How To Book A Cab In London

The easiest way to arrange  taxi to pick you up is to make a booking by phone or by email. There are three major black cab companies in London offering telephone booking services.

Radio Taxis

Dial A Cab

ComCab

To find out more about each company and get their phone number and website address please click on the link above.

A Few Stories About How To Hail Cabs In The Street.

Hiring a Cab - From Go London

Cabs available for hire have a light on top displaying the word 'TAXI'. Once hired, the light is switched off.

To hail a cab, simply stick your arm out as it approaches and they will pull over for you. Talk to the driver at the front window and explain where you need to get to, then jump in the back. Black cabs can carry five passengers: three on the back seat and two on the fold-down seats that face opposite. If you have a lot of luggage, ask the driver to put your bags in the space at the front next to him.

Visit Go London

Hiring a Cab - From Virtual Tourist

It's easy to hail one, once you get the hang of it. Just watch for the taxi that has it's light indicating that it's available and stick up your hand. I find the cabbies incredibly watchful for people wishing to ride. In July we just finished our visit to the London Eye, stepped onto the sidewalk and raised our hand. A cabbie coming the other direction swung into a UTurn and picked us up.

Visit Virtual Tourist

Taxi sharing

London Taxi Sharing Scheme Order 2005

Sometimes passengers have a common destination and taxi sharing is of benefit:

Passengers pay lower fares for door-to-door journeys than they would if travelling alone
If there is a long queue of passengers or a local shortage of taxis, passenger waiting times will be reduced

These arrangements not only benefit customers, but the trade and local communities too:

Drivers get more revenue for each trip than they normally would
There are fewer taxi trips overall, resulting in less noise, disruption, traffic congestion and pollution

Fixed-fare taxi sharing operates as follows:

Regular weekday morning services from Paddington to central London and other important destinations
Services between the All England Lawn Tennis Club and Wimbledon and Southfields Tube stations during the Wimbledon tennis tournament
From Buckingham Palace at the end of royal garden parties to destinations around central London