Airport transfer driver in France

To work as an airport transfer driver in France you need a carte professionnelle VTC issued by the préfecture, a vehicle attached to an operator entered in the REVTC register, and professional liability insurance. Unlike the United Kingdom, France runs one national system, so the card is valid throughout the country.

One national licence, not three hundred local ones

France licenses drivers nationally, which removes the single biggest planning problem British drivers face. Your carte professionnelle VTC is issued by a préfecture but valid across the whole country, so a driver based near Lyon can work Nice in season without a second authorisation.

The prerequisites are fixed and checked before you may even sit the examination:

The card runs for five years. Renewal does not require sitting the examination again, but it does require fourteen hours of continuing training at an approved centre, plus a fresh medical certificate and criminal record extract. Start the renewal several months before expiry — an expired card stops you working, and the préfecture does not backdate.

• Permis B held for at least three years, reduced to two if you learned through conduite accompagnée, with a valid points balance and no suspension in force.
• A compatible bulletin n°2 of your criminal record. Certain serious road traffic offences, offences against persons and theft convictions are disqualifying.
• Medical fitness, certified by a doctor approved by the préfecture on the Cerfa n°14880 form.
• Legal right to work in France, as a French or EU national or under a residence permit permitting employment.

The T3P examination and the equivalence route

Two doors lead to the same card, and choosing the wrong one costs months.

The examination. The T3P is the national test for professional passenger transport, booked and sat through the official platform. The syllabus covers regulation, road safety, passenger relations, business management, French and English language, and since the 2024 revision a module on sexist behaviour and discrimination. Preparatory training is strongly advised but not compulsory in every case.

Equivalence by experience. If you have at least one year of full-time professional passenger transport work within the last ten years, counted as 1,607 hours a year, you can apply for the card without sitting the examination. Former taxi drivers holding a diploma obtained within the last five years may also qualify. This route is under-used because it is poorly signposted, and drivers who qualify for it frequently sit the examination anyway.

Holding the card is not the end of the process. The activity must also be entered in the REVTC, the register of VTC operators, and it is that registration rather than the card alone that makes your business lawful. Working with a valid card but no REVTC entry is a sanctionable offence.

Vehicle, signage and insurance

The vehicle is attached to the operator entered in the REVTC rather than to you personally, and it must carry the regulatory VTC identification. Capacity is up to nine seats including the driver, which in practice means an eight-passenger maximum.

Two rules catch newcomers from other markets. A VTC may only carry passengers who booked in advance — no street hails, no waiting at taxi ranks, and the pre-booking evidence rules were tightened by decree in August 2025. And your insurance must be professional liability cover for passenger transport; an ordinary personal policy does not respond to a claim arising from paid carriage.

Cross-country detail on licences, vehicles and insurance is on Driver requirements.

What airport access costs an airport transfer driver in France

Groupe ADP applies one tariff grid across both Paris airports, and it is more generous at the short end than the British equivalents but punishing beyond it.

Three operational points matter more than the tariff.

Ten free minutes is a real allowance, and it is also a trap. A drop-off works comfortably inside it. An arrival does not: if you enter on the landing time and the passenger is still at passport control, the meter starts and reaches €50 within the hour. Wait outside the zone and enter when the passenger reaches the hall.

Professional pickup points are not where passengers expect. At several CDG terminals the designated professional collection point sits at the Departures level rather than Arrivals, which is counterintuitive for a passenger who has just landed. Confirm the current point for your terminal on parisaeroport.fr and tell the passenger where you will be before they clear the border.

Orly is two airports wearing one name. Orly 1‑2 handles Air France domestic, Transavia and Corsair; Orly 3‑4 handles long-haul, easyJet, Vueling and Ryanair. The halls are linked by a five-hundred-metre internal walkway but the vehicle zones are separate, so a driver waiting at the wrong pair costs the passenger eight to twelve minutes with luggage, or a second drive round the internal road. Always confirm the terminal number, never just "Orly".

Orly is also changing. The dépose-minute in front of the terminals is being phased out for private cars under the Paris-Orly 2035 programme, fully effective around 2029–2030, with construction starting late in 2026. Expect disruption on the approach roads well before the rule itself bites.

Terminal meeting points are on our airport pages: Charles de Gaulle, Orly, Nice and Lyon.

Where the work is, and when

France has two distinct transfer markets that peak at opposite ends of the year, and a driver holding a national card can work both.

Paris runs all year. Business travel through CDG and Orly holds up outside the holidays, and tourism fills the gaps. August inverts the city rather than emptying it: Parisians leave and visitors arrive, so airport volume stays high while intra-city work changes character.

The south peaks in summer. Nice is the gateway to the Côte d'Azur, and the corridors to Monaco, Cannes and Antibes carry high fares over short distances. The season stretches from late spring to early autumn and spikes around the Cannes Film Festival in May and the Monaco Grand Prix.

The Alps peak in winter. Lyon Saint-Exupéry, and Geneva just across the border, feed the ski resorts. These are long transfers with ski equipment, mountain roads and winter tyre requirements, priced accordingly, and the season runs roughly December to April.

The practical consequence is that a French driver's calendar can be built around two peaks rather than one, provided the vehicle suits both — a minivan with roof capacity works the Alps in February and the Riviera in July.

Which of these airports we are currently taking bookings at, and where demand is running ahead of the drivers available, is shown when you set your coverage during registration. It changes through the year, so it is worth revisiting rather than setting once.

How to register

Create an account, upload your documents, set your coverage, and start receiving offers. The French document set is your carte professionnelle VTC, proof of REVTC registration for the operator, the vehicle registration, and a professional liability insurance certificate covering paid passenger transport.

Set your coverage wider than your home airport. CDG and Orly serve the same city from opposite sides and a driver registered for both sees materially more work than one registered for either. The process is on How it works for drivers.

A note on working both French seasons

One national card lets you work Nice in July and the Alps in February, and drivers hear that as an obvious advantage. In practice it is a decision about the vehicle and about where you sleep.

The two seasons demand different cars: roof capacity and winter tyres for the mountains, comfort and boot space for the Riviera. A vehicle that does both well is a compromise at both. And a season worked away from home is a season paying for somewhere to stay out of your own margin. Run the arithmetic on both before committing to either.