EXCLUSIVE Sadiq Khan accused of ruining livelihoods of thousands of London taxi drivers by creating a licencing 'shambles'

Daily Mail​

20-05-2025

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been accused of ruining the livelihoods of thousands of taxi drivers by creating a licencing 'shambles'.
Some 3,000 drivers at a time have been forced off the road after a change to Transport For London's systems triggered huge backlogs on applications for licence renewals.
The total number of cab drivers hit by delays over recent months is thought to exceed 10,000.
The issue has caused fury among drivers with one telling MailOnline: 'Sadiq Khan has made a real mess of this - hundreds of drivers are desperate as they've been prevented from working for weeks on end for no reason.'
The resulting mess has sparked a shortage of cabs around the capital meaning wait times for customers have gone up - with those hit including drivers for industry giants like Uber, Bolt and Addison Lee.
TfL oversees all of London's travel infrastructure from trains and buses to taxis and mini cabs, and has been managed by Khan since he was appointed as The Mayor of London in 2016.
But new rules put in place in July 2024 have caused chaos for the Greater London area's army of private hire drivers, who work for local minicab firms, private car companies and apps such as Uber.
TFL confirmed to MailOnline that at its worst an estimated 3,000 drivers at any one time have been unable to work as they waited on delayed licence renewals - though they insist that the number waiting has begun to come down as they have addressed bottlenecks.
Driver Charlie Holding, 60, told MailOnline that he was unable to work for ten weeks after getting stung by the change to the DBS process - and only finally got his permit back this week.
He said: 'I've lost thousands of pounds in lost wages and it's left me in real financial problems - and all the while I've just been sitting around with nothing to do. It's been driving me mad and it's so pointless.'
Mr Holding explained: 'In December, three months before my licence expired, TfL sent me an invitation to reapply for my licence online. I've been a minicab driver for twenty years, and I have had to reapply every three years, so I know the process.
'I knew the change about the DBS check, but I rather naively thought that when I did the DBS application that it would put me onto the update services automatically. After uploading my certificate and details, the application process allowed me to continue, I assumed I had done it correctly.
'Because they've got so many delays at the moment, by the time they told me that I hadn't done the update service correctly my DBS certificate had expired and I then had to reapply for it.
'If they'd let me know in good time, I could have done the update service and everything would have been fine. I would have had my new licence by the time the old one expired and I could have continued working.
But like many drivers currently off the road, Charlie's biggest frustration is with TfL's handling of the crisis.
He said: 'Everything is done via an online portal, you can't ring and speak to someone, or go to their office in person, like you could when the licences were handled by the Public Carriage Office.
'There's no way of communicating with anyone at TfL, and it feels like you're paying a load of money for nothing and anything that goes wrong is blamed on the drivers. There is no accountability.
'I'm hearing anecdotally stories of guys who have been waiting seven months, five months, six months, for their renewal, which is shocking. That's how they pay their bills.'
Hundreds of drivers have complained that small administrative errors such as these are not being flagged immediately by the new system. Furthermore, backlogs caused by the new rules have led to some licence renewals taking months longer than they previously would have, leaving many drivers in limbo and unable to work or earn.
Most frustratingly, affected drivers claim that they haven't been able to speak to anyone at TfL to hurry things along or be assigned a temporary licence, even though the governing body has claimed it would issue them.
The backlog is having a knock-on effect across the transport industry, with the firms who rent ULEZ compliant vehicles - like Toyota Prius Hybrids and Tesla Model 3 EVs - to mini cab drivers complaining that their forecourts are filling up with cars.
Martina Williamson of PCO Rentals in Hendon said that the licensing backlog has left nearly 100 of their 265 cars languishing on their forecourt.
She said: 'At the moment we have 178 vehicles out on hire, which is a low utilisation rate for this time of year. 'In the last couple of weeks we have had at least 20 cars returned due to private hire drivers not receiving their licences. Many of them told us they had applied to renew them months before they were due to expire.
'The new hire side of the business has also been affected as those drivers are waiting for their licences, too. It's caused our utilisation to drop, as we can't hire cars to drivers without a current PCO badge.
'It's had a really serious knock on effect for the business. We've got cars sitting here that we just can't get out because the drivers' hands are tied.
'We have lost hirers that have been with us for years. They have had their livelihoods ripped from them. There's nothing in place to help them whilst they are at the mercy of TfL and their administration teams.
'Likewise for us as a company, our revenue has decreased massively. I imagine for smaller fleets they may be struggling to keep afloat.'
Martina has also seen first hand how the backlog is causing extreme levels of stress and hardship amongst drivers.
'They're returning our cars, left, right and centre, and our hire vehicles, because their livelihoods have been taken away from them, and they've literally been left in limbo.
'I've had drivers sitting here crying, saying, "I don't know how I'm going to pay my rent next week".
'Lots of the drivers claim it's impossible to get in contact with anyone at TfL who can give them a straight answer and when they email they get a standard response of "Your licence is being reviewed".
'I don't know anyone who has been able to obtain a temporary renewal even though on the TfL website it states these would be issued.'
Ben Fallows, 52, is the proprietor of Dab Transport in Sutton, South London. He falls under the category of a 'small operator' of PHV, meaning he is allowed to employ up to ten drivers, taking a cut of their weekly earnings. However, with one of his drivers unable to renew their licence, he is feeling the pinch.
He said: 'It takes a long time to find drivers who are reliable and good for your company so when you lose one it can be catastrophic. It means I have to turn down work I would have given to them, meaning I am losing money.
'I make 20 percent from my drivers, so if I give them £1,000 of work a week I get £200 of commission, which I'm losing if I can't send one out on the road. I can't just replace him with another driver, because what happens when my driver can come back to work? I'd need to put that new man out of work.
'Technically I am having to give business to other firms, and there's a real risk that that customer I lost will become loyal to them, losing me more money in the long term.'
Larger firms have also been affected by TfL's admin backlog, with taxi app behemoth Uber releasing a statement at the start of April acknowledging that some of their 50,000 drivers had been directly affected.
A spokesperson said: 'We are aware of the issue and are having ongoing discussions with both Transport for London and affected drivers.'
In the week ending May 11, figures released by TfL stated that there were 106,161 private hire licensees working across London, a decrease of 48 on the previous week, and that 36 of them were newly issued licences.
First time licensees can expect to pay £477 to become a private hire driver in London, while renewals cost £310. The fees are paid at the time of application. For drivers renewing their licence, they also need to obtain a current DBS check, which can cost up to £54 and is valid 30 days from issue.
Private Hire Licences are renewed every three years, and the biggest change to the new regulations requires drivers to not only upload their criminal record check (DBS) to the TfL system, but also enrol separately to the DBS update service, as well.
Drivers who failed to do this, or did not upload vital medical documents, did not have their application flagged as incomplete, so they submitted it believing it was complete, only to find out months later when their licence had expired that there had been an issue.
TfL claim that the issues have mostly been resolved following teething issues with the new system, updated renewal requirements and a cyber attack on their servers.
A TfL spokesperson said: 'We are responsible for regulating taxi and PHV services in London and passenger safety is paramount. When licensing an individual we must also ensure that the applicant meets licensing requirements and is fit to be licensed.
'We have recently introduced new licence processing software that will deliver a number of benefits to licensees. Unfortunately we have experienced some issues which have impacted our processing times, compounding the difficulties we experienced following the cyber incident last year.
'The vast majority of drivers we licence are unaffected. However, we are aware that some drivers are affected. We are prioritising the renewal of existing licensees and have additional staff processing applications and issuing licences and have made good progress with this. We apologise to any affected drivers and we are working hard to resolve the issues.
'In recognition of the current situation, we are granting short-term PHV driver licences for a period of three months in cases where a complete application has been submitted and there are no issues that require further investigation.'