This deserves a straight answer rather than a reassuring one, because getting it wrong strands somebody on a pavement. A luxury saloon is a beautiful thing and it is not an accessible vehicle. Pretending otherwise until the car arrives is the single worst way to handle a booking of this kind, and it happens more often than it should.
The genuine position is that a great deal is possible with the right information, and that the right information is quite specific. What kind of chair. Whether the passenger can transfer. How much help they need with the transfer. Answer those three at the enquiry stage and we can tell you honestly what will work.
What a standard chauffeur car can do
For a passenger who can transfer from their chair into a car seat, a chauffeured saloon or MPV works well, and this describes a large proportion of wheelchair users travelling with us. A manual folding chair goes into the boot alongside luggage, and the chauffeur handles it at both ends without being asked. The transfer itself is the part worth planning rather than the storage.
Vehicle choice makes a real difference here. A luxury MPV usually has a higher seat and a wider door aperture than a saloon, which makes transfers considerably easier for anyone with limited hip or knee movement. Where the chair is bulky, an MPV also removes the competition between the chair and the suitcases for boot space. We will suggest one where it genuinely helps.
The transfer, and how much help is available
Chauffeurs will steady a passenger, offer an arm, position the chair, take the weight of a door and handle the chair once it is empty. What they are not is a trained care professional, and they cannot lift a person bodily into a vehicle. That is not reluctance; it is a matter of safety for the passenger and for the chauffeur, and any operator claiming otherwise should be treated with caution.
Where a passenger needs physical assistance to transfer, the workable arrangement is that somebody who normally provides it travels with them. Say so at booking and the seating is planned so the two of you are together and the chair is reachable. Tell us about steps, kerb heights and lift access at both ends too, since those decide the collection point.
- Whether the chair is manual and folding, or powered and rigid
- Whether the passenger can transfer into a standard car seat
- How much assistance the transfer requires, and from whom
- Whether a companion or carer is travelling with the passenger
- Steps, kerbs and lift access at both the collection and destination
- Any walking frame, crutches or oxygen equipment travelling too
When a specialist vehicle is needed
A powered chair, a rigid frame chair, or a passenger who must remain seated in their chair throughout the journey all require a wheelchair accessible vehicle with a ramp and proper restraints. These are a different category of vehicle from the luxury cars that make up most of our work, and we will not describe an ordinary MPV as though it were one.
We can often source an accessible vehicle through the operators we work with, and availability genuinely varies by region and by date. Ask as early as you can, tell us the chair dimensions if you have them, and we will check properly and come back with a straight answer. If we cannot cover it well, we would rather tell you than take the booking.
