Most close protection in BC is not a standing arrangement. It is three days.
An executive flying in for meetings. A public figure at an event. A week while a specific situation is dealt with. A court appearance.
Short engagements are the normal shape of this work, and they are priced and planned differently from anything ongoing.
What you are actually buying
For a short assignment, most of the value happens before the client arrives.
Advance work is the unglamorous part and the part that matters. Someone visits the venues, establishes where a vehicle can pull in, which entrance avoids the public frontage, where the exits are, and where the nearest emergency department is.
They identify the points where the client is exposed and stationary, because that is where incidents happen.
By the time the client lands, the decisions have been made. The officer with them is executing a plan, not improvising.
If a provider quotes you a number of officers without asking about the itinerary, they are selling presence rather than protection.
It starts with an assessment
Before anything is scoped, a competent provider establishes:
Who the client is, and what makes them a potential target. Public profile, role, recent decisions.
Whether there is a specific threat, or this is general precaution. Those lead to very different arrangements.
The itinerary, and how predictable it is. Predictability is the main vulnerability in most business travel.
Whether the schedule is discoverable in advance. A conference programme with times and locations is a planning document for anybody who wants one.
For a lot of short engagements, the assessment concludes that advance work and secure transport are enough, and no visible detail is needed at all.
Discretion is usually the point
A protection officer at a corporate event should read as staff.
They position themselves with sightlines to the client and the entrances. They know the extraction route. They do not stand behind the client looking like security.
Visible protection announces that someone is worth protecting. For most corporate clients that is exactly the wrong signal, and it is why experienced providers default to discretion unless the assessment says otherwise.
This is also why close protection is a different hire from event security. Event officers manage a crowd. A protection officer manages proximity to one person.
How short bookings are priced
Close protection costs more per hour than any guarding service. The driver, though, is the length of the engagement rather than the headcount.
A single officer covering a two-day visit including travel days costs more than a larger presence at a four-hour function.
Advance work is billable and should be. It is real labour and it is where the risk is actually reduced. A quote that omits it is quoting something less than what you asked for.
Ask for pricing against the itinerary, not a day rate times a number of people. Our executive protection guide covers the service in full.
Notice
Short notice is possible and it is not free.
A week or more gives time for a proper assessment and advance work.
Two or three days is workable, with the advance compressed.
Under 48 hours means the advance happens in parallel with the engagement, which is a meaningfully weaker service. We will take the booking and we will tell you honestly what has been cut.
Same day, for an unfolding situation, is a different conversation. Call.
Licensing
Close protection is licensed security work in BC under the Security Services Act. The officer needs a current worker licence; the company needs a business licence.
This is worth verifying carefully, because the high end of this market attracts people with impressive backgrounds and no current BC licence. A former operator from somewhere else is not licensed here by virtue of their history.
Ask for both licences and the insurance certificate. Ours is $2M CAD in comprehensive general liability.
Questions worth asking
What does your assessment cover, and who does it?
Walk me through the advance work for this specific itinerary.
How do you handle transport, and are the drivers vetted?
What is your default on visibility, and why?
Will any part of this be subcontracted? Get the answer in writing.
If the answers are vague, or if the assessment gets skipped in favour of a quote, that is the whole signal.
Talk to us
Fireball Security provides close protection across British Columbia, mostly for short corporate engagements. Since 2020, 100+ licensed guards, 100+ clients in 11 cities, $2M CAD in comprehensive general liability.
See our executive protection service, get in touch, or call 250-899-6620. If the engagement is this week, phone.
