RESTRICTED private hire driver licences can help councils, but consistency and quality matters
- Perry Richardson
- Oct 30
- 3 min read
Some councils in England now issue private hire driver licences with specific conditions attached. These restricted licences are usually aimed at home to school transport. The conditions limit the holder to defined work, often trips contracted by an education authority or a named operator. By contrast, a standard private hire driver licence permits the full range of pre-booked work through any licensed operator that hires the driver, subject to local policy and vehicle rules.
The move to restricted licences has grown alongside pressure on school transport. Demand for special educational needs provision has risen, budgets are tight, and many areas report shortages of available drivers at peak times. A restricted licence gives councils a way to prioritise capacity for school routes without opening the door to wider commercial work.
Used properly, the approach is lawful and practical. The core legal test remains the same. Every driver must be judged fit and proper. Enhanced DBS checks, medical standards, right to work, and safeguarding training apply to all applicants. The difference sits in conditions. Councils narrow the permitted work, and often tailor knowledge or topography testing to the specific role. That can make recruitment faster where local road knowledge is less critical than safeguarding and reliability on fixed school routes.
The policy choice does create new responsibilities. First, the public must not be confused. If a driver’s licence restricts them to school contracts, they cannot accept ad hoc private hire bookings. Operators must design systems that prevent mis-allocation. Dispatch software should flag restricted drivers and block jobs that fall outside the conditions. Clear badges on internal records, regular briefings, and audit checks are not administrative extras. They are essential controls.
Second, enforcement needs to be practical. Licensing teams must be able to see at a glance who holds a restricted licence and what those conditions are. Public registers should indicate restrictions. Spot checks at ranks and hot-spots will not capture private hire activity, so the focus should be on operator records, booking trails, and contract compliance. Where a breach is found, sanctions should mirror the risk, from warnings through to suspension or revocation.
Third, training should not drift. Some councils reduce or remove topography testing for restricted licences. That may be proportionate for fixed school routes, but it cannot replace safeguarding standards or basic road craft. A sensible baseline would include behaviour management around children, transporting wheelchairs and specialist equipment, and incident reporting. Refresher training should be built into renewal. Consistency across authorities would help operators that work across borders and reduce disputes when drivers switch areas.
There is also a workforce angle. A restricted licence can be a pathway into the trade for people who want school-day hours. That can broaden the pool. But a two-tier model can trap drivers if the conversion path to a full licence is unclear. Councils that use restricted licences should set out the steps to upgrade, the extra training required, and any fees that will be credited if a driver progresses within a set timeframe. That makes the model fair and helps retain people who gain experience on school work and later want evening or weekend shifts.
London provides a useful comparison. Transport for London runs a single private hire driver licence with uniform standards. That avoids local variation, but it also removes the lever to target capacity at school transport through tailored conditions. Outside the capital, discretion is the strength of the system, yet it is also where inconsistency creeps in.
The case for restricted licences is practical rather than ideological. Councils should keep the tool, but within a simple framework. The safety bar must match the standard licence. The scope of permitted work must be explicit in writing and embedded in operator systems. The conversion route to a standard licence must be documented and affordable. Records should make restrictions visible to regulators and, where appropriate, to the public. Annual audits of operators handling school contracts should check rosters, training logs, and booking allocation against licence status.
National guidance could also help. The Department for Transport’s best practice might include a short section on restricted private hire licences, setting out a common set of expectations on checks, training, record keeping, data fields on public registers, and proportional enforcement. That would not remove local discretion. It would give councils and operators a reference point, reduce confusion for drivers who move between areas, and improve passenger confidence.
Restricted private hire licences have a place in today’s market as they are a targeted response to specific transport needs. The risk lies not in the concept but in uneven delivery. With consistent safeguards and clear communication councils can meet school transport demand without diluting standards or creating avoidable friction for operators and drivers.
