Taxi software
Private hire booking system
Private hire is a licensed intake business. What you can prove about a booking matters as much as how fast you took it.
What is a private hire booking system?
A private hire booking system is booking software for licensed private hire vehicle operators, where every journey must be arranged in advance through the operator rather than hailed or picked up at a rank. Alongside taking and pricing the booking it holds the operator record — who booked, which licensed driver, which licensed vehicle, what fare — that the licensing authority, the insurer and the account customer may each ask to see.
This page also answers: private hire software, phv booking system.
Key takeaways
- A private hire booking system is booking software for licensed private hire vehicle operators, where every journey must be arranged in advance through the operator rather than hailed or picked up at a rank.
- For a licensed PHV operator, the booking is not just commercial — it is the legal basis on which the journey is permitted at all.
- The mix is different from a general taxi firm.
- Licence expiry is the classic private hire failure.
Private hire booking system — the checkable numbers
- Booking route
- Operator-arranged only
- Compliance dates held per driver and vehicle
- Badge, vehicle licence, insurance, MOT
- Account invoicing
- Per-account tariffs and monthly invoices
- Top-of-page bid for this term
- £2.26 – £8.75
- Entry price
- £49 / month (Starter)
- Sector configurations documented
- 7
- Competitor migration playbooks
- Per-incumbent, not generic
PHV work cannot be hailed or ranked — the operator record is the legal basis of the journey
stored on the records the desk allocates from
invoices reconcile to the journeys actually completed
Google Keyword Planner, GB, Jun 2025 – May 2026 — a High-competition, high-intent query
list price, GBP, from data/pricing-plans.ts
count of records in data/verticals.ts
each documented system has its own export and cutover route
Prices are list prices in GBP and exclude VAT. Counts are of records published on this site and can be checked against the pages they link to.
The operator record is the product
For a licensed PHV operator, the booking is not just commercial — it is the legal basis on which the journey is permitted at all. The record of who made the booking, which licensed driver took it, in which licensed vehicle, and what was charged is the thing you are asked for when something goes wrong, and the thing that decides whether an insurer pays out.
That reframes what a private hire booking system is for. Speed of intake matters, but completeness and durability of the record matter more, because they are what you cannot reconstruct after the fact.
Booking channels a PHV operator actually uses
The mix is different from a general taxi firm. Phone still carries a large share, account and contract work carries the margin, and the app-booked passenger is the growth channel rather than the base. A system weighted entirely towards consumer app bookings will feel wrong on a private hire desk within a week.
What the desk needs is a fast keyboard-driven phone-booking path, an account portal that regular bookers can use without training, and a public booking page for the walk-up trade — all landing in the same record so the operator's log is complete regardless of how the work arrived.
Compliance that sits where the decision is made
Licence expiry is the classic private hire failure. Nobody intends to send an unbadged driver out; it happens because the expiry lives on a wall planner and the allocation happens on a screen. The gap between those two surfaces is where the risk lives.
Holding badge, vehicle licence, insurance and MOT dates against the driver and vehicle inside the booking system closes that gap: the information is present at the moment the work is assigned, not filed somewhere the desk has no reason to look on a busy night.
How to choose a private hire booking system
1. Ask to see the operator record for a completed journey
Not the invoice and not the booking screen — the durable record. If it is assembled from several places, it will be incomplete when you need it.
2. Check licence expiries surface at allocation, not in a report
A monthly compliance report tells you about the shift a driver has already worked on an expired badge.
3. Time a phone booking against your current system
PHV desks still take a great deal of work by phone. A booking flow designed for consumers is slower to key than the screen you have.
4. Confirm per-account rates override the public tariff
Contract customers each have their own agreed rate. Without per-account tariffs, every invoice needs a manual correction.
5. Ask how records are exported if you leave
Your operator records are yours and you may be required to produce them. Export should be documented, not negotiated.
The parts of TaxiCloud this uses
- Booking widget
One line of JavaScript. Embed on your site. Themed to match your brand.
- Reporting
Council-licensing reports, fleet KPIs, corporate statements — all native.
- Payments
Stripe + PayPal native, account-pay built in, settlements that close themselves.
- Call centre
AI receptionist, press-1 self-serve IVR, automated arrival calls, and a live Call Deck — cloud telephony built into dispatch.
Private hire booking system — frequently asked questions
What is a private hire booking system?
It is booking software for licensed PHV operators, where every journey is arranged in advance through the operator rather than hailed or taken from a rank. As well as taking and pricing the booking, it holds the operator record — booker, licensed driver, licensed vehicle, fare — that a licensing authority, insurer or account customer may ask to see.
How does it differ from a general taxi booking system?
The intake is narrower and the record-keeping is heavier. There is no hail or rank work to model, phone and account bookings carry more of the volume, and driver and vehicle licensing dates need to be visible at the moment work is allocated rather than in a monthly report.
Does it handle account and contract customers?
Yes — per-account tariffs, standing bookings, named passengers and monthly invoices that reconcile to completed journeys. For most PHV operators this is where the margin is, so it is treated as a first-class flow rather than an add-on.
Can we take card payments as well as invoicing accounts?
Yes. Card capture at booking, card or cash in the vehicle, and account invoicing all record against the same journey, so the month-end reconciliation is a report rather than a rebuild.
What does it cost?
Plans start at £49 per month, with £149 and £349 tiers for larger operations, and drivers above the plan's included cap at £12, £8 or £5 per driver per month. Compare that against per-driver-per-week quotes at your real driver count.
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