A passenger types “london taxi fare calculator” into Google on a Thursday night. They have a 6am flight out of Heathrow on Saturday. They want a number, not a phone call, and they want it before their coffee goes cold.
What they get back from the first three results is a mess. One page quotes a flat £60 to Heathrow. Another shows a metered estimate of £88. A third shows nothing and asks them to call a Southwark landline. None of them explain why the numbers are different, and none of them say which one they are actually going to pay.
If you run a firm in or around London, your website is either on the right side of that mess or the wrong side. Here is the short version of how London fares work, which tariff applies when, and how to show a passenger a number they can trust.
Black Cab vs Private Hire in London
Two different services, two different pricing models, one confused passenger. The distinction matters because the law treats them differently and so must your website.
- London hackney carriage (black cab) is metered. Fares are set by Transport for London. A black cab can be hailed in the street or booked in advance. The meter is the legal source of truth. A website quote for a black cab is an estimate, never a locked price.
- Private hire vehicle (PHV) is pre-booked only. No street hails, no taxi rank pickups. The fare must be quoted at booking and locked. A website calculator for a PHV firm is not an estimate, it is the contract.
If your firm runs both (common in London), your website has to be honest about which one a passenger is getting. The free fare calculator we ship on every Essential and Fleet site asks that question in the first step, and it behaves differently afterwards depending on the answer.
TfL Tariffs 1, 2, and 3
TfL publishes the hackney fare order and updates it annually. At the time of writing, the structure runs on three tariffs. Any black cab meter in London charges one of these three depending on when the journey happens. The exact pence figures change each April, so check the current TfL taxi fares page for the figures in force right now.
- Tariff 1. Monday to Friday, 06:00 to 20:00. The daytime rate. Cheapest per-minute and per-mile rate of the three. Minimum fare around £3.80.
- Tariff 2. Monday to Friday 20:00 to 22:00, and all day Saturday and Sunday between 06:00 and 22:00. Slightly higher per-mile rate. Same minimum fare.
- Tariff 3. All nights from 22:00 to 06:00, plus bank holidays. The highest rate. A central London to Heathrow run on Tariff 3 can be 25 to 30 percent higher than the same run on Tariff 1.
The meter works out the rate in live traffic: it charges per distance while the cab is moving above a set speed, and per time while it is stopped or crawling. A run that takes 30 minutes in Tariff 1 traffic and 45 minutes in Tariff 1 rush hour will come out higher on the meter for the rush hour run, even though the distance is identical. Your website estimator should account for that, or it will undershoot every weekday morning quote.
How Metered Black Cab Fares Compare to Private Hire Quotes
The common assumption is that private hire is always cheaper than a black cab. Sometimes true, sometimes not. The honest comparison looks like this for a typical central London to Heathrow run in light traffic.
| Service | Pricing model | Typical fare (Tariff 1, light traffic) |
|---|---|---|
| Black cab (metered) | TfL Tariff 1 | £75 to £90 |
| Black cab (fixed Heathrow quote, if your firm offers one) | Pre-booked fixed fare | £65 to £75 |
| Private hire (standard saloon) | Pre-booked fixed fare | £55 to £70 |
| Private hire (executive) | Pre-booked fixed fare | £85 to £110 |
Two things come out of this.
- On a busy weekday airport run, a fixed private hire quote usually beats the black cab meter by 15 to 25 percent.
- On a short central London hop in light traffic, the meter can come out cheaper than a PHV fixed quote, because the meter clocks a small number and the PHV has a minimum-fare floor.
A passenger does not want to hear any of that. They want to see a number. If your site quotes only the meter estimate, you lose the airport bookings. If you quote only the PHV price and the passenger is five minutes from Paddington, you lose the short hops. A calculator that can quote both, honestly, gets both.
Heathrow and Gatwick Fixed Fares
Airport work is where fare calculators earn their keep. Passengers flying out of Heathrow or Gatwick almost always price-shop. They book the cab days in advance. They compare three firms. The firm whose website shows a fixed number in under three seconds wins more than its share.
For London firms, the sensible pattern is a fixed fare from each postcode district to each airport terminal, with a sensible rounding rule. Not every firm publishes these, and if you do not, you are handing the booking to the ones that do.
- Heathrow (T2, T3, T4, T5). Typical central London fixed fares sit at £55 to £75 depending on the firm and the terminal. Most firms charge the same for all terminals and absorb the small difference.
- Gatwick (North, South). Central London to Gatwick is a longer run and sits at £80 to £110 fixed for a standard saloon.
- Stansted and Luton. Further out again. £90 to £130 is the typical fixed-fare range.
- London City. Short run from the City or Canary Wharf. £25 to £45 depending on postcode.
These are indicative, not quotes. Every firm sets its own numbers based on vehicle type, driver return mileage, and local market pricing. The point is that they should be on your site, not in your dispatcher’s head.
What a London-Specific Fare Calculator Needs
A generic calculator built for a Midlands town will not serve a London firm well. Six things London adds that most tools skip.
- Tariff 1/2/3 awareness. Pick the right rate based on the pickup time and date, including bank holidays.
- Congestion Charge handling. If the route crosses the CCZ during charging hours, show it as a line item or include it in the fixed fare. Do not surprise the passenger at the destination.
- ULEZ where relevant. Most licensed taxis are exempt, but if you run a mixed fleet, know which vehicles are and which are not.
- Airport terminal disambiguation. Heathrow T2 versus T5 is three miles of service road. Do not treat them as the same point.
- Traffic-aware routing. A 7am run to Gatwick in November is not the same distance-time-wise as a 2pm run in August. Live routing reflects that.
- Meet-and-greet surcharge. If you offer a meet-and-greet at Heathrow or Gatwick arrivals, price it as an optional add-on that toggles on and off cleanly.
If the web designer you are speaking to does not mention any of these by name, they are not a London taxi website specialist.
When to Quote and When to Meter
Here is a quick rule of thumb for firms that run both hackney and private hire in and around London.
- Pre-booked airport runs. Always quote. Passengers buy on the price, not the meter. Fixed quote wins the booking.
- Pre-booked corporate account work. Quote, and honour the quote. Finance teams reconcile on fixed numbers.
- Short local hops booked through the site. Quote, but show the estimated range (for example, “£12 to £15 depending on traffic”) rather than a tight number. Passengers accept a range more readily than a disputed meter.
- Street hails (hackney only). Meter. The passenger chose the meter the moment they put their hand out.
The site should reflect that logic. A hackney firm’s site shows meter estimates and clearly says “estimate only”. A private hire firm’s site shows locked quotes and says so. A mixed firm’s site lets the passenger pick.
What This Costs to Build
A London-ready fare calculator with TfL tariff bands, airport fixed fares, and dispatch handover to iCabbi, Autocab, or Cordic sits inside our Essential tier at £799 one-off. The Fleet tier at £1,499 adds multi-vehicle pricing, corporate account portal, and per-terminal fixed fares for Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, and London City. Full breakdown on the pricing page.
Live examples across our portfolio sit at portfolio, including Capital Black Cabs and AeroCab Heathrow. Both run London-specific calculators with tariff awareness and fixed airport quotes baked in.
Your Move This Week
You do not need a new site this week. You need to know whether your current one quotes London fares honestly. Three steps, about 15 minutes.
- Quote a Heathrow run on your site at 8am on a Tuesday and again at 11pm on a Saturday. Same postcodes, different times. If the number does not change, your calculator is not reading tariff bands.
- Compare your quote to the current TfL fare order at the TfL taxi fares page. If your numbers are more than 10 percent out, the tariff table on the site is stale.
- Request a free audit. We will check your calculator against the current TfL order, look at your airport fixed fares, and send a one-page PDF with the three biggest fixes. No pitch attached. Request your audit here.
If you want to read more about the mechanics of a calculator itself, the companion piece is three taps to booked, which covers the booking funnel after the quote. And our working example is live at taxi fare calculator.
London fares are not complicated once the tariff bands are on one page. Get them on yours and the Heathrow bookings stop going to the next firm up the search results.