A Gatwick airport chauffeur service is a pre-booked car with a professional driver, sent to meet a specific flight or to collect you from home for one. We run Gatwick chauffeur work from twelve offices across Surrey and south-west London, and Gatwick is the airport most of our patch actually uses — from Epsom it is about 19.4 miles and roughly 32 minutes on the M23, which makes it the closest major airport for a large part of Surrey.
Most of what follows is practical rather than promotional, because the things that go wrong with a Gatwick transfer are nearly always logistical: which terminal, where the car can legally wait, what happens when the flight is two hours late, and who pays the airport’s drop-off charge. Those are answered below.
Chauffeur, executive taxi or minicab — what the words mean at Gatwick
People search for a Gatwick chauffeur, a chauffeur service to Gatwick airport, Gatwick chauffeurs and a luxury airport transfer, and in licensing terms they are all the same thing: a pre-booked private hire journey. The driver holds a private hire driver’s licence, the car holds its own vehicle licence, and the firm taking the booking holds an operator’s licence. There is no separate “chauffeur licence” in England.
What differs is the car, the presentation and how the booking is handled. A chauffeur booking is treated as an appointment: a named driver, confirmed in advance, who meets you rather than messages you. How our drivers are licensed and vetted is set out on the drivers page, and the wider executive offer, including corporate accounts, is on our executive cars and chauffeur service page.
Meeting your chauffeur at Gatwick: where the car can actually be
Gatwick has two terminals, North and South, and the arrangements for meeting a car are the same at both but the locations differ. This is where most of the confusion on an arrival happens, so it is worth knowing before you land.
Meet and greet inside arrivals
The driver parks in the Short Stay car park, which the airport describes as minutes from the terminal, walks in, and waits in the arrivals hall. This is what most people mean by a chauffeur service: you come through with your bags and someone is standing there. It is the right choice for a client collection, a late-night landing, anyone travelling alone, and any flight where you would rather not be working out car park levels at 1am.
The express pick-up bays, if you would rather the driver stayed with the car
Gatwick provides express pick-up bays for drivers who prefer not to leave the vehicle. At the North Terminal they are in Car Park 6, Level 4; at the South Terminal in Car Park 3, Ground Floor. Both charge the airport’s standard short-stay rates. The airport is clear that the driver has to stay with the vehicle — an unattended car in a pick-up bay can be issued a parking charge notice — so if you want the driver inside the terminal holding a name board, that is the meet and greet option above, not this one.
Free waiting in the Long Stay car parks
Gatwick allows up to two hours free in its Long Stay car parks, with a free shuttle bus to the terminals; standard long-stay rates apply after that. For a flight that is badly delayed this is where a sensible driver waits rather than circling, and it is one of the reasons a tracked, pre-booked car copes better with a two-hour delay than a car ordered on landing.
North Terminal or South Terminal?
Tell the office which terminal when you book if you know it, and if you do not, give us the flight number instead — we would rather look it up than guess. Airlines move between the two terminals from time to time, so the terminal printed on an old booking confirmation is not always the terminal you will land at. Which terminal you are using also changes where the car waits, which is why we ask. There is more on the two terminals on our Gatwick North or South Terminal page.
Being dropped off at Gatwick, and the airport’s drop-off charge
Gatwick charges for use of the terminal drop-off zones, and it is worth knowing how it works because it is the one cost on a Gatwick departure that has nothing to do with your fare. At the time of writing the airport’s published arrangement is:
- A minimum charge of £10 for up to 10 minutes in the drop-off zone
- £1 for each additional minute after that, up to 20 minutes
- A £30 maximum daily charge, and a 30-minute maximum stay
- Free drop-off in the Long Stay car parks, free for two hours, with a free shuttle bus to the terminals
- Enforcement is by number-plate recognition, and the charge can be paid online, by phone or through an AutoPay account, with until midnight the following day to pay
- Blue Badge holders are exempt
Airport charges change without much notice, so treat those figures as a guide and check the airport’s own page before you travel. What matters for a chauffeur booking is simply that the driver knows the rules: a departure drop at the terminal door costs the airport’s fee and is quick, and the Long Stay route costs nothing but adds a shuttle ride. Tell the office which you would prefer when you book and it is handled rather than improvised on the kerb.
Flight tracking, delays and the return leg
Inbound flights are watched, so the pickup moves with the landing time instead of being wasted. The driver works to the actual arrival, then allows for immigration and baggage before expecting you in the hall. If you clear quickly you are not left waiting; if the belt takes an hour, nobody has given up and gone home.
This is the practical difference between a chauffeur booking and opening an app when you land. On an app, a two-hour delay means starting again, at whatever the surge is, at whatever hour it now is. On a tracked booking the car is already allocated and already paid for at the price agreed when you booked. Booking the return leg at the same time is worth doing for the same reason — it is the journey people most often leave to chance and most often regret.
A chauffeur service to Gatwick from your town
Gatwick sits south-east of most of our patch, which means the M25 and M23 do the work and the route rarely changes. What does change is how long it takes, and that is almost entirely about the time of day rather than the distance. One example worth knowing, because satnavs get it wrong: from Epsom the A217 reads as the shorter route to Gatwick at 19.2 miles against 19.4 on the M23 — two tenths of a mile apart — but the A217 takes over an hour while the M23 takes about 32 minutes. Knowing which of two near-identical routes gets you to a 6am check-in is the part of the job that cannot be downloaded.
Ask for the office nearest you rather than head office when you book a Gatwick run — the local office holds the cars that are actually close, and knows its own roads at 4am.
| Office | Address | Phone |
|---|---|---|
| Epsom (head office) | Epsom Clock Tower, A24, KT19 8BA | 01372 747 747 |
| Reigate | Office 227, Castle Court, 41 London Road, RH2 9RJ | 01737 333 700 |
| Ewell West | Chessington Road, Ewell West, KT17 1DW | 0208 330 5555 |
| Bookham | Railway Station, Church Road, Bookham, KT23 3JG | 01372 727 727 |
| Carshalton | 33 North Street, Carshalton, SM5 2HW | 0208 773 0700 |
| Sutton | 5 Carshalton Road, Sutton, SM1 4LE | 0208 643 2255 |
| Chessington | Chessington Business Centre, Cox Lane, KT9 1SD | 0208 397 4747 |
| Chessington (Trident Court) | Unit 56A, Trident Court, 1 Oakcroft Road, KT9 1BD | 0208 330 1234 |
| Kingston | 39A Walter Street, Kingston upon Thames, KT2 5DS | 0203 388 9999 |
| Weybridge | Station Approach, Weybridge, KT13 8UD | 01932 598 598 |
| Guildford | Station Approach, London Road, Guildford, GU1 4DQ | 01483 301 000 |
| Godalming | Station Approach, Godalming, GU7 1EU | 01483 422 222 |
Not sure which is nearest? The branch locator will tell you, and our general Gatwick airport transfers page covers standard transfers rather than chauffeur-driven work.
Corporate and business chauffeur travel to Gatwick
A good deal of our Gatwick chauffeur work is business travel: directors to early flights, clients collected on arrival and taken straight to a meeting, teams going out in twos and threes on the same morning. For that pattern a business account is the sensible arrangement — staff book, the journey is logged against the account, and one invoice arrives monthly instead of a stack of expense claims with taxi receipts stapled to them.
On a repeating Gatwick run we try to keep the same driver on it. It matters more than it sounds: a driver who has done the run knows which barrier actually opens on your office car park, where to wait that is not a loading bay, and how much earlier to leave when the M23 is closed overnight.
Luggage, passengers and the right size of car
The most common booking error on an airport job is ordering by head count and forgetting the cases. Four adults with four large suitcases and hand luggage is not a saloon job, however well it looks on paper. Tell the office the number of passengers and the number and size of bags, including golf clubs, skis, a pushchair or a musical instrument, and you will get a vehicle that fits rather than a conversation on the driveway at 4am.
Child seats are worth flagging at the same time. The law treats licensed vehicles differently from private cars, and the detail is on our child friendly taxis page. If anyone travelling needs step-free access or a wheelchair-accessible vehicle, say so when booking — see wheelchair accessible taxis.
What sets the price of a Gatwick chauffeur booking
We quote rather than publish a fare table, because a published figure would be wrong for most journeys. What actually moves the number: the distance and which route the time of day forces; the hour, since a 4am departure costs more to staff than a 2pm one; the direction, because an arrival carries waiting time that a departure does not; the size of vehicle your luggage requires; whether you want the driver inside the terminal on a meet and greet or waiting in a pick-up bay; and how long after landing you expect to be.
Phone the branch or use the booking form and you will have a price before anything is confirmed. It is agreed with the office, in advance, and it does not move afterwards because it started raining.
Chauffeurs to the other London airports
The same booking covers Heathrow, London City, Luton and Stansted. All five sit together on the airport transfers hub.
Gatwick chauffeur service: common questions
Do you offer a chauffeur service to Gatwick Airport?
Yes. Gatwick is the airport most of our service area uses, and chauffeur-driven transfers to and from both the North and South terminals are a standard part of what we do. Bookings go through the office rather than an app, so the car, the driver and the price are all confirmed before you rely on them.
Where will my Gatwick chauffeur meet me?
Either inside the arrivals hall or at the airport’s express pick-up bays, whichever you ask for. For a meet and greet the driver parks in the Short Stay car park and waits in arrivals. The express pick-up bays are in Car Park 6, Level 4 at the North Terminal and Car Park 3, Ground Floor at the South Terminal, and the driver has to stay with the vehicle there, so if you want someone waiting inside the terminal, ask for the meet and greet.
What happens if my flight into Gatwick is delayed?
The pickup moves with the flight. We track the inbound arrival and the driver works to the actual landing time, then allows for immigration and baggage. Gatwick allows up to two hours free in its Long Stay car parks with a shuttle to the terminals, which is where a driver waits out a long delay rather than circling. You are not charged extra for the delay itself.
How much is the Gatwick drop-off charge, and who pays it?
The airport currently charges a minimum of £10 for up to 10 minutes in the terminal drop-off zone, then £1 a minute up to 20 minutes, with a £30 daily maximum and a 30-minute maximum stay. Blue Badge holders are exempt, and dropping off in the Long Stay car parks is free for two hours with a shuttle bus. It is the airport’s charge rather than ours, so tell the office which option you want and we will factor it in when quoting. Check the airport’s own page before travelling, since these figures change.
Is a chauffeur different from an executive taxi or a minicab?
Legally, no. In England there is no separate chauffeur licence: the driver, the vehicle and the operator are licensed exactly as they are for any private hire journey. What differs is the car, the standard of presentation, and the booking being handled as an appointment with a named driver rather than a dispatch to whoever is nearest.
Which Gatwick terminal should I give you?
Give us the flight number if you are not certain. Airlines move between the North and South terminals from time to time, so the terminal on an older confirmation is not always right, and the terminal decides where the car waits. We would rather look it up than guess.
How far in advance should I book a Gatwick chauffeur?
As soon as you have the flight, particularly for an early departure. Pre-dawn Gatwick runs are the busiest slots we handle and the ones that sell out first in school holidays and around Christmas. A booking made weeks ahead costs the same as one made the night before, so there is nothing to gain by waiting.
Can you collect from Gatwick and take me straight to a meeting?
Yes, and it is a common corporate booking — a client collected on arrival and taken directly to an office or venue. Tell the office the meeting time as well as the flight and the driver plans backwards from it. This kind of work usually sits on a business account.
Do you cover Gatwick from outside Surrey?
Our offices run from Epsom and Ewell West across to Guildford and Godalming, north to Kingston and Chessington, and east to Sutton, Carshalton and Reigate. If you are inside or near that area, Gatwick is routine work. If you are further out, phone the nearest office anyway — coverage at the edges depends on where the car is, not where a line on a map sits.
Can I book a chauffeur for a Gatwick return as well as the outbound?
Yes, and it is worth doing at the same time. The return is the leg people most often leave to chance, and it is the one where landing tired into a surge price at 11pm hurts most. Booked in advance it is tracked, allocated and priced like the outbound.
Book a Gatwick chauffeur
Phone the office nearest you from the table above, or send the details through the booking form and we will come back with a price. Give us the flight number, the terminal if you know it, the number of passengers and bags, and whether you want the driver in arrivals or in a pick-up bay. For anything about accounts, invoicing or a standing arrangement, Epsom head office on 01372 747 747 is the place to start.