Almost every PCO car hire advert in London says "insurance included". Very few say what is included, and that is where the money hides. Two cars at the same weekly price can differ by thousands of pounds a year once you know which one covers hire and reward, what the accident excess is, and who pays when the other driver was at fault. Here is how to read the offer properly, with our own figures published in full so you have something to compare against.
What "insurance included" has to mean
An ordinary private car policy is void the moment you accept a booking. Carrying a paying passenger is a commercial use, and it needs hire and reward cover. Social, domestic and pleasure is not enough, and neither is standard business use.
So when a PCO hire advert says insurance is included, the only version of that claim worth anything is: a fully comprehensive hire and reward policy, in force and covering you to drive, for the whole time you have the car.
Three things follow from that, and they are the three questions to ask before you sign anything:
- Is the policy hire and reward, or just comprehensive?
- What is the excess if you have an accident, and when is it payable?
- What happens to that excess when the accident was not your fault?
A provider who cannot answer all three in one sentence each is not being straight with you.
What it costs to insure yourself
The reason insurance dominates the comparison is that it is the single largest cost in running a licensed private hire vehicle after the car itself.
Hire and reward cover for a London PHV driver runs roughly £1,500 to £3,000 a year depending on age, claims history and postcode. On a car you own, that is £29 to £58 a week before you have paid for the vehicle, servicing, MOT or breakdown cover.
That figure is the yardstick. If one weekly price includes insurance and another does not, the gap between them has to be at least £29 to £58 before the cheaper looking one is actually cheaper. Very often it is not.
What is included in our weekly price
We publish this because it is the only way to compare like with like. One weekly payment covers:
| Included | Detail |
|---|---|
| Fully comprehensive hire and reward insurance | In force for the whole time you have the car |
| Scheduled servicing | Manufacturer schedule, booked by us |
| MOT | Arranged and paid for |
| Maintenance | Wear items and mechanical work |
| 24/7 RAC cover | Roadside and recovery, any time |
Where a car has a published weekly price on our fleet page, that price is the whole price for those items. Cars on the waiting list are quoted on request.
The excesses, in full
This is the part almost nobody publishes, so it is the part worth comparing hardest.
| Situation | Excess |
|---|---|
| Accident, any fault | £750, payable immediately |
| Significant damage you did not report | £3,000 |
| Windscreen | Capped at £250 |
Three points on those numbers, because the detail matters more than the headline.
The £750 is payable regardless of fault. That surprises people, and it is standard across the industry. The insurer settles the claim first and argues about liability afterwards. Where you were not at fault, we pursue the other insurer to recover it, and where recovery succeeds it is returned to you.
Reporting is what keeps you on £750. The £3,000 figure exists for damage that turns up later with no report attached. It is not a penalty for having an accident, it is a penalty for us finding out about it weeks afterwards, when the evidence that would have established fault has gone. Report it the day it happens, however small, even when nobody else was involved.
Windscreen is capped at £250. A windscreen on an executive saloon with cameras and sensors behind it can run well past £1,000 to replace and recalibrate. The cap is the useful part of that line, not the number itself.
The questions that separate two adverts
When you have two cars in front of you at similar weekly prices, these are the ones that move the decision.
"Is the excess payable immediately, or deducted later?" Immediately is normal. What you are checking is whether they will take it from a deposit you have already paid, and whether that leaves you unable to work while the deposit is rebuilt.
"What is the excess on a non fault claim?" If the answer is a different, higher number than the at fault excess, ask why. If the answer is that they do not pursue recovery, budget for never seeing it again.
"Am I named on the policy, or driving under a trade policy?" Both exist. A trade policy can be perfectly legitimate, but you want to know which one you are on, because it affects the no claims record you build.
"What happens to my weekly payment while the car is off the road after a claim?" This is the question that costs drivers the most and gets asked the least. A car in a body shop for three weeks is three weeks of rent against no earnings unless the agreement says otherwise.
"Does the cover include the vehicle being used on every platform I work?" Most London drivers run more than one app. The policy covers PHV work, but confirm it rather than assume it.
Why insurance is not a market standard inclusion
It is worth being blunt about this, because the phrase "all inclusive" gets used loosely.
Insurance is not a market standard inclusion in PCO hire. Some providers include it. Some quote a lower weekly rate and expect you to arrange your own hire and reward policy, which is entirely legitimate and can work out cheaper if you have a long clean record and shop well. Others include a policy with an excess high enough that a single incident wipes out a year of the saving.
None of those is dishonest on its own. What makes a comparison useless is putting the three weekly prices side by side as though they cover the same thing.
The way to fix that is arithmetic, not trust. Take the weekly price. Add the weekly cost of the insurance if it is not included. Add a realistic annual share of the excess you would actually pay. Then compare.
The car has to be eligible before the insurance matters
A point that catches people out: a policy on a car that cannot be licensed is worth nothing.
Before you get to insurance, the vehicle has to clear TfL's licensing gate, and if it is being licensed in London for the first time it must be zero emission capable and Euro 6. On top of that, every platform runs its own vehicle rules, and they are stricter than TfL's. We have written those up separately in what Uber requires of a car in London, and if you are choosing a model with resale or platform tiers in mind, the full list of models Uber accepts is the place to check before you commit.
If your PCO badge is still with TfL, that is the right moment to be choosing a car rather than signing for one. How to get your PCO licence in London covers that process end to end.
What you still pay for
Included does not mean everything, and a provider who implies it does is setting you up for an argument later. On our agreements you are responsible for:
- Fuel or charging. Yours, always.
- The excess on any claim, as above.
- PCNs and the congestion charge, plus the administrative fee for transferring a ticket to you. ULEZ does not apply to a zero emission capable car, which is what the London PCO fleet now is.
- Damage outside fair wear and tear, assessed on return.
- Mileage above the weekly allowance, charged per mile.
None of that is unusual. The point is that it should be written down and given to you before you sign, not discovered afterwards. Ours is on the deposits, insurance and fees page, and the deposit itself, which is a separate thing from the excess and is refundable, is explained in why deposit release takes 21 days.
The short version
Insurance included is a claim, not a specification. Make it a specification by asking for four numbers: the weekly price, the accident excess, the unreported damage excess and the windscreen cap. Any provider genuinely including cover can give you all four immediately, because they already know them.
Ours are £750, £3,000 and £250, on top of a weekly price that also carries servicing, MOT, maintenance and 24/7 RAC. You can see the cars and the prices on the fleet page, and if you want the fee list in full before you speak to anyone, it is on the FAQs.