Clocktower Cars has been running school runs across Epsom, Ewell, Sutton, Kingston, Reigate, Guildford and the towns between them since long before “school run taxi” was something people typed into a phone. A school run is not an ordinary taxi job. The same car turns up at the same gate at the same minute, five mornings a week, for a child who is often travelling without a parent. That changes how it has to be organised, who is allowed to drive it, and what you should expect when you book one.
This page explains how our school run service works: how to book a one-off school drop off or a standing weekly booking, what sets the price, what the law actually says about child seats in a licensed private hire car, how our drivers are checked, and which of our eleven branches will cover your school. If you would rather just talk to someone, the Epsom office is on 01372 747 747 and every branch number is on this page.
People call it different things. Some parents search for a school run taxi, some for school run cars, some for a school taxi service, a school minicab, a school cab, or simply a school pickup and drop off service near them. They all describe the same thing: a licensed private hire car, booked in advance, taking a child to or from school on a route you have agreed.
We are a private hire operator, not a black cab firm, which matters for school work in a useful way. Every journey has to be booked in advance through one of our offices, so there is a record of who is driving, which child is travelling, where they are going and at what time. Nothing about a school run with us is a flagged-down, cash-in-hand arrangement. If you want the difference spelled out, our guide to minicabs versus black cabs covers it.
We cover school runs in Epsom, Ewell, West Ewell, Stoneleigh, Sutton, Cheam, North Cheam, Worcester Park, Carshalton, Wallington, Belmont, Banstead, Burgh Heath, Tadworth, Chipstead, Ashtead, Leatherhead, Bookham, Chessington, Surbiton, Kingston, Morden, Reigate, Redhill, Dorking, Weybridge, Godalming, Guildford and Farnham. If your school sits just outside that list, phone the nearest branch and ask — the answer is usually yes.
The wording people use tells us quite a lot about what they actually need, so it is worth a short translation. All of these end up as the same booking with us, but the detail differs.
When parents search for school run cars rather than a school run taxi, they are usually picturing a plain car at the gate rather than anything with a roof sign on it. That is exactly what arrives. Our school cars are ordinary licensed private hire saloons, estates and MPVs — clean, unmarked, and indistinguishable from the other cars in the drop-off queue. Nothing about the car announces that your child is in a taxi.
People searching for a school taxi service near me are nearly always after the daily arrangement rather than a one-off ride, and “near me” matters more here than on almost any other kind of booking. A school run only works if the car starts close by, which is why we run it from the branch nearest your home rather than from a single office. A Godalming school run is arranged and driven out of Godalming, a Carshalton one out of Carshalton.
A school run service and a school pickup and drop off service are the same thing described from two ends. If you only need one direction, say so — plenty of families drive their children in on the way to work and only need the afternoon school pickup covered, or the reverse. A one-way standing booking is cheaper than a return one and we are happy to do either.
School transport is the phrase schools, councils and special educational needs teams use, and it usually signals a formal arrangement: a named pupil, an agreed route, an invoice to an account, sometimes an escort in the car. School minicab and school cab are the everyday words for the same vehicle. Whichever you use, the practical questions are identical — who is driving, which car, what time, and who is paying.
Not every school journey is planned a term ahead. A car that will not start, a cancelled train, a parent stuck at work, a childminder off sick — these are the calls we take at 7.45am, and in our own towns we can usually get a car to you quickly because the drivers are already out on other school runs nearby. Phone rather than book online if the journey is in the next hour.
Some parents and most independent schools call this a school chauffeur service, and it is the phrase that best describes what a standing booking actually is. A chauffeur service for a school run means the same named driver, the same car, an agreed time and an account or standing arrangement rather than a fresh booking every morning. We run exactly that, and you can ask for it on any regular route. The word changes nothing about the licensing: it is a licensed private hire journey either way, driven by an enhanced-DBS-checked driver, as set out on our drivers page.
Independent schools across Surrey tend to use the chauffeur wording in their own transport policies, so if a school has asked parents to arrange a “school chauffeur” or a “private school transport provider”, that is us. Phone the branch nearest the school rather than the one nearest home if the two differ — the office covering the school knows its gate, its timings and its parking rules.
Your driver arrives at the pickup address at the agreed time, not at the time the app guessed. For a standing booking we set the pickup a few minutes earlier than the strict minimum, because a school gate at 8.40am is not a place where you want to be cutting it fine. Children are collected from the door or the driveway, not from a meeting point down the road, and the driver waits until the child is in the car before moving.
Term-time traffic in this area is its own weather system. The A24 through Ewell, the A217 at Burgh Heath, the A232 past Cheam and the roads into Kingston all behave completely differently in the first week of September than they did in the last week of August. Our drivers work these roads year-round and build that into the pickup time rather than discovering it at 8.35am.
The return leg is the half of a school run that most firms handle badly, and it is the half parents worry about. The driver is at the school before the bell, in a place you have agreed in advance — a named gate, a side road, a car park — and stays there. If your child is five minutes late out, the car does not leave. If something has gone wrong and your child is not there, the office phones you rather than driving away.
Very few families need the same two journeys every day of the week. Football on Tuesday, music on Thursday, a 4.15pm finish on Wednesday and a 3.20pm finish on Friday is a much more normal pattern. A standing booking with us can be a different time and even a different destination on each weekday, and it can include a run from school to a childminder, a grandparent, a swimming pool or a different parent’s address rather than straight home.
This is the part that matters most and the part a ride-hailing app cannot offer. A school run booked with us is allocated to a named driver who does that run for the whole term. Your child learns one face, one car and one registration. You learn the same. Nobody is getting into a stranger’s car on a wet Tuesday because the app reassigned the job.
If you need a single school drop off because a car is in the garage or a train is cancelled, phone your nearest branch or use the online booking form. Tell us the child’s name, the school, the gate, the time and who is allowed to be at the other end. For a one-off we would rather have a phone call than a form, because there are usually two or three details worth checking.
A standing booking is a repeating school run that stays in the system for the term. You agree the days, the times, the pickup and drop-off points and the vehicle with the office once, and after that the car simply turns up. You do not re-book each week and you do not need to confirm the night before. Most parents set one up with a phone call and a follow-up email confirming the detail in writing.
It is worth setting up in the last fortnight of the summer holidays rather than the first week of term. Early September is the busiest fortnight of our year for exactly this reason, and the best driver slots on the most popular routes go first.
Families doing a daily run, and schools or nurseries arranging transport for several pupils, usually want an account rather than paying at the end of every journey. An account means no money changes hands in the car, which is simpler for everyone and much simpler for a child travelling alone. You get one itemised statement covering the period instead of a drawer full of receipts. You can apply for an account here or ask the office to send you the form.
Inset days, sports fixtures, sickness and the last day of term all happen. Phone the branch that holds your booking and we will pull that day out and leave the rest of the pattern alone. Give us as much notice as you reasonably can; a call the night before is ideal, a call at 7.50am is still better than nothing, because it frees the driver for another job and keeps your account straight.
“School run taxi prices” is one of the most common things people search before they phone us, so here is a straight answer about how pricing works rather than a number that would be wrong for most of the people reading it.
The two things that move a school run price most are how far the journey is and when it happens. A two-mile run inside Epsom is a different job from a nine-mile run from Tadworth into Kingston, and the 8am slot is the most expensive hour of the day to buy a car in because every other parent and commuter wants one at the same time. An 8.10am departure and an 8.40am departure on the same route are not always the same price.
One child in a saloon is the cheapest version of a school run. Three children, three bags, a cello and a games kit needs an estate or an MPV, and that is a different vehicle at a different rate. Tell the office how many children and how much kit at the point of booking rather than on the first morning, and you get the right car at the right price. Our vehicle options run from saloons through estates and MPVs to wheelchair accessible vehicles.
The single biggest saving available on a daily school run is sharing it. If two or three families on the same side of town send children to the same school, one car doing one route costs each family a fraction of three separate journeys. Parents usually arrange this between themselves and then phone us with the combined booking. If you are thinking about it, ask the office — we know which of our existing runs pass your road.
Enough people search for a Clocktower Cars price list that it is worth explaining why there is not one on this page. A published figure would have to be either a worst-case number that makes us look expensive on short runs, or a best-case number that we could not honour on longer ones. Neither helps you decide. Instead, phone the branch nearest your school with the two addresses and the times, and you get a real price for your actual journey in about a minute. For a standing booking that price is then fixed for the term, so you can budget it.
In an ordinary car, UK law requires a child to use the correct child car seat until they are either 135cm tall or 12 years old, whichever they reach first. Licensed taxis and private hire vehicles have a narrow exception to that rule, and it is worth understanding properly because a lot of what gets repeated at the school gate is wrong.
“Legal” and “what we would put our own children in” are not the same standard. The exception means a journey is not unlawful without a seat; it does not mean a seat is a bad idea. Our position is simple: tell the office your child’s age and roughly their height when you book, and we will tell you what we can fit for that journey. You are also very welcome to fit your own seat, and for a standing booking many parents leave one in the car for the term, which is the tidiest solution of all.
If you are booking at short notice for a very young child, say so on the phone. It is much better to have that conversation when the booking is made than at 8.15am on the driveway. Our guide to booking a taxi with a child seat goes through it in more detail, and our child friendly taxi service page covers travelling with younger children generally.
Most secondary-age children are past the 135cm threshold and simply use the adult belt. The age range where it is worth a conversation is roughly 4 to 11, where height varies enormously between two children in the same school year. If you are not sure which side of the line your child falls on, measure them once and tell us the number; it saves guessing every term.
If you are handing your child to a driver you have never met, this is the section that matters. Private hire driving in England is a licensed trade, and the rules around carrying children are set nationally rather than firm by firm.
Under the Department for Transport’s statutory taxi and private hire vehicle standards, a licensing authority must put every driver applying for or renewing a licence through an enhanced DBS check, and must additionally check both the children’s barred list and the adults’ barred list. Anyone appearing on either list should not be licensed except in genuinely exceptional and formally recorded circumstances.
The check is not a one-off at the start of a career either. Licensed drivers are required to stay continuously registered with the DBS Update Service so that the council can re-check for new information every six months. The same standards require licensing authorities to make drivers undertake safeguarding training covering how to recognise signs of abuse and how to report a concern.
Private hire licensing is done locally, so a driver working out of our Epsom office is licensed by a different authority from one working out of Kingston or Guildford. Across our eleven branches that means drivers licensed by authorities including Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, Reigate and Banstead Borough Council, Mole Valley District Council, Elmbridge Borough Council, Guildford Borough Council, Waverley Borough Council, the London Borough of Sutton and the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. Every licensed private hire driver carries a badge, and you are entitled to ask to see it.
For a new standing booking, ask the office to arrange for the driver to meet you and your child before the first school morning. It takes five minutes, it removes the awkwardness of the first pickup, and it means your child is getting into a car driven by someone they have already said hello to. You can read more about the people who drive for us on our drivers page.
Drivers get ill and take holidays. When your regular driver cannot do the run, the office tells you who is covering it and, where there is time, arranges the same introduction. What we try hard not to do is send an unannounced stranger to collect a child who is expecting a familiar face. If that matters to you, say so when you set the booking up and we will note it on the job.
“School transport” is the phrase councils and special educational needs teams use, and it covers arrangements that an ordinary school run does not. We do this work and it is worth describing properly.
We operate wheelchair accessible vehicles with ramp access, so a child who travels in their own wheelchair can be collected and secured without transferring into a car seat. For a daily run this needs to be booked as a standing arrangement rather than day to day, because the accessible vehicles are a limited part of the fleet and the morning slots fill. Our wheelchair accessible taxi service page explains how the vehicles work and what to tell us when you book.
For a lot of children, the thing that makes a school journey workable is not equipment but sameness: the same driver, the same car, the same seat, the same route, the radio off, no conversation expected. None of that costs anything extra and all of it is easier to deliver on a standing booking than on an ad-hoc one. Tell the office what helps and what does not and it goes on the job notes for the driver, every day, rather than being explained again each morning.
Some arrangements require a second adult in the car alongside the driver, usually called an escort or a passenger assistant. Where a school, a council team or a family provides that person, we can carry them as part of the booking — it simply changes the vehicle size we allocate, because an escort takes a seat. Tell us at the point of booking so the right car is assigned rather than a saloon turning up for four people.
Hospital and clinic appointments rarely fall neatly outside school hours. We regularly run children from school to an appointment and back again, or from home to an appointment and on to school for the afternoon. That is a three-leg job rather than a school run and is best arranged by phone. Our page on transport for medical appointments covers how we handle waiting time.
The table below lists schools and colleges in the towns we cover, so you can see at a glance whether your school sits inside our patch. These are destinations our drivers know the approaches, gates and parking restrictions for — it is not a list of schools that endorse us or that we hold contracts with. Primary and preparatory schools in every one of these towns are covered too; there are far too many to list.
| Town or area | Schools and colleges nearby | Branch covering it | Local page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Epsom | Blenheim High School, Rosebery School, Epsom College, Kingswood House School | Epsom — 01372 747 747 | Taxi in Epsom |
| Ewell and West Ewell | Glyn School, Ewell Castle School, Epsom and Ewell High School | Ewell West — 0208 330 5555 | Cabs in Ewell |
| Cheam and North Cheam | Nonsuch High School for Girls, Cheam High School | Sutton — 0208 643 2255 | Minicabs in North Cheam |
| Sutton | Sutton Grammar School, Overton Grange School, Greenshaw High School, Glenthorne High School | Sutton — 0208 643 2255 | Taxi in Sutton |
| Carshalton and Wallington | Carshalton Boys Sports College, Wilson’s School, Wallington High School for Girls, Wallington County Grammar School | Carshalton — 0208 773 0700 | Minicabs in Carshalton |
| Banstead, Belmont and Burgh Heath | The Beacon School | Sutton — 0208 643 2255 | Taxi in Belmont |
| Ashtead and Leatherhead | City of London Freemen’s School, Therfield School, St John’s School, Downsend School | Bookham — 01372 727 727 | Minicabs in Leatherhead |
| Chessington and Surbiton | Chessington School, Southborough High School, Surbiton High School, Hollyfield School | Chessington — 0208 397 4747 | Cabs in Surbiton |
| Kingston upon Thames | Tiffin School, The Tiffin Girls’ School, Kingston Grammar School | Kingston — 0203 388 9999 | Minicab in Kingston |
| Reigate and Redhill | Reigate School, Reigate Grammar School, Dunottar School, Reigate St Mary’s School, Carrington School | Reigate — 01737 333 700 | Taxis in Reigate |
| Tadworth and Chipstead | The Beacon School, Reigate schools via the A217 | Reigate — 01737 333 700 | Taxi in Tadworth |
| Weybridge and Walton | Heathside School, St George’s College, Three Rivers Academy | Weybridge — 01932 598 598 | Minicabs in Weybridge |
| Godalming | Charterhouse School, Prior’s Field School | Godalming — 01483 422 222 | Taxi in Godalming |
| Guildford | George Abbot School, Guildford County School, Royal Grammar School Guildford, Tormead School | Guildford — 01483 301 000 | Taxis in Guildford |
| Farnham | Farnham Heath End School, Weydon School | Godalming — 01483 422 222 | Taxi in Farnham |
| Morden | Harris Academy Morden | Sutton — 0208 643 2255 | Cabs in Morden |
School runs are arranged by the branch nearest the pickup, not by a central call centre, because the person taking the booking needs to know the road. Phone the office closest to your home address and they will set it up.
| Branch | Where it is | Phone |
|---|---|---|
| Epsom (head office) | Epsom Clock Tower, Epsom KT19 8BA | 01372 747 747 |
| Bookham | Bookham | 01372 727 727 |
| Carshalton | 33 North Street, Carshalton SM5 2HW | 0208 773 0700 |
| Chessington | Cox Lane, Chessington KT9 1SD | 0208 397 4747 |
| Ewell West | Ewell West | 0208 330 5555 |
| Godalming | Station Approach, Godalming GU7 1EU | 01483 422 222 |
| Guildford | Station Approach, London Road, Guildford GU1 4DQ | 01483 301 000 |
| Kingston | 39A Walter Street, Kingston KT2 5DS | 0203 388 9999 |
| Reigate | Castle Court, 41 London Road, Reigate RH2 9RJ | 01737 333 700 |
| Sutton | Sutton | 0208 643 2255 |
| Weybridge | Station Approach, Weybridge KT13 8UD | 01932 598 598 |
Not sure which is nearest? Our branch locator and find us pages will place you.
Each of our towns has its own page covering local pickup points, stations, routes and the schools nearby: Epsom, Ewell, Sutton, North Cheam, Carshalton, Belmont, Burgh Heath, Tadworth, Chipstead, Ashtead, Leatherhead, Surbiton, Kingston, Morden, Reigate, Weybridge, Godalming, Guildford and Farnham.
A fair number of people who land on this page are not parents looking for a car — they are drivers looking for school run work, searching for school run driver jobs or school run contracts near them. To be clear about what this page is: it is for booking a car for a child. If you are after the work rather than the ride, we are a different kind of useful.
School runs are some of the most sought-after work on a private hire fleet, because the hours are predictable, the routes are short and familiar, and the same job repeats all term. They also come with the strictest requirements: you need a current private hire driver licence from the relevant council, which means an enhanced DBS check with both barred lists, continuous DBS Update Service registration so the council can re-check every six months, and the safeguarding training your licensing authority requires. If you hold all of that, or are working towards it, our careers page is the place to start and the Epsom office on 01372 747 747 will talk you through it.
We are a licensed private hire operator, not a childcare agency. We will drive your child to and from school; we do not provide a nanny, a childminder or anyone who looks after a child before or after the journey. If what you actually need is wraparound childcare with a school run attached, an agency is the right call. If you need the transport part done properly and reliably, that is us.
We have written in more depth on several parts of this: the school run chauffeur service explained, school transport solutions across Surrey, Surrey school run taxis, family taxis and school runs in Reigate and child friendly taxis.
Families who book school runs with us also tend to use the same account for the rest of the year: airport transfers at the start of the holidays, pet friendly taxis for the vet, executive cars for a parent’s business travel and the courier service for the kit that got left at home. The FAQs page covers the general questions about booking with us.
If you are in Epsom, Ewell, Sutton, Cheam, North Cheam, Worcester Park, Carshalton, Wallington, Belmont, Banstead, Burgh Heath, Tadworth, Chipstead, Ashtead, Leatherhead, Bookham, Chessington, Surbiton, Kingston, Morden, Reigate, Redhill, Dorking, Weybridge, Walton, Godalming, Guildford or Farnham, yes. Phone the branch nearest your home and they will arrange both the morning drop off and the afternoon pickup as one standing booking.
It depends on the distance, the time of day, the size of vehicle and how many children travel, so we quote rather than publish a price list. Phone the branch nearest your school with the two addresses and the times and you will get a real price for your actual journey in about a minute. For a standing booking that price is then held for the term so you can budget it.
Yes. A standing school run is allocated to a named driver who keeps that run for the term, so your child sees the same face, the same car and the same registration each day. If that driver is ill or on holiday the office tells you who is covering and, where there is time, arranges an introduction first.
In a licensed private hire vehicle, a child aged 3 or over may legally travel in the rear using the adult seat belt if a child seat is not available, and a child under 3 may travel unrestrained in the rear if no seat is available. The exemption covers rear seats only. We would still rather fit a proper seat, so tell us your child’s age and height when you book and we will tell you what we can fit. You are also welcome to leave your own seat in the car for the term.
Yes, and a standing booking can be a different time on each day of the week. Football on Tuesday and music on Thursday with a different finish time on Friday is a completely normal pattern. The drop-off can also be somewhere other than home, such as a childminder, a grandparent or a second parent’s address.
Yes, and it is the single biggest saving available on a daily run. Families on the same side of town sending children to the same school can split one car between them. Parents usually agree it between themselves and then phone us with the combined booking; ask the office which of our existing runs already pass your road.
Yes. We run wheelchair accessible vehicles with ramp access so a child can travel in their own wheelchair without transferring. Because the accessible vehicles are a limited part of the fleet, book a daily run as a standing arrangement well before term starts rather than day to day.
Yes, and most daily-run families do. An account means no money changes hands in the car, which is much simpler for a child travelling alone, and you get one itemised statement for the period instead of individual receipts. Apply through our account application page or ask the office to send you the form.
The car waits. Your driver is at the agreed gate or side road before the bell and stays there. If your child does not appear, the office phones you rather than the driver leaving.
We cover the south-west London boroughs on our doorstep — Sutton, Kingston upon Thames and Merton, including Morden, Wallington, Carshalton and Worcester Park — alongside the whole of our Surrey patch. We are not the right firm for a school run in west, north or east London; a local operator there will serve you better.
Yes. Where a school, council team or family provides a second adult to accompany the child, we carry them as part of the booking. Mention it when you book so the right size of vehicle is allocated, because an escort takes a seat.
Phone the branch holding your booking and ask them to pull that single day. The rest of the pattern stays exactly as it is. Inset days, fixtures and sickness are expected; the night before is ideal notice but a call on the morning is still worth making.
Every licensed private hire driver must pass an enhanced DBS check that also checks the children’s and adults’ barred lists before a council will grant or renew a licence, and must stay registered with the DBS Update Service so the council can re-check every six months. Licensing authorities also require drivers to complete safeguarding training. Drivers carry a badge and you are entitled to ask to see it.
In the last fortnight of the summer holidays, not the first week of term. Early September is our busiest fortnight of the year and the best driver slots on the most popular routes are taken first.
Phone the branch nearest your home and tell them the school, the gate, the times and the days. A standing booking takes one conversation to set up and then runs itself for the term. Epsom head office is on 01372 747 747, or you can start online with our booking form. If you want an account in place first, use the account application.
If you have a question this page has not answered — an unusual route, a complicated week, a child who needs something specific — phone and ask. School runs are the kind of work where the detail is the whole job, and the people who answer our phones have been arranging them in these towns for years.
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