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Could black cabs realistically survive now without third-party taxi apps?
London black cab drivers could theoretically turn their backs on third-party booking apps, but doing so would risk voluntarily cutting themselves off from established sources of passenger demand at a time when customers increasingly expect taxis to be available through multiple digital channels.
The issue has moved back into focus following criticism from Knowledge Point School of cabbies working through such platforms as Freenow and Gett and even included card payment companies in their disgruntled message. The Knowledge school argued that drivers using such businesses were weakening the value of the Knowledge and potentially contributing to longer-term threats facing the trade.
However, there is a fundamental commercial problem with asking drivers to withdraw from established booking platforms. A taxi driver can only earn from passengers they can reach. Removing booking channels does not automatically persuade those passengers to return to ranks or street hails. Instead, some are likely to select another transport option available through the device already in their hand.
Smartphone booking has become embedded in the way passengers purchase point-to-point transport. Customers increasingly expect to see availability, request a vehicle, track its arrival, pay electronically and receive a digital receipt without changing platforms. For many passengers, the first decision is therefore no longer whether to hail a taxi or book private hire. It is which service to open on their phone.
Historically, the trade’s distribution network was predominantly physical and for some cabbies that remains true. Drivers positioned themselves where customers were expected to appear, including railway stations, hotels, entertainment districts, airports and taxi ranks. Street hails added another direct route between passenger and driver.
Apps have created additional digital ranks. A driver connected to several booking services can potentially appear in front of passengers who might never walk to a physical rank or attempt to hail a cab in the street. Switching those platforms off reduces the number of places where that driver’s availability can be discovered.
The same consideration applies to corporate travel. Businesses increasingly rely on managed booking, account and payment systems that provide centralised invoicing, journey records and expense information. Where a taxi can be supplied through those systems, the black cab remains an option. Where it cannot, corporate demand will be directed elsewhere to a platforms that can.
This makes access to booking platforms a supply-chain issue as much as a technology debate. Third-party platforms can sit between the passenger or corporate account and the individual driver, bringing disadvantages such as commission, reduced control over the customer relationship and dependence on another company’s commercial decisions. But they can also deliver customers that an individual driver would otherwise struggle to acquire directly.
Card payments illustrate how quickly passenger expectations can become permanent. London’s taxi trade has already moved decisively towards cashless acceptance. Asking customers accustomed to paying by card or phone to return exclusively to cash would be commercially difficult. Booking technology is moving along a similar path.
The strategic question for the trade is therefore not simply whether third-party platforms are good or bad for drivers. It is whether black cabs can afford to be absent from places where passengers are actively looking for transport.
There are however legitimate concerns around dependence. If too much demand becomes concentrated through a small number of intermediaries, drivers can become exposed to changes in commission, allocation systems, contractual terms and platform strategy. A business controlling the customer interface can potentially exercise considerable influence over those supplying the journeys.
The alternative, however, does not have to be complete withdrawal. The taxi sector can continue developing its own direct booking channels while remaining available through third-party services. A driver accepting an app job does not lose the ability to pick up a street hail, work a rank or take another booking through a different channel later.
For individual cabbies, diversification may therefore carry less commercial risk than isolation. Street work, ranks, hotel demand, direct customers, taxi-specific apps, broader mobility platforms and corporate accounts can all contribute to the same working day. Cutting off one or more of those sources deliberately leaves the driver competing for a smaller pool of available passengers.
There is also no guarantee that passengers displaced by an app withdrawal would remain loyal to the black cab trade. If somebody opens an application expecting to book transport and taxis are unavailable, the immediate beneficiary could be a private hire driver rather than another cabbie waiting on a nearby rank.
That distinction matters when considering the wider argument about protecting the Knowledge. The Knowledge gives London taxi drivers an occupational qualification and operating privileges that differentiate them from private hire drivers. But those advantages still have to be converted into paid journeys.
Technology does not necessarily remove that differentiation. It can instead provide another distribution channel through which a Knowledge-qualified driver reaches a customer. The commercial challenge is ensuring that the taxi retains sufficient control over fares and customer relationships while benefiting from the additional demand.
Booking apps are now too established in passenger behaviour to be treated as a temporary change that can simply be reversed. The genie is out of the bottle. The stronger commercial position for the black cab sector is likely to involve making taxis easier to find across modern booking channels, not deliberately making them harder to find.
For cabbies, that means competing wherever customers choose to find journeys while preserving the advantages that make a London taxi distinctive. Restricting supply to traditional channels may protect independence from platforms, but it comes with a considerable trade-off: fewer routes connecting paying passengers with available taxis.
