Personal driver London, and your own car home with you.

A personal driver in London who drives your car, not ours

Ask for a personal driver in London and you will usually be offered a saloon and a driver for the evening. Your own car still sits in a car park or a hotel garage until someone fetches it. RydeBack closes that gap. We send two chauffeurs. The first takes charge of your car, be it a Bentley, a McLaren or the family Range Rover, and drives it to your home, your garage or wherever you ask. The second drives you and your guests in a RydeBack car. By the end of the night, you and the car are both back where you started.

People reach us with different words. Some want a private driver in London for a long dinner. Some are after a private chauffeur in London for a black-tie evening. Others simply type "sober driver" or "designated driver London" on the way out of a party. It is one service, and our private chauffeur service for your own car page sets out how it works across every RydeBack city.

London is charged at £95 per chauffeur per hour and £3.80 for each kilometre of your journey. We count the hours from our garage back to our garage, with a three-hour minimum and half-hour steps beyond it. The chauffeurs' return is part of those hours, so the same miles are never charged twice. With two chauffeurs, the minimum before any distance is £570.

How a London evening runs, from the members' club to your mews

1. Book in advance. Ring 1-877-860-3388, email support@rydeback.com or use the chat button. Online reservations open shortly and will need at least two hours' notice. You pay the whole fare at booking. We do not take deposits.
2. Names and a PIN. Before pickup you receive both chauffeurs' names and photographs, and a one-time PIN for the handover.
3. The meeting point. In Mayfair, your car may be with a club doorman, a hotel garage or a nearby car park. Give us the details and we meet you at the door. Nothing changes hands until the PIN matches.
4. Key in the pouch. Your key is sealed straight away in a numbered, signal-blocking Faraday pouch. Chauffeur 1 then films and photographs the car all round before the engine is started, and the files go to your private evidence vault.
5. Two cars, one plan. You and your guests set off with chauffeur 2. Chauffeur 1 drives your car straight to its destination. Follow both on the RydeBack web app; texts and emails confirm each stage, from chauffeurs assigned and en route to keys secured, departed, arrived and keys returned.
6. Home. Your car is filmed again, parked, and the key released against your PIN to you, your housekeeper, the porter or a key safe. Chauffeur 2 then collects chauffeur 1, within the hours you have paid for.

Rather travel in your own car? Chauffeur 2 can follow as a chase car instead, for the same price. Need the car to go one way and you another? That is covered too. All three are set out under RydeBack service options.

Personal driver London prices: journeys and ranges

London traffic moves the hours far more than the distance does, so each example below is a range. Hours are garage to garage. Kilometres apply to your own journey only.

• Mayfair dinner to a house in Hampstead: 6 to 10 km within three hours, roughly £590 to £610.
• The Championships at Wimbledon to Chelsea: 8 to 12 km within three hours, roughly £600 to £615.
• Heathrow to Kensington: 20 to 30 km within three hours, roughly £645 to £685.
• Farnborough Airport to the Wentworth estate: 15 to 25 km within three hours, roughly £625 to £665.
• Knightsbridge to St George's Hill, Surrey: 35 to 42 km over three to three and a half hours, roughly £705 to £825.
• Royal Ascot to Belgravia: 45 to 50 km over three to three and a half hours, roughly £740 to £855.
• Henley to Hampstead: 60 to 70 km over three and a half to four hours, roughly £895 to £1,025.
• Goodwood to Kensington: 100 to 115 km over four and a half to five and a half hours, roughly £1,235 to £1,480.

Any tolls, and any Congestion Charge or ULEZ charges that apply on your route, are estimated and included. A tip is entirely optional and goes in full to your chauffeurs. For your own addresses, use the instant London price.

Handover notes: Mayfair, Belgravia, Hampstead and the Surrey estates

Every London postcode has its own way of receiving a car. A few details at booking make the handover smooth.

• Mayfair: members' clubs and hotels often hold the key at the door. Tell us who has it and we collect it with you present.
• Belgravia and Kensington mews: narrow cobbled lanes and integral garages. Say whether the car goes inside or stays in the mews.
• Knightsbridge and Chelsea apartment buildings: many have underground garages run by porters. The key goes to the porter or concierge you name, against a signature and photograph, and the car is filmed in its bay.
• Hampstead and St John's Wood: gated drives and garages. Codes are stored encrypted and shown to the chauffeur only once the trip starts.
• St George's Hill and Wentworth, Surrey: private estates with their own gate security. We send the chauffeurs' names ahead so the gatehouse expects us.

Every handover follows the same vehicle custody protocol, and the photos and video from both ends stay in your vault for 12 weeks.

Heathrow, London City and the private terminals

Business aviation around London uses Farnborough and Biggin Hill, with London City close to the City and Canary Wharf, and Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton for scheduled flights. Leaving by private jet? Drive yourself to the terminal and chauffeur 1 takes the car home or to storage once you are airborne. Coming back? We meet you on arrival, you travel home with your party, and your car comes too, driven by its own chauffeur.

The same pattern works at the rail termini. If your car waited at St Pancras International for a Eurostar weekend, or near Paddington, King's Cross, Euston or Waterloo, we bring both you and the car home. At the Southampton cruise terminals, the Port of Dover or the London International Cruise Terminal at Tilbury, chauffeur 2 takes you and the luggage, and chauffeur 1 follows with the car from the port car park.

Closer to town, St Katharine Docks and Chelsea Harbour are the usual marina pickups. Our clients in private aviation, yachting and hotels use these arrangements most.

The Season: Ascot, Wimbledon, Henley and Goodwood

The English summer runs on a famous calendar, and most of it involves a long lunch and a drive home.

• Royal Ascot: drive yourself down in the morning and let us bring you and the car back to town. A standby window means you tap "Bring my car home now" when the last race and the last glass are done.
• The Championships, Wimbledon: a short trip with a long day attached. Leave the car where it is and ride home.
• Henley Royal Regatta: riverside hospitality, then the M4 or M40 back to London without you at the wheel.
• Goodwood Festival of Speed and the British Grand Prix at Silverstone: long-distance days in the countryside, where many guests arrive in the car they love most.
• RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Opera House: evening events in town, with the car collected from the nearest garage.

Hosting a group for any of these? Our designated driver service for events and parties explains how several chauffeur pairs are booked together.

Long distance: Surrey, the Cotswolds and beyond

RydeBack covers Greater London and the Home Counties, and takes on long-distance trips across the UK. The Surrey stockbroker belt, Sunningdale and Wentworth are within a normal evening. The Cotswolds are the classic weekend run: plan on five to six hours garage to garage for 120 to 140 km, roughly £1,405 to £1,670.

Some clients ride out with us on a Friday. Others send the car ahead on its own in the different-destinations mode and follow by train. Chauffeur 1 then comes back by taxi or rideshare. We estimate that fare in your upfront price and settle it to the receipt at cost afterwards, capped at 25% above the estimate.

Moving a car between a London house and a country one, or to a specialist for servicing? You can hire a driver to drive your car on the same terms, with an inspection record for every move. And if you simply need a drive-my-car-home service after a long lunch, the same pair does that too.

Rules of the road in London

Drink-driving limits in the UK are set out on GOV.UK, and they differ between parts of the country. The THINK! road safety campaign explains how even small amounts of alcohol affect driving. The safe course is to decide on a sober driver before the evening begins.

• Congestion Charge and ULEZ: any charges that apply on your route are estimated and included in the price you pay.
• Cancellation: 100% back if you cancel 72 hours or more before pickup, 50% inside 72 hours, and no refund for a no-show or once the chauffeurs have been dispatched. The full cancellation policy has the detail.
• Cleaning: a fee of £190 to £265 applies only if a vehicle is soiled, charged after the trip with photographs.
• Insurance: commercial insurance is arranged for the service, and the details are confirmed at booking.
• Winter: supercars on summer tyres are not driven in snow or ice; we will suggest the split mode with the car left secure.

Accounts for family offices, hotels and clubs

A good share of London bookings come through someone else. Family offices and private assistants can book and follow every trip on a principal's behalf through delegate access. Hotel concierges and members' clubs can offer RydeBack to a guest who arrived by car and should not drive away. Firms entertaining clients can draw on a prepaid corporate wallet, with invoices by cost centre.

The chauffeurs are the same whoever books. Each is approved for the city, background-checked, driving-record-checked, interviewed and assessed on a supervised drive, and only chauffeurs in our professional tier take exotic or high-value cars. Read how we choose our RydeBack chauffeurs, or contact the London team to set up an account.