Taxi Fleet Insurance from £140/month

Taxi fleets need a fleet policy rated for hire and reward, with the right licence type declared — private hire and hackney carriage are rated differently. The details that matter are the driver criteria (age, experience, points), public liability for passengers outside the vehicle, and how quickly you can add and remove vehicles.

Cover this trade usually needs

Cover	Why it matters	Typical limit
Fleet motor cover	All vehicles on one policy, comprehensive or third party	Full vehicle values
Public liability	Passenger injury outside the vehicle — helping with luggage, door openings	£5m usual
Employers' liability	Legal requirement for employed drivers and office staff	£10m (legal minimum £5m)
Breakdown and courtesy vehicles	A licensed replacement vehicle keeps the driver earning	Per fleet requirements
Office contents and liability	The base, booking systems and dispatch equipment	Full replacement value

Key risks

• Accidents — taxis cover high annual mileage in urban traffic, so frequency is the issue.
• Passenger injury claims, in and around the vehicle.
• A vehicle off the road loses its driver's income as well as the repair cost.
• Driver changes — new drivers with points or short experience push premiums up.
• Assaults on drivers and cash handling risks.

Regulations and licences

• Local authority licensing for vehicles, drivers and operators.
• Private hire operator licence conditions.
• DVLA and MOT requirements for licensed vehicles — often more frequent tests.
• DBS checks for drivers.

What we check before quoting

• Private hire, hackney carriage or mixed — and the licensing authority.
• Driver criteria: minimum age, licence history, points and claims.
• Claims experience — three years' confirmed experience transforms fleet pricing.
• Vehicle types and values, including any executive or specialist vehicles.
• How vehicles and drivers are added and removed mid-term.

Gaps we see most often

• Drivers added without meeting the policy's driver criteria — an undeclared young driver can void a claim.
• Public liability missing for incidents outside the vehicle.
• No courtesy vehicle provision, so an accident stops a driver's income.
• Claims experience not properly evidenced when moving insurer, losing the discount.

Limits clients and contracts usually ask for

• Public liability £5m.
• Employers' liability £10m (the legal minimum is £5m).

Key facts and sources

• Outside London, councils licence hackney carriages and private hire vehicles, drivers and operators under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 and the Town Police Clauses Act 1847. legislation.gov.uk — Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976

Connect each booking to the driver, vehicle and operator

Keep a booking-to-journey audit trail identifying the accepting operator, dispatched driver, vehicle, substitution and actual trip times. Retain the dispatch record when a booking is passed to another operator rather than recording only the passenger's payment. For broker discussion, distinguish vehicles owned by the fleet from owner-driver cars working through its dispatch system. A fleet list alone may not explain whose vehicle performed a disputed journey or which business accepted the passenger's original booking.

Document driver onboarding, licence checks, vehicle permissions and the process for temporary replacements. Separate routine passenger journeys from school transport, wheelchair assistance, airport meet-and-greet services or contracts requiring additional support. Keep the actual contract and service instructions where drivers have duties beyond driving. Discuss these changes with the broker before service begins; a vehicle licensed for passenger work does not, by itself, settle the insurance position for every assistance task or commercial indemnity the operator agrees to provide.

After a collision or passenger allegation, preserve dispatch data, vehicle photographs and relevant camera footage under appropriate data protection arrangements. Separate vehicle repair, recovery, replacement hire, lost bookings and any charge claimed by a vehicle owner or contracting customer. Record whether the vehicle was on a booked trip, travelling to collect or being used privately. The broker can then examine the policy's use and claims provisions without assuming that every cost attributed to the vehicle's downtime is recoverable.

The Department for Transport standards provide licensing and safeguarding context principally for authorities in England, with the publication explaining their relevance to Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate systems. They are not fleet insurance terms. Revisit the broker when dispatch arrangements, licensing areas or subcontracted services change, and explain who accepts and fulfils each booking. Keep official licensing expectations separate from insurer driver eligibility rules, permitted uses and any contractual promises made to a transport customer.

Department for Transport — Statutory taxi and private hire vehicle standards

Common questions

At how many vehicles does a fleet policy make sense?

Usually from three vehicles upward. A fleet policy simplifies administration — one renewal, mid-term additions — and pricing is based on the fleet's overall claims experience rather than each vehicle separately.

Can I add a driver with points?

Only if they meet the policy's driver criteria. Fleet policies set minimum ages and maximum points; putting a driver on who falls outside them without telling the insurer can void a claim. Check with us before you put a new driver on.

Is a passenger injured getting out of the taxi covered?

Motor cover handles injury while being carried; public liability covers incidents around the vehicle — a door opened into a cyclist, a passenger tripping while you help with luggage. Both covers should be in place.

How do I keep fleet costs down?

Clean claims experience is the biggest lever — three years' confirmed experience is what fleet insurers price on. Beyond that: camera and telematics evidence, driver criteria enforced, and a realistic excess. We review the whole picture at each renewal.