Airport transfers could account for 40% of overall cost of travel in Europe

While budget airlines have driven down the prices of short-haul flights to Europe, the cost of getting a taxi to and from the airport has steadily risen, until now it can account for over 40% of the total amount spent on the whole trip according to research from Cabforce.

Compounding this, the European taxi experience is still often complicated by unfamiliar local geography and languages, unreliable services, hidden extras and, in some cases, fraud. To remedy this, Cabforce has launched the first reliable, worry-free and trustworthy European-wide taxi network, available from today as an iPhone app. This will enable business and consumer travellers alike to pre-book and pre-pay for guaranteed Cabforce-certified taxis online in English for 23 cities across 15 countries.

According to Cabforce, when flying from London Heathrow to Paris Charles de Gaulle, taxi costs between the airport and a city centre hotel can total up to £316[1], which accounts for 41% of the total travel cost.[2] With airport transfers accounting for such a high percentage of overall travel costs, it is surprising that many people are neglecting to pre-book their cab journeys. By leaving their taxi arrangements to chance, travellers are leaving themselves open to a potentially unreliable, unfamiliar and stressful experience. Pre-booking flights and hotels is considered to be a standard practice, but in reality, pre-booking taxi journeys should be viewed as an equally important priority.

“Many of us take our local taxi journeys for granted. We typically have one or two familiar cab firms we use. But you only have to travel a short distance from your comfort zone to not know who you can trust. This can be exacerbated when travelling abroad, with a foreign language and lack of local knowledge,” commented Tommi Holmgren, Chief Product Officer at Cabforce. “At Cabforce, our mission is to make taxi travel simple and stress-free. Our customers know that their car will be with them on time, and won’t have to worry about hidden charges or unnecessary detours.”

Established in 2009 in Espoo, Finland, Cabforce’s three co-founders were fed-up with unpredictable, unreliable taxi journeys while abroad and set about creating a network of certified cab providers with a flat-rate, upfront cost – minimising bill shock and reliability concerns. The service is available on the web and via a new free iPhone app. Travellers can pre-book their taxis, pre-paying a fee that includes all taxes tolls and charges, online and in English. So customers can sit back and enjoy their trip; confident in the knowledge that their taxi will be there when they need it, and has been fully paid for in advance.

Book now at www.cabforce.com, or download the app for free from Apple iTunes^©.