Taking a taxi to the airport for a family holiday may seem like a real indulgence, but it’s actually cheaper, faster and can cut your journey carbon emissions to zero!
Sounds like a big claim? Here’s how we worked it all out!
We used the following criteria as an example to best represent our front door to terminal private taxi service.
- A family of two adults and two children under the age of 15 travelling together
- Holiday period of Sat 12 to Sat 19 August 2023 inclusive
- Departure flight leaving after 8am, return flight arriving after 9pm
- 2 item of luggage each
- Travel from Frimley area to Heathrow Terminal 5 (20 miles journey)
- Car parking within walking distance of the terminal
- A medium size family car with an average 50mpg fuel consumption
- Public transport tickets at adult and child rates where available
All figures were calculated as per rates found online on Weds 31 May 2023. All our sources are listed at the bottom of this blog.
Right, let’s get going!
Taxi transfer v driving your own car
Driving to Heathrow Airport and parking the car there for a week may seem the most cost-effective way to get you and the family to and from the airport. However, you need to include all the ‘hidden’ factors to really compare.
Save money
For as little as £65 one way with Your Local Car, a family of four can travel in air-conditioned comfort. That’s a round trip cost of £130 compared with:
- 7 days parking within walking distance of the terminal at minimum of £193.90 (1)
- Fuel costs for a traffic-free journey both ways at £5.38 (2)
- Mileage Allowance for wear and tear on your vehicle at £18.00 (3)
Self-drive: £217.28
Private taxi: £130
Total savings by taxi: £82.28
Remember, even if someone else gives you a lift to the airport, there is a £5 fee to enter the terminal drop-off areas and they cannot sit and wait for you there (10). Our private hire drivers can use the Authorised Vehicle Area (AVA) where private hire vehicles can wait prior to picking you up.
Save time
A taxi transfer saves you time as you don’t need to spend time unloading luggage in the terminal car park, finding a trolley, taking the lifts, and then wheeling it across to the terminal.
Instead, our drivers collect you from your home, and drive their own route to the airport to avoid the traffic if required. They then drop you right at the terminal door, and unload your luggage. On your return, your driver will be monitoring the flight arrival times, so they will be ready and waiting for you on your return.
Time saved: approx. 15 minutes on arrival and 15 mins on collection.
Taxi transfer v public transport
We’ve chosen the quickest way to get from Frimley to Heathrow Airport and involves the least changes, again to replicate our door-to-door airport taxi service as far as possible. This is to take the train from Frimley to Woking, and then take the RA3 RailAir bus direct to Heathrow Terminal 5.
Save money
Our taxi service round trip cost of £130.00 compares with:
- Taxi to and from Frimley station £18.60 (what we charge)
- Train fares £28.50 (6)
- RA2 Rail Air bus tickets £53.00 (7)
Public transport: £100.10
Private taxi: £130.00
Total savings: -£30 BUT that’s only if you’re not delayed and don’t miss the last bus/train home! Why risk it for just £30?
Save time
Public transport will always take considerably longer than driving direct. In this example travel times one way are:
- Taxi to station: 10 mins
- Train Frimley to Woking: 40 minutes
- RailAir bus Woking to Terminal 5: average 55 minutes
- Minimum time for changes/wait: 5 mins each change
Total journey time: 1 hour 50 mins assuming the fastest possible connections are made. And there are no rail strikes…
Compare that to a 35-minute ride in one of our pre-booked comfortable, spacious taxis, with door to door service any time, day or night.
Save the planet
Using public transport does reduce your carbon emissions for the journey compared to driving your own car. For the journey described above:
- Train Frimley to Woking: 0.59 KG CO2 (8)
- Coach: 1.82 KG CO2 for the 14 mile RailAir section (9)
That’s a total of 2.41KG CO2 each way.
However, that’s also assuming there is only your family on the train and the coach! Otherwise, these carbon emissions are shared between the number of passengers. Even if the train is packed, you will still incur some carbon emissions as a result of travel. How much depends on how many others travel each section with you.
Compare this to zero tailpipe emission from our all-electric taxis and it’s clear the greenest way to travel to Heathrow is with YLC.
What if my flight is delayed?
Modern day air travel is not always the straightforward experience it should be!
- Your return flight can be delayed, sometimes until the early hours of the morning.
- There may be long queues at passport control (especially if the e-gates go down like they did recently).
- Your luggage can be late arriving at the carousel
So you can arrive back at Heathrow tired, stressed and hungry – and realise you’ve missed the last bus/train home before you even get to your bags.
If you’ve driven to the airport, you also need to get to your car. You may have to queue for your bus to the parking lot in the dark with tired kids. If your flight was severely delayed, you might even have to pay an extra day on the car parking charge.
More importantly, you may be tired, dehydrated and jet-lagged yourself, affecting your ability to drive safely.
By booking your Heathrow airport taxi transfer through our app, you can message your driver in advance to inform them if you are arriving late. You can also track their position on the app, so you know precisely when they will be kerbside at terminal 5 ready to collect you and your worn-out family with a smile and a cold drink.
What’s more, you and the kids can even snooze on the drive back home, arriving safe and sound and ready to roll into bed after a well-deserved cuppa!
The YLC app – airport taxi bookings made easy
Just download the YLC app and start booking your taxis to enjoy a 5% discount.
If you would like to book one of our super-comfortable all electric SUVs or vans, please call us on 01252 674646 as they’re not available to book on the app yet.
SOURCES
(1) We’ve taken the lowest cost for official Heathrow parking from which you can walk to the terminal rather than catch a bus, as this replicates our front door direct to terminal taxi service. The options were:
- Short stay: £227.40
- Meet and greet: £193.90
- Valet parking: £213.00
The cheapest park and ride option was Long Stay at £133.20, still more expensive than our 20-mile taxi ride both ways! https://www.heathrow.com/booking/parking
(2) Fuel priced at per average local diesel fuel price at time of writing of 150pence per litre. https://www.rac.co.uk/route-planner/mileage-calculator/
(3) The Mileage Allowance Payments (MAPs) are what employers pay employees to drive their own cars. The rate is set by the government each year, to cover the costs of running and maintaining the car but NOT fuel costs. It’s currently 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles per year. https://www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-business-travel-mileage/rules-for-tax
Want to work out your own costs? This great article from the AA shows you how to calculate the running costs of any car including tyres, servicing, depreciation, insurance and more. https://www.theaa.com/driving-advice/driving-costs/running-costs
(4) Carbon footprint of electric cars details from https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/en/electric-and-hybrid/discover-electric/the-carbon-footprint-of-electric-cars.html. We are conscious that electric cars are not entirely carbon-free to manufacture or to fuel. However, over its lifetime including manufacture and charging, an electric vehicle will create 32% fewer CO2 emissions than a modern diesel car, and 40% less than a modern petrol car. This figure falls even lower if green energy is used to charge it, and it is driven regularly like our electric taxis to offset those initial carbon costs.
(5) Carbon emissions figures from the RAC mileage calculator assuming 50mpg and diesel fuel cost at 150pence per litre. See https://www.rac.co.uk/route-planner/mileage-calculator/
(6) Rail tickets prices and times here: https://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/FML/WOK/120823/0800/dep/190823/2300/dep
(7) RailAir bus details here: https://www.railair.com/book-tickets
(8) LNER has a neat calculator on this page: https://www.lner.co.uk/tickets-savings/the-best-way-to-travel/our-commitment-to-the-environment/#calculator#calculator
(9) Coach carbon emissions taken from mean score on table at https://www.carbonindependent.org/20.html
(10) Heathrow drop-off charges https://www.heathrow.com/transport-and-directions/terminal-drop-off-charge