# Taxi booking chatbot: what a website chat assistant should do

> A taxi booking chatbot should take a booking from start to finish: ask where, when and how many, check the address, quote your own fixed price, write the booking into your system and send a confirmation. It should hand anything unusual to a person, and it must never turn down a booking because the passenger is disabled, which has been an offence for private hire operators since 28 June 2022.

By Joe, founder of Dispatch AI. Updated 2026-10-17. The web page: https://dispatchai.co.uk/guides/taxi-booking-chatbot/

Your passengers are getting used to typing questions instead of searching. Ofcom reports that ChatGPT had 252 million UK web visits in August 2025, up 156% on a year earlier. So a chat box on a taxi website no longer looks odd. What matters is whether it books the job or just talks. This guide explains what a taxi booking chatbot should do, where it has to stop and pass to a person, the law it has to respect, and how to test one before your passengers find the gaps.


## What's the difference between an FAQ bot and a booking assistant?

An FAQ bot answers questions. A booking assistant takes the booking. Plenty of website chat boxes are the first kind dressed up as the second, so ask which one you're buying.

| | FAQ bot | Booking assistant |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Answers set questions: opening hours, card payments, airport pickup points | Takes the journey details, quotes and books |
| Where its answers come from | A script or your website's text | Your price list, your booking rules and your booking system |
| When someone says "I want to book" | Sends them to the phone or a form | Asks the next question and carries on |
| What you have at the end | A conversation | A booking in your system and a confirmation sent |
| The main risk | Passengers give up and ring someone else | A wrong quote or a missed detail, if it's badly set up |

An FAQ bot still has a use, for questions people ask before they're ready to book. On its own, though, it adds a step between the passenger and the booking rather than removing one.


## What should a taxi booking chatbot do?

A taxi booking chatbot should get the job right the first time, in the same order a good controller would on the phone.

1. **Say what it is.** Open with your firm's name and make it clear the passenger is chatting with an automated booking assistant. People forgive a bot. They don't forgive one pretending to be a person.
2. **Take the journey.** Pickup, destination, date and a clock time. If the passenger says "tomorrow morning", it asks what time.
3. **Check the address.** Postcode and house number, or a venue name it can match, with a way to type the address in full if the lookup can't find it.
4. **Ask about people and needs.** How many passengers, how many bags, and whether anyone needs a wheelchair-accessible vehicle, a child seat or room for an assistance dog.
5. **Quote your price.** The fare comes from your own [fixed zone prices](https://dispatchai.co.uk/guides/taxi-zone-pricing/), never from a guess. If the journey isn't on the list, it says someone will confirm the price.
6. **Offer extras without pushing.** Meet and greet, a return trip, a bigger car. Each one is added only if the passenger says yes.
7. **Read it all back.** One message with every detail and the total, and a clear "shall I book this?".
8. **Take payment safely.** A secure payment link from your payment provider, never card numbers typed into the chat. Our guide to [taking card payments safely](https://dispatchai.co.uk/guides/card-payments-for-taxi-bookings/) explains why.
9. **Write the booking.** Into your booking system, with every field your licence conditions ask for.
10. **Confirm it.** A text and an email with the booking details, sent straight away.


## When should the chatbot hand over to a person?

The chatbot should hand over whenever the conversation stops being a routine booking. A good handover passes the whole transcript, so nobody has to ask the passenger to start again.

- A complaint, or a passenger who's upset
- Lost property
- Anything about safety, a driver's behaviour or a passenger who's vulnerable
- Account customers asking about invoices or their account
- A journey that isn't on your price list
- A booking it can't fit to a car, such as a wheelchair-accessible vehicle at short notice
- Anyone who asks for a person

At night there may be no one to hand to. Then the chatbot should say plainly when someone will pick the message up, and give the phone number. "Someone will reply after 7am" is honest. Silence isn't.


## What does the law expect from a taxi booking chatbot?

Treat what your chatbot says and does as what your firm says and does, because to a passenger and to your council, it is. Three rules matter most.

**Disabled passengers.** Section 167A of the Equality Act 2010, in force since 28 June 2022, makes it an offence for a private hire operator to fail or refuse to accept a booking because the passenger has a disability, or to avoid the duties the Act places on drivers. The defence is that refusing was reasonable because no suitable vehicle was available. Section 170 makes it an offence to refuse a booking because a disabled passenger will be accompanied by an assistance dog, or to charge extra for the dog. Each offence carries a fine of up to level 3 on the standard scale, which the Sentencing Act 2020 sets at £1,000. So build the chatbot so it can't say no to these bookings. If it can't find a suitable car, it passes the booking to a person to sort out. Our guide to [wheelchair-accessible taxis and the Equality Act](https://dispatchai.co.uk/guides/wheelchair-accessible-taxis-equality-act/) covers the wider duties.

**Prices and promises.** Since 6 April 2025, section 226 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 has treated giving false or misleading information about a product or a trader as a misleading action. A chatbot that quotes the wrong fare, invents a policy or promises a car you haven't got is your firm giving that information. Keep it on your own price list and your own rules, and check its transcripts.

**Booking records.** Section 56 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 still applies outside London: the booking particulars are recorded before the journey, in the form your council sets. The Department for Transport's Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Standards expect the record to name who took the booking and who dispatched it. Record the chatbot as the taker, and the person who sent the car as the dispatcher.


## Does a website chatbot have to be accessible?

A chatbot some passengers can't use is a closed door for them. WCAG 2.2, the W3C's web accessibility standard, says all functionality should work through a keyboard, and a chat bubble that only opens with a mouse or a finger tap fails that.

Check that the chat can be opened and used with the keyboard alone, that a screen reader reads out each new message, and that the text can be made larger without breaking. Keep your phone number visible next to the chat as well. Some passengers will always want to ring, and an operator who mustn't turn away a disabled passenger's booking can't rely on a chat box being the only way in.


## How do you test a taxi booking chatbot before launch?

Test the chatbot the way a tired, rushed passenger would use it, then check what landed in your booking system. Run these 10 tests yourself before any passenger does.

| Test | What to type | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| A plain booking | "Taxi from the station to the airport on Friday at 5am, 2 people" | It asks for a name and number, quotes your fixed price and books |
| A vague time | "Tomorrow morning" | It asks for a clock time |
| A bad address | A postcode with a typo | It asks again or lets you type the address in full |
| A wheelchair user | "I use a wheelchair and need a car on Saturday" | It takes the booking or passes it to a person, and never refuses |
| An assistance dog | "I'll have my guide dog with me" | It books with no extra charge |
| An unlisted journey | A town you don't have a price for | It says someone will confirm the price, and doesn't invent one |
| A person, please | "Can I talk to someone?" | It hands over with the transcript, or gives the phone number at night |
| A change | "I need to move my booking to 6am" | It checks it's the same passenger before changing anything |
| A complaint | "Your driver was rude last night" | It stops booking and passes the message to a person |
| Card details | A string of 16 digits | It tells the passenger not to share card numbers and sends a payment link |

Then open each test booking in your system. Every field your council's conditions ask for should be there, and the price should match your price list to the penny.

Repeat the tests whenever you change your prices or your booking rules. Read a sample of real transcripts each week for the first month as well; they show you the questions you didn't think to test.

Dispatch AI is booking and dispatch software for taxi and private hire firms. It includes an online booking page and a chat assistant for your website, with your fixed prices.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is a taxi booking chatbot the same as ChatGPT?

No. A booking assistant can be built on the same kind of language model, but it should be tied to your prices, your booking rules and your booking system. A general chatbot has none of those, so it can't quote your fare or write the booking, and it can make things up.

### Can a chatbot take bookings when the office is closed?

Yes, and that's where it earns its keep, because a passenger at midnight can book and get a confirmation without waiting for the morning. For anything it can't handle at that hour, it should say when a person will reply and give the phone number.

### What should I do if the chatbot quotes the wrong price?

Treat it as your own quote, because to the passenger it is. Contact the passenger quickly, then fix the price list or the rule that caused it and run the price tests again. Reading transcripts each week is how you spot these early.

### Does a chatbot replace the booking form on my website?

It works best alongside one. Some passengers want to fill in four fields and press book, and others want to ask a question first. Our guide to [online booking for a taxi website](https://dispatchai.co.uk/guides/online-booking-for-a-taxi-website/) compares the options.

### Should the same assistant answer WhatsApp as well as the website?

It can, and the bookings should land in the same place either way. WhatsApp has its own rules on templates and opt-in, set out in our guide to [taking taxi bookings on WhatsApp](https://dispatchai.co.uk/guides/whatsapp-taxi-booking/).


## Sources

- [Online Nation 2025 report (Ofcom)](https://www.ofcom.org.uk/media-use-and-attitudes/online-habits/online-nation) published 10 December 2025; ChatGPT UK web visits in August 2025
- [Equality Act 2010, section 167A](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/167A) private hire operators must not refuse bookings because of disability; in force 28 June 2022
- [Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles (Disabled Persons) Act 2022, section 4](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/29/section/4) the operator duties and the lack-of-vehicles defence
- [Equality Act 2010, section 170](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/170) assistance dogs in private hire vehicles
- [Sentencing Act 2020, section 122](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2020/17/section/122) the standard scale: level 3 is £1,000
- [Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, section 226](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/13/section/226) misleading actions; in force 6 April 2025
- [Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 (W3C)](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/) success criterion 2.1.1, keyboard
- [Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, section 56](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1976/57/section/56) operators' booking records
- [Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Standards (Department for Transport)](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statutory-taxi-and-private-hire-vehicle-standards/statutory-taxi-and-private-hire-vehicle-standards) section 8, who took and who dispatched each booking

Dispatch AI is a trading name of CABO TECH SOLUTION AI LTD, registered in England and Wales, company no. 16255667.