Every licensed private hire driver in London pays road charges the passenger never sees. Miss one deadline and an £18 charge becomes a £180 penalty. This page lists every charge you are likely to meet driving PHV work in London, what it costs in 2026, the deadline to pay it, and the official link to pay it. Bookmark it.
All figures were checked on 21 August 2026. Charges change, so the links matter more than the numbers.
The two that catch drivers most
Congestion Charge
£18 if you pay on the day or in advance. £21 if you pay by midnight on the third day after you travelled. Miss that and you cannot pay at all. You get a penalty instead.
Hours are 07:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday, and 12:00 to 18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays.
Private hire vehicles are not exempt. The PHV exemption ended in 2019. Licensed black taxis are exempt. You are not, unless your vehicle is a designated wheelchair accessible PHV and you are carrying out a booking.
The 100% Cleaner Vehicle Discount ended on 25 December 2025. From 2 January 2026, electric cars get 25% off, which is £13.50, but only if you are registered for Auto Pay. Without Auto Pay an electric car pays the full £18. That single detail is worth roughly £230 a year to a driver working five days a week.
Pay: tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/pay-to-drive-in-london
ULEZ
£12.50 a day, every London borough, 24 hours a day, every day except Christmas Day. The M25 itself is not included.
The standard is Euro 4 for petrol and Euro 6 for diesel. A zero emission capable or fully electric car pays nothing. There is no PHV specific rule here. A compliant car pays zero whether it is doing private hire work or the school run.
This is why the London PCO fleet has gone electric and plug in hybrid. TfL will not licence a car in London for the first time unless it is zero emission capable and Euro 6, and a car that clears that test clears ULEZ automatically. If you are hiring a modern PCO car, ULEZ is unlikely to be your problem.
Same deadline, same payment link as the Congestion Charge.
LEZ does not apply to you
The Low Emission Zone catches diesel vans over 1.205 tonnes unladen, minibuses, HGVs, buses and coaches. It is £100 a day, or £300 for the worst tier.
A normal private hire saloon, estate or MPV never pays LEZ. It is listed here only so you can stop worrying about it.
The Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels
Both tunnels have been charged since 7 April 2025, in both directions. Blackwall used to be free. It is not any more, and that catches out drivers who have used it for years.
| When | With Auto Pay | Without Auto Pay |
|---|---|---|
| Off peak | £1.50 | £4.00 |
| Peak | £4.00 | £4.00 |
Peak is 06:00 to 10:00 northbound and 16:00 to 19:00 southbound, weekdays only. Charging runs 06:00 to 22:00 daily except Christmas Day, and it is free overnight from 22:00 to 06:00.
The off peak rate is Auto Pay only. Without Auto Pay you pay £4.00 at every hour of the charging day, so a driver crossing twice a day off peak pays £8.00 instead of £3.00.
Zero emission private hire vehicles are exempt while carrying out a booking, as are wheelchair accessible PHVs. Black taxis are exempt outright. If you drive an electric PCO car, check you are registered for this, because it is not automatic.
This changes on 21 September 2026, one month from today. Off peak Auto Pay rises to £1.55, and the peak and non Auto Pay rate rises to £4.20. Check the live page before you rely on the table above.
Pay: tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/silvertown-blackwall-tunnels-charge
Dart Charge, the Dartford Crossing
£3.50 for a car, or £2.80 on a pre pay account. Motorcycles are free. Vans pay £4.20, or £3.60 pre pay.
Charged 06:00 to 22:00 every day including weekends and bank holidays. Free overnight.
The deadline here is much tighter than the TfL one. You must pay by midnight the day after you cross. Not three days. One. This is the most common way a driver turns a £3.50 crossing into a £70 penalty.
Pay: pay-dartford-crossing-charge.service.gov.uk
Miss it and the penalty is £70, reduced to £35 if you pay within 14 days, rising to £105 if you leave it. You get 28 days to pay or challenge.
Pay a Dart Charge fine: pay-dartford-crossing-fine.service.gov.uk
If you live in Dartford or Thurrock, £25 a year buys unlimited crossings.
Airport drop off charges
Every major London airport now charges to stop at the terminal, and none of them exempt private hire drivers. Black cabs get an adjusted rate at London City and nowhere else.
| Airport | Charge | Max stay | Deadline | Pay | Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | £7 per entry | 10 min | Midnight next day | heathrowdropoff.apcoa.com | £80, £40 in 14 days |
| Gatwick | £10 to 10 min, then £1 a minute | 30 min | Midnight next day | postpay.dropoff.gatwickairport.com | £100, £60 in 14 days |
| Stansted | £10 to 15 min, £28 over | 30 min | Midnight next day | pay.stanstedairport.com | £100, £60 in 14 days |
| Luton | £7 for 10 min, then £1 a minute | 30 min | Midnight next day | lutondropoff.apcoa.com | £95, £55 in 14 days |
| London City | £8 for 0 to 5 min, then £1 a minute | 10 min | Midnight next day | dropoff.londoncityairport.com | £100, £60 in 14 days |
Three of those changed in 2026. Heathrow went from £6 to £7 on 1 January and introduced a 10 minute cap. London City introduced its charge on 6 January. Stansted went from £7 to £10 on 19 March, with £28 above 15 minutes.
Stansted is the one to watch. Fifteen minutes is not long when a passenger is unloading luggage, and the jump to £28 is the harshest cliff edge at any London airport.
Every airport has a free alternative: a long stay or mid stay car park with a shuttle bus. Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton all give free time there. On a job where the passenger is not in a hurry, that is a real saving.
TfL Auto Pay
One account covering the Congestion Charge, ULEZ, LEZ and the tunnels charge. It bills monthly by direct debit and covers up to 5 vehicles.
There is no registration fee and no annual fee. The old £10 per vehicle charge no longer applies.
For a London private hire driver it is close to mandatory, because it is the only route to two discounts you cannot get any other way:
- The 25% electric Congestion Charge discount, £13.50 instead of £18
- The £1.50 off peak tunnel rate instead of £4.00
It also protects you from penalties for non payment while you are registered, which removes the largest avoidable cost on this page.
Register: tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/auto-pay
When you get a penalty
TfL penalties for the Congestion Charge, ULEZ and the tunnels are £180, reduced to £90 if you pay within 14 days, and rising to £270 if it reaches a Charge Certificate after 28 days.
View or pay a TfL penalty: tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/view-a-pcn
If you are driving a hired car
This part matters, and almost nobody explains it.
On a hired vehicle the registered keeper is the rental company, not you. The penalty goes to them first. The company then transfers liability by providing the hire agreement naming you as the hirer, and you become liable from that point.
That means two things. If you genuinely incurred the charge, expect it to reach you, usually with an administrative fee for the transfer. But if a penalty arrives for a date when the car was not with you, that the vehicle was on hire to another person is a formal ground of representation, and your rental company holds the agreement that proves it.
If you hire from us and a penalty looks wrong, tell us before the 14 day discount expires. The paperwork that settles it is in our system.
One charge that no longer exists
The Emissions Surcharge, or T-Charge, was replaced by ULEZ on 8 April 2019. If a source still lists it as live, that source is out of date, and you should treat everything else on it with the same caution.
Note also that the Congestion Charge and ULEZ are separate. Paying one does not cover the other. On a day you drive a non compliant car into central London in charging hours, you owe both.
What is coming
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 21 September 2026 | Tunnel charges rise to £1.55 off peak on Auto Pay, £4.20 otherwise |
| 1 March 2027 | Congestion Charge Residents Discount limited to electric vehicles for new applicants |
| 4 March 2030 | Electric Congestion Charge discount falls to 12.5% for cars |
The short version
Register for Auto Pay today if you have not. It is free, it covers four of the charges on this page, it is the only way to get the electric discounts, and it stops the penalties that cost far more than the charges ever will.
After that there are two deadlines to memorise: Dart Charge by midnight the next day, and everything TfL by midnight on the third day.
If you rent a PCO car from us, insurance, servicing, MOT, maintenance and 24/7 RAC sit inside one weekly payment, and the road charges above stay yours. The cars and current rates are on the fleet page, the full fee list is on the FAQs, and you can call us on 0203 740 9188.
For everything else about working private hire in London, how to get your PCO licence covers the badge, what PCO car hire costs in London covers the market, and what Uber requires of a car covers the platform rules.