You may get a hefty bonus for sealing that deal downtown, but who’s the one person who was indispensable in making sure the crucial meeting took place at all?

No, not your mother. Not your significant other. Not your right-hand man or your lawyer.

We’re talking about the guy at the wheel of the town car. He’s the one who cheers you up or respects your silence, takes your stock tips, offers life lessons—and gets you where you’re going in one piece and with time to spare. He’s the unsung hero of the corporate world. Until now. We asked a half-dozen corporate-car veterans about life in the driver’s seat.

Robert Duffy
Driver since 1963
Owner of Regal Limousine, Sayreville, New Jersey, since 1984

The driving life: You got Starbucks; you got Dunkin’ Donuts. We’re Starbucks. You know how to handle a car, drive in city traffic? Doing that is a lot different if the C.E.O. of a Fortune 500 company is in the back. A good driver doesn’t get nervous, because he’s a professional, just like the guy in the back.

Times change: When I first started out, they were, “Thank God, no one can reach me. I’m going to read my paper until we catch the plane.” Now, we’re not out of the driveway and they’re talking to their adman. They’re a different breed. They eat, sleep, and are always doing business.

Sorry, he’s not here: They leave their phones in the car like crazy. We’ll be pulling away, a block down the road, and the secretary will be calling, and he’s left his BlackBerry in the car.

The driver-client relationship: I do the same thing they do. I’m always doing business, trying to get clients. The only difference is they have a lot more people doing it for them.

Harry Duhl
Driver since 1992
Staten Island, New York

Moving markets: I’ve learned a lot about the value of stock advice from what I’ve heard from the back seat. They always swear the stock’s going to make a lot of money. Do you want to guess how all those stocks turned out?

A wrong turn: I had a guy in the back wrapped up on the phone doing a business deal to Australia. We’re driving by a mosque on the way to Kennedy when we hear this loud sound, and he jumps and thinks it’s the police. It was just the imam calling everyone to prayer. I said, “We drove too far, and we’re in the Middle East.”

Pet peeve: Cell phones. They’re always leaving their cell phones.

Izzy Baldi
Driver since 1975
Owner of Executive Town Car, Franklin Square, New York, since 1989

On the clock: If you’re a businessman and your client has a good story going at dinner, you don’t tell him, “Sorry, I gotta go. My car’s waiting.” The driver shouldn’t be complaining.

Good traction on expensive shoes: The C.E.O. and C.F.O. of Nestlé flew in from Europe and had to get to Boston during a blizzard. About two hours into the trip, we get stuck at a ramp, so the C.E.O. and the C.F.O.—guys in their sixties—are out in the muck with me, pushing this car down the ramp, and have to run and jump into the moving car.

Doing deals: This one guy I deal with sells high-end Canadian suits, bought a $4 million house, and a Jaguar for the girlfriend. He tries to not get charged for making extra stops. I say, “You sell $2,000 suits. Have you ever thrown me a $500 suit?” He says, “No, I can’t do that.” I say, “Well, you see the position I’m in.”

Marc Gertz
Driver since 2000 (“But I feel like I’ve been doing this all my life.”)
Brooklyn, New York

Small talk: For some reason, they always want to talk about baseball. Everyone wants to fight about the Yankees.

Light reading: The Wall Street Journal they’ve already got. In the back, I leave them the Daily News and Jersey papers. I also put out Bon Appétit. They always read it but never take it with them.

My way: People who tell me how to go, they’re not taking into account construction, school buses, garbage trucks. My way is faster 99 percent of the time.

Why you’re lucky: Without the black cars, they’d be stuck with the yellow cabs—and 90 percent of those guys don’t know where they’re going.

Mansfield Richard Otto
Driver since 1993
Owner of Mansfield Executive Transportation, New York City, since 2004

Pet peeve: People will get in the car and say, “Let’s get going,” without knowing where they’re going and me never having been told where we’re going. That’s because someone at the office didn’t communicate with me, or sent me emails at the last minute. I prefer calls on the phone, because that way I can get a real person and work out the details.

With power comes patience: The higher up they are, the nicer they are. Low-level guys under a lot of stress and pressure pass it on to whoever is in their sphere. I’ve had assistants send me cards and candy and flowers because these guys were so rude.

Worst customer: I pull up with a client and park illegally. A policeman comes and tells me to move. The client tells me to stay there. The cop writes me a ticket and says if I don’t move, he’ll call for a tow truck. The customer won’t even talk to the cop and tells me to stay where I am. He thought he was so far up that he had power over the cop.

How to succeed in driving: Stay up on the restaurants—openings and closings. Stay up on women’s shopping. See that magazine back there? The New York magazine “Best of New York” issue resolves a lot of issues.

Jose Mercado
Driver since 1990
Long Island City, New York

Executive upset: If they’ve got to be at a meeting at 12, they’ll get in at 11:45 and expect me to get them there in five minutes. If I get stuck in traffic, they’ll slap or kick the front seat and yell, “Why’d you get stuck in traffic?”

Mum’s the word: They think we can’t hear what they’re doing back there, but we can hear every conversation.

Corporate canoodling: This man and woman get in from a midtown office to go to a corporate dinner downtown, but he tells me to drive anywhere for a while, and they make love in the back. Business people are the horniest, believe it or not. Maybe it’s just easier than getting a hotel room.