Three ways to pay for a Clocktower Cars journey: when you book, in cash to the driver, or on an account invoiced monthly. What we do not have is a card terminal in the car — so if you want to pay by card, you do it at the time of booking rather than at the end of the ride. This page explains why, and what the rule you may be thinking of actually covers.
There is a card rule in the UK, and it is worth being precise about it because it is the single most common misunderstanding about paying for a car.
In London, all licensed taxi drivers have been required to accept credit and debit cards, including contactless, since 31 October 2016, and since 1 January 2017 every London taxi has had to have an approved card device fitted in the passenger compartment. That is a Transport for London requirement, agreed by the TfL Board in February 2016.
It applies to taxis — the black cabs you flag down or pick up at a rank. It is not a requirement on private hire vehicles, which are a different licence and a different kind of journey: pre-booked through an operator rather than hailed. Outside London the position varies again, because each licensing authority sets its own conditions and several have debated card requirements without adopting them.
Clocktower Cars is a private hire operator. Every journey is pre-booked, which is exactly what makes paying in advance straightforward — and it is why the arrangement below works the way it does.
Settle the fare at the point of booking, by phone on 01372 747 747 or through the online booking form. Nothing then changes hands in the car at all.
This is the right option more often than people expect. It is the only sensible arrangement when the passenger is a child travelling alone, when you are booking a car for somebody else — a relative, a client, a visitor landing at an airport — or when you are arriving on a late flight and would rather not be finding a wallet at one in the morning. It is also the cleanest way to handle an airport transfer, because the fare is agreed before the flight rather than after a delay.
Cash is accepted on any journey. If that is how you want to pay, say so when you book and the driver will have the figure you were quoted — not a meter reading that has moved while you sat in traffic. Please have it reasonably close to the amount; a driver at six in the morning may not be carrying much change.
Accounts are available to firms and to households that travel regularly, and they cover everything on one monthly invoice — ordinary minicab journeys, airport runs, school runs and executive and chauffeur bookings alike. The practical reason most of our accounts exist is that a visiting client should never be asked to pay at the kerb. For a standing weekly journey such as a school run, an account also removes the business of sending a child out with money.
Yes — and that is worth saying, because the assumption that everything has gone cashless is not accurate in this trade. Cash remains perfectly normal in private hire across Surrey and south-west London, and we accept it. What has changed is that fewer people carry it, which is why pre-paying at the booking stage has quietly become the default for airport work and anything booked on behalf of somebody else.
Whichever way you pay, the amount is agreed before you travel. A private hire journey is quoted rather than metered, which is the other real difference between a pre-booked car and a hailed taxi: you know the number at the booking stage instead of watching it climb.
What moves a quote is the distance and the drive time from your door, the hour of the day, the vehicle class, the number of passengers and cases, any tolls or emissions charges on the route, and — on an airport arrival — how long the car is likely to wait. We do not publish a price list, because across the area we cover the honest range runs from a two-minute station hop to a seventy-mile run to Stansted, and any single figure would be wrong for most people reading it.
Entirely optional, and no part of the quoted fare. If you want to round up on a cash journey, drivers appreciate it; nobody will suggest it, and nothing is added automatically to a card payment or an account invoice.
In London, licensed taxis — the black cabs you hail — have been required to accept credit, debit and contactless cards since 31 October 2016, with an approved device fitted in the passenger compartment since 1 January 2017. That is a Transport for London requirement and it applies to taxis, not to private hire vehicles. Outside London each licensing authority sets its own conditions.
Yes, at the time of booking — by phone on 01372 747 747 or through the online booking form. There is no card terminal in the car, so card payment happens when the booking is made rather than at the end of the journey.
Yes, on any journey. Tell us when you book and the driver will have the figure you were quoted. Please keep it close to the amount if you can, because drivers do not carry a great deal of change.
Pay when you book. That way the passenger — a child, an elderly relative, a client landing at an airport — has nothing to settle at the kerb. It is the arrangement we recommend for any journey you are arranging on behalf of another person.
Yes, and for an arrival it is the sensible option: the fare is agreed before the flight rather than after a delay, and there is nothing to sort out at one in the morning. See our airport transfers page for how arrivals are handled.
Yes. Corporate and household accounts cover ordinary minicab journeys, airport runs, school runs and executive chauffeur bookings on a single monthly invoice, so nothing is paid at the kerb.
Quoted. A private hire journey is priced before you travel, so you know the figure at the booking stage rather than watching a meter. A hailed taxi works the other way round.
Because the range is too wide for a single number to be useful — the same page would have to cover a two-minute run to a station and a seventy-mile journey to Stansted. Ring or use the booking form and we will quote the journey.
No. Tipping is entirely optional and forms no part of the quoted fare. Nothing is added automatically to a card payment or an account invoice.
Say so when you book or ask the driver, and one will be provided. Account customers get the full breakdown on the monthly invoice.
Call 01372 747 747 at any hour, or use the booking form, and say how you would like to pay. We cover Epsom and the whole of Surrey and south-west London from twelve offices — addresses and local numbers are on about Clocktower Cars.
Enter your mobile number and get a download link sent to you for free.
