If your road journey in Pakistan runs past roughly ten hours at the wheel, rent a car with two drivers or split the trip with an overnight stop. On a day that long the risk isn’t the driver’s skill, it’s hour eleven. Karachi to Lahore or Karachi to Islamabad is the classic case. Either one is a full day of driving before you add fuel stops, meals, prayer breaks and the slow run through Sindh. On a route like that, a relief driver lets the car keep moving while one man sleeps. An overnight in Multan or Sukkur gives everyone a bed. A second vehicle only makes sense when the problem is seats and luggage, not hours. The rest of this guide covers how to choose between the three, how the second driver actually rides, rests and gets paid, what he costs you in seat space, and what to get in writing before the car leaves.
The short decision
Most buyers overthink this. Three questions settle it:
- How many hours of driving does the route realistically take, door to door? Use moving time plus stops, not the figure a map app shows at 3am.
- Do you need to arrive the same day? A wedding, a flight out of Islamabad, a hospital appointment in Lahore: these are same-day reasons. “It would be nice” is not.
- With one seat given up, does the vehicle still carry everyone and everything? A relief driver takes a passenger seat for the whole journey.
| Your situation | Sensible default | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Under about 8 hours of driving, daytime | One driver, planned breaks | A rested professional can cover this with regular stops |
| 8 to 11 hours, daytime start | One driver plus a hard stop rule, or a relief driver if the schedule is tight | Borderline: fine with a proper rest plan, risky if the day slips |
| Over 11 hours, same-day arrival needed | Two drivers in one vehicle | The car keeps moving while one driver sleeps |
| Over 11 hours, no deadline | Overnight stop, one driver | Everyone sleeps in a bed; usually the calmer option |
| Group or luggage too big for one vehicle, even before the relief seat | Second vehicle, each with its own driver | Solves capacity; a relief driver cannot |
The thresholds above are editorial judgement rather than a legal rule. They sit comfortably with the break guidance most road-safety authorities give, which we come to below.
Which journeys actually need a relief driver
Pakistan’s long north-south trips are longer than people from the UK or the Gulf tend to expect, and the motorway network doesn’t run all the way through yet. Take the pieces one at a time.
Karachi to Islamabad by car in one day: the arithmetic
The published lengths of the main segments tell the story:
- Karachi to Hyderabad: the M-9, 136 km of six-lane motorway.
- Hyderabad to Sukkur: the planned M-6 alignment is about 306 km. Groundbreaking was in December 2022, and while it is built, traffic uses the N-5 National Highway or the N-55 Indus Highway. Check which sections are open before you plan around them.
- Sukkur to Multan: the M-5, 392 km, open since November 2019.
- Multan to Pindi Bhattian: the M-4, 309 km through Khanewal, Faisalabad and the central Punjab farmland.
- Pindi Bhattian to Islamabad: the northern stretch of the M-2, which is 375 km in total and climbs the Salt Range at Kallar Kahar.
Put those together and Karachi to Islamabad comes to something like 1,400 km. The motorway limit for cars and light vehicles is 120 km/h, restored in June 2026 after a temporary cut, and the national highway sections are slower. Even averaging the motorway figure non-stop, which nobody manages, the moving time alone runs past eleven hours. Once you add the Sindh highway section, fuel, food, prayers and a couple of short leg-stretches, a same-day arrival usually means 15 hours or more on the road. That is an estimate from segment lengths, not a timetable. Your real figure depends on start time, traffic and weather.
So can you do Karachi to Islamabad by car in one day? Yes, but not safely with one driver. It’s the textbook two-driver journey.
Karachi to Lahore, and the other long hauls
Karachi to Lahore follows the same spine as far as Multan or Pindi Bhattian, then heads east, so it is shorter than the Islamabad run but still a very long day. We cover that route in detail, stop by stop, in our Karachi to Lahore road guide. Other trips that end up in two-driver territory:
- Karachi to Peshawar, which adds the Islamabad to Peshawar leg on top of everything above.
- Lahore or Islamabad to Quetta, on long single-carriageway sections.
- Out-and-back days: Islamabad to a wedding in Multan and back the same night is a two-driver day even though each leg looks manageable.
- Any trip that starts after a long-haul flight. The driver may be fresh, but if he has already done an early airport pickup, count those hours too.
Routes to the north (Naran, Swat, Hunza, Skardu) are a different problem. Mountain roads are slow and demanding, so the answer there is usually shorter driving days and an overnight, not a second driver pushing on after dark.
Relief driver, overnight stop or second vehicle
These three get lumped together in quotes, but they fix different problems. A relief driver solves the hours. An overnight stop solves the hours and your own tiredness. A second vehicle solves space. Buying the wrong one is how people end up with two half-empty cars on a route that really needed a hotel in Multan.
| Factor | Relief driver (one vehicle) | Overnight stop (one driver) | Second vehicle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Same-day arrival | Yes, realistically | No | Only if each car also has two drivers |
| Passenger fatigue | High: you sit for 15+ hours | Low: everyone sleeps in a bed | High, same as a single long day |
| Seats available to you | One fewer | All | More in total |
| Extra costs to expect | Second driver’s day rate and meals | Hotel rooms, driver’s night allowance and lodging, an extra hire day | A full second hire, fuel and tolls |
| Night driving | Usually yes | Avoidable | Usually yes |
| Best for | Deadlines, small groups, business travel | Families, elderly passengers, children, winter fog season | Groups too big for one vehicle |
When the overnight wins
If anyone in the car is elderly, recovering from surgery, pregnant or under about ten, the overnight is usually the better trip even when a relief driver is on offer. Sitting still for most of a day wears passengers out as well as drivers, and the second driver does nothing for that. Multan sits roughly two-thirds of the way from Karachi towards Lahore, which makes it the natural overnight. Sukkur works if you want to finish the Sindh highway section on day one while everyone is fresh.
When a second vehicle is the real answer
If eight people and their wedding luggage don’t fit in one van even before you give up a seat, adding a relief driver won’t help. You need a second vehicle. For a long journey, each vehicle then needs its own driver plan, which may mean four drivers across two cars. Our sister service Pakistan Taxi has a clear walk-through on choosing a group van or several cars that is worth reading before you settle the vehicle count.
How the second driver travels, rests and is paid
A second driver for an intercity trip isn’t a passenger who happens to hold a licence. Treat him as a working crew member with a defined off-duty period, and check that the operator’s plan actually gives him one.
Where he sits and how he sleeps
In a sedan or small SUV, the off-duty driver normally takes the front passenger seat. It reclines furthest, and it keeps him close enough to take over at a service area without anyone shuffling round. In a van such as a Hiace or a Grand Starex, he may take a rear bench so the front seat stays free for a passenger who gets car-sick. Either way, he has to be able to actually sleep. A driver who spends his “rest” chatting to the family, or directing the other driver, isn’t resting. On the rest side, UK road-safety guidance is unusually specific: the Highway Code recommends a break of at least 15 minutes after every two hours of driving. It also advises against long journeys between midnight and 6am, when natural alertness is lowest. That is UK guidance, not Pakistani law, but it’s a sensible benchmark to hold any operator to.
How the handover works
Changeovers should happen at a proper stop: a motorway service area, or a fuel station on the national highway. Never on a hard shoulder. On the M-2, service areas such as Bhera and Kallar Kahar are spaced roughly 60 to 80 km apart, which makes a two-hour rhythm easy to keep. The Hyderabad to Sukkur stretch on the national highway has no motorway service-area network, so agree in advance where the handover will be rather than leaving it to “when I feel tired”.
A workable pattern for a long day is shifts of about four hours, with a short break at the two-hour mark and a full stop at each changeover, and the off-duty driver sleeping rather than dozing. The driver who starts should be the one who slept best the night before, which is not always the one who owns the car.
How he is paid
Operators price a relief driver in different ways, and the number matters less than knowing what it covers. Expect some combination of:
- A day rate for the second driver, priced separately from the vehicle, which is already in the main hire.
- Meals on the road for both drivers.
- His return. On a one-way trip, both drivers usually have to get back. Ask whether the car returns empty with both of them, or whether the relief driver goes home by bus and who pays for the ticket.
- A night allowance and lodging if the plan changes to include an overnight.
Rates differ between cities, dates and operators, so we don’t quote figures here. Ask for the relief driver as a separate line on the quote. That lets you compare it honestly against the cost of an overnight stop.
What the relief seat costs you in space
This is the part people forget until the car arrives. A relief driver occupies a seat for the whole journey and brings his own bag, however small. On a long trip, your passengers also carry more than usual: food, a cool box, pillows, a change of clothes in the cabin rather than the boot.
| Vehicle type | Typical passenger seats | With a relief driver aboard | Practical verdict for a long haul |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard sedan (Corolla, City) | 4 | 3 | Fine for two or three adults with modest luggage |
| Family MPV or 7-seat SUV | 6 | 5 | Third-row seats usually eat the boot; check luggage honestly |
| Group van (Hiace, Grand Starex) | Varies by layout | One fewer | The usual choice for families plus a relief driver |
Seat counts vary by model and layout, so treat the table as a starting point and check the specific vehicle. Our vehicle class pages list seating and luggage by model. The companion guide to how many people and suitcases actually fit is blunt about where the boot space goes. The rule of thumb: if you are already at the vehicle’s limit without the relief driver, move up a class rather than squeeze.
Driver rest on long road trips: an example day
Here is a hypothetical plan for a same-day Karachi to Islamabad run with two drivers, to show the shape rather than promise any times. Call them Driver A and Driver B.
- Early morning departure from Karachi, Driver A. Out on the M-9 before the city traffic builds. Driver B sleeps.
- First short break around Hyderabad, then onto the national highway north towards Sukkur, still Driver A.
- First changeover near Sukkur, at a fuel stop with food. Driver B takes the M-5. Driver A eats, then sleeps properly, not in the front seat pointing out the lorries.
- Breaks roughly every two hours on the M-5 towards Multan. Prayer times can be folded into these stops.
- Second changeover around Multan, where the M-5 becomes the M-4. Driver A back on, rested.
- M-4 through Khanewal and Faisalabad to Pindi Bhattian, then the M-2 north. Driver B sleeps.
- Last stop on the M-2 before the Salt Range climb at Kallar Kahar. If either driver is struggling at this point, this is where you decide to stop for the night rather than push the final hours.
Two things make a plan like this work: a named changeover point for each shift, and an agreed “stop if” condition. Without both, the second driver ends up as a passenger in the front seat and the first driver does 14 hours anyway.
What to confirm in writing before departure
A phone call saying “yes, two drivers” is not a plan. Before the car leaves, get these points in a message or on the booking itself:
- Both drivers’ names and phone numbers, and which one starts.
- That both hold a valid licence for the vehicle class. Ask specifically when the vehicle is a large van or a minibus rather than a car.
- That the vehicle’s insurance and the operator’s terms cover both drivers, not just the one on the paperwork.
- The planned changeover points and roughly how long each shift runs.
- The stop condition: the circumstances in which the drivers will stop for the night rather than push on, such as dense fog, a road closure, or either driver saying he is too tired. Agree who pays for that night if it happens.
- What the relief driver’s charge covers: meals, return travel, and any night allowance.
- Tolls and fuel: whether they are included or charged at cost. Motorway tolls are revised from time to time, so check the current figure rather than last year’s.
- The seat plan: where the off-duty driver sits, so nobody finds out at the kerb that the fifth passenger has nowhere to go.
If an operator can’t give you the second driver’s name the day before, treat the “relief driver” as unconfirmed and plan accordingly.
Constraints that change the answer
Fog season
Winter fog across Punjab routinely forces motorway closures. In January 2025, Dawn reported closures on sections of the M-1, M-2 and M-3, with visibility down to 50 to 60 metres. A relief driver doesn’t help when the road itself is shut. From December to February, build in the option of an overnight whatever your driver plan.
Night driving
A two-driver plan often means some driving after dark. That’s fine on a motorway with a rested driver. On single-carriageway national highways it’s harder work, with slow lorries, unlit tractors and oncoming headlights. If your route includes a long stretch of national highway, try to cover it in daylight, even if that means an earlier start.
Live road information
The National Highways and Motorway Police publish a travel advisory service and run FM 95 radio updates for motorway users. Check both before departure and again at the changeovers, particularly in fog season or during heavy rain.
Arranging it with iDrive
For a long-haul journey, the most useful thing you can tell us is the whole picture: route, date, headcount, luggage, any deadline at the far end, and whether you’d accept an overnight. With that, the request can be matched to a suitable vehicle, and a relief driver or an overnight plan can be proposed where the route calls for it. Availability depends on the date and on suppliers in the departure city, so nothing is confirmed until a supplier accepts the job. You can start with our city-to-city taxi service page, or go straight to send your journey details.
Questions people ask
Is hiring a relief driver for a long journey in Pakistan the same as renting two cars?
No. A relief driver shares one vehicle with the lead driver and takes turns at the wheel. Renting two cars is a capacity decision for groups that don’t fit in one vehicle. Two cars on a very long route may each need their own relief driver.
Can I drive Karachi to Islamabad by car in one day?
It is possible, but the route is roughly 1,400 km by the main segments, and the moving time alone exceeds eleven hours even at the 120 km/h motorway limit. With stops, most same-day runs take 15 hours or more. That is a two-driver journey, or a two-day trip with an overnight in Multan or Sukkur.
Where does the second driver sleep?
In the vehicle, usually the reclined front passenger seat in a car, or a rear bench in a van. He should actually sleep during his off-shift, so passengers should let him rest rather than treat him as a navigator.
Is an overnight stop cheaper than a relief driver?
Not always. An overnight adds hotel rooms, the driver’s night allowance and lodging, and an extra hire day, while a relief driver adds a second day rate, meals and his return travel. Ask for both options itemised and compare them on the same quote.
