LETTER TO THE EDITOR ALL TAXI INSURERS AND UNDERWRITERS
We write with reference to the ‘criteria’ that many insurers and underwriters impose on policy holders wishing to add drivers to their fleet policies who are new into the industry and have only either just obtained their private hire driver’s Licence, (that in itself is a considerable achievement these days) or have held it for less than 12 months.
The current criteria varies from insurer to insurer with one of the largest taxi insurers imposing the conditions of holding a DVLA licence for three years and having one year’s experience driving a PHV. The requirements at this level create difficulties for operators and potential new drivers but have a ‘knock on’ negative effect for insurers as well.
We would make the following observations, comments and suggestions regarding the above.
DVLA LICENCE PERIOD
The current requirement of some insurers is three years. We, along with a number of other private hire operators that we speak with understand the requirement for a driver to hold a DVLA licence for a stipulated period. We do however feel that setting the period at three years is an unreasonably ‘high bar’ and makes it extremely difficult to recruit drivers into the industry. This not only has an adverse effect on operators being able to recruit drivers and grow their businesses but also impacts on the revenue realised by insurers.
We would suggest a more realistic period would be two years.
PRIVATE HIRE DRIVER’S LICENCE
The current requirement is for a driver to have private hire driver experience for one year. This is the most difficult and contentious requirement. We have not met one operator or driver that understands the reasoning or logic behind this.
If a driver has met the DVLA requirement, what is achieved by them having held a private hire driver licence for one year? How is a driver expected to gain any ‘taxi’ experience if he cannot get insured to work as a taxi driver?
Is it really expected of a driver to obtain a private hire driver licence, put it away for one year which then
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enables him to either obtain insurance for himself or meet the criteria for hiring a vehicle from the various ‘rental’ companies. The driver has still not got any ‘taxi’ experience as their ‘taxi’ licence has been in their pocket for 12 months!!, after which insurers will accept them.
This to the whole of the taxi industry appears to be complete ‘madness’
We can personally give the following ‘anecdotes’:
1. We proposed a driver for acceptance onto our insurance policy who had held a DVLA licence for 18 years and held a Class 1 HGV licence for 7 years, this entitled him to drive 32 tonne articulated HGVs. the driver had a completely unblemished driving record, no accidents, no claims. No points
His DVLA licence categories permitted him to drive any type of vehicle, including heavy construction plant. He had even qualified to drive emergency ‘blue light’ vehicles, the only type of vehicle he was not licensed to drive was a motorcycle.
He obtained his private hire driver licence but could not obtain insurance until he had one year’s taxi driving experience. This scenario sums up the lack of logic and common sense and taxi industry knowledge applied by underwriters. There is a general view within the industry that the modern underwriting methods do not evaluate the risk but are merely a ‘tick box’ exercise.
2. If a company or driver cannot ‘tick’ all the boxes then there appears to be an assumption that the risk is too high.
JUNE 2025 PHTM
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