You have landed, cleared immigration, collected your bags, and walked out into arrivals. Now where exactly is the car you booked? At Heathrow this question catches out more travellers than almost anything else, because the answer is not the one most people expect: your driver is very probably not waiting outside the door.
Heathrow is the busiest airport in the UK, spread across four operating terminals and a tightly managed road system. Pre-booked private hire cars work to a different set of rules from black cabs, and knowing those rules before you fly turns a confusing arrival into a two-minute walk. This guide covers where your driver will be, terminal by terminal, and what to do if you cannot find them.
Your arrival terminal, your flight number, and which pickup type you booked. Those three between them prevent almost every Heathrow pickup problem. The terminal decides where your driver goes, the flight number lets them track your landing, and the pickup type decides whether you look for them in arrivals or walk to a car park. Get all three into your booking and confirm them in writing.
Before anything else, come off flight mode and check for a message. Your driver will typically confirm they are on site and, for a car park meet, send the level and bay number. If you are arriving from outside the UK and roaming is off, connect to the airport wi-fi in the terminal — being contactable is the single most useful thing you can do in the first five minutes after landing.
If you booked meet & greet, your driver is inside, standing in the area where passengers come through after baggage reclaim, holding a board with your name on it. Walk through slowly and scan the boards rather than heading straight for the exit — the meeting area is immediately beyond the doors, and it is easy to walk past it while looking at your phone.
For a standard pickup, follow the signs from inside your terminal to the short-stay car park. Each terminal has one adjacent to the building, and the walk is short and covered. Use the level and bay number your driver gives you rather than trying to spot the car — these car parks hold hundreds of vehicles and one black saloon looks much like another.
Every Airport Move Heathrow booking includes free flight tracking, so your pickup follows your real landing time, and you receive your driver’s name and direct number before you travel. Meet & greet can be added at booking if you would rather be met inside arrivals. See our Heathrow transfer service, read the terminal guide to confirm where you are landing, or compare meet & greet against a standard pickup. When you are ready, get your fixed fare.
At Heathrow, pre-booked minicabs and private hire cars cannot wait on the terminal forecourt. Your driver will either meet you inside the arrivals hall with a name board (meet & greet), or wait in the designated pickup area for your terminal — normally the adjacent short-stay car park — and direct you there by phone once you land. Confirm which arrangement applies when you book, because the two work very differently once you are through customs.
This page pulls together everything you need on Heathrow Airport pickup in one place — how it works, what to expect and the questions we are asked most — so you can decide and book with confidence. Prefer to talk it through? Call us any time on +44 (0) 158 282 4631 for a fixed-fare quote.
This is the single most common source of confusion at Heathrow, and it is worth understanding before you land. A licensed private hire vehicle — a minicab — cannot legally wait for passengers on a terminal forecourt in the way a black cab can queue at a rank. Every private hire journey has to be pre-booked, and the vehicle has to be somewhere it is permitted to wait until the booking is due.
Heathrow enforces this with its own access arrangements. Terminal forecourts are managed for drop-offs and licensed taxi ranks, and private hire pickups are directed to designated areas instead. That is why a pre-booked driver will not simply pull up outside arrivals when you text them — not because they are being awkward, but because they cannot.
Meet & greet. Your driver parks, walks into the terminal, and waits in the arrivals hall holding a board with your name on it. You meet them there and they walk you to the car. This is the simplest option after a long flight, with luggage, with children, or if you do not know the airport. It usually carries a supplement because the driver pays to park and spends longer at the airport.
Car park meet. Your driver waits in the designated pickup area — typically the short-stay car park attached to your terminal — and calls or messages you once you are through. You walk to the car park, find the level and bay number they give you, and meet them at the vehicle. It costs less and works perfectly well if you are travelling light and are comfortable navigating the airport.
Neither is better in the abstract. What matters is knowing which one you booked, because arriving expecting a driver in arrivals when they are actually waiting in a car park is where the stress starts.
Meet & greet: driver waits inside arrivals with a name board
Car park meet: driver waits in the designated pickup area and calls you
Confirm which applies at the time of booking, not on arrival
Save your driver’s direct number before you fly
Heathrow has four operating terminals, and they are not close together. T4 and T5 are separate buildings some distance from the central area that holds T2 and T3, so going to the wrong one is not a short walk — it is a shuttle or train journey.
Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 sit in the Central Terminal Area, and each has a short-stay car park directly adjacent, reachable on foot from arrivals. Terminal 4 sits to the south of the airport with its own short-stay parking beside the terminal building. Terminal 5 is to the west, again with its own short-stay car park connected to arrivals.
In each case the designated private hire pickup area is signposted from inside the terminal. Your driver will give you the specific level and bay number — that detail matters, because these car parks are large and multi-level.
Check this before you travel rather than on the day. Your terminal is printed on your boarding pass and shown on your airline confirmation, and it is the single most important detail in your booking — a driver waiting at T5 while you are at T3 is the most common and most avoidable pickup failure at Heathrow.
Airlines do occasionally move terminals, and codeshare flights can be particularly confusing because the operating carrier may use a different terminal from the one you booked through. If your flight number and airline do not obviously match, check the operating airline. Our Heathrow terminal guide covers which airlines use which terminal in more detail.
First, call the driver directly on the number in your confirmation. This resolves the large majority of cases in under a minute, because usually one of you is in the right place and the other is not far away. If you cannot reach the driver, call the operator’s office number — they can contact the driver and relay a meeting point.
Stay where you are while you make the call rather than walking around looking. Two people moving through a terminal searching for each other is considerably harder than one staying put. If you have moved outside, tell them exactly which exit or door number you are standing by; Heathrow arrivals doors are numbered, and that is far more useful than "outside arrivals".
Any pre-booked airport pickup should include free waiting time after landing to cover passport control and baggage reclaim, and a driver tracking your flight will start that clock from your actual landing rather than the scheduled time. Ask for the specific allowance in minutes when you book, and check which of those two it runs from — on a delayed flight, the difference is significant.
Immigration queues at Heathrow can be long at peak times regardless of how quickly your flight lands, so if you are held up, a quick message to your driver is worth sending.
A minicab is a licensed private hire vehicle, and it differs from a black cab in one way that matters enormously at an airport: it cannot be hailed or flagged down, and it cannot queue on a rank. Every journey must be booked in advance through a licensed operator, with the driver and the vehicle each separately licensed. That single rule is the reason Heathrow pickups work the way they do — your car is assigned to you specifically and waits where private hire vehicles are permitted, rather than circling the forecourt hoping to spot you.
Either in the arrivals hall if you booked meet & greet, where your driver waits with a name board, or in the designated pickup area for your terminal — usually the adjacent short-stay car park — if you booked a standard pickup. Your driver will confirm the exact level and bay by phone once you land.
No. Licensed private hire vehicles cannot wait on Heathrow terminal forecourts. Forecourts are used for drop-offs and licensed taxi ranks. Pre-booked minicabs use designated pickup areas instead, which is why your driver will direct you to a car park rather than pulling up outside.
With meet & greet your driver comes into the terminal and waits in arrivals with a name board, then walks you to the car. With a standard pickup they wait in the designated area and call you when you are through, and you walk to them. Meet & greet usually costs more because of parking and the driver’s time.
Your terminal is on your boarding pass and airline confirmation. Heathrow operates T2, T3, T4 and T5. Check the operating airline for codeshare flights, as it can differ from the airline you booked with. Give the terminal to your operator when you book.
If your operator tracks your flight, the pickup adjusts automatically to your real landing time and you should not be charged for airline or air traffic delays. Confirm flight tracking is included when you book, as this varies between operators.
A pre-booked pickup should include free waiting time after landing for immigration and baggage reclaim. Ask for the exact allowance in minutes and whether it starts from your actual landing time or the scheduled arrival — that distinction matters most on a delayed flight.
Call the driver directly on the number in your confirmation, and stay where you are rather than walking around. If you cannot reach them, call the operator. If you are outside, give the numbered arrivals door you are standing by rather than a general description.
Any car park charge your driver incurs is normally built into the fare quoted at booking rather than paid by you at the barrier. Confirm this when you book, and check whether parking is included in your fixed fare.
It is most worthwhile on long-haul arrivals, late-night landings, travel with children or heavy luggage, and first visits to the airport. For a short-haul flight when you are travelling light and know Heathrow, a standard car park meet is usually sufficient and cheaper.
Yes. Give the passenger name, their flight number and a contact number for them when booking. Forward the driver details to them before travel so they can make contact directly on arrival.
This page is written and reviewed by the Airport Move operations team, a London-licensed private-hire operator based at 450 Bath Rd, near Heathrow. We arrange fixed-fare airport, station, cruise-port and door-to-door transfers across London and the UK every day. Need help? Call +44 (0) 158 282 4631 or email booking@airportmove.co.uk.
Last updated: 25 August 2026
