Renting a car in Lahore starts at PKR 4,000 a day for an economy car with a driver and runs well past PKR 100,000 for luxury. Our full rate table — every vehicle, local and outstation, exact figures rather than ranges — is on the Rent a Car Lahore page.
But the daily rate is the smaller half of the question. What you actually pay depends on how many hours that rate buys, what happens when the day runs long, who feeds the driver, and what gets added at the end. Those are the numbers most companies here don’t publish, and they are what this page is about.
Start by asking what a “day” means
A daily rate buys a set number of hours of driver duty. There is no standard in Lahore, so every company picks its own.
Some sell an eight-hour minimum. Some sell ten. One advertises a day of eleven hours and fifty-nine minutes. Ours is twelve.
Which is why putting two quotes side by side usually tells you nothing useful. A car at 4,500 for ten hours works out at 450 an hour. A car at 5,000 for twelve is 417. The second one looks more expensive and is cheaper — and because the first company’s clock stops two hours earlier, it starts charging overtime while the other car is still on its base rate.
Divide the rate by the hours before you compare. It flips the answer more often than you would think.
When the day runs past twelve hours
Overtime starts. With us it is PKR 500 an hour on economy cars and sedans. Above that band it is one eighth of the car’s own day rate: PKR 2,000 an hour on a Fortuner, PKR 2,500 on a Prado, PKR 3,000 on a Land Cruiser. The full car-by-car list is on the rental information page.
Then there is the part nobody asks about until it is on the bill.
The twelve hours are counted on one calendar date. Once a booking runs past midnight, it has entered a second rental day.
Say you book at nine in the morning. Your twelve hours finish at nine in the evening. Keep the car until eleven and that is two hours of overtime. Keep it past midnight and the date has changed, so a second rental day begins.
If you are booking for a wedding, a mehndi, or anything that ends when it ends, ask every company you call when their rental day resets, and get the answer in writing. Most will not have one ready. With us it is midnight, so if a function will run late, mention the finishing time when you book and the quote will cover it.
Waiting is already paid for
There is no waiting charge, because waiting is part of the driver’s twelve hours. Whether you are in a meeting, sitting through a function, or running late between stops, the only clock is the duty clock.
Airport arrivals get sixty minutes of free waiting after landing on top of that, and we track the flight, so a delay does not eat into your day.
There is no kilometre limit
Not on a car with a driver. If your day covers three hundred kilometres inside Lahore, that is yours to decide. You have booked the car for the day and you are paying the fuel — we have never found a reason to count the distance.
Some companies here do cap daily mileage and charge per kilometre beyond it. If nobody has mentioned a limit to you, ask. Better to hear the number now than read it on an invoice.
Self drive works differently. Its kilometre terms are agreed with you at booking, and so is the route. Book the car to drive to Islamabad and back and that is the booking; taking it somewhere else instead is not covered.
What “200 km per rental” means on someone else’s quote
It is a distance allowance attached to the day rate: drive up to the stated figure and you pay the quoted price, go past it and a per-kilometre charge starts on every kilometre after. Two hundred is the figure people search for, but the cap and the rate beyond it are set by each company, so they are two separate questions to ask.
Two hundred kilometres sounds generous until you map an ordinary Lahore day against it. A morning run out to the airport, back across the city for a meeting, out again to Bahria Town and home in the evening takes a sizeable bite out of it, and a day with several cross-city legs can pass it without going anywhere unusual. That is the point where a cheaper headline rate stops being cheaper.
If a quote mentions a cap, ask for the allowance and the per-kilometre rate in the same message, and ask whether the odometer is read at handover and at return. On a booking with a driver from us there is no cap to record, so the question does not arise.
Who pays if something happens to the car
Worth being straight about how this works in Pakistan. Not every rental car on the road is insured. Bank-leased vehicles usually are, privately owned ones often are not, and that is the market rather than any one company.
On a booking with a driver it does not reach you. If there is an accident, it sits with the driver and with us. You are not asked to cover damage to the vehicle.
Ask anyone else you are considering the same question. Damage claims are the most common thing that goes wrong in a Lahore rental, and most operators would rather answer afterwards than before.
Self drive is a different arrangement — you are the one driving, so the responsibilities move with you. Those terms, along with the security cheque and verification, are on the self drive page.
What the driver costs you
Inside Lahore, nothing. The driver is in the rate, and his meals during a Lahore day are our cost, so there is no food allowance to pay.
Outside the city, his meals are on you for the trip. If the journey keeps him overnight it is PKR 2,000 a night, or you arrange his room and food yourself.
Some Lahore companies do add a daily food allowance on top of the rate. Only three of the seventeen we looked at publish it, so ask before you book.
What is not in the rate
On daily hire, fuel, motorway tolls, Ring Road tolls, parking and entry tickets are separate. (Daily hire only — a limousine booking includes all of these in one event price.) They depend entirely on where you go, so nobody can quote them at booking — us included.
Limousine bookings and fixed route fares work the other way. A one-way run to another city is one price with fuel and tolls inside it, because the route is known before the car leaves. Airport transfers are the same: a fixed fare with fuel, tolls and parking inside it.
Knowing which of the two you have booked matters more than the number itself.
Is anything added at the end?
No. The figure you are quoted is the figure you pay. No service charge, no booking fee, nothing that turns up on the invoice without being in the conversation first.
Corporate customers who need a tax invoice should say so when booking, and we will issue the quote with the applicable tax shown on it.
Fuel, tolls, parking and, on an outstation trip, the driver’s overnight allowance are separate, as above, because they follow where you actually travel. That is daily car hire. Limousine bookings are priced differently: a limousine is quoted per event on an agreed route, and that quote already includes the fuel, tolls, parking and the chauffeur’s meals. See our limousine page for those terms.
Cancelling, and paying up front
Cancel seventy-two hours or more before pickup and it is free. Between seventy-two and twenty-four hours, half the advance is retained. Under twenty-four hours, the advance is not refunded.
On advances: 25% confirms any daily booking, whatever the car, and the balance is paid when the rental finishes. Self drive is the exception and is paid in full at booking.
Be wary of any company wanting the full amount before the car arrives. Once they have it, you have nothing left if something goes wrong.
Five questions worth asking anyone
- How many hours does the rate cover? Divide, then compare hourly.
- What is the overtime rate, and when does a new rental day start?
- Is there a kilometre limit, and what is charged past it?
- Am I paying for the driver’s meals, and his room if we are away overnight?
- Is anything added at the end — fuel, tolls, tax, parking?
Any company that will answer all five in a WhatsApp message before you book is one whose invoice will not surprise you. One that will not is telling you something too.
Questions people ask
Why do two companies quote such different rates for the same car?
Usually one of three reasons, none of them dishonest. The rate covers fewer hours. The driver is charged separately rather than included. Or tax and allowances get added at the end instead of shown up front. The headline numbers alone will not tell you which is cheaper.
What is a duty day?
The block of driver hours your daily rate covers. Ours is twelve. It does two jobs — it sets what the rate is actually worth, and it fixes the moment overtime begins.
We have booked for a wedding and we will be out past midnight. Is that two days?
Yes. The twelve hours are counted on one calendar date, so once the booking runs past midnight it has entered a second rental day. Mention the finishing time when you book and the quote will cover it.
Does waiting cost extra?
No. Waiting sits inside the driver’s twelve hours.
Do I pay for the driver’s meals?
Not inside Lahore. The driver is included in the rate, and his meals on a Lahore day are our cost. On an outstation trip you cover his meals, plus PKR 2,000 a night if he stays over, or you arrange his room yourself.
Is there a limit on how far I can travel in a day?
Not with a driver. You are paying the fuel, so the distance is your call.
Who pays if the car is damaged?
On a booking with a driver, we do. That sits with the driver and the company, not with you.
Should I pay the whole amount in advance?
No. A 25% advance confirms a daily booking and the balance is paid when the rental finishes. Self drive is the exception and is paid in full at booking. If a company wants everything up front for a car with a driver, ask why.
What should I get in writing before the car turns up?
Duty hours, the overtime rate, when a new day starts, who covers the driver’s allowance, whether fuel and tolls are included, and the cancellation deadline. Six things. Any company willing to put them in a message is one you can book with confidently.
What does 200 km per rental mean?
It is a daily distance allowance. You pay the quoted rate up to that figure, then a per-kilometre charge on everything beyond it. Ask for both numbers, because the cap and the overage rate are set separately by each company. On a car with a driver from us there is no cap at all inside Lahore.
Can I rent a car for a one-way trip in Lahore?
Inside Lahore a rental is a day booking with a driver rather than a point-to-point fare, so the car stays with you for the day rather than dropping you and leaving. One-way genuinely means one-way when you are leaving the city: an intercity drop is a fixed fare for the journey with the fuel and the tolls inside it, and the return leg is a second fare. Those are on our intercity car service page.
Our conditions are current as of September 2026 and set out in full on the rental information page. Market comparisons come from a review of seventeen Lahore rental companies’ published terms carried out on 27 August 2026; other companies change their terms without notice, so treat those as a snapshot. For daily, weekly and monthly rates by vehicle, see Lahore car rental rates.