Taxi driver no show: what to do when a driver doesn't turn up

The pickup was ten minutes ago, the passenger is ringing, and the driver isn't answering. A taxi driver no show is one of the worst calls an office takes, and what you do in the next ten minutes decides whether you keep that customer. This guide covers what to do first, who is responsible, how to cover the job when no driver is free, what to record, how to talk to the driver, and how to stop it happening again. Passengers who don't turn up are a different problem, covered in our taxi no-show policy guide.

What should you do first when a driver doesn't turn up?

Look after the passenger first, and deal with the driver afterwards. The passenger needs a car and the truth. The driver's reasons can wait an hour.

Work through it in this order:

1. Ring the driver once. If there's no answer within a minute, move on.
2. Ring the passenger. Say the car is late, that you're sending another, and give an honest time. "Twelve minutes" you can keep beats "two minutes" you can't.
3. Send another car. The nearest free driver, even if it means moving a later job.
4. If no car is free, sub-contract the job to another licensed operator you trust.
5. Tell the passenger who is coming: the firm, the car and the registration.
6. Ring back once the car is with them, and say sorry properly.

Some passengers come first in the queue: a child or vulnerable adult waiting alone, someone catching a flight or a train, someone with a hospital appointment, anyone waiting outside late at night. For a child or a vulnerable adult, follow your safeguarding policy, not just your dispatch habits. The Department for Transport's Statutory Standards say operators can't pass on the obligation to protect children and vulnerable adults, even when someone else does the booking or dispatch.

Who is responsible when the driver doesn't come?

You are, as the operator who took the booking. Section 56(1) of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 says every contract for the hire of a licensed private hire vehicle is deemed to be made with the operator who accepted the booking, whether or not that operator provided the vehicle.

Consumer law points the same way. Section 49 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says every contract to supply a service includes a term that the trader must perform it with reasonable care and skill. Where a service falls short, section 55 gives the consumer the right to ask the trader to perform it again, within a reasonable time and at the trader's cost. In plain terms: sending another car at your expense is how you put it right.

Don't charge for a journey that didn't happen. If the passenger paid in advance and no car came, refund them. A quick refund and an honest apology give a regular a reason to ring again. Making them chase their money gives them a reason not to.

How do you cover the job when no driver is free?

Pass it to another licensed operator. Since 1 October 2015, section 55A of the 1976 Act has let an operator outside London who accepted a booking arrange for another operator to provide the vehicle, in four cases:

Section 55A(2) says it doesn't matter whether your contract with the passenger allows sub-contracting. But two rules stay with you. Under section 55B, you commit an offence if you sub-contract the job knowing the other operator will use a car or driver that isn't properly licensed. And you're still liable to the passenger under section 56. London operators work under TfL's own rules.

Your own spare driver has to be licensed in the right place too. GOV.UK says the driver licence, vehicle licence and operator licence all need to be issued by the same authority, so a friend with a plate from the next council can't step in on your licence.

Set this up before you need it. Agree with two or three local firms how you'll pass each other jobs, at what price, and how the passenger and any complaint come back to you. Our guide to cross-border hiring and subcontracting covers the rules in full.

What should you record after a driver no-show?

Record what happened on the booking itself, the same day. The Statutory Standards say councils should require booking records that include the driver's name and licence number, the vehicle registration, and who took and dispatched the booking, kept for at least 6 months. If the job changed hands, the record should show both drivers, or the other firm.

If the passenger complains, that goes in your complaint record too. In London, regulation 14 of TfL's operator regulations says the record of complaints must include the date of the booking, the driver's name, the vehicle registration, the nature of the complaint, and details of any investigation and action taken, and regulation 16 says to keep it for 12 months. Outside London, check your council's operator conditions. Our guide to operator record keeping has the full lists.

How should you talk to the driver afterwards?

Find out why before you decide anything. Talk to the driver the same day, calmly, and write down what they say.

The reasons vary. The car broke down. The driver was ill and didn't ring in. They missed the job on the app. Two jobs were booked too close together. Or they took something better and hoped nobody would notice. Each of those needs a different answer, and only the last one is about the driver's attitude.

Treat a first time differently from a pattern. A driver who misses one job in two years and rings you straight away is not the same as one who misses a job a month. Keep a note of no-shows by driver, so you're dealing with facts.

Agree the rules in writing before anything goes wrong: how much notice a driver must give to hand back a pre-booked job, and what happens after a no-show. Then apply them the same way to everyone.

Be careful how you penalise self-employed drivers. In Uber BV v Aslam [2021] UKSC 5, decided on 19 February 2021, the Supreme Court found Uber drivers were workers. One of the reasons it gave was that Uber monitored drivers' acceptance and cancellation rates and, in effect, penalised them by automatically logging them off the app for ten minutes when they declined or cancelled too many trips. Fines, bans and penalties on drivers you treat as self-employed can count towards control. Take advice before you write them in. Our guides to self-employed or employed drivers and keeping good drivers go further.

How do you stop drivers missing jobs?

Some driver no-shows start with a job the driver didn't know about, forgot, or couldn't reach in time. Fix those and the deliberate ones stand out.

• Give pre-books early. A driver who sees tomorrow's 5am airport run at 6pm today can plan for it.
• Ask for a driver confirmation on every pre-book, the evening before or at the start of the shift, and chase any job without one.
• Check the early jobs before you hand over to night cover, so a 5am pickup has a named driver who knows about it.
• Leave travel time between jobs, with more around airport runs and school runs.
• Keep a standby driver on your busiest nights, even if you pay them to wait.
• Tell the passenger early. A confirmation when they book and a tracking link before the pickup let them see a late car before they ring you.

Dispatch AI is booking and dispatch software for taxi and private hire firms. Jobs go straight to your drivers on your own branded app, and the passenger gets a confirmation by text and email and a live link to track the car. Whatever system you use, check before each shift that every pre-book has a driver, and that your booking record shows who had the job and when it changed hands.

Count driver no-shows every week as one of your numbers. One a month is a problem to watch. One a week is a problem to fix.