Taking taxi bookings on WhatsApp: how to do it properly

WhatsApp is already on your passengers' phones. Ofcom's Online Nation report found that 90% of UK online adults used WhatsApp in May 2025, and 74% opened it on an average day. So people will message your firm to book a taxi on WhatsApp whether you plan for it or not. This guide covers the two ways to take WhatsApp taxi bookings, what Meta's rules allow, and how to keep the records your licence asks for.

Can you take taxi bookings on WhatsApp?

Yes. Licensing law doesn't mind how the passenger reached you: by phone, at the office window or by message. What it cares about is the record.

In England and Wales outside London, section 56 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 says a private hire operator must record the particulars of every booking before the journey starts, in the form the council sets. London operators are licensed by TfL under their own regulations. A WhatsApp thread on somebody's phone isn't that record. The booking still has to go into your booking system or booking log with every field your licence conditions list, exactly as a phone booking would.

So the real question isn't whether you can. It's how you get each job out of the chat and into your records without retyping mistakes, and without the whole history living on one controller's personal phone.

What's the difference between the WhatsApp Business app and the Business Platform?

The WhatsApp Business app is a phone app that a person uses to reply. The WhatsApp Business Platform is Meta's connection for software, and it's what a booking system uses when it reads and answers messages for you.

The app suits a small firm with one or two people on the phones. Its weak spot is double handling. Every booking is typed twice, once in the chat and once into your system, and the Friday rush is exactly when a pickup time gets copied wrong.

You reach the platform through a booking system or a messaging provider, not by downloading anything. Meta also offers what it calls coexistence: you connect a number that's already on the Business app to the platform and keep replying one-to-one in the app, with the message history kept in sync between the two. There are trade-offs. Meta's documentation says a number used on both has a fixed throughput of 20 messages per second, and that once you onboard, broadcast lists and live location messages are switched off for one-to-one chats.

How does the 24-hour customer service window work?

When a passenger messages your business number, a 24-hour customer service window opens. Meta's pricing documentation says every non-template message you send inside an open window is free, and so are utility templates sent inside it.

Outside the window, on the platform, you can only send a message template that Meta has already approved. You're charged when a template is delivered, and templates come in three categories: marketing, utility and authentication. Meta says a template review can take up to 24 hours, so write yours before you go live, not on the night you need one. If the passenger reached you through a Click to WhatsApp advert, Meta opens a free 72-hour window once you reply.

The window matters most for pre-books. Say a passenger books on Monday for an airport run on Saturday. The window closed on Tuesday, so your Saturday "driver on the way" message has to be an approved utility template, and it's charged. Plan a small set of message templates before launch:

1. Booking confirmed, with the date, time, pickup and price.
2. Booking changed or cancelled.
3. Driver allocated, with the car and its registration.
4. Driver outside.

Meta also caps how many people you can message outside open windows. New business portfolios can reach 250 unique users in a rolling 24 hours. If Meta approves your business verification, the limit rises straight to 2,000.

What details should you take from the passenger in the chat?

The same details you'd take on the phone. People type less than they say, so ask for everything that's missing in one message rather than five.

• The passenger's name, and their phone number if someone else is booking for them
• The pickup address with house number and postcode, or the venue name and postcode
• The destination
• The date and a clock time for the pickup
• How many passengers and bags
• Anything the car needs: a wheelchair-accessible vehicle, child seats, an estate for luggage
• How they'll pay

Then send one read-back message with everything in it, plus the price, and ask them to reply yes. That message is their confirmation and their last chance to spot a wrong postcode. Our guide to booking confirmations by text and email covers what a good confirmation includes.

A dropped location pin is handy for the driver. Still get the address in words, because the address is what your booking record needs.

What records does the council expect for a WhatsApp booking?

Councils expect the same booking record whatever the channel. The Department for Transport's Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Standards ask councils to require operators to record, for each booking:

• the passenger's name
• the time of the request
• the pickup point and the destination
• the driver's name and licence number
• the vehicle registration number
• the names of whoever took the booking and whoever dispatched the vehicle

The standards suggest keeping booking records for at least 6 months, and a WhatsApp booking is no exception. They also expect operators to have seen a basic DBS check for staff who take bookings or dispatch cars, and the person answering WhatsApp is taking bookings. Your own council's operator conditions set the exact fields, so check them. There's more on this in our guide to private hire operator record keeping.

Two habits keep WhatsApp safe. Copy each booking into your system the moment it's agreed, with WhatsApp as the channel and the staff member's name against it. And run the business number on a firm phone with linked office computers, never on a controller's own phone, so the chats stay with the firm when people move on.

What are WhatsApp's rules on messaging passengers?

WhatsApp's Business Messaging Policy has three rules a taxi firm runs into quickly.

Opt-in comes first. The policy says you may only contact people on WhatsApp if they've given you their number and you've received their opt-in permission to get messages from you. A passenger who messages you to book has started that conversation. A spreadsheet of numbers from old bookings hasn't opted in to anything.

Opt-out is the second. You must respect any request to stop, whether it's made on WhatsApp or anywhere else, and that includes taking the person off your contacts list.

The third is a route to a person. You can use automation within the 24-hour window, but the policy says you must also offer prompt, clear and direct ways to reach a human, such as a hand-off in the chat or a phone number.

Promotions bring in UK law on top of Meta's policy. The ICO says the electronic marketing rules in the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations cover texts, direct messages on social media and any similar message stored electronically, so treat a WhatsApp offer the way you'd treat a marketing text.

Should you automate WhatsApp bookings?

Automate the routine questions and keep a person on the exceptions.

On the app, set up quick replies for what you answer all day: the fare to the airport, whether you take cards, how far ahead to book. Add an away message for the hours nobody's on. An away message doesn't book anything, though, so it only helps if it points somewhere that does, such as your phone line or your online booking page.

On the platform, software can ask the questions, quote from your own price list and write the booking for you. Test it the way you'd test any taxi booking chatbot: give it a wrong postcode, ask for a wheelchair-accessible car, and ask for a person, then see what happens each time.

Dispatch AI is booking and dispatch software for taxi and private hire firms: customers can book on WhatsApp, and those bookings land in the same system as your calls. You can hear the phone side for yourself on the Dispatch AI demo line.