Fixed prices from £45, Heathrow £80 or £115, hourly £55/h (3h minimum), +20% from 23:00-06:00. One driver, one EQE, 60 minutes' free airport waiting, no deposit taken.
Before booking, ask for a fixed all-inclusive price in writing, confirm one named driver covers the whole journey, check what happens if your flight is delayed, and ask whether a deposit or card-on-file is required.
Journey times are typical, not guaranteed. We plan departure times around live traffic on the day.
| Option | Best for | Main tradeoff | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Point-to-point | A single fixed journey across London | No built-in waiting beyond the one stop | From £45 |
| Heathrow transfer | Airport pickups and drop-offs | Price depends on distance band, not time of day | £80 within ~12 miles, £115 otherwise |
| Gatwick, Stansted or Luton transfer | Longer airport runs | Fixed regardless of traffic on the day | £150 (Gatwick, Stansted), £140 (Luton) |
| Hourly / as-directed | Multiple stops, meetings, shopping | Three-hour minimum applies | £55/h, £165 minimum |
| Half day / full day | Events or all-day hire | Fixed regardless of mileage or stops | £250 half day, £400 full day |
| Night journey (23:00–06:00) | Late flights or late events | 20% surcharge on the fixed fare | Fare +20% |
Ask for an all-inclusive price before you get in the car, not an estimate. Crest Chauffeurs London quotes a fixed fare for every journey — from £45 for a single point-to-point trip up to £115 for a longer airport run — agreed in writing before you travel, with no meter and no waiting charge.
A meter or an 'estimate' can move once you're already in the car, and there's rarely anything you can do about it at that point. A fixed price removes that risk: whatever the sat nav says, whatever the traffic does, the number you were quoted is the number you pay.
Whichever company you call, ask the same question twice: is this the final price, and is it in writing? If the answer to either is no, you're the one carrying the risk of a longer route, heavier traffic or a late finish.
Ask whether the licence covers the operator, the vehicle and the individual driver, and ask for a DBS check specifically — a company licence alone doesn't confirm who is behind the wheel. Crest Chauffeurs London operates through a TfL-licensed operator partner, and the driver is DBS-checked.
Licensing in London has layers: the operator needs a private hire licence from Transport for London, the vehicle needs its own licence plate, and the driver needs a separate private hire driver's licence. A company can be fully licensed as an operator while using drivers you've never met and have no way to vet individually.
A DBS check, run by the Disclosure and Barring Service, is a separate step beyond the minimum licence — worth asking for by name, because not every operator arranges one for every driver. It matters most for airport pickups, where you're getting into a car with a stranger, or for anyone travelling with children.
Worth asking directly: will the person who confirms my booking also be the one driving? With a single-driver, single-car service, the answer is always yes — there's no pool of substitute drivers to vet, because there's only ever one.
If you need a car for the day, see day hire and day trips.
Ask whether the driver tracks your specific flight number or just works from the printed schedule, and how much free waiting time is included once you land. Crest Chauffeurs London tracks the flight itself and includes 60 minutes' waiting from touchdown, with meet and greet as standard.
A printed departure time is the least reliable number in air travel. If a chauffeur only works from that, an early landing means they're not there yet, and a late one means a wait with no plan behind it. Flight tracking removes the guesswork: the pickup time follows the plane, not the timetable.
At Heathrow Terminal 5, for example, a driver can't come inside to meet you at the gate or at baggage claim — nobody can. The meeting point that actually works is outside the arrivals exit, by the Pret a Manger just past the doors, which is where chauffeurs gather regardless of who sent them.
Before you book, ask two things: is my flight number tracked, and how many minutes of waiting are included free. Here it's 60 minutes from landing, with meet and greet included, which is normally enough to clear a slow queue at immigration or baggage without a waiting charge turning up on the fare.
Ask whether payment happens before, during or after the journey, and whether your card details are stored anywhere. Crest Chauffeurs London takes no deposit and holds no card on file — a card machine travels in the car and you settle at the end of the journey.
A deposit taken weeks ahead, or a card held on file 'just in case', can be a sign that the cancellation policy matters more than the driver is telling you. Settling at the end of the journey, once the car has actually done the job, puts the risk the other way round.
Ask, too, what happens if the booking changes. With no deposit and no stored card, changing a pickup time or address is a message on WhatsApp, not a dispute over a charge that's already gone through.
Ask directly whether the person confirming the booking is the one driving, and whether that's guaranteed for every leg of a round trip. With Crest Chauffeurs London it's the same chauffeur and the same electric Mercedes-Benz EQE for every journey, never a substitute.
Larger operators route bookings to whichever driver is free, which means the person who did your morning airport run might not be the one doing the evening pickup, and the car itself can change too. That's not necessarily a problem, but it is a different product from the one many people picture when they book a chauffeur.
A one-driver, one-car service works the other way: you deal directly with the person driving, from the first WhatsApp message to the last mile of the journey. There's no call centre relaying your instructions and no substitute to brief if plans change on the day.
It also shapes how waiting works. Rather than a car being dispatched the moment you're ready, the preference is for the driver to be there before you are — waiting for you, rather than you waiting for the car, which only works if driver and passenger have been dealing with each other directly throughout.
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Where to meet at Heathrow Terminal 5. A driver can't go inside the terminal, so arrivals pickups happen outside the arrivals exit — the Pret a Manger just past the doors is the landmark drivers actually use, which is why 'meet me by the Pret' is the instruction that works on the ground.
Dropping off on a matchday is rarely a problem if you arrive early. Collecting afterwards is harder not because of road closures but because 60,000 phones hit the mobile network at once — WhatsApp's live location is what lets driver and passenger find each other when a call won't connect.
Source: driver, first-handThere's nowhere to park at any of these. The car stops, lets passengers out, then circles or waits within five minutes and collects by text — Covent Garden Underground station is the workable meeting point there, with Trafalgar Square station as a fallback if the piazza is busy.
Source: driver, first-handYou're travelling in a group of four or more. The Mercedes-Benz EQE seats up to three passengers. A larger group needs a second car, which a one-driver, one-car service can't provide on its own.
Ask for a fixed all-inclusive price in writing, confirm whether the same driver covers the whole job, check what happens if your flight changes, and ask about deposits and payment before you travel. Crest Chauffeurs London answers all four upfront: a fixed quote, one named driver, 60 minutes' free waiting with flight tracking, and no deposit taken.
With Crest Chauffeurs London it's a fixed £80 if you're within about 12 miles of a non-central postcode, or £115 otherwise — agreed before you set off, with no meter and no waiting charge for the first 60 minutes.
60 minutes from your flight's actual landing time, with the flight tracked so the clock starts from reality rather than the printed schedule.
Yes — a card machine travels in the car and takes Visa, Mastercard and American Express by contactless, chip and PIN, Apple Pay or Google Pay. UK contactless taps cap at £100, so larger fares are settled by PIN or phone payment instead.
Your chauffeur tracks the flight, so a delay doesn't cost you anything extra — the pickup time moves with the new landing slot and the 60 minutes' free waiting still applies once you land.
Get the price above, or send us the journey on WhatsApp. A fixed price comes back in minutes.
WhatsApp for a fixed quoteThe Crest guarantee. If anything about your journey isn’t right, tell us and we’ll put it right before you pay. No deposit, nothing held on your card — you pay at the end.