Taxi representative slams TfL over IT blunders and licensing chaos leaving London cabbies out of pocket
- Perry Richardson
- Aug 27
- 2 min read
A Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association (LTDA) representative has strongly criticised Transport for London (TfL) for a series of failings that have left hundreds of drivers wrongly fined and many others unable to work due to avoidable licensing delays.
Writing in TAXI magazine, Paul Kirby, LTDA Executive Senior Officer, describes how repeated IT “glitches” and bureaucratic backlogs are eroding trust between London’s taxi trade and its regulator.
The most recent error took place on 16 June, when TfL admitted that an internal system fault led to hundreds of Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) being wrongly issued to licensed taxi drivers. The fines were triggered by cameras in the Blackwall and Silvertown Tunnels and from some Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) enforcement points.
In the aftermath, the LTDA was said to be inundated with calls and emails from members seeking urgent advice. Kirby says he contacted TfL immediately and pushed for an explanation. After several rounds of correspondence, and after providing TfL with long lists of taxi registration numbers wrongly targeted, he eventually secured confirmation that all affected PCNs would be cancelled. “Although the issue occurred in mid-June, it took until the second week of July for the TfL website to reflect the cancellations and for letters to be issued to all those affected,” Kirby notes.
This is not the first time drivers have been hit with errors on such a scale. Only recently, every London taxi was wrongly issued with Congestion Charge notices, and all diesel taxis were penalised under both Congestion Charge and ULEZ rules. “The financial cost of these repeated errors must be enormous,” Kirby notes. “Tens of thousands of PCNs are being sent out, followed by the same number of apology letters. The cost of postage and administration alone is staggering and completely avoidable.”
Kirby argues that blaming these mistakes on IT glitches allows TfL to avoid accountability. “Everyone knows a computer is only as reliable as the person operating it, so where is the accountability?” he asks.
The LTDA officer also highlights the ongoing crisis with taxi licence renewals. Many drivers who submitted their renewal applications correctly and paid their £300 fees months in advance have been left without valid licences because of delays linked to a cyberattack that took place in September 2024. “The now tired excuse of ‘it’s because of the cyberattack’ is wearing a bit thin. Let’s not forget that incident happened almost a year ago,” Kirby writes.
In many cases, drivers have been unable to work until the LTDA intervened to secure temporary Section 17 licences, or eventually forced TfL to process the full renewals. Kirby accuses TfL of shifting blame back onto drivers by repeatedly demanding new DVLA check codes, sometimes for the fourth or fifth time. “Is this because their staff are unable to process basic tasks? Or is it a tactic to shift blame onto the driver?” he asks.
He describes the situation as completely unacceptable and confirms that the LTDA is now exploring legal options to challenge TfL’s failures. In the meantime, his advice to members is clear: act early. “As soon as you receive your renewal pack, begin the process immediately,” Kirby advises.
