Mourners splash cash for limos at funerals

Mourners have been forking out up to $35,000 per hour to rent limousines to attend funerals.

And with some funerals lasting about four hours, it sometimes proves more expensive to rent these luxury vehicles to see off a loved one, than it is to book one for a wedding.

"Funerals would be more hours than weddings so, in that respect, it would definitely be more costly to rent a limo for a funeral than a wedding because most people charge by the hour," Laura Chuck, a representative from Luxury Limos in Kingston, said.

First to introduce

Tommy Thompson, director of Brite Lite Funeral Services and Supplies, who was one of the first funeral service directors to introduce funeral limousine services, believes that the use of the luxury vehicles brings mourning families closer during their time of bereavement.

"Normally, you'd probably have a bus and people may be far apart. But with the limousine, everybody is right beside each other and you can even reach and have a drink. The whole exclusiveness of having a limousine, it helps in an emotional way, and it also enhances the look of a funeral," Thompson said.

It is not uncommon these days to see a few limousines strung out in funeral processions. Thompson used several limos for his son, Andrew's funeral in 2017.

"There has definitely been an increase in demand for it. It was just my idea of trying to change the whole concept and come up with new innovations for funerals," he told THE STAR.

Chuck, the Luxury Limos representative, believes that the trend is as a result of influence from the US.

"You would find that on the weekends, we get a lot of bookings for funerals, mostly international clients, because that is the trend in the US. So that's what they're used to as family transportation," the representative said. "Even the local persons here on the ground, you find that usually when they rent, they're mostly renting on behalf of their family members abroad, but they are here so they do the groundwork."

Adrian Collins, managing director for Drae's Funeral Home, in Old Harbour, St Catherine, said that the trend is one usually requested by families of younger, more popular members of communities.

"They normally ask for a family transport and that's how the limousine service comes in," Collins told THE STAR. "A lot of people go for it but when the price hit them, sometimes they decline."