How a total cross-border ban could impact England’s 380,000 taxi and PHV drivers for better and worse
- Perry Richardson
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
A full ban on cross-border hiring in England’s taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) sector would affect a significant proportion of the country’s 381,000 licensed drivers for both better and worse, in areas such as operational viability, passenger access and market stability.
Cross-border hiring, which allows drivers licensed in one authority to complete journeys in another, has become embedded in the modern app-based PHV model. With 313,000 licensed vehicles and more than 380,000 drivers operating across England, industry figures suggest a large share of this workforce relies at least partially on out-of-area work to maintain earnings and meet demand.
Transport for London (TfL) and many other local authorities have long argued that the practice undermines local licensing standards and enforcement. However, evidence submitted to parliamentary inquiries indicates that cross-border hiring is now commonplace, particularly in high-demand urban centres and airport routes, where drivers often operate far beyond their licensing area.
A total stop would therefore represent a huge structural shift in how the sector operates. Some operators would warn it would not only reduce driver flexibility but also fragment supply, particularly for longer-distance and intercity journeys that do not align neatly with administrative boundaries.
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The scale of potential disruption is linked to the dominance of PHVs within the wider market. Private hire drivers account for around 69% of all licensed drivers, reflecting the growth of app-based operators whose business models depend on dynamic, borderless allocation of trips. A blanket restriction could therefore disproportionately impact this segment, with ripple effects across passenger wait times, pricing and service availability.
Against this backdrop, policymakers and regulators have explored compromise models, including the so-called “ABBA-style” approach. Under this framework, journeys would be permitted where they either start or end in the area where the driver and vehicle are licensed, rather than requiring both points to fall within the same authority.
TfL has previously indicated that such a model could “help tackle the issues caused by cross border hiring, while still allowing suitable flexibility to provide private hire services.” For regulators, this approach offers a mechanism to reintroduce geographic accountability without fully dismantling the operational efficiencies of national platforms.
Industry analysts suggest the ABBA model could significantly reduce the most contentious forms of out-of-area working, such as drivers operating almost exclusively in regions where they are not licensed, while maintaining viability for common trip patterns including airport runs and cross-city travel.
However, major national operators including Uber and Bolt have consistently resisted models that introduce any form of geographic constraints, arguing they risk undermining the core functionality of app-based dispatch systems. Evidence presented to parliamentary committees shows these firms view cross-border flexibility as essential to balancing supply and demand in real time.
There argument sit at the thought that restricting journey patterns, even partially, could lead to increased “dead mileage” where drivers are forced to return to their licensing area without passengers, as well as reduced efficiency in matching drivers to nearby bookings. Operators argue this would raise costs, reduce driver earnings and ultimately impact passenger fares and availability.
There are also technical and operational challenges. National platforms operate across dozens of licensing authorities, each with different standards and boundaries. Introducing rules tied to journey start and end points would require significant system redesign and could create compliance risks, particularly in densely populated regions where boundaries overlap.
Local authorities, meanwhile, maintain that some form of restriction is necessary. Current rules mean councils have limited powers to act against drivers working in their area but licensed elsewhere, complicating enforcement and weakening regulatory oversight.
The policy debate is therefore increasingly centred on proportionality. A full ban on cross-border hiring could affect a huge swathe of drivers and disrupt established travel patterns, while a more targeted model such as ABBA may offer a middle ground that addresses enforcement concerns without destabilising the market.
