London taxi numbers fall to lowest level in 40 years

The effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on taxi and private hire fleets has been highlighted in new DfT data. In England, the numbers of licensed PHVs dropped 16% to 192,700 compared to 2020.

There was a larger decrease in PHVs in London compared to England outside of London: 19.2% and 14.6% respectively. There are now 77,500 PHVs in London – down from almost 100,000 pre-pandemic.

The licenced taxi fleet in England fell 14% to 58,300 in 2021, with an 8.1% fall outside London. London black cabs have taken the hardest hit, falling to their lowest level in 40 years. Over the past year, there has been a 29% fall in the number of black cabs operating on London’s roads to just 13,884 taxis – down more than 5,000 on pre-pandemic levels - despite the travelling public being scared to use buses and tube trains though the crisis.

The number of licensed PHV operators decreased by 5.6% to 15,100 from the previous year, and is 8.6% lower than the peak in PHV operators at 16,500 in 2009. PHV operators declined by 7.9% to 2,000 operators in London and decreased by 5.2% to 13,100 operators in the rest of England.

There were 343,800 taxi and PHV driver licences in England, 20,900 (5.7%) fewer than in 2020. Of the total licences, 64% were PHV-only licences, 13% were taxi-only licences and 22% were dual taxi/PHV licences.