Terms & conditions

These terms apply to every journey you book with Cab8. Please read them before you book. They do not affect your legal rights as a consumer.

About us

Cab8 is the trading name of Commercial Cars UK LTD, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 09707773). Our registered office is 281a Barking Road, London E13 8EQ.

We are a private hire operator licensed by Transport for London (TfL). Our operator licence details are available on request.

In these terms "we", "us" and "our" mean Commercial Cars UK LTD, trading as Cab8. "You" means the person who books, and any passenger travelling on the booking.

To contact us, call 020 3488 7664 (24 hours a day, every day) or email info@commercialcar.co.uk.

1. Who your contract is with

Under the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998, every private hire journey in London must be booked through a licensed operator before it starts. When we accept your booking, your contract is with us. We send a driver licensed by TfL in a vehicle licensed by TfL and insured to carry passengers for hire.

Private hire cars cannot be hailed in the street, and drivers may not take bookings for themselves. Please always book through our office.

2. How to book

Most of our bookings are made by phone. Call 020 3488 7664 any time, day or night, and a dispatcher will take your booking and tell you the price.

You can also ask for a journey:

• on this website, after signing in with a code we text to your mobile
• by WhatsApp
• through our automated phone and chat assistant, when it answers
• through your company's business account, if you have one

A request made on the website, by WhatsApp or through the automated assistant is not a booking until our office confirms it. We confirm by text, WhatsApp or email, and the booking shows as Confirmed in My bookings. If we cannot take a request, we tell you, and you pay nothing.

If an automated assistant answers your call or message, you can ask for a person at any time.

Please give us accurate details: the pickup address, the time, the number of passengers and suitcases, and anything the driver needs to know, such as a child seat, a wheelchair or an assistance dog. We may send a different car of the same size or larger, at no extra cost.

Bookings must be made by someone aged 18 or over. The person who books is responsible for any children travelling on the booking.

3. Prices

We always tell you the price, or an estimate, before you book.

• Fixed prices: airport transfers, long-distance journeys and any other price we confirm as fixed. You pay the fixed price unless the journey changes.
• Estimated prices: local fares are worked out from the distance and time of the journey. Your fare may be different if the route changes, for example because you add a stop, ask for a diversion or a road is closed.

Prices can vary with the time of day and the type of car you choose. Prices include VAT where VAT applies.

These may be added to your fare. We tell you about them when you book wherever we can:

• waiting time beyond the free waiting time (see section 4)
• extra stops, or changes to the journey that you ask for
• car park, drop-off and pickup charges, for example at airports and stations
• tolls and road charges on your route, such as the Dartford Crossing or the London Congestion Charge, where they are not already in your price
• a soiling charge if a passenger makes the car dirty, for example by being sick, so that it has to be cleaned before it can work again. The charge covers the reasonable cost of cleaning and the time the car is off the road. We tell you the amount and how we worked it out.
• the reasonable cost of repairing any damage a passenger causes to the car on purpose or through carelessness

We do not add a surcharge for paying by card.

4. Waiting time

Your driver waits free of charge:

• for 5 minutes at an address, from the booked pickup time or from when the driver arrives, whichever is later
• for 45 minutes after your flight lands, for airport pickups. Give us your flight number and we follow your flight, so a late landing does not cost you more.

After the free waiting time, waiting time may be charged by the minute. Our office can tell you the rate. If you are running late, please call us.

5. Changes and cancellations

To change or cancel a booking, call us or use My bookings on this website. Our office confirms every change. If a change alters the journey, the price may change too, and we tell you first.

You can cancel free of charge at any time before a driver is on the way to you.

If a driver is already on the way or has arrived, we may charge a cancellation fee to cover the cost of sending the driver. It is never more than the price of the journey, and we tell you the amount when you cancel.

6. No-shows

If the driver cannot find you at the pickup point after the free waiting time, and we have tried to contact you on the number you gave us, we may treat the booking as a no-show. We may then charge up to the full price of the journey.

7. If we have to cancel

Very occasionally we may not be able to carry out a booking, for example because of severe weather, a road closure or a safety concern. We will tell you as soon as we can, try to arrange another car, and refund in full anything you have paid for that journey.

8. No 14-day cancellation period

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give a 14-day right to cancel many contracts made by phone or online. Passenger transport services are excluded from that right (regulation 6 of those Regulations), so it does not apply to journeys booked with us. You can still cancel as set out in section 5.

9. Paying

You can pay:

• by cash to the driver, in pounds sterling
• by card, using the driver's card reader or a secure payment link we send you. Card payments are handled by our payment providers, SumUp and Stripe. We never see or store your full card number.
• on account, if your company has a business account with us. We send one invoice a month, payable on the terms in your account agreement. On overdue business invoices we may claim interest and costs under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.

If we ask you to pay before the journey and then cannot carry it out, we refund you in full. A receipt is available for every journey: ask the driver or our office.

10. During your journey

• The law requires every passenger to wear a seat belt where one is fitted.
• Smoking is against the law in licensed private hire vehicles. Please do not vape in our cars either.
• Please tell us about large or unusual luggage when you book. A driver may refuse items that cannot be carried safely, and dangerous or illegal items.
• Animals other than assistance dogs travel only if you ask when you book and we agree.
• Please look after your own belongings and check you have everything before you leave the car.

11. Children and child seats

In a licensed private hire vehicle, children may travel without a child seat if the right one is not available, but only in a rear seat. Children under 3 may then travel without a seat belt, and children aged 3 and over must wear an adult seat belt.

For your child's safety we recommend a child seat. Tell us when you book if you need one, or bring your own. The adult travelling with the child is responsible for checking that the seat is fitted correctly and the child is secured; the driver will help if asked.

12. Passengers with disabilities

Under the Equality Act 2010, we and our drivers will not refuse a booking, or charge you more, because you are disabled.

• Assistance dogs travel free of charge in every car. A driver who has a medical exemption certificate from TfL cannot carry dogs; in that case we send another car.
• Wheelchair-accessible cars are available. Choose Wheelchair accessible when you book, or tell our office, and please book as early as you can.
• Our drivers will give you reasonable help getting in and out of the car and with your luggage, at no extra charge.

You can read more on our Accessibility page.

13. Behaviour and refusing a journey

We want every journey to be safe and pleasant for passengers and drivers. A driver may refuse to start a journey, or end it at a safe place, if a passenger:

• is violent, abusive, threatening or behaves in a discriminatory way
• is so drunk or unwell that they cannot travel safely
• carries something dangerous or illegal
• asks for more people to travel than the car has seats

If a journey ends early because of a passenger's behaviour, we may charge for the part already travelled and for any cleaning or damage. We report crimes to the police.

14. Lost property

If you leave something in one of our cars, call 020 3488 7664 or email info@commercialcar.co.uk as soon as possible, with your booking number or the date, time and route of your journey.

We record every item that is handed in and keep it for 28 days. We will arrange for you to collect it, or agree any delivery cost with you first. After 28 days we may hand unclaimed items to the police or dispose of them safely.

15. Delays

We plan every journey with reasonable care, but journey times depend on traffic, weather, road works, accidents and closures. Please allow enough time, especially for flights, trains and important appointments. Our office can advise you on a sensible pickup time.

We are not responsible for delays, or for a journey we cannot complete, because of events outside our reasonable control. If this happens we will do what we reasonably can to get you to your destination.

16. Our responsibility to you

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 we must carry out our service with reasonable care and skill. If we do not, tell us and we will try to put it right. If we cannot, you may be entitled to a full or partial refund.

We are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms or failing to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss or damage that was not foreseeable when you booked.

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or the negligence of our drivers, for fraud, or for anything else that the law does not allow us to limit or exclude.

If you book for business purposes, we are not responsible for loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption or loss of a business opportunity.

17. Complaints

If something goes wrong, please tell us. Call 020 3488 7664, email info@commercialcar.co.uk or write to us at 281a Barking Road, London E13 8EQ. Please give your booking number and tell us what happened.

We record every complaint, as our operator licence requires, and we reply to every complaint within 7 days.

If you are not happy with our reply, you can contact Transport for London, which licenses us, our drivers and our cars (Taxi and Private Hire, tfl.gov.uk/info-for/taxis-and-private-hire). If we cannot settle a complaint, we will tell you so in writing and say whether we will use an alternative dispute resolution scheme. You can read more on our Complaints and lost property page.

18. Your personal information

We use your information to take and carry out your booking, as explained in our Privacy policy. Calls to our office are recorded.

19. General

• We may update these terms from time to time. The terms that apply to your journey are the ones on this website when you booked.
• If a court decides that part of these terms is not valid, the rest still applies.
• If you book for someone else, please make sure they know these terms.
• These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales can deal with any dispute. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring a claim in your local courts.