SCOTTISH NEWS
THE GLASGOW TAXI TRADE: A CAUTIONARY TALE
Article by Rob Finlayson Operations Manager City Cars Glasgow
rob@citycarsglasgow.co.uk
For decades, the Glasgow taxi and private hire landscape followed a predictable hierarchy.
Hackney plates were are at the top, a badge of status, long term investment, and commitment to the trade and for many drivers their retirement plan and pension all in one little black square attached the back of a Fairway or a TX.
Private hire was the underling, functional, flexible with very little barrier to entry certainly not the glitz and glamour of the hackney drivers, an obvious two-tier system that “worked” or at least limped along.
But over the last ten years the city has experienced a seismic shift, some say linked to ride-share arriving in the city plus the introduction of the country’s first low emission zone with a final death knell from covid. The entire industry has flipped on its head in such a short space of time.
Hackney plates once worth tens of thousands of pounds and the retirement plan of many a driver have collapsed and now hold no value, Private hire plates, thanks to the demand for cars due to the city’s cap on private hire cars, have rocketed in value with business plates changing hands for up to £10,000 a plate.
It’s
not a dip, its not a fluctuation - it’s a harsh reality of the new face of the taxi and private hire industry in the city
The crash in hackney plate values didn’t come from one singular issue, it was a result in a monumental shift across the industry, Ride-share, love it or loathe it, made the industry more accessible to thousands of drivers. The app-based immediacy and ease of access made the industry appealing, alongside companies offering hundreds of pounds in sign-up bonuses to new drivers to fill their demand.
The introduction of Scotland’s very first low emission zone hit the hackney trade harder than most. Drivers were forced to replace vehicles which had been purpose-built to be repaired over and over and with
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much longer life expectancies (and costs I may add) with a very limited selection of vehicles available to drivers and operators; or vehicles could be retrofitted at great expense, to meet the new standards that were coming in. Many drivers simply chose not to bother, walking away and surrendering their plates en masse. As it stands now, approximately 8% of the cities hackney plates are unallocated and available from the council and operators are starting to realise that their retirement pot is non-existent.
The real damage to the trade as a whole isn’t just financial, its cultural. For decades hackney work in Glasgow was built on experience
and local
knowledge with a belief that the city’s taxi men and women were a cut above providing an unmatched service carried out with a pride and a passion that was unparalleled.
As the trade battled its own challenges, private hire companies combined with app-based ride-share encroached and before you knew it the trade had turned and private hire was suddenly the hot commodity and all of a sudden, drivers didn’t want to take that natural progression into driving a black cab. Whilst the introduction of a plate cap into Glasgow for private hire did stem the flow, all that really did was drive demand, and the value of private hire plates to a level that was unimaginable only a few short years before.
So where does this leave Glasgow?
With the hackney fleet showing very little sign of a recovery, with an aging driver pool and private hire booming with a handful of large operators dominating the city, it is hard not to wonder where the balance lies in the modern age.
Speaking personally I can only hope that I can finally pass my own “Topo” test on what will be my fourth attempt and join the ranks of Glasgow’s taxi men and women before the trade loses the appeal that drew me to it in the first place.
Because if we have learnt anything from the past decade, it’s that nothing in this industry is guaranteed, not values, nor the vehicles or the structures so many of us have taken for granted for generations.
JANUARY 2026 PHTM
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