As a licensed operator, you must notify us of any changes to your status, as stated in your licence issue letter. For general guidance, updates and information on our policy and private hire law in London, you are advised to review this page frequently.
Following a judgment given by the Divisional Court on 6 December 2021, all London PHV operators are required to contract directly with passengers to provide the journey that is the subject of a booking.
We have made a regulation to raise awareness that London PHV operators are required to contract directly with passengers to provide the journey that is the subject of a booking.
"The operator shall enter into a contractual obligation as principal with the person making the private hire booking to provide the journey which is the subject of the booking and any such contractual obligation must be consistent with the 1998 Act and these Regulations."
We have also published guidance to assist London PHV operators in relation to considering whether their terms and ways of working need to be changed to ensure they are compliant.
The guidance looks at what operators' responsibilities are when they contract with passengers, how the law applies in practice (whether or not they have written contracts) and what TfL is doing to help ensure compliance. The guidance will be kept under review and may be updated from time to time.
We have also revised our guidance on operating model changes to reflect the new requirement and guidance above. The guidance also now requests operators notify TfL of any operating model change at the earliest opportunity and no later than 28 days before the operator plans to introduce the change.
Operators are required to make a person available for passengers to speak to during operating hours, and when a journey is being undertaken. This can be at the operating centre or any other premises with a fixed address in London or elsewhere. We call this the voice contact requirement.
As a licensed operator, you will need to confirm your intended hours of business and when you will be offering bookings. We will require evidence showing how a person will be available for the passenger to speak to during these times. Please consider how you will achieve this for night work and weekends when your office may not be open.
We will check that the facility is in place as part of any compliance check made during the duration of your licence.
To support you in providing us with the relevant information, it is important that you read and fully understand the "Voice contact requirement guidance for private hire operators" document.
Contact the operator licensing team at TPHOperators@tfl.gov.uk if you have any questions or require clarification.
Voice contact requirement guidance for private hire operatorsIf you have to dismiss a driver because of his or her unsatisfactory conduct in connection with the driving of a PHV you must, as a condition of your licence, notify TfL in writing of the name of the driver and the circumstances of the case within 14 days.
Form PHV/105 is available for this purpose.
You can also use our PHV/105 form to notify us of any serious complaints that you receive about a driver that is currently working for or has worked for you. To support you in providing us with this information, it is important that you read and fully understand the "Guidance on reporting crime" document should you need to report a serious complaint or concern.