Corporate travel is rarely a transport problem. The car turning up is the easy part. The hard parts are the admin that surrounds it: the expense claims, the missing receipts, the finance team reconciling nineteen separate card payments to work out what the sales trip actually cost, and the member of staff who paid for their own taxi home at eleven at night and is now out of pocket until payday.
A business account exists to remove that layer. This page sets out what one actually changes, the journeys companies book most from Surrey and south-west London, the distances behind them, and how to get set up.
What a Business Account Actually Changes
- One invoice a month covering every journey, instead of a card payment per trip and a receipt to chase.
- References on each line. Cost centre, project code, department, employee name — whatever your finance team needs in order to post it without asking anybody questions.
- Nobody pays at the kerb. Staff, clients and candidates get in the car and get out of it. No card, no cash, no expense claim.
- Bookings by whoever needs to make them. A PA booking for a director, a site manager booking for a crew, a reception desk booking a client a car home.
- One number for problems. A delayed flight, a meeting that overran, a client who needs a car in ten minutes.
The reporting side of this is worth a page of its own, and has one: our guide to airport transfers and corporate reimbursement policy goes through how to structure the policy around it.
The Journeys Companies Book Most
Airport transfers
The staple of corporate travel, and the one where a booked car earns its keep. The flight is tracked, the pickup is set against the actual landing time, and a delay is the operator’s problem rather than a traveller standing in arrivals at midnight trying to find a car.
Station runs
Short, frequent and time-critical. A car to Epsom, Ewell West, Leatherhead, Godalming, Guildford or Kingston station timed against a specific train rather than a vague hour. This is high-volume account work and the kind most often handled badly by apps.
Client collections
A client or candidate collected from a station or a hotel and brought to your office. The journey most visible to somebody outside your company, and therefore the one worth getting right.
Site visits and multi-stop days
A car for a half day or a full day with several stops, rather than a one-way journey. Priced as the day it is, not as four separate bookings.
Late-night and lone-worker travel
Getting staff home safely after a late finish. Many organisations now treat this as a duty-of-care obligation rather than a perk, and an account makes it administratively simple to honour: the member of staff books a car, gets home, and the company is invoiced.
Distances Behind the Common Business Runs
Measured road distances and free-flowing drive times from the towns we cover most. Useful when you are deciding which airport a trip should route through, or how early a traveller needs to leave.
| From | To Heathrow | To Gatwick |
|---|---|---|
| Woking | 15.5 miles, about 24 min | 32.7 miles, about 46 min |
| Leatherhead | 22.7 miles, about 30 min | 21.2 miles, about 25 min |
| Guildford | 23.8 miles, about 29 min | 35.6 miles, about 43 min |
| Epsom | 24.3 miles, about 32 min | 19.4 miles, about 32 min |
| Dorking | 28.5 miles, about 39 min | 13.5 miles, about 27 min |
| Reigate | 30.3 miles, about 37 min | 7.6 miles, about 15 min |
| Godalming | 30.2 miles, about 47 min | 40.1 miles, about 49 min |
For a business with staff spread across the county that table is a scheduling tool. A Woking-based team flying from Gatwick is spending twice as long on the road as one flying from Heathrow; a Reigate office has an airport fifteen minutes away. From Epsom, London City is 48.9 miles and about an hour and ten, Luton 57.8 and about an hour and twenty, Stansted 72.7 and about an hour and forty — all of which need building into a travel policy rather than discovered on the day.
Vehicles for Business Travel
Two things matter more than any specification sheet: that the car is right for the number of people and bags, and that it turns up when it was asked to.
- Saloon — the standard for one or two travellers with a case and a laptop bag. Most account work runs in these.
- Estate — four travellers with real luggage, or two with a stand and samples.
- Executive — for a client collection or a board visit, where the arrival is part of the impression. Specify it when you book.
- Six and eight-seaters — teams travelling together to a conference or a site. One vehicle beats three, and everybody arrives at once.
- Wheelchair accessible — a smaller part of the fleet, so book rather than request on the day. See our accessible taxi page.
If a journey needs something particular — a specific vehicle class for a client, a driver who has done the route before, a meet and greet inside the terminal — ask when you book and it can be arranged in advance rather than hoped for on the day.
Setting Up an Account
- Call 01372 747 747 and ask for an account.
- Tell us the company details and where the invoice should go.
- Tell us who is authorised to book, and whether there are spending or vehicle-class limits by role.
- Tell us what references you need on each invoice line — cost centre, project, department, traveller name.
- Start booking. The traveller does not need to know anything about the account.
If you want to go further and build a written travel policy around it, our guide to airport transfers in corporate reimbursement policies sets out how to structure one, what to standardise and where the savings actually come from.
Duty of Care and Lone Workers
A booked car with a named operator and a licensed driver is a different proposition from an employee finding their own way home at midnight. Private hire work in our area is licensed by the local authority — we hold an operator licence as Epsom & Ewell Cars T/A Clocktower Cars, and our drivers and vehicles are licensed across Epsom and Ewell, Reigate and Banstead, Mole Valley, Elmbridge, Guildford, Waverley and Transport for London. For an employer with a duty-of-care obligation, that chain of licensing is the point.
The Airport Charges That Are Not Ours
Worth knowing when you are approving expenses, because they appear on airport runs and are the airports’ own charges. Correct as at October 2026.
- Heathrow: £7 for each entry into a terminal drop-off zone, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Source: Heathrow Airport — drop-off charge.
- Gatwick: a minimum of £10 for up to ten minutes, then £1 a minute to twenty minutes, thirty-minute maximum stay, £30 daily cap. Source: Gatwick Airport — dropping off.
- Blue Badge holders can claim exemptions at both, registered against the vehicle registration.
What Sets the Price
We quote each journey rather than publish a rate card, because a rate card has to assume one version of every trip and then goes quietly out of date. What moves the figure is the distance, the hour and the day, the vehicle the passengers and luggage require, any waiting or flight tracking, and the airport charges above. Our guide to what actually decides a taxi price works through all of it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I set up a business account with Clocktower Cars?
Call the office on 01372 747 747 and ask for an account. We will take the company details, who is authorised to book, which references you want on each invoice line and where the invoice goes. It is a short conversation and the account is usually usable straight away.
How does account billing work?
One invoice a month covering every journey, with your own references on each line — cost centre, project code, department or employee name, whatever your finance team posts against. Nobody pays at the kerb and there are no receipts to collect.
Can my PA or reception desk book on the account?
Yes. You tell us who is authorised to book and they can book for anyone — staff, clients, candidates, visitors. The traveller does not need to know anything about the account.
Do you track flights for business travellers?
Yes. On a booked collection we track the inbound flight and set the pickup against the actual landing time rather than the scheduled one, so a delay does not leave your traveller stranded or generate a wasted journey.
Can you handle a full day with several stops?
Yes. A half day or full day with multiple stops is priced as the day it is rather than as separate bookings, which is usually both cheaper and far simpler to reconcile afterwards.
How much does corporate travel cost?
It depends on the distance, the time of day, the vehicle required and whether waiting is involved, so we quote rather than publish a list. For account customers the quoting is part of the booking conversation, and the invoice at the end of the month reflects exactly what was agreed.
Can you take staff home late at night?
Yes, and it is a large part of what accounts are used for. Many organisations treat late-night staff travel as a duty-of-care obligation, and an account makes it administratively simple: the member of staff books a car, gets home, and the company is invoiced.
Is my information kept confidential?
Yes. Journey details, passenger names and destinations are handled as what they are — commercially sensitive. If you need anything specific written into the arrangement, raise it when the account is set up.
Start an Account
Call 01372 747 747, or 01483 422 222 for our Godalming office, and ask for a business account. If you would rather see the transport side first, the airport transfers page covers the journeys most accounts are opened for, and our FAQs answer the rest. One-off bookings can go straight through the online booking form.