Preston, Lancaster, Blackpool and the towns along the M61 and M65 are close enough to Manchester that a journey on a running meter feels reasonable at the start and expensive by the end. A fixed-fare North West transfer takes the guesswork out: the price is set on the distance between your two postcodes and confirmed before you travel, so a slow M6 north of Preston or a bank holiday queue on the way to the coast does not change what you pay. Every booking is made at least 36 hours ahead so a specific vehicle and a named driver are assigned to it.
Business travellers heading to Preston, Lancaster or the Blackburn business parks who want a fixed cost for the expense claim and a car that can wait between meetings. Families going to Blackpool for the shows, the piers or the Illuminations, arriving together rather than splitting across trains. Students and parents on university runs to Lancaster and Preston at the start and end of term, with a car full of boxes. Visitors to the castle at Lancaster, the docks at Preston or the Fylde coast who would rather not drive an unfamiliar town centre. And anyone who has watched a meter climb on the way back from the coast and wants a number agreed first.
Each of these has its own page with distances, indicative fares by vehicle class, and route-specific notes on roads and traffic:
Our North West transfer service also runs to and from Blackpool, Blackburn, Bolton, Chorley, Southport and Barrow-in-Furness, and from Manchester Airport and Liverpool Airport as well as the city. For a journey not shown here, send the pickup and drop-off through the contact page and we come back with a fixed rate.
Every journey is a fixed fare, set on the exact distance between your two postcodes and confirmed on your booking. There is no meter, so there is no penalty for traffic on the M61 or a slow run up the M55 to the Fylde. There is no surge pricing at weekends or during the Illuminations, and nothing to settle with the driver at the end. Per-vehicle prices and what each fare covers are shown on the individual route pages and on the booking form.
One assigned driver for the whole journey and help with the luggage. Meet and greet at your pickup is an optional extra you can add on the booking form. Away from the airport, the price includes the waiting time you select when you book, and for a day of meetings an as-directed booking with the driver on call is often better value than two separate transfers. Where the trip starts with a flight into Manchester Airport, the fare adds flight tracking and the £6 airport pickup fee, and the first hour after you land is free; after that, waiting is charged. The fare takes you to the address, not just to the town centre or the station.
| Vehicle | Passengers | Luggage | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saloon Standard | 1–4 | 2 cases | Everyday town-to-town travel |
| Estate Standard | 1–4 | 4 cases | Extra luggage, university boxes, prams |
| Executive Estate | 1–4 | 3 cases | Business travel with a higher-spec car |
| MPV Executive | 5–8 | 6 cases | Groups and larger families travelling together |
Indicative fares for each class are on the route pages; this hub does not carry prices because they depend on the exact journey.
On a local run the meter is where the money quietly goes wrong, and it goes wrong in one direction only. The figure you are given at the kerb is an estimate of a journey that has not happened yet. What you actually pay is decided afterwards by things neither you nor the driver controls: the queue on the M60, a lane closure on the A580, a set of temporary lights on the way into Bolton, a diversion through Salford that adds fifteen minutes on a wet Friday. Every one of those adds to the total, and none of them ever takes anything off it.
That variance hurts more on a North West hop than on a long run, because it is proportionally larger. Fifteen minutes of stationary traffic is a rounding error on a five-hour drive to Cornwall. On a journey from Wigan or Warrington into central Manchester it can be a material part of the bill, and it lands entirely on the passenger. Add the surcharges that appear exactly when you have no choice — peak times, evenings, bank holidays, the surge that arrives the moment an event empties — and the number at the end of a short local journey can bear very little relationship to the one you were expecting.
Our fares work the other way round. The price is set on the actual distance between your two postcodes, agreed before you travel and printed on your booking, and it does not move afterwards. If the M62 stops, that is our problem to absorb, not a line added to your fare. There is no meter running while you sit still, no peak-time multiplier and no surge pricing on a Saturday night or during the Blackpool Illuminations. The figure you agree is the figure you pay.
That certainty is worth most on precisely the journeys people take across this region every day: Bolton, Bury, Wigan, Salford, Stockport and Oldham into the city; Warrington, Preston, Blackburn and Liverpool for business; Blackpool and the coast for a weekend; and the hospital, football and concert runs where being late is the one outcome that is not acceptable. It also makes a journey you can hand to somebody else — an employer, a client, an elderly relative — because the cost is known and fixed in advance rather than discovered at the end. Get a fixed fare for your North West transfer before you book.
Every journey is a fixed fare, calculated by distance and confirmed before you travel. No meter, no surge pricing, no hidden extras. Enter your pickup and drop-off on the booking form for an instant quote.
We take bookings at least 36 hours before pickup, which is how we guarantee an executive vehicle and an assigned driver for every journey.
Per car. Up to four passengers share one fixed fare in a saloon or estate, or up to eight in the MPV Executive. There is no per-seat charge.
Yes. Booking and payment are completed online when you confirm, so there is nothing to pay the driver on the day.
Yes. Every route runs as the same fixed fare with pickup and drop-off swapped. Book both legs together if your return date is set.
Yes. Tell us at booking that you need waiting time or an as-directed booking, and it is quoted at a clear rate rather than left to a meter. For a full day of visits around the North West this is usually the better-value option.
No. The fare is fixed on distance, not demand, so a Friday-night run or a trip during the Illuminations costs the same as any other time. We do set the pickup earlier when we know the roads to the coast will be busy.
Yes. Alongside Manchester, Liverpool, Preston and Blackpool we cover the mill towns and commuter belt around them — Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, Oldham, Wigan, Salford, Stockport, Warrington, Wilmslow, Blackburn and the towns between. If your pickup or drop-off is a village or an address that is hard to find, give us the postcode and any local directions when you book and the driver will have them in advance.
