Forum: travel.stackexchange.com
Tags: <uk><london><taxis>
Title: How much does a taxi from Southampton to London cost?
Question: I am looking for the best option and I found a website  https://www.londondrivers.com/southampton-london/  and the price is 105 GBP ... Is this price correct?    EDIT ADDED from comment posted as answer:    We need a taxi from the Ocean Cruise Terminal because we will have a lot of luggage and a service door to door is what I am looking for

Answers:
sents: text: Lots of helpful suggestions, but no-one has yet answered the specific question of what is a reasonable price for this journey.
text: £105 sounds surprisingly cheap for such a long distance taxi from London.
text: Popular London taxi firm Addison Lee quote around £250 -
text: they're not the cheapest, but their prices are usually pretty competitive.
text: For a regular taxi firm, £250 isn't surprising to me at all (I was expecting around £230).
text: Crowdsourced taxi site/
text: app Uber , which is usually the cheapest option, quotes £104-£139 for their smallest, cheapest cars
text: [Uber won't actually book inter-city journeys, as Ankur Banerjee points out, but their quotes give an indication of plausible prices].
text: £105 is cheaper than three people taking an off-peak train ( £39.50 each ), and London-based taxis are notoriously expensive - it can easily cost £50 just to get from one side of London zone 2 to the other.
text: Long-distance taxis are particularly expensive since you're not just paying for your journey, but also for the (usually empty) cab driving back to base after dropping you off.
text: As well as the driver's time this includes double the fuel (which is expensive in the UK) and all the business they missed out on while driving back to base.
text: If they get stuck in traffic, if you don't show up, if you're very late or if you do a runner, it's much more disruptive than for a short journey.
text: Expect them to want at least part of the payment up front.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/3145/user56reinstatemonica8
score: 10
sents: text: Your best bet would be to contact Southampton based firms directly.
text: Local taxi firms include Radio Taxis and West Quay Cars .
text: I've used both for local journeys in and around Southampton.
text: When I've been on trips abroad with work we've always used English Rose to get to/from the airport, and have been very impressed.
text: Even when we arrived 8 hours late at 5am
text: they were there waiting for us.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/1820/Phil
score: 6
sents: text: For long distance taxi hire within the UK, there isn't usually a published rate .
text: A lot of private hire and taxi sites exist (none very user friendly) and a lot of what you actually pay in the end depends on what you can negotiate with a driver - because a lot of them have standard rates on paper, but say if you have a return journey or repeat customer, they'll be happy to negotiate lower fares.
text: That said, like Gagravarr commented, a train will be cheaper, quicker, and less hassle.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/108/Ankur Banerjee
score: 4
sents: text: we will have a lot of luggage and
text: a service door to door is what I am looking for Define "a lot of luggage".
text: The referenced website has a Minibus, 8 people / 8 large cases for 50% more so you are now looking at £150
text: +.
text: It's a long trip, and "a lot of luggage" in England isn't going to move cheaply.
text: You could try a delivery service like DHL, assuming they have a counter at the cruise terminal.
text: Otherwise, it's going to be rather expensive.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/27647/paul
score: 4
sents: text: Checker Cars, based at Southampton Airport, charge about £105 Heathrow to Southampton, and about £140 central London to Southampton, any time, any day.
text: They operate some Ford Galaxies and Vauxhall Zafira Tourers, both of which are luggage-eaters.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/38156/beeryweery
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
£105 sounds surprisingly cheap  for such a long distance taxi from London, and this is cheaper than three people taking an off-peak train (£39.50 each). There usually isn't a published rate for long distance travel within the UK, but you could contact Southampton based firms directly and try to negotiate a good price.
Published rates for long distance taxi rides in the UK do not generally exist. Taxi forms give a quote for the trip and from Southampton to London the range is 104 pounds to 250 pounds. Local taxi companies probably giva a better rate. Negotiating the rate with the driver from a private taxi firm is often the norm.