Most taxi advice is written for the person in the car. This one isn't. It's for whoever books the car — the PA, the office manager, the events lead, the operations person who ends up arranging travel for twelve people arriving from four directions on the same morning.
That job has different problems to booking your own ride. You are arranging travel for people whose plans you don't fully control, you carry some responsibility for how they get there, and you usually need to account for it afterwards.
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Booking travel for someone who isn't you
The single most common source of trouble is information that lives in someone else's head.
When you book on behalf of a colleague or client, the booking needs their details, not yours:
- The passenger's own mobile number. If the driver needs to reach someone on the day, it has to be the person standing on the pavement — not you, in a meeting, three miles away.
- Their exact pickup address with a postcode. A hotel name is not an address, and London has several of most hotel chains.
- Their flight number, for an airport collection, so the pickup is set against the actual landing time rather than a schedule.
- Who to contact if plans change, and whether that is you or them.
Our business travel and expenses guide covers the receipt and expense-claim side of this from the traveller's perspective; this article is about arranging it from the organiser's.
Duty of care isn't a formality
If your organisation is putting someone in a vehicle, how that vehicle was arranged matters — particularly for late finishes, lone travellers, and staff who don't know the city.
Booking through a licensed private hire operator rather than letting people find their own way home gives you three things an ad-hoc arrangement doesn't:
- A record of the journey — who travelled, when, from where to where.
- A licensed, checked driver. London private hire drivers are licensed by Transport for London, which requires an enhanced DBS check as part of the licensing regime.
- A named point of contact if something goes wrong mid-journey, rather than a driver who was hailed on a street.
For staff finishing late, our late-night taxi guide covers the specific safety points worth passing on to people travelling alone.
Choosing the vehicle for the occasion
Corporate bookings fail most often on capacity, because the person booking sizes the car on headcount and forgets the luggage.
| Situation | Sensible choice | | :--- | :--- | | One or two staff, city journey | Saloon | | Client pickup, or a journey where presentation matters | Executive car | | Three or four with overnight bags or kit | Estate or people carrier | | A team of six to eight travelling together | Minibus — one vehicle, one arrival time | | A day of meetings with several stops | Book by the hour rather than per journey |
The executive and chauffeur guide covers when a premium vehicle genuinely earns its place versus when a standard saloon does the same job. For groups, group taxi hire has the real capacity split — and the warning that eight people with eight bags is a different booking to eight people with laptop bags.
Days with several stops: book time, not routes
A day of client visits, a roadshow, a site inspection, a film or photography shoot — these are all the same shape. Multiple stops, uncertain durations, plans that change by lunchtime.
Booking those as separate point-to-point journeys means paying for a car to reach you each time, and waiting for it each time. Inside London, hourly hire is usually the better fit: the car and driver stay with you for the block, bags and materials stay in the boot, and an overrunning meeting doesn't require a new booking.
Events, conferences and guest arrivals
Arranging travel for guests rather than staff adds a layer, because your guests won't know the plan.
- Send each guest their own booking details — driver contact arrangements, pickup point, time. Guests who don't know what to expect create most of the day's phone calls.
- Stagger arrivals deliberately. Twelve cars arriving at one entrance in the same five minutes is worse than six arriving twice.
- Name a specific pickup point, not the venue. Large venues have several entrances and the obvious one is usually the congested one. Our stadium and event taxi guide covers choosing a point a car can actually reach.
- Book the return before the event starts. Everyone leaves at once, and that is the hardest moment to arrange transport from scratch.
Airport collections for visiting colleagues and clients
The highest-value thing you can do here is simple: supply the flight number. It means the pickup follows the actual landing time rather than the printed schedule, which matters most for exactly the long-haul arrivals where a visiting client is least equipped to sort themselves out.
Two more worth getting right:
- Book the terminal, not just the airport. Heathrow's terminals are separate sites — see the Heathrow taxi guide.
- Consider meet-and-greet for a first-time visitor. A driver waiting inside arrivals with a name board removes the main thing that goes wrong for someone arriving in an unfamiliar country. How airport waiting time works sets out the allowances.
Frequently asked questions
Q: How do I book a taxi for a colleague or client in London? A: Book it with their details rather than yours — their mobile number, their exact pickup address with postcode, and their flight number for an airport collection. The driver needs to reach the person actually travelling, not the person who made the booking.
Q: What should a company consider when arranging staff travel? A: Book through a licensed private hire operator so there is a record of the journey and a licensed, checked driver, rather than leaving people to make their own arrangements. This matters most for late finishes, lone travellers and staff unfamiliar with the area.
Q: Are London private hire drivers background checked? A: Yes. A Transport for London private hire driver's licence requires an enhanced DBS check as part of the licensing requirements, alongside separate licensing of the vehicle and the operator.
Q: What is the best way to arrange transport for a day of client meetings? A: Inside London, booking a car by the hour usually works better than separate journeys. The vehicle stays with you between stops, materials stay in the boot, and a meeting that overruns doesn't need a new booking.
Q: How should we handle taxis for event guests? A: Give each guest their own booking details, name a specific pickup point rather than the venue, stagger arrivals rather than landing everyone at one entrance at once, and book the return legs before the event rather than when it ends.
Q: What vehicle should I book for a team travelling together? A: Count seats and luggage separately. Six to eight people travelling together generally suit one minibus, which also means one arrival time rather than several. Overnight bags or equipment push a four-person group up to an estate or people carrier.
In short
Book with the passenger's details rather than your own, size the vehicle on luggage as well as headcount, use hourly hire for days with several stops, and book return legs for events before the event rather than after it.
Get a fare estimate for your next corporate booking, or see the areas we cover in London.