Pre-booked Taxis and Private Hire PCO Licencing

Over the last few weeks we have taken a number of calls asking about Licensing restrictions, particularly whether London Green Badge holders can pick up pre-booked fares outside London.

We have sought clarification from TFL and one of the Policy Officers has sent us the following Licence limitations:

Taxis

Taxis are permitted to accept pre-bookings, and can do so by taking bookings directly; through a taxi radio circuit or app; or through a private hire vehicle operator.

Taxi drivers are able to accept a pre-booked journey that starts or finishes outside of London, though if the journey is accepted by a Suburban (yellow badge) driver they must be in the sector (s) they are licensed for, when accepting the booking.

Private Hire Vehicles (PHV’s)

There are no constraints on where private hire journeys can start and / or finish and PHVs are free to undertake journeys anywhere in England and Wales provided :-

• The vehicle, driver and operator are licensed by the same licensing authority
• The booking is accepted by the operator at their specified operating centre within that authority

The above is commonly referred to as the ‘triple licensing requirement