What a seat costs, and how it is counted
CHF 30 per seat and per journey. Two children on a one-way trip is CHF 60; the same two children on a return journey is CHF 120, because each leg counts. It is added when you book and appears in the confirmed fare — never discovered at the end of the ride.
Booking both directions at once also takes 10% off the journey total, which usually more than covers the seats.
How many seats fit, and in which vehicle
A saloon or business car carries up to three passengers in total, children included — so a family of two adults and two children needs a van, whatever the size of the luggage. A van carries up to seven.
Say the age of each child at booking rather than the seat type: an infant carrier, a car seat and a booster do not cover the same ages, and the dispatch would rather choose it than guess. The seat is fitted before the driver leaves — see airport pickup if you are landing.
What Swiss law requires
Swiss traffic regulations are clear on two points, and visitors are often surprised by both. First, responsibility sits with the driver: the ordinance states that drivers must make sure children under twelve are properly secured. It is not left to the parent to improvise with whatever the car happens to have.
Second, the device itself: in any seat fitted with a belt, a child under twelve must be secured by a restraint approved under UN-ECE regulation 44 or 129. The text allows only three exemptions:
- the child is at least 150 cm tall;
- the child is four or older and sitting on a seat specifically approved for children;
- the child is seven or older and the seating position has a lap belt only.
Contrary to a belief that circulates widely, taxis are not exempt in Switzerland. The ordinance does exempt coaches, from age four, and scheduled regional services run by licensed operators — neither covers a taxi journey. This is why a child seat is not a comfort extra here but a condition of travel: tell us about the children, and the car arrives already fitted.
Source: Swiss Traffic Regulations Ordinance (SR 741.11), art. 3a, in force 1 January 2025. The official text is in French, German and Italian.
Which seat for which age
Three families of device cover the whole age range, and they are not interchangeable.
The infant carrier, rear-facing, is for babies: it is the only device that supports the head and neck of a child who cannot yet sit up unaided. The harnessed seat takes over once the child sits up, and keeps them until they outgrow the straps. The booster comes last and does one job, but a decisive one: it puts the adult belt where it belongs, across the shoulder and the hips rather than the neck and the stomach.
Newer approvals — regulation 129, known as i-Size — are chosen by the child's height; the older regulation 44 goes by weight. That is why we ask for the age, and the height if you know it. Two children of the same age do not always need the same seat, and a booster given too early puts the belt exactly where it should not be.
What to tell us when you book
Four details are enough, and they fit in one line of the notes field:
- How many children, and the age of each. "Two children, 3 and 6" is enough to decide both seats.
- The height, if a child is anywhere near 150 cm — that is the threshold that changes the rule.
- The pushchair, and whether it folds. A double buggy will not go in a sedan boot.
- Your flight number, if you are landing at Geneva Airport: the driver works from the actual landing time, and the seat is fitted before you clear customs.
What does not work is asking for a seat as you get in. A driver does not carry three models in the boot on the off-chance; the right device is loaded for your journey because you told us it was needed.
Pushchairs, luggage and travelling without your own seat
Pushchairs travel in the boot at no extra charge. A folded stroller sits beside the suitcases in a sedan; an all-terrain or double model needs the van, and that is truer still on the way home, when the boot is already full.
If you have brought your own seat you are welcome to use it, and the driver will help you fit it. Many families prefer the opposite — leave the seat at home, keep it out of the hold, and walk out of arrivals to a car that is already set up. That is precisely what this service exists to make possible.
