Resources for London PCO Drivers

Everything we publish for London private hire drivers, grouped by the decision you are making rather than by the date we wrote it.

If you are at the start, work down from the first section. If you already hold the badge and are choosing a car, skip to the second. Jump links are below, and everything on this page is either ours, TfL's or Uber's, with no affiliate links anywhere.

Last reviewed 4 August 2026.

Getting licensed

The badge comes before everything else, and it is where most of the avoidable money gets wasted: on stale fee figures, on invalid medical forms, and on paid courses for tests TfL prepares you for free. These two guides cover the whole process, with every 2026 fee checked against TfL's own notices.

The 2026 PCO licence guide, with every fee verifiedEntry requirements, the DBS and medical steps, the real 2026 fee schedule totalling £531 before the medical, and why nobody can promise you a timeline. How to pass SERUWhat the assessment tests, what TfL publishes about the format, and the figures everyone repeats that belong to a different test. Passing the topographical assessment without paying anyoneHow the 66/34 marking works, the four ways route marks are lost, and the free TfL materials that make every paid course unnecessary. What the TfL vehicle inspection checksAn MOT pass is not an inspection pass. The published dent and scratch limits, the 14 day MOT window that ruins appointments, and the 21 days you get to book a retest. Quick answers on licensing and the assessmentsThe short form versions, including what happens if you fail, whether the topographical test was scrapped, and whether points on your licence rule you out.

Choosing a car that earns

Your licence, your hours and your costs of getting licensed are identical whether you end up on UberX or Lux. The fare tier is not. This is the group that decides what a working week is worth, and it moved sharply on 1 August 2026 when Exec and Lux picked up a brand list, a colour list and a sedans only rule.

The full Uber approved car listAll 780 models Uber accepts in London, across 107 makes, with the minimum model year that applies here. Uber car requirements, product by productAll 13 London products, the three rung ladder from TfL licensing upwards, and what changed on 1 August 2026. What changed for Comfort, Exec and Lux on 1 August 2026New rules against old, sourced to archived copies of Uber's pages, including how grandfathering works and why it is a deferral rather than an exemption. What Uber Comfort actually requiresNo brand list, no colour rule and no rating threshold. Every Comfort model in London sits at 2020 or newer, checked against Uber's live eligibility data. Why a car gets rejected, and by which of the two gatesTfL and Uber run separate rules, and nine reasons account for most refusals, from the 80mm dent threshold to Uber's list of accepted insurers. BMW i7 against Mercedes S580LeThe two flagship choices for top of the market London work, and how charging and your mix of jobs should decide between them. Current fleet and availabilityWhat is on the forecourt, what is on the waiting list, and what the weekly price includes.

Contracts, deposits and money

Deposit disputes and exit terms are the two things drivers in this trade argue about most, and both are decided by paperwork signed weeks earlier. These pieces set out what a deposit legally is, what can come out of it, and what a multi year agreement quietly removes.

What we hold at collection, and why release takes 21 daysThe hold, the three permitted deductions, the £750 accident excess, the £15 PCN fee, and the late charge window that sets the 21 days. Rent to buy: what the agreement actually isSeven steps from reservation fee to the separate transfer event, who owns the car meanwhile, and exactly which protections the business exemption removes.

Policy and the trade

Rules that are still being written, where a driver's response counts for something. We publish our consultation responses in full so drivers can read the argument, disagree with it and file their own.

TfL's salvage vehicle proposal, and why we oppose itA ban would benefit us commercially and we are opposing it anyway, because the consultation cites no defect, failure or collision data at all. Affects 3,555 licensed vehicles. Respond to the TfL salvage consultationCloses Sunday 13 September 2026. The full survey takes about ten minutes and there is a quick response option.

Official sources worth bookmarking

Where we get our figures. If something on this site disagrees with one of these, the official page wins and we want to know about it.

Everything else

Two standing pages. The Journal is reverse chronological, so it is where new writing appears first. The FAQ page is the short form layer, built for the questions drivers type into a search box at eleven at night.

LearnThe step-by-step licensing track, in order. The JournalEverything we have published, newest first. Driver FAQsThirty four questions on licensing, the assessments, renting, Uber eligibility, rent to buy and running costs.