Brighton and Hove Streamline Taxis: The Local App Brighton Should Be Using Instead of Uber
Brighton and Hove Streamline Taxis, book by app or call 01273 202020
Next Time You Reach for Uber in Brighton, Read This First
It is late, it is raining on the seafront, and you open the app you always open. The price has quietly crept up because the city is busy. Sound familiar? There is another way to get home, and it has been parked right here in Brighton and Hove the whole time.
Brighton and Hove Streamline Taxis has been getting this city where it needs to be since 1936. That is not a typo. Ninety years of pick-ups, drop-offs, last trains missed and caught, festival crowds, school runs and airport dashes. The cars have changed, the app is brand new, but the idea has stayed exactly the same. Local drivers, looking after local people.
Here is the part that matters. When you book a Streamline cab, you are not sending your money off to a head office in another country. Every driver is licensed right here by Brighton and Hove City Council, and every fare helps keep money circulating in the city, supporting local jobs, local businesses and the place you actually live.
Same city, same streets, same people who have been doing this for generations. Just a shiny new app to book them with.
So before you default to the usual, here is everything worth knowing about the local firm that has quietly outlasted every trend thrown at it, and why more Brighton locals are making the switch.
Book with the Streamline app, proud supporter of St Barnabas House, Chestnut Tree House, Martlets and Southern Hospice Group
Owned by the Drivers, Run for the City
Streamline started life as two separate firms. Hove Streamline and Brighton Streamline, each a member-owned cooperative looking after its own patch. They ran side by side for more than seventy years before joining forces in 2009 to become Brighton and Hove Streamline Taxis, one team with one job.
The bit that makes it different is still true today. The company is owned by its own driver members, and it is run by five directors elected by the full membership. That means the decisions are made by the people actually behind the wheel, for the benefit of members, customers and the wider city. No distant investors. No outside boardroom. Just local drivers steering their own ship.
Behind those drivers sits a dedicated office team and a 24-hour local call centre that runs every single day of the year. Not a chatbot. Not a queue in another time zone. A real Brighton team you can actually speak to whenever you need them.
The people making the decisions are the same people picking you up on a Friday night. That is the whole point of a cooperative.
Brighton and Hove Streamline Taxis on the rank at the back of Brighton Station
A Proper App, Minus the Nasty Surprises
Here is where Streamline has caught right up. The Brighton and Hove Streamline app is powered by the latest iCabbi booking platform, so you get the fast, easy experience you expect from a modern ride app, all pointed at a taxi firm you can actually trust.
Open it up and you can:
- ✓Book a cab right now or pre-book one for later
- ✓Track your driver in real time as they come to you
- ✓Pay securely by card, no fumbling for cash
- ✓Get a fixed fare on out-of-town journeys, so you know exactly what you are paying before you set off
And here is the one that wins people over. Streamline does not use dynamic surge pricing. When the city is packed for a festival, a big event or just a normal Saturday night, the price does not suddenly leap because an algorithm decided you were desperate. You get fair, transparent pricing whatever the weather and whatever is on.
No surge pricing. Ever. Whether the city is heaving for a festival or it is a wet Tuesday, the fare is fair.
There is one more thing an app on its own can never give you. Every single booking is backed by that 24-hour local call centre, so if you ever need to speak to a real person, someone is always there to help. Try getting that from a faceless platform.
The Brighton and Hove Streamline app, book a local cab in seconds
Cabs for Everyone, Support for the City
Streamline runs a proper mix of vehicles so there is something for every journey, whether you are nipping across town or loading up the whole family. The fleet covers saloon cars, estates, MPVs and fully wheelchair accessible vehicles, and yes, it is a pet-friendly firm too, so the dog is welcome to come along for the ride.
Accessibility taken seriously
Every Streamline driver is licensed by Brighton and Hove City Council and trained to a high professional standard. Drivers operating wheelchair accessible vehicles receive specialist accessibility training to local authority standards. Those handling school transport or journeys with vulnerable adults receive safeguarding training, and many drivers also complete recognised disability awareness and assistance training. It is the kind of care that only comes from a firm rooted in the community it serves.
Woven into Brighton and Hove
Community has always sat at the heart of Streamline. The firm is a proud supporter of Martlets Hospice, Brighton and Hove Pride, Brighton Fringe and countless other local events, and is always happy to back sporting clubs, schools, dance and drama groups, charities and community organisations across the city. It has also built long-standing relationships with local hotels, restaurants and businesses, many of whom have trusted Streamline as their account provider for decades.
Choosing Streamline means choosing a firm that is rooted in Brighton and Hove, invests in the community and keeps money in the city rather than sending profits elsewhere.
Brighton and Hove Streamline Taxis fleet, bookable by app or by phone
Brighton and Hove Streamline Taxis, quick questions answered
Ninety years on, the message is simple. Next time you need a cab in Brighton and Hove, go local, keep it fair and back the drivers who have been looking after this city since 1936.
Streamline by the numbers
