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TfL-licensed London private hire
A garage, an insurer or your PCO rental company has offered you a courtesy car. Before you take the keys, there are two things that decide whether it is any use to you at all: is the vehicle itself licensed and plated as a London private hire vehicle, and is it insured for hire and reward. If the answer to either is no, the car does not put you back to work. This page explains the difference between the courtesy car being offered and the like-for-like licensed replacement a non-fault driver can ask for, subject to liability and eligibility.
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Usually not. A courtesy car is normally a small ordinary car lent by a repairing garage or provided under a policy add-on, and it is typically neither licensed and plated by TfL as a private hire vehicle nor insured for hire and reward. Working on it would mean driving an unlicensed, wrongly insured vehicle. As a non-fault driver your underlying position is different: the law aims to put you back where you were, which for a licensed London driver means a plated replacement on the correct class of cover, subject to liability and eligibility being established.
Key points
A courtesy car is a loan vehicle, and it comes from one of three places. It can be lent by the garage repairing your car, usually off that garage's own small fleet and covered by their motor trade policy. It can come from a courtesy car benefit you bought as an add-on to your own motor policy, which normally only applies if you use the insurer's approved repairer. Or it can be offered by the at-fault driver's insurer as an intervention, meaning they arrange a car directly so that they control the cost. In all three cases the vehicle is chosen for the supplier's convenience and budget, not for your job. It is typically a small petrol hatchback in the cheapest insurance group the supplier can get away with.
For an ordinary private motorist that is perfectly adequate. The car does the school run, the supermarket and the commute, and nobody asks any questions about it. For a London PCO driver the vehicle is not transport, it is the tool you earn with, and the whole point of a replacement is to stop the earnings loss while your own car is inspected, repaired or written off. A hatchback that cannot legally carry a paying passenger does not do that. It restores your private life and leaves your income exactly where the accident left it, which is at zero for every day you are off the road.
This is why the courtesy car conversation goes wrong so often for PCO drivers. The offer usually arrives within the first day or two, frequently before liability has been decided, and it is almost always described as free. Free is doing a great deal of work in that sentence, because a free car you cannot work in is more expensive to you than almost anything else on offer. If you want the underlying product comparison in plain terms, read our explainer at /credit-hire-vs-courtesy-car, then come back here for the PCO specific detail, because the licensing layer changes the answer completely.
In London the private hire vehicle licence attaches to a specific vehicle, not to you and not to your operator. TfL issues the licence for that registration, and licensed private hire vehicles must display their vehicle licence discs, with exemptions only considered in limited circumstances. When a vehicle is presented for licensing, TfL requires hire and reward insurance documents to be produced at the inspection alongside the V5C and a recent MOT certificate. The practical consequence for you is simple and non-negotiable: a replacement vehicle only lets you accept private hire bookings if that vehicle itself holds a current TfL private hire vehicle licence. A borrowed car does not inherit the plate from your own car.
The insurance layer is separate and equally hard. A standard social, domestic and pleasure policy, which is the class of use most courtesy cars sit on, does not cover carrying passengers for payment. Hire and reward cover is the class of use required to carry paying passengers, and driving a vehicle for a purpose your certificate does not permit is a road traffic insurance offence rather than a technicality you can argue about later. It also creates a second problem with the apps: to change vehicle on your driver account you have to have the replacement's details and a valid TfL private hire vehicle licence accepted, with the registration and the make and model matching your profile.
There is a third layer that catches drivers out when someone suggests simply getting a courtesy car plated. Since 1 January 2023, any vehicle licensed as a London private hire vehicle for the first time must be zero emission capable and meet Euro 6. To qualify as zero emission capable a plug-in hybrid must emit no more than 50g/km CO2 with at least a 10 mile zero emission range, or no more than 75g/km CO2 with at least a 20 mile zero emission range, while battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles satisfy the standard outright. Vehicles already licensed before that change do not have to be zero emission capable, but they must be no more than 10 years old at re-licensing. So the pool of cars that can lawfully be put on your job is a specific, limited pool, and a random petrol courtesy hatchback is very unlikely to be in it.
PCO DRIVERS
Section 3 of the walkthrough.
There is no general legal right in the United Kingdom to be given a courtesy car after an accident. A courtesy car exists for one of two reasons. Either you paid for it as an optional benefit on your own policy, in which case it is a contractual promise and is bound by whatever conditions that policy sets, or a garage lends you one as a goodwill gesture as part of their service, in which case it is discretionary and can be withdrawn. That is why the conditions attached feel so arbitrary: approved repairer only, subject to availability, minimum driver age, a security deposit, a mileage cap, a fuel policy, and almost always a restriction on the use you can put the car to.
The position of a non-fault driver is different in kind, not just in degree. The general principle in a claim against the driver who caused the damage is that damages should put the innocent party back in the position they were in before the collision. That is a measure of loss, not a favour, and what it covers depends on what you actually lost. If what you lost was a licensed, plated, hire and reward insured vehicle that generated your income, then a small unplated hatchback on a social, domestic and pleasure certificate does not restore what was taken away. This is the whole reason like-for-like matters more for PCO drivers than for anyone else on the road.
It follows that the first question to ask about any offered vehicle is not whether it is free. It is whether it lets you work. There is also a quieter risk in accepting the wrong car without saying anything, which is that the other side will later argue that you had a vehicle available and therefore had no further need, and that any earnings loss after that point was your own choice. Say clearly, in writing, at the time, why the offered car does not meet your need. For how the wider non-fault PCO claim fits together, including recovery, storage, engineer inspection and dealing with the third party insurer, see our hub at /pco-accident-claims.
Question one: is this vehicle itself licensed by TfL as a private hire vehicle, and does it carry a current licence disc? Ask for the registration and the vehicle licence number, and check it rather than taking a verbal yes. Question two: is it insured for hire and reward, in whose name is the policy, and can I see the certificate or schedule showing the class of use? A garage saying the car is fully insured is answering a different question. Fully comprehensive describes the level of cover. Class of use describes what you are allowed to do with it, and hire and reward is the part that matters here.
Question three: who is paying, on what basis, and what happens if the other insurer does not accept liability? A courtesy car provided under your own policy may be limited to a fixed number of days, may require you to pay your excess first, and may end the moment the repair finishes even if you are still without your own car because it has been declared a total loss. Question four: how long is it for, and what happens if the repair overruns, parts are delayed, or the engineer inspection is not booked for a fortnight? Get the answer before you sign the loan agreement, because the terms of that agreement are what will be quoted back at you.
If your car is rented or on rent-to-buy from a PCO provider, add a fifth step and actually read the replacement clause in your own agreement. Providers commonly promise a replacement in conditional language: subject to availability, on a case-by-case basis, with priority given to non-fault incidents, or where a vehicle can be offered. Some publish nothing at all about replacement terms, so we are not going to tell you what your provider promises. We do not know, and neither does any page that claims to. Find the clause, read exactly what it says about who supplies the vehicle, whether rent keeps running, and whether you pay a damage excess. Who claims what when you rent rather than own is covered separately at /pco-car-hire-accident.
A claim for the cost of a replacement vehicle is not automatic. The courts have consistently required a claimant to establish a reasonable need to hire at all, a reasonable need for the period claimed, and a reasonable need for a vehicle of that type or standard. For most private motorists the argument happens on the first and second limbs. For a licensed London driver the real work is on the third. A plated private hire vehicle on hire and reward cover is not an upgrade or a luxury for you, it is the minimum specification that returns you to the position you were in, because anything below it leaves you unable to accept a single booking. That argument is much easier to make with your PCO licence, your vehicle licence and your earnings records in front of you.
Mitigation cuts both ways, and this is where drivers make expensive mistakes. If the at-fault insurer contacts you and offers a vehicle, do not simply ignore it. The Court of Appeal in Copley v Lawn and Maden v Haller held that it was not unreasonable for claimants to reject an insurer's offer of a free vehicle where the offer did not set out the cost to the insurer, so that no realistic comparison could be made. The same decision confirmed that even where a claimant unreasonably rejects an offer, the claim is not lost altogether: recovery is reduced to the cost the defendant can show would reasonably have been incurred. The safe approach is to respond in writing, state that you hold a TfL private hire driver's licence, and ask the specific question of whether the offered vehicle is plated and insured for hire and reward.
Two further points shape what is recoverable. Where a claimant genuinely could not afford to lay out hire charges themselves, the House of Lords in Lagden v O'Connor accepted that the reasonable cost of a credit hire arrangement can be recovered rather than a bare basic rate, so your financial position is relevant evidence rather than something to hide. Separately, the reasonableness of the hire period is judged on your conduct, so authorise repairs promptly, make the vehicle available for engineer inspection, answer the total loss valuation without sitting on it, and hand the replacement back the day your own car is ready. None of this produces a guaranteed outcome. Liability, eligibility and the evidence you keep will always qualify what a replacement vehicle claim recovers.
First, stop working in it until you have written confirmation that it is plated and on hire and reward cover. This is the single most important sentence on this page. Carrying an app passenger in an unlicensed vehicle on a social, domestic and pleasure certificate exposes you to a licensing problem with TfL and to an uninsured use allegation, and either of those costs vastly more than a handful of days off the road. The temptation to do one more shift because the rent or the finance payment is due is completely understandable, and it is still the wrong call.
Second, put it in writing to whoever handed you the keys, whether that is the garage, the claims handler, your own insurer or your rental provider. Keep it short and factual: you are a licensed London private hire driver, you were supplied vehicle registration X on a given date, and you are asking them to confirm in writing whether that vehicle holds a current TfL private hire vehicle licence and whether its insurance permits hire and reward. Ask them to substitute a compliant vehicle or arrange collection. Their written answer, or their silence, becomes part of your evidence about why the vehicle supplied did not meet your need.
Third, evidence the gap while it is still fresh. Record the date the accident took off the road, the dates you were without a usable licensed vehicle, and your earnings history from your operator statements for the weeks before, because that is what any conversation about lost income will be measured against. Then ask for a compliant like-for-like replacement rather than another loan car. Our work here is accident management: recovery, secure storage, engineer inspection, repair coordination, sourcing a licensed replacement where liability and eligibility allow, and dealing with the third party insurer on your behalf. We do not handle personal injury in-house, and any injury enquiry is only referred to authorised legal partners with your separate written consent. For sourcing a compliant plated replacement more generally, see /pco-replacement-car.
Step by step
The full picture for TfL-licensed London private hire drivers.
Accident in a hired PCO car →Who claims what when you rent or rent-to-buy your vehicle.
PCO replacement car →A licensed, plated replacement so you can keep working.
PCO loss of earnings →Evidencing and recovering self-employed income.
PCO car written off →Total loss, valuations and rent-to-buy consequences.
TfL licence & accidents →Notification duties and licence risk after an incident.
Minicab & PHV hub →The wider UK private hire vertical.
Important notice for PCO drivers
Liability remains subject to the at-fault driver's insurer's assessment and the available evidence. Replacement vehicle, credit hire, recovery, storage, repair and loss of earnings support are subject to eligibility, the evidential record and reasonable need. We do not provide legal advice and we do not handle personal injury in-house: injury enquiries are referred only with your separate written consent to authorised legal or regulated partners. Information about TfL private hire licensing, Zero Emission Capable standards, vehicle age limits and notification duties is general guidance, not legal or licensing advice, and the position applying to your own licence at the relevant date will govern. Rental, rent-to-buy and finance terms vary between providers: always check the specific clauses in your own agreement.
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