Glasgow City Council to consult on making card payments mandatory in taxis
- Perry Richardson
- Dec 7, 2025
- 2 min read
Glasgow taxi drivers look set to face mandatory card acceptance after councillors agreed to launch a public consultation on requiring all hackney cabs to take credit and debit card payments.
The move follows a report to the city’s Licensing and Regulatory Committee on 3 December which asked members to authorise a consultation on whether taxi drivers should be compelled, as a licence condition, to accept fares by card as well as cash. The report sits under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, which allows licensing authorities to set conditions on taxi driver and vehicle licences.
Glasgow currently licenses 1,217 taxis and while a number of operators have already installed card readers on a voluntary basis, there is no requirement in local licence conditions for card facilities to be available in vehicles. Council officials say they have received “several queries” from members of the public about paying by card and that operators have also pressed for the issue to be examined as more passengers arrive at the cab door expecting non-cash options.
If Glasgow adopts the policy after consultation, it would become the first licensing authority in Scotland to make card readers mandatory in taxis.
The report notes that no Scottish council has yet introduced licence conditions mandating card devices, even as several English authorities already require card payment terminals through conditions placed on taxi operators and drivers, and a growing number of European cities have made card acceptance compulsory in their fleets.
Licensing committee backs public consultation as card-only passengers grow and trade calls for change
For operators and drivers, the council has flagged that the main financial impact would fall on the trade rather than the local authority, with licensees expected to fund the purchase and operation of payment devices themselves.
The authority plans to host the consultation on its online hub and to target responses not only from the general public but also from key stakeholder groups, including the Taxi and Private Hire Car Trade Group, Police Scotland and Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. Officials will then report back to the Licensing and Regulatory Committee with findings and options before any changes to licence conditions are drafted.
From a market perspective, the proposal reflects the shift in customer behaviour described in the committee report, which states that it has become commonplace for passengers not to carry cash and instead rely on physical cards or smartphone wallets to pay for everyday services, including transport. Trade media have also reported that card payments already account for a large share of work for some drivers in the city, suggesting operational adjustments are well under way even without a formal mandate.
