DRIVING UP COSTS: Taxi fleets report surge in airport drop-off debt recovery demands without prior notices
- Perry Richardson
- 22 minutes ago
- 2 min read
London taxi rental firms are reporting a growing volume of debt recovery demands linked to airport enforcement notices they say were never previously issued, raising concerns about process failures affecting both fleets and owner drivers.
One large black cab rental operator told TaxiPoint it is now receiving an average of 10 to 15 debt recovery letters each week relating to alleged parking or traffic contraventions at Heathrow, Luton and Stansted airports. The firm says no original penalty charge notices or parking charge notices were received before the cases were escalated to debt recovery.
The operator said this has created a systemic problem for fleet businesses that manage tickets on behalf of drivers. Under standard rental arrangements, fleets transfer enforcement notices to drivers promptly to allow them to pay at the lowest rate or lodge an appeal. Where no initial notice is received, that process cannot take place.
“All of our tickets are transferred daily,” the operator said. “When debt recovery letters arrive without any prior notice, it is unfair and often impossible to pass these on to drivers because they have been denied the right to appeal or pay early.”
Operators say Heathrow, Luton and Stansted enforcement cases are escalating straight to debt recovery, leaving no appeal window for drivers
Many of the cases cited by the black cab rental firm relates to drop-off enforcement at Heathrow Airport, Luton Airport and Stansted Airport. The rental firm says attempts to resolve the issue directly with the parking management firms involved have so far failed, with no clear route to challenge or reset cases that bypass the initial notice stage.
Unlike local authority-issued penalty charge notices, private airport enforcement does not allow statutory declarations to reset the process when documents are not received. Firms renting taxis to cabbies say this leaves them exposed to escalating charges with limited procedural safeguards.
As a result, the rental firm said it is often forced to pay the debt demands itself rather than transfer liability to drivers, absorbing costs that it argues should never have arisen. The operator believes the issue is not limited to fleets and suspects owner-drivers working directly at airports are also being affected.
