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The private hire map that raises new CROSS BORDER questions: Why are hundreds of operators licensing with smaller councils?
Updated: Sep 14
London remains England’s largest private hire vehicle operator licensing authority, but new figures reveal that several comparatively small councils are issuing hundreds of operator licences, prompting questions over whether the industry’s well-documented debate around “licence shopping” by drivers should also extend to private hire operators.
Department for Transport data for 1 April 2026 shows Transport for London had 1,843 PHV operator licences on issue. Castle Point was second nationally with 554, followed by Wolverhampton with 515 and Hertsmere with 467. South Gloucestershire ranked fifth with 351, ahead of Canterbury on 329.
Kirklees recorded 228 operator licences, Buckinghamshire 223, while Liverpool and Torbay each had 199. Collectively, the ten authorities shown at the top of the table account for 4,908 operator licences, or around 26% of the approximately 19,000 PHV operator licences recorded across England.
First up, it’s worth noting that the numbers need careful interpretation. An operator licence should not automatically be read as a large minicab business employing or dispatching hundreds or thousands of drivers. The DfT also specifically states that its figures count operator licences on issue rather than individual operators, meaning the national total does not represent 19,000 separate businesses.
One driver can also be the operator
At the smallest end of the market, a PHV operator can effectively be a one-driver business. Government guidance makes clear that somebody wishing to drive a private hire vehicle can either obtain their own operator licence or work through a business already holding one. That distinction is increasingly important as drivers gain access to their own websites, booking systems, card payment technology and direct customer databases.
A driver seeking to build a customer base independently rather than relying entirely on a major app or traditional minicab office may therefore hold a driver licence, have a licensed vehicle and obtain an operator licence so they can lawfully accept bookings themselves.
That means an authority recording several hundred operators should not necessarily be viewed as supervising several hundred Uber-sized businesses. Its operator population could include substantial fleets, established local firms, specialist transport companies and significant numbers of sole traders operating one or a handful of vehicles.
Even with that qualification, the geographic distribution remains notable.
Castle Point’s 554 operator licences put the Essex borough behind only London nationally and ahead of major population centres including Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds. Hertsmere, another relatively small licensing district, sits fourth with 467.
Hertsmere itself says it has been receiving a “large volume” of private hire operator applications, with its published guidance currently warning applicants of processing times of around 16 weeks. Importantly, the council also states: “You can only be licensed by Hertsmere Borough Council if you are operating from the Borough of Hertsmere.”
Is there operator shopping as well as driver shopping?
Cross-border licensing has become one of the most contentious issues facing the taxi and private hire sector, with most attention directed towards drivers and vehicles obtaining licences from one council before working predominantly somewhere else.
Wolverhampton has become the highest-profile example. The council reported that its number of licensed PHV operators had risen from 180 in May 2021 to 506 by the end of December 2024. Over the same period its licensed driver population increased from 16,655 to 49,714 and its licensed vehicles from 9,937 to 34,517.
The Transport Committee has also highlighted the scale of out-of-area licensing associated with Wolverhampton, saying in 2025 that 96% of taxi and PHV licences issued by the authority were held by drivers from outside the city.
Whether the same “shopping” label can fairly be applied to operators is harder to establish from licence numbers alone.
Applicants cannot simply pick any authority without meeting the legal requirements surrounding where the private hire business operates.
Government guidance tells applicants to apply to the licensing authority where their PHV business will operate. Individual council requirements can then determine what constitutes a suitable operating base and what records, policies, DBS checks and other documentation must be supplied.
However, differences between licensing authorities in fees, application processes, operating conditions, processing times, licence duration and administrative requirements could create incentives for businesses deciding where legitimately to establish their operating base.
The unexpectedly high number of operators concentrated in some smaller authorities therefore warrants further examination. It does not establish that operator shopping is occurring, but it raises a similar regulatory question to that surrounding drivers: why do some licensing areas attract substantially more licence holders than seemingly comparable authorities?
Triple licensing makes operator choice important
A PHV driver, vehicle and operator undertaking a journey must all be licensed by the same licensing authority. Once that requirement is met and the booking has been accepted through the correctly licensed operator, the journey can be undertaken elsewhere in England and Wales. TfL describes this as the “triple licensing requirement”.
That means an operator licence is not just administrative permission to run a booking office. It forms one side of the regulatory structure that can enable drivers and vehicles licensed in one district to work predominantly or even exclusively in another.
The Government acknowledged the wider problem earlier this year when consulting on changes to taxi and PHV licensing structures. It said the decision by some drivers to licence out of area can lead to significant numbers of vehicles operating elsewhere, while the authority where they actually work generally cannot suspend or revoke licences it did not issue.
TfL has similarly argued that drivers, vehicles and operators licensed in one area can operate predominantly or exclusively elsewhere and may not be subject to identical local safety, environmental or operational requirements. It says resolving the problem requires legislative change.
Operator numbers are growing quickly
There were around 19,000 PHV operator licences in England on 1 April 2026, up 17% from 16,300 in 2024. Over the same period the number of licensed PHVs increased by 13% to approximately 290,000 and the number of taxi and PHV driver licences climbed 9% to 417,300.
London alone accounted for 1,843 operator licences, but the remaining leading authorities demonstrate that operator licensing is far from just a big-city phenomenon. Castle Point, Wolverhampton and Hertsmere together account for 1,536 operator licences, despite representing very different markets.
The rise of app-based booking technology may also continue to change what an operator looks like. Becoming an operator no longer necessarily means maintaining a traditional minicab office with telephonists, dispatchers and a large vehicle fleet. For some licence holders the operation may consist of one driver taking bookings directly from their own customers.
That development could be positive for competition by allowing drivers to retain direct relationships with passengers rather than depending entirely on large platforms. But it also makes understanding where operator licences are being issued, why applicants choose particular authorities and where those businesses actually generate their work increasingly important.
Driver licence shopping has dominated the national debate because its effects are highly visible on the road. The latest operator figures suggest policymakers may also need to examine the less visible third part of the private hire licensing system.
Without more granular information on the size, operating locations and business models of those holding the hundreds of licences concentrated in certain districts, the statistics cannot prove that operator shopping is taking place.
They do, however, provide a strong case for asking why England’s private hire operator map looks so different from its population map, and whether the current licensing framework is producing outcomes Parliament originally intended.
