Manhattan Taxi & Black Car Service

Manhattan is the one borough where hailing genuinely works. Thirteen and a half thousand yellow cabs concentrate here, and below 96th Street on a clear afternoon you will rarely wait more than a minute or two.

So the honest question is when you should arrange a car instead. Our chauffeur service exists for the trips where "rarely wait more than a minute or two" is not a good enough guarantee.

When a prearranged car beats hailing here

Early flights. A 6am departure from JFK means leaving Midtown around 4am. Cab supply at that hour is a fraction of daytime.

Rain. The moment it starts, every cab in the borough is occupied. This is the most reliable rule in New York transport.

4pm to 5pm. Shift change. Drivers head to their garages in Queens and put their off-duty lights on. It is a genuine, structural gap in supply every single weekday afternoon.

Client collections. You cannot ask someone to hail their own cab and you cannot guarantee one will be there.

Specific vehicles. Four people with four cases need an SUV. A group of ten needs a Sprinter. A toddler needs a seat. None of these are hailable.

Theatre, arena and event departures. Ten thousand people leave at the same minute and every cab within four blocks is spoken for.

Where we pick up

Downtown — the Financial District around Wall Street and Broad; Battery Park City; Tribeca along West Broadway; SoHo; the Lower East Side; the East and West Villages; Chinatown; Chelsea along Ninth and Tenth Avenues.

Midtown — the Theater District and Times Square; Hell's Kitchen; Hudson Yards; Murray Hill; Kips Bay; Gramercy; Flatiron; Koreatown around 32nd Street; Grand Central and Penn Station.

Upper East Side — Lenox Hill, Yorkville, Carnegie Hill, and the Museum Mile along Fifth Avenue.

Upper West Side — Lincoln Square, the West 70s through 90s along Broadway, Columbus and Amsterdam, and Morningside Heights around Columbia.

Upper Manhattan — Washington Heights along St. Nicholas and Broadway, Hudson Heights, Inwood, and Marble Hill.

Harlem is covered in detail on its own page.

Connecting from transit

Grand Central Terminal — Metro-North's Hudson, Harlem and New Haven lines, plus the Long Island Rail Road via Grand Central Madison. The 4, 5, 6, 7 and S meet here.

Penn Station — Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and the LIRR, with the 1, 2, 3, A, C and E. Moynihan Train Hall handles most Amtrak departures now, and the two halves confuse visitors constantly; tell us which one and we will name the right kerb.

Port Authority Bus Terminal at 42nd and Eighth — intercity and commuter coaches.

PATH to New Jersey from 33rd Street, 14th, 9th, Christopher Street and the World Trade Center.

NYC Ferry and the Staten Island Ferry from Whitehall, Wall Street/Pier 11, East 34th Street and West Midtown.

We meet trains and coaches. Give us the arrival time and the terminal.

Trips we run most

Crosstown is the counterintuitive one. Two miles across the island at 5pm can take longer than eight miles up the FDR, because the avenues move and the streets do not.

Getting to the airports

Manhattan–JFK is the one route where a metered yellow cab has a published flat fare in both directions, and for a single traveller with one bag it is often the cheapest way to make the trip. We will tell you that rather than pretend otherwise. Where a prearranged car wins is certainty of pickup, a vehicle that fits your luggage, and a driver who is already waiting at 4am. Current TLC rates are on the NYC TLC fare page, and our fare comparison worksheet shows how a standard city meter builds up.

Newark in a yellow cab carries an out-of-city surcharge on top of the meter, plus tolls, which usually makes a quoted car the better value as well as the more predictable one.

Traffic, tunnels and tolls

Congestion pricing. Entering Manhattan below 60th Street carries a congestion charge, layered on top of the older taxi congestion surcharge. It is in your quote. Trips staying above 60th are unaffected, as are trips between outer boroughs.

The FDR Drive is the fastest north-south route on the east side when it flows, and a car park when it does not. No shoulder for much of its length.

The West Side Highway / Henry Hudson Parkway is generally the more reliable of the two, and the natural route to the George Washington Bridge and northern destinations.

Tunnels. The Lincoln Tunnel to New Jersey is tolled and queues badly in the afternoon peak — the helix approach is the bottleneck. The Holland Tunnel serves Downtown and Jersey City. The Queens-Midtown Tunnel is tolled and usually the fastest way east.

Free bridges. The Ed Koch Queensboro to Long Island City, and the Willis Avenue, Third Avenue and 145th Street bridges to the Bronx. The RFK (Triborough) and George Washington are tolled.

Predictable closures. The UN General Assembly in September closes much of the East Forties for a fortnight. The New York City Marathon in November closes First Avenue and much of the route. The Thanksgiving parade shuts Central Park West and Sixth Avenue. Tell us the date and we will plan around it.

Venues, hospitals and destinations

Hotels — Times Square, Midtown East, the Financial District and Hudson Yards clusters. Name the hotel and we will name the entrance.

Venues — Madison Square Garden, Radio City, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Beacon Theatre, the Apollo just north in Harlem, and the Broadway houses between 41st and 54th.

Hospitals — NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell and Columbia, Mount Sinai on the Upper East Side, NYU Langone in Kips Bay, Bellevue, Lenox Hill, Memorial Sloan Kettering and the Hospital for Special Surgery.

Business districts — Midtown East, Hudson Yards, the Financial District, Flatiron and SoHo. For a day of meetings across several of them, an hourly chauffeur holds the car between stops.

Universities — Columbia in Morningside Heights, NYU around Washington Square, Fordham Lincoln Center, Hunter and Baruch.

For a City Hall wedding, a gala or an evening with a stretch limousine, see Manhattan limo service.

Booking a Manhattan pickup

Call (888) 201-0419 or use the form. Give us the building address and, for a hotel or a large complex, the entrance you will be standing at.

For a flight, add the flight number. For a train, the arrival time and whether it is Grand Central, Penn or Moynihan.

Choosing a vehicle for this trip

Start with Economy Sedan if value is your priority and a sedan fits your passengers and bags. Choose an executive sedan for a black car arrival, a luxury SUV for more space, or a Sprinter for a group. Confirm the assigned model and luggage capacity before reserving. First-time customers can request 10% off their first ride; the discount and separately charged items are shown in the quote.

Your questions, answered

Why arrange a car in Manhattan when I can hail a cab?

For a lot of trips you should just hail one — below 96th Street in daylight, a yellow cab is quick and often cheaper, and we will say so. Arrange a car instead when the timing is not negotiable: an early flight, a client you are collecting, a 5pm departure in the rain when every cab within ten blocks is taken. Arrange one also when you need a specific vehicle: an SUV for four people with luggage, a Sprinter for a group, or a child seat. None of those arrive by waving.

How long does it take to get from Midtown to JFK?

Between 45 and 75 minutes depending on the hour and the route. Off-peak via the Queens-Midtown Tunnel and the Long Island Expressway to the Van Wyck, about 45. Weekday afternoon between 3pm and 7pm, closer to 75 and occasionally worse. For a flight we plan on the pessimistic figure — arriving early at JFK costs you nothing, arriving late costs you the flight.

What is the congestion charge and does it apply to me?

Manhattan below 60th Street is a congestion relief zone, and trips entering it carry a charge on top of the older taxi congestion surcharge. It applies to for-hire vehicles and to metered taxis at different rates. For our reservations it is included in the quote you are given, so nothing appears later. Trips staying above 60th Street, or crossing between the outer boroughs, are not affected.

Can you collect from a hotel?

Yes, and it is a large share of what we do here. Tell us the hotel and we will name the exact entrance to wait at — which matters more than it sounds at places with multiple frontages like the Marriott Marquis or the Grand Hyatt. On a busy kerb the driver will call or message when they arrive rather than idling in a lane they will be moved out of.

Do you cover the Upper Manhattan neighbourhoods?

Yes — Morningside Heights, Washington Heights, Hudson Heights, Inwood and Marble Hill are all standard coverage, and street hails get noticeably thinner above about 145th Street. Harlem has its own page with the local detail, since it is the area we get asked about most in Upper Manhattan.

Can you handle theatre and event timing?

Yes, and the return leg is the one to arrange. Getting to a Broadway theatre is easy; leaving at 10:35pm along with everyone else in the Theater District is not. We set a pickup a couple of blocks outside the immediate grid — usually east of Eighth Avenue or above 50th Street — and confirm the exact corner, which is far quicker than competing for a cab on Shubert Alley.