluids, lights) before the morning school drop-off
- Stay aware of the surroundings, spot anything that doesn’t look right, and change routes if needed without being asked
- Coordinate with any household security on the day’s plan
Coordination and conduct
- Coordinate with the family’s nanny, PA, and house manager on schedules and changes
- Stay calm and composed under pressure
- Stay discreet and quiet during journeys; never start a conversation, wait for the principal to speak first
- Speak up when something needs saying
Requirements
Essential
- Minimum 5 years in a similar private chauffeur role, ideally with experience driving children
- Verifiable references from previous private families
- Executive Protection (EP) trained, or military or police background
- Clean California driver’s license (or valid US driver’s license with willingness to convert)
- Fluent English
Personal qualities
- Exceptional commitment and loyalty
- Highly flexible and able to adapt to changing schedules
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills
- Discreet about everything seen, overheard, or assumed about the family
- Comfortable spending long stretches alone in the car between drop-off and pickup
Work conditions
- Full-time, live-out
- Occasional Saturday work
- Salary based on experience, with a premium for EP-trained candidates
This job description was reviewed by Morgan Richez, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet, who worked as a private chauffeur for ultra-high-net-worth families before founding the agency.
Frequently Asked
Questions About Hiring a Chauffeur
How long does it take to hire a chauffeur?
Three to six weeks for most roles. If you need someone with luxury vehicle experience or security training, it can take longer.
Can a chauffeur also provide security?
Some can. Candidates with military, police, or close protection backgrounds bring that awareness to the role. We can search specifically for this.
Do you place chauffeurs outside major cities?
Yes. The Hamptons, Greenwich, Aspen, Palm Beach, anywhere our clients have homes. Smaller markets take longer and sometimes need a live-in arrangement to attract the right person.
What about employment law for chauffeurs?
It varies by state, but federal law makes the framework.
A family chauffeur is seen as a household employee. Live-out chauffeurs must get time and a half after working 40 hours a week, and live-in chauffeurs are exempt from federal overtime but not from the minimum wage.
New York’s Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights adds overtime after 40 hours (44 if live-in), a weekly day of rest, and three paid days off after a year.
The IRS counts drivers as household employees too, so payroll taxes start when you pay $3,000 or more in 2026. California has its own rules.
Chauffeur contracts need to take into account the long and irregular hours that the role can have. We introduce you to lawyers in every state where you’re hiring.
Can a chauffeur manage multiple vehicles?
Yes. Many of the chauffeurs we place look after entire fleets. Service appointments, insurance, registration, storage. If you have four cars and need one person keeping them all maintained, that’s quite normal.
Briefs we worked on in Bel Air and in 2026 in New York asked the chauffeur to keep maintenance records and deal with the dealerships.
Morgan’s rule for servicing is about timing:
“If we need to do maintenance, we need to make sure he can do that when the employer is not there, because we can’t say to the employer the car is not available.
“So you need to plan this kind of thing.”
What vehicles should a chauffeur be able to drive?
At minimum, large luxury SUVs and sedans. If you own performance or classic vehicles, we verify the candidate’s specific experience during our interview and reference checks.
Families often name the type of car the chauffeur will be driving. In 31% of our chauffeur searches worldwide, the ad asked for experience with luxury cars, sometimes mentioning a Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Maybach or Porsche.
Can you hire a personal driver instead of a chauffeur?
Yes. In a private household, ‘personal driver’ and ‘private driver’ usually mean the same role as chauffeur.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, chauffeur searches worldwide and in the US, June 2022 to June 2026. How we count
Hire a Chauffeur
Call Morgan & Mallet on (646)965-2308 or get in touch online.
New York
office address
260 Madison Avenue, 8th floor, 10016, New York, NY - United States
phone
+1 (646)965-2308
opening hours
Monday - Thursday : 9AM - 6PM
Friday : 9AM - 5PM
Saturday & Sunday : Closed
Miami
office address
1555 NE 121st Street, Suite 104, North Miami, FL 33161, United States
phone
+1 305 710 3380
opening hours
Monday - Thursday : 9AM - 6PM
Friday : 9AM - 5PM
Saturday & Sunday : Closed
Los Angeles
office address
895 Dove St, Newport Beach, CA 92660, United States
phone
+1 305 710 3380
opening hours
Monday - Thursday : 9AM - 6PM
Friday : 9AM - 5PM
Saturday & Sunday : Closed