UK private hire booking records: TfL and council rules

Start with the authority that licenses your operation

For London, section 4 of the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998 requires records of bookings accepted at each operating centre. The detailed requirements sit in the Operators’ Licences Regulations 2000, as amended. Regulation 10 permits written records or a form that can easily be turned into writing. A booking stored digitally can therefore be part of the record, but the ability to find and reproduce its required particulars matters just as much as entering them. Transport for London

We use TfL’s October 2022 consolidation alongside its later notice and booking-record guidance. The consolidation is an informal aid with no legal effect of its own, and it predates the July 2024 changes. Reading only that older document would leave important details out of an operator’s checklist. Transport for London

What to record for a London booking

The list below combines regulation 11 in TfL’s consolidation with the additions explained in Notice 05/24 and its March 2025 guidance. The core particulars belong in the record before the journey starts. We recommend checking the actual booking that will be dispatched, especially where a driver or vehicle has changed since the original allocation. Transport for London

• Booking and journey dates: the date the booking was made and, where different, the date of the journey.
• Passenger: the name of the person for whom the booking was made, or other identification; for a group, one passenger’s identification.
• Collection: the agreed pickup time and place, using the first collection where the booking has several.
• Destination and fare: the main destination and the agreed fare or estimated fare.
• Driver: the driver’s name and the PHV licence number of the driver carrying out the booking.
• Vehicle: the registration mark of the vehicle actually used, rather than an internal fleet nickname.
• Booking and dispatch staff: the name of any individual who responded to the booking request and any individual who dispatched the vehicle, subject to TfL’s subcontracting guidance below.
• Subcontracting: where applicable, the name of the other operator to which the booking was subcontracted.

Transport for London · Transport for London

What changed on 1 July 2024

TfL’s notice requires the names of the individuals who responded to the request and dispatched the vehicle, the driver’s PHV licence number and the vehicle registration mark. Its guidance also explains that alternative means of identifying the driver and vehicle were removed. A vehicle registration already appears in the earlier consolidation; the practical point is that an internal vehicle identifier is no longer an alternative to the registration mark. Similarly, a driver code is not a substitute for the driver’s name and PHV licence number. Transport for London

We suggest keeping the person who handled the request distinct from the person who dispatched the car. A generic office account may tell you which department worked on a booking without identifying the individual. Check how your staff actually use shared screens and how that activity becomes a readable booking record. This is our workflow recommendation, not an additional field prescribed by TfL.

Keep the staff register alongside the booking records

Since 1 July 2024, TfL’s licence condition requires a register of booking and dispatch staff. The minimum details are full name, date of birth, DBS certificate reference number and the date of the latest DBS check. Everyone entered needs a basic DBS check. Keep their entry for 12 months after they stop taking or dispatching bookings. TfL’s guidance says a fully automated operation still maintains a register, marked N/A. Transport for London

The staff register answers who is recorded as taking or dispatching bookings and what check is recorded for them. The booking record answers who handled that particular request. We recommend reviewing these together when responsibilities change, while keeping personnel details in the appropriate staff record rather than copying a date of birth or DBS reference into every ride.

Subcontracting changes who records which action

TfL’s guidance distinguishes the sending and receiving operators. The operator subcontracting a booking records who took it and the other operator’s name, but does not record who dispatched the vehicle: that is recorded by the receiving operator. The receiver records both the individual who accepted the booking from the other operator and the individual who dispatched the vehicle. We would make that handover explicit in the office procedure so that a subcontracted job does not disappear from either operator’s records. Transport for London

London: count 12 months from acceptance

Regulation 16 in TfL’s consolidation specifies 12 months for booking particulars, counted from the date the booking was accepted. It also gives 12 months for recorded booking calls, and for complaints and lost-property records; driver and vehicle records run for 12 months after they cease to be available. Those are different record categories and triggers. The older TfL Abstract of Laws stating six months is superseded: we would not use it to configure a London booking archive. Transport for London

We recommend testing retrieval before relying on an archive. Find an older booking, reproduce its particulars in a readable form and confirm that the assigned driver and vehicle still describe that journey. A current driver profile alone may not explain an earlier allocation. Document separately how you keep booking records, staff entries and other records with different retention triggers.

England outside London: read your council’s conditions

Section 56(2) of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 requires a district-council-licensed operator to keep records in the form prescribed by the council’s licence conditions. The prescribed particulars must be entered before each journey for bookings invited or accepted, including work undertaken at another operator’s request. Records must be produced to an authorised officer or constable on request. The Act itself sets no retention period; the council’s conditions determine it. UK Parliament

The DfT’s Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Standards recommend recording the passenger’s name, request time, pickup point, destination, driver’s name and licence number, vehicle registration, and the names of the people who responded to the request and dispatched the vehicle. Section 8.3 recommends retention for at least six months. Section 8.2 recommends a booking and dispatch staff register with basic DBS checks, retained for the same period as booking records. Department for Transport

These standards are issued under section 177 of the Policing and Crime Act 2017, and licensing authorities must have regard to them. They guide the authority’s licensing approach; the six-month recommendation is not a universal operator retention deadline that overrides local conditions. We would keep the relevant council conditions beside the booking checklist and ask the council about any unclear field or period. Department for Transport

Common mistakes we would check first

• Using six months everywhere. London’s booking period is 12 months; elsewhere, establish what your own council requires rather than treating the DfT recommendation as your licence condition.
• Recording only the planned driver or vehicle. Check the particulars of the people and vehicle that carry out the booking, including changes made during dispatch.
• Assuming the staff register replaces per-booking attribution. These records answer different questions and need to remain usable together.
• Treating an export button as proof of compliance. Open an exported record and compare it with your authority’s actual list before relying on it.

How a booking system helps

In TransferCRM, we store booking and ride details, timestamps, and the driver and vehicle for each ride, with exports. That provides an operational starting point for gathering records and reviewing handovers. It does not establish that every TfL or council field is present in a particular setup: compare the required particulars with the records you can actually reproduce. We do not submit to any government register.

What still needs checking

The 2024 changes here rest on TfL’s Notice 05/24 and guidance version 4, dated 14 March 2025. Our source review did not include the text of the 2023 Amendment Regulations themselves. The legislation.gov.uk entry for the 2000 regulations carries the original text. The 1976 Act page also flags an outstanding insertion of section 45A by 2026 c. 23; its effect was not verified. We cannot infer new national or cross-border rules from that flag. Check the latest position with your licensing authority. This guide covers England, not Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Transport for London

UK Parliament

Frequently asked questions