Changing the Route or Destination While You Are Travelling

Who chooses the route in the first place

Unless you have asked for something specific, the route is the chauffeur's judgement, informed by live conditions rather than a fixed map. That judgement covers a great deal that is invisible from the back seat: a closure on the Embankment, a match emptying at Twickenham, roadworks on the A40 that only bite in one direction.

If you have a preference, state it. Some passengers want the motorway even when it is slower, some want to avoid a particular junction, and some simply prefer a route they know. None of those are unreasonable, and all of them are easier to honour if they are known before the car sets off.

Asking for a different route once you are moving

You can ask at any time, and it is a perfectly normal thing to do. The only thing worth understanding is that a change made mid-journey is made without the planning that went into the original, so the chauffeur may say that the alternative is slower or that the diversion is not practical from where the car currently is.

That is a professional judgement about the road rather than reluctance. If arrival time matters more than the route, say which one you are prioritising and the decision becomes straightforward. A chauffeur who knows which of the two you care about can make every subsequent decision on the road without asking you again.

Changing the destination altogether

A meeting that moves, a flight that is rebooked, a decision to go home instead of to dinner: destinations change, and a chauffeured journey can usually accommodate it. Tell the chauffeur as soon as you know rather than at the last junction, because the useful moment is before the route commits.

Where the new destination is materially further, or where it pushes the journey well past its expected duration, it becomes a change to the booking rather than an adjustment within it. Message the WhatsApp thread as well as telling the person driving, so the change is recorded.

• Say it early rather than at the final junction
• Give a full address, not just a district
• Say whether anyone is being dropped en route
• Note any new deadline attached to the change

What can and cannot be absorbed

A journey has a shape beyond your part of it. The vehicle may be committed elsewhere afterwards, and a chauffeur's working day has limits that are not negotiable. A significant extension is therefore something to be checked rather than assumed, and it is checked most quickly on the WhatsApp thread.

How a change is treated commercially depends on the terms of your booking and on the scale of the change. A different address in the same postcode district and a diversion to another city are not the same request. The first is an adjustment within the journey you booked. The second is effectively a different journey and has to be treated as one.

The hourly option, which exists for this

If your day genuinely will not resolve into fixed points, the By the Hour journey type in the planner is the better structure. It replaces the destination field with a duration and treats the vehicle as being at your disposal, which is precisely the arrangement for a day of changing plans.

Choosing it at the outset avoids a series of mid-journey conversations. If you know in advance that the itinerary is loose, say so at the enquiry stage rather than booking a point-to-point transfer and improvising around it. It is also the structure that copes best with a genuinely fluid day, because nothing has to be reworked while the car is already moving.

Plan your chauffeur journey

London Chauffeurs provides itinerary-led private travel for airport transfers, executive travel, private aviation, events and long-distance UK journeys. Availability and pricing are confirmed for the requested itinerary.

Frequently asked questions