What the UK taxi market could borrow from the overseas markets
- Perry Richardson
- 48 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Across the global taxi sector, the most successful innovations tend to be the ones that combine operational discipline with digital infrastructure, rather than chasing novelty for its own sake. The UK’s licensed taxi and private hire markets already have strong foundations in safety and accessibility, but international examples show how governments and fleet operators are tightening compliance and improving passenger confidence through better data and more targeted regulation.
Japan remains the reference point for passenger-facing service. Tokyo’s large fleet operators are known for formal driver presentation and strict conduct expectations, including suit-and-tie dress codes and white gloves in many firms, with structured pre-shift routines that can include checks such as breathalysers before vehicles go out. For passengers, the experience is built around consistency, clean vehicles and predictable etiquette, down to details such as rear doors that open automatically on many taxis, discouraging customers from handling them.
For UK drivers it’s not about copying uniforms, but about making service quality measurable and enforceable. A tighter link between licensing outcomes and real-world service standards could include more structured customer-service refresher training and fleet-level quality systems that mirror the way some Japanese companies treat taxi driving as a managed profession rather than solely an individual trade. The operational impact is seen to be lower churn, fewer incidents, and a product that is easier to sell to corporate accounts and transport passengers who value reliability
over novelty.
In Estonia, the headline innovation is not a single taxi app, but a national approach to digital public services that enables secure data exchange between government and business systems. The country’s X-Road interoperability layer is designed to let public and private databases exchange verified information securely, reducing the need for duplicate checks and paperwork. In transport, that same philosophy supports faster verification, clearer audit trails and, crucially for regulators, a
model where compliance can be monitored digitally rather than relying on resource-heavy street enforcement.
A UK parallel would be a more integrated national standard licensing data model across councils, addressing long-running issues such as out-of-area working and inconsistent enforcement capacity. The UK does not need a single national licensing authority to improve this, but it does need better data sharing and faster verification across boundaries.
Electrification is another area where overseas markets have moved from pilots to mandates. Shenzhen has been one of the most cited examples of large- scale electrification in dense urban operations, with policy-driven expansion of electric taxis alongside wider electric public transport efforts, backed by incentives and coordinated deployment. The business relevance is that a full-fleet transition is less about vehicle technology and more about power supply, large scale depot charging facilities, downtime and financing models that keep drivers earning.
For the UK, the biggest barrier is not vehicle availability, but charging access and the economics for owner-drivers. Overseas examples point to a need for dedicated taxi charging infrastructure, predictable electricity pricing, and financing that reflects high-mileage commercial use. A rapid EV transition without that backbone risks pushing costs onto drivers and shrinking supply at peak times, which is counterproductive for passengers and for cities trying to reduce car use.
Accessibility offers a different model of regulatory innovation, where rules are structured around outcomes rather than aspiration. To be fair, London and other UK cities that mandate the use of 100% Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles (WAV) are global market leaders in their own right. However, there remains a decline in the overall number of WAV taxis licensed in the UK as a
whole. In New York City, the Taxi and Limousine Commission has used a mixture of mandates and financial support to increase WAVs, including rules applying to for-hire vehicle bases and programmes supporting accessible street-hail vehicles. This approach treats accessibility as a system requirement, not an optional fleet niche, and creates a compliance framework that can be measured through dispatch performance and trip data.
The lesson from New York is that regulators can set clearer accessible service requirements while also supporting operators financially where vehicle costs are higher. In practice, it means moving from broad statements about inclusion to specific service levels, such as maximum waits for accessible vehicles, supported by data rather than anecdote.
Safety innovations for women are now being formalised in several markets, though they remain constrained by driver supply. In India, updated rules for cab aggregators have introduced gender preference options intended to allow riders, particularly women, to choose same-gender drivers when booking. In the US, Uber has been piloting similar “Women Preferences” features in selected cities, allowing women riders to request women drivers and women drivers to prefer women passengers, with the option to widen matching if waits are too long. The operational reality is that these features only work at scale if more women are recruited and retained as drivers, and that requires safer working conditions, better facilities and predictable earnings.
For the UK, the best-adapted version may be a mix of voluntary features and targeted supply-building, rather than attempting to create widespread women-only provision overnight. Councils and operators can still support safety through stronger national minimum standards and better incident reporting.
The strategic point for the UK industry is that global best practice increasingly sits at the intersection of regulation and new technology. Japan shows how service culture can be operationalised, Estonia shows how digital government reduces friction, Shenzhen shows how fleet transition depends on infrastructure, and New York shows how accessibility can be mandated through measurable requirements and funding. The UK can adopt the same mindset by treating licensing as a data-driven system, investing in shared enforcement capability across regions, and building infrastructure that supports the transition to cleaner vehicles without destabilising driver livelihoods.
