Pickups before 6 am
Early morning ride to RDU, reserved for the first flights out
The first departures from Raleigh-Durham International Airport leave soon after 6:00 am, which puts many door pickups between 3:00 and 5:00 am. An early morning ride to RDU is placed with a Triangle car company the day before, so the car, the driver and the pickup time are settled while you sleep. You get the vehicle, the driver's first name and the car company's number ahead of the ride.
Why these rides are reserved the evening before
Car companies plan their predawn drivers the night before, so a reservation that reaches the desk by the previous evening can be matched and confirmed while the telephone is still staffed.
Requests keep coming in overnight through the form, but one sent after the line closes is read soon after 4:00 am, which is too late for a door time before dawn. Send an early ride the evening before, and for anything leaving within the next 12 hours, telephone while the line is staffed. When you send the form, list two or three available dates if your trip is not fixed yet, and the desk checks each one.
How your door time is worked out
Three numbers are added and counted back from your departure: the measured drive from your town to the Terminal 1 or Terminal 2 curb, a traffic allowance, and a curb margin. The tables on this site use two hours before departure; tell us if you want more.
- Cary: 17 minutes of driving plus 10 of allowance. For a 6:00 am departure the car is at your door at 3:30 am, rounded down to the nearest five minutes.
- Raleigh downtown: 26 minutes plus 15. For the same 6:00 am departure the door time is 3:15 am.
- Wake Forest: 35 minutes plus 20. The door time moves to 3:05 am.
What the driver does at a dark house
Most houses are dark at 3:30 am and nobody wants a doorbell waking the family. The driver parks at the address, sends you a text to say the car is outside, and waits. Up to 15 minutes at your door are part of the fixed rate. Past that, waiting costs $10 per 15 minutes, which is written in your quote before you confirm.
The driver loads the bags at the car and drops you at the departures curb of your terminal.
One fixed rate at 4 am or 4 pm
An early pickup costs what a midday one costs. From Zone 3 towns such as Raleigh, Apex, Chapel Hill and Garner, a sedan starts at $95 per car, one way; an SUV starts at $125 per car, one way. These are starting points, and the exact fixed rate for your ride is confirmed with you before you reserve. You pay the car company at the end of the ride, by card or cash in the car.
If a winter storm is forecast, riders with a ride the next morning hear from the desk the evening before. See every zone on the pricing page and the full rules on the cancellation page.
Before sunrise
A car outside before the alarm
Reserving the day before means the pickup time is fixed, the driver knows your street, and the text arrives when the car does. You walk out with your bags and head for the curb at RDU.
+1 (919) 859-4718Our telephone keeps the airport's clock: it is staffed every day from 4:00 am Eastern Time, ahead of the first departures, until the last scheduled arrival of the night is on the ground. For a pickup before 4:00 am, the car company's number in your confirmation reaches the driver's dispatcher. Requests sent through the website form are received 24/7.