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 that is PKR 500 an hour for economy cars and sedans, and PKR 2,000 an hour for SUVs, luxury cars, the Grand Cabin and the Coaster.
Then there is the part nobody asks about until it is on the bill.
A new rental day does not begin at midnight. It begins at four in the morning.
Say you book at nine. Your twelve hours finish at nine in the evening. Keep the car until two and that is five hours of overtime — not a second day, even though the date has changed. Keep it until four and you have paid seven hours of overtime, and only past four does a second rental day start.
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. Most will not have an answer ready. The ones charging a full second day from midnight are the reason it is worth asking.
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 a little differently. There is no mileage cap there either, but the route you agreed to 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. The limit is on where you go, not how far.
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 it is PKR 500 a day for the driver’s food. You can give him a meal during duty hours instead if that is easier, and plenty of customers do.
This is not a driver fee. The driver is already in the rate — you are not paying extra for him, you are covering his lunch.
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.
Three of the seventeen Lahore companies we looked at publish this at all. It is a small number that turns up on almost every invoice.
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: fixed fare, driver and fuel included.
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 the driver’s 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: economy and hatchback bookings do not need one. Luxury cars, SUVs, the Coaster and the Hiace take twenty-five per cent.
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?
Not with us, unless you are still out after four in the morning. The rental day resets at four rather than midnight, so a function running to one or two costs you overtime for those hours and nothing more.
Does waiting cost extra?
No. Waiting sits inside the driver’s twelve hours.
Is the PKR 500 allowance a driver fee?
No. The driver is included in the rate. The 500 covers his food for the day inside Lahore, and you can hand him a meal instead of paying it.
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. Economy and hatchback bookings need no advance; luxury, SUV, Coaster and Hiace take twenty-five per cent. If a company wants everything up front, 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.
Our conditions are current as of August 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.