Private Black Cab Hire for Events & Brand Activations
We provide the taxi and the driver, planned around your activation. From £95 + VAT per taxi, per hour.
A black cab, planned to your brief.
Private taxi hire puts a black cab and its driver at your disposal for a planned piece of activity. You tell us where the taxi needs to be, when it needs to be there and what it is doing; we plan the vehicle and driver around that brief.
It is a different arrangement from a standard advertising campaign. A campaign taxi is part of the working London fleet — it carries your advertising while it goes about its normal working day, reaching people right across the city, but where it goes on any given afternoon is not something anyone directs.
Private hire exists for the times when that is not what you need: a launch that has to have vehicles outside the venue, a conference where the taxi is part of the stand, a photo shoot that needs the cab in one place at one time. The trade-off is straightforward — you gain control of the plan, and you are buying the vehicle by the hour rather than buying presence across a city.
Fleet advertising, or planned hire?
Two quite different ways of putting your brand on a London taxi. Most advertisers need one or the other, and some need both.
Standard taxi advertising
Your advertising runs on working London taxis. They carry it while they go about their normal working day, which is how the format reaches so much of the city for the money — but nobody directs where any individual vehicle goes. Coverage is broad and organic rather than planned, and a fleet cannot be guaranteed or weighted by borough or by driver shift pattern.
Buy this for reach and frequency across a city, over weeks or months.Private taxi hire
We provide the taxi and the driver, and the vehicle works to an activation plan agreed with you in advance. You decide the dates, the timings and the locations, and the cab is where you need it. It is charged by the hour rather than by the campaign.
Buy this when the taxi has to be in a particular place at a particular time.Not sure which one your activity needs? Describe what you are planning and we will tell you honestly which is the better fit — or whether it wants both.
Plan Your Taxi ActivationFour steps to a planned activation.
Nothing needs to be finalised before you talk to us. Most activations start as an idea and a date.
Tell us what you're planning
The activation, the idea, the audience. A rough outline is enough to start the conversation — nothing needs to be finalised.
Give us the dates, timings and locations
When you need the taxis, for how long, and where they need to be. If there is a route or a set of stops, tell us that too.
We plan the taxi and driver requirements
We work out how many vehicles and drivers the plan needs, confirm what is available and come back with costs.
Your taxis follow the agreed plan
On the day the vehicles run to the activation plan you have signed off, with a driver in each one.
Events, launches and activations.
A cross-section of the activity private hire tends to support. These are things brands do with the service rather than fixed packages we sell.
Product launches
Vehicles at the venue for the duration of the launch, carrying the campaign creative and giving press and guests something to photograph on arrival.
Brand activations and experiential
A cab as part of the activation itself — a set piece, a sampling point, a talking point that can be moved to where the audience is rather than waiting for the audience to arrive.
Conferences and exhibitions
Branded vehicles at the venue across the run of an event, where the audience is concentrated and the competition for attention is intense.
Retail openings
Taxis outside a new store for the opening period, in the way the Binghatti showroom launch used them in Knightsbridge.
PR and photography
A planned shoot with the vehicle where you need it, producing the campaign imagery that gets used in press coverage, pitch decks and social long after the campaign ends.
Planned branded routes
Where an activation calls for vehicles to work an agreed route or set of locations across a day rather than circulate at random.
Hire and advertising, on one brief.
A privately hired taxi can carry the same Superside or Full Wrap creative as a wider campaign, so the vehicle at your event is unmistakably part of the same piece of work.
A branded vehicle, planned to a location
A taxi carrying a Superside or a Full Wrap can also be privately hired for an activation, so the vehicle people photograph at your launch is carrying the same creative that is running across the city.
Advertising and activation on one brief
Where a campaign includes both, the advertising and the private hire are planned together rather than bought as two unrelated things. Tell us both halves of the plan and we will quote them together.
Activation only
Private hire does not require an advertising campaign. If the activation is the whole of the activity, that is a perfectly normal way to buy it.
What private taxi hire costs.
Charged by the hour, per taxi. The starting rate is the beginning of a conversation, not a fixed quote.
Final pricing depends on the activation — the dates, timings, locations and number of taxis involved.
Because every activation is different — a single cab outside a store opening is not the same job as a fleet working a two-day exhibition — we price against the plan rather than publishing a fixed schedule. Tell us what you are thinking and you will get a real figure.
Taxi advertising rates, for campaignsSix things to bring us.
Not all of it has to be settled. If you have the date and a rough idea of the rest, that is enough to start.
- The date, or the range of dates you are working to
- The times the taxis are required, and roughly how many hours
- The locations involved
- Any route or plan the vehicles need to follow
- How many taxis you are thinking of
- A short brief on the event or activation itself
Send what you have and we will come back with what the activation needs and what it costs.
Plan Your Taxi ActivationTaxis at a launch.
Binghatti used a 200-taxi London campaign around the opening of their Knightsbridge showroom, with vehicles providing consistent visibility at the showroom itself.
Read the Binghatti campaign
Private taxi hire, answered.
What is private taxi hire for events?
It is the hire of a black cab and its driver for a planned piece of brand activity — an event, a launch, an activation, a shoot. We provide the vehicle and the driver, and they work to an activation plan you have agreed with us in advance. It is a business service for marketing activity rather than a way of booking a taxi journey.
How is this different from a standard taxi advertising campaign?
A standard campaign taxi is part of the working London fleet. It carries your advertising while it goes about its normal working day, which is how the format builds reach across a whole city — but nobody directs where it goes. Private hire is the opposite: the vehicle is hired by the hour and follows the plan you have set, so you know where it will be and when.
How much does private taxi hire cost?
From £95 + VAT per taxi per hour. That is a starting rate rather than a fixed quote — the final cost depends on the activation itself, including the dates, the timings, the locations and how many taxis are involved. Tell us the plan and we will price it.
What do you provide, and what do I provide?
We provide the taxi and the driver, and we plan the vehicle requirements around your brief. You provide the plan: the date, the times, the locations, any route the vehicles need to follow, how many taxis you want and what the activation involves.
Can the taxis carry our branding?
Yes. Private hire can run on vehicles carrying a Superside or a Full Wrap, so the cab at your event is carrying the same creative as the wider campaign. Branding and hire are planned together on the same brief — tell us both halves and we will quote them together.
Can we hire taxis for more than one day?
Yes. Multi-day activity is planned the same way as a single day — tell us the dates and the hours required on each of them, and we will build the plan and the costs around that.
Do I need to have every detail confirmed before enquiring?
No, and most people do not. A date, a rough idea of the hours and the locations you have in mind is enough for a useful first conversation. We would rather help you shape the plan than wait for it to be finished.
Can we use private hire to guarantee coverage of a particular area?
For a planned activation, yes — that is precisely what the service is for, because the vehicles follow an agreed plan. It is worth being clear that this is not possible on a standard advertising campaign: those taxis are part of the working fleet and their movements are not directed.
Where to go next
Tell us what you’re planning.
Give us the date, the timings and the locations and we will plan the taxis and drivers around your activation.