There are two ways to put a brand on a licensed black cab. Taxi Supersides take both flanks of the vehicle. Taxi Full Wraps take the whole exterior. Almost every planning conversation starts here, and the honest answer is that neither is better — they solve different problems, and the wrong one is usually chosen because someone compared the rate per cab instead of comparing what a fixed budget buys.
What each format actually covers
A Superside is a large printed panel fitted along the side of the cab, below the window line, running most of the length of the vehicle. Both flanks are used, so the cab carries your message on the left and the right. This is the part of a taxi that a pedestrian on the pavement, a cyclist alongside and a driver in the next lane all see first.
A Full Wrap covers the entire exterior — bonnet, doors, flanks and rear — in printed vinyl. You will also hear it called a full livery; it is the same product. The silhouette of the cab stays the same but everything else about the vehicle becomes yours.
Both formats include interior Tip Seat advertising at no additional cost. It is not a separate product and cannot be bought on its own.
The comparison that matters
Comparing the two rate cards side by side tells you very little, because you are not choosing between one Superside and one wrap. You are choosing what to do with a budget. A Full Wrap costs more per cab — considerably more material, considerably more fitting time — so the same money buys meaningfully fewer wrapped cabs than it does Superside cabs.
That trade-off is the whole decision. More cabs means more frequency: the same commuters encountering your message on different vehicles, in different streets, on different days. Fewer cabs, each carrying far more presence, means standout: a vehicle people photograph, and a campaign that reads as bigger than its fleet.
| Feature | Taxi Supersides | Taxi Full Wraps |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage | Both side panels | Full exterior, front to back |
| Buys you | More cabs for the same budget | More presence per cab |
| Builds | Reach and frequency | Standout and talkability |
| Creative works best as | One clear message | A full brand world |
| Typical fleet | Larger | Smaller |
| Typical run | Always-on | Tied to a moment, or long-running |
Choose Supersides when…
- The objective is awareness across a whole city rather than impact on one street.
- You need frequency — being seen repeatedly by the same audience over months.
- The creative is a name and a proposition rather than an image.
- You want an always-on presence that a media plan can rely on.
- The budget needs to look bigger than it is. More vehicles read as a bigger campaign.
Choose Full Wraps when…
- The campaign is tied to a launch, a moment or a market entry.
- You want the campaign photographed and shared, not just seen.
- The creative depends on imagery, colour or a full brand world rather than one line.
- You want maximum impact per vehicle — a wrapped cab reads as a far larger campaign than the fleet size suggests.
- PR value is part of the objective, not a happy accident.
Running both
A common and effective shape for a launch is to run both. A small number of Full Wraps carry the standout and give you the photography you will use everywhere else; a larger Superside fleet carries the reach behind it. The two parts are planned, fitted and reported as one campaign, so it does not add complexity on your side.
This is usually the right answer when a brand has a launch moment but also needs the campaign to keep working for the six months after it.
What does not change between the formats
Both formats run on both fleets — the Premium Black Cab and the Classic Black Cab. Published rates for both include printing and installation, and both include interior Tip Seat advertising at no additional cost. And both cover the whole city rather than a fixed route, because a licensed cab is not tied to a site.
Still not sure
Start from the budget and the objective rather than the format. Tell us what you are trying to achieve, roughly what you have to spend and when you need to be live, and we will come back with both options costed against your actual numbers so you can compare what each one buys. See the full detail on Taxi Supersides and Taxi Full Wraps, or read how taxi advertising costs are built.