What Prime Drive actually does

You send the flight or train details, we send a price, and the driver is at the arrivals point when you get there.

Who meets me, and where?

The driver waits with your name shown on a tablet rather than a printed card. Where they may physically stand is set by each airport, and the rules differ enough that one blanket sentence would mislead: at Rome Fiumicino, private-hire cars may not be taken from the taxi waiting area at all, and the airport itself tells passengers to check the meeting point agreed with their driver before traveling. Airport transfers sets out what each of the ten airports publishes.

What happens if my flight is delayed or early?

We ask for your flight number when you book and follow the flight, so the pickup moves with it. An early landing is tracked in the same way as a late one.

Since the EU Entry/Exit System came into full operation on 10 April 2026, every traveler from outside the EU is fingerprinted and photographed at the border rather than having a passport stamped. No official source publishes how many minutes that adds, and we will not invent a figure, but it is the reason a generous waiting allowance is worth more than it used to be.

How long is the free waiting time?

60 minutes at airports and 15 minutes everywhere else, included in the agreed price. That is the same allowance published by the large international chauffeur companies, so it is a benchmark rather than a concession, and it is worth checking against any other quote you are holding.

A day with a driver is a car and a driver at your disposal for an agreed itinerary, on a price fixed before you set off. It is not a guided tour, and the difference is worth understanding before you book rather than at the door of a museum.

What that fixed price covers is itemized in the written quote, before anything is booked, so there is nothing left to work out at the end of the day.

Is the driver a tour guide?

No. In Italy, guiding inside monuments, museums and archaeological sites is a separate licensed profession. Your driver drives, knows the roads and the coast, and will tell you what they know about the places you pass. Where a licensed guide adds real value, which mostly means the ticketed monuments of Pisa, Lucca and Florence, Prime Drive puts you in touch with local licensed guides on request.

In the Cinque Terre the distinction matters less than travelers expect. The villages, the terraces and the coast are the sight; there is no interior to be interpreted.

Where does the car actually stop?

Not always at the door, and the honest answer is specific to the place.

In Monterosso we obtain the permits and drive into the village, as far as Piazza Garibaldi, with the option of moving along the seafront. It is the one Cinque Terre village where that is the case. In the other four, every vehicle stops at the last legal point and the final stretch is walked: the centers are closed to traffic in two layers, an outer restricted-traffic zone and a pedestrian area inside it.

In Portovenere the center sits inside a restricted zone all day, with the gate at Piazza Bastreri. Taxis and private-hire cars are admitted to set down and collect people and luggage between 06:00 and 21:00, for up to thirty minutes.

In Pisa the gap against a coach is measurable. Tourist coaches may not enter Via Cammeo and are sent to the free park on Via Pietrasantina, about 2 km out. A car sets down on Via Cammeo or Via Andrea Pisano, about 500 m from the Piazza dei Miracoli: five to seven minutes on flat pavement, with no steps.

Do we need a Cinque Terre Card?

Only for what it actually covers. A Cinque Terre Card grants no vehicle, parking or restricted-zone right of any kind. A passenger delivered by car needs one only if they then walk a paid trail, use the national park shuttle buses, or take the train between villages.

Up to 8 passengers per vehicle. That figure is the one the business publishes, and it is the honest ceiling for a single car. The car is a Mercedes-Benz.

Give the number of passengers and the number of bags when you ask for a price, so the answer is built on what you are actually carrying rather than on a typical load.

Under Italian private-hire rules, wheelchairs and mobility supports are carried free of charge, and the service has to be accessible to disabled passengers.

The harder part is usually the ground rather than the car. In the Cinque Terre the last stretch into a village is on foot, often uphill and with steps. Monterosso is the flattest of the five and the one village the car goes into, as far as Piazza Garibaldi. Portovenere has a flat seafront, though the town behind it is steep. In Pisa the set-down is about 500 m from the Piazza dei Miracoli on flat pavement with no steps.

Say plainly what the walking limit is when you ask for a price, and the reply will say which of these works and which does not.

By card: Visa, Mastercard, Maestro and American Express are accepted, and prices are quoted and paid in euro. The amount is the one agreed in writing before you travel, and it does not change unless you change the itinerary.

In Italy the license for private hire with driver is called noleggio con conducente, usually shortened to NCC, and it is a genuinely different legal category from a taxi rather than a marketing label. The closest equivalent elsewhere is a pre-booked car service.

Two rows do the practical work. The price is agreed between the two of you before you travel, in writing, and there is no meter to watch in traffic. And the journey has no territorial limit, which is why a long-distance transfer is quoted the same way as a short one.

What the license does not do is open a gate that is closed to a taxi. Access to a historic center is decided by each comune, and in many restricted zones both categories are exempt. Where the car genuinely gets nearer than the alternative, it is against a tourist coach, as in Pisa, or under permits obtained for one named village, as in Monterosso.

When you are ready, get a price for your date and it comes back within 24 hours.