How Uber’s suggested national private hire vehicle driver database would function in practice
- Perry Richardson
- Sep 30
- 4 min read
Uber has called on the Government to create a national, real-time database of all currently licensed private hire vehicle (PHV) drivers and vehicles in England.
The proposal is part of the firm’s wider suggestions to standardise licensing rules and address enforcement gaps caused by cross-border operation of PHVs. The idea is to simplify the verification process for operators and improve public safety by ensuring that up-to-date licence information is available across the country.
The ride-hailing company’s suggestion forms a central plank of its submission to the Transport Committee’s inquiry into PHV licensing. The proposal comes amid growing concern from councils and enforcement teams over inconsistent standards, loopholes in licensing regimes, and the inability to act against drivers licensed elsewhere.
The current situation
At present, PHV licensing in England is controlled by over 270 individual local authorities. Each authority is responsible for issuing, renewing, suspending, or revoking PHV licences for drivers and vehicles operating under its jurisdiction. While some authorities publish regular updates of licensed drivers and vehicles, many do not. Information is often shared by email or in paper format, which introduces the risk of delays, inconsistencies, and omissions.
Operators such as Uber rely on this data to verify whether a driver remains properly licensed. In cases where licences are suspended or revoked, any delay in communicating this to the operator could allow that driver to continue picking up passengers unlawfully. Uber says this poses a safety risk and undermines the integrity of the regulatory system.
What Uber is suggesting
Uber’s national database proposal would centralise all PHV licence data into a single digital system. This system would contain live records of every PHV driver and vehicle currently licensed anywhere in England. Operators would have secure access to the system via an application programming interface (API), allowing them to integrate the database directly into their platform and carry out instant checks.
Each time a passenger books a journey through an app, the system would automatically cross-reference the driver and vehicle credentials against the national database. If a licence had been revoked or suspended, the driver would be blocked from accepting trips. This would prevent delays and human error associated with manual updates from individual councils.
Data input and authority responsibility
The effectiveness of the system would depend on local authorities updating the database in real time. Uber recommends that licensing bodies be required by law to input suspensions, revocations, refusals, and new licences within a set timeframe. For instance, any change to a driver’s licensing status would need to be uploaded to the national system within 24 hours of the decision being made.
This would mirror, and potentially build on, the existing NR3S database, which currently allows authorities to share information about licence refusals, revocations, and suspensions with each other. However, NR3S is not accessible to operators, does not provide real-time status updates, and lacks detail about the reasons for decisions.
Uber’s proposed system would include greater detail. It would contain not just a binary pass/fail status, but the type of licence held, issuing authority, expiry date, and reason for any enforcement action. This would give operators a clear and immediate understanding of whether a driver is legally permitted to work and whether any past issues should be taken into account when assigning work.
Benefits to public safety
According to Uber, a national database would remove blind spots in the licensing system and raise safety standards across the sector. It would also eliminate the risk of a driver who has been banned in one area continuing to work through an operator who has not yet received notice from the relevant authority.
The system would support enforcement teams too. Local officers checking a driver at a rank or on the street could use the database to confirm their licence is valid, regardless of where it was issued. This would help address some concerns that councils are unable to act against out-of-area drivers under current rules.
Challenges and implementation
While the concept is straightforward, building and maintaining a national PHV licensing database would require political will, funding, and coordination. The Department for Transport would likely need to oversee the system, working with local authorities, data protection regulators, and operators to design appropriate safeguards.
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Uber has called for secure access and strict controls to ensure that personal data is protected in line with the UK GDPR. Only verified operators would be able to query the system, and audit trails would be kept of every lookup. The Information Commissioner’s Office would need to provide updated guidance to support lawful use of the data.
Another question is whether this system should be limited to private hire licensing, or extended to hackney carriage drivers as well. Uber’s proposal is focused on the PHV sector, but a national database could have wider benefits for other forms of licensing and enforcement.
