Public Hire

Since the start of the Coronavirus outbreak, taxi and private-hire drivers, have provided an essential service transporting NHS staff, key workers, patients and the vulnerable.

As life starts to return to normal, and fares begin to pick up, at Patons we wanted to do all we could to keep you protected.

The restrictions we are all facing due to Coronavirus will be with us for a while, and whenever the Government recommends easing them, everyone will need to be prepared for what will be a ‘new normal’.

Reducing the spread and keeping passengers, as well as ourselves, safe is now a vital part of every driver’s job.

From April next year all Hackney cabs in Liverpool will have to accept on board card payments.

The mandatory introduction, which follows similar passenger services offered by drivers in London, will provide debit and credit card payment facilities, including contactless.

The environmentally friendly Electric Black Cab – which can take you 80 miles on a single electric charge – will be in and around Liverpool for all to see.

As Patons provide the insurance for these electric cabs we were lucky enough to be the one of the first passengers in the back and we’re huge admirers.

Choosing taxi insurance needn’t be difficult, we have just the solution, here at Patons Insurance! Making sure that you have the appropriate cover to drive your taxi is simple with Patons; we provide insurance for all taxi drivers, regardless of whether you drive a public or private taxi.

We can help you to stay clear of any unnecessary, costly consequences by providing you with insurance advice.

Working as a taxi driver allows you a certain amount of freedom, but one thing you have no say over is the weather. Come rain or shine you need to be on the road, ferrying passengers from A to B easily and efficiently.

When the heavens decide to open, you still have to carry on, unless the weather gets so perilous that you have no other option than to stop.

If you’ve decided to become a taxi driver in your local area and got to the point where you have been granted a 1 or 3 year Taxi Driver Licence, you will undoubtedly be keen to get started in your new profession.

The next stage is making sure that your chosen vehicle is licensed as a taxi for the road.

Whether you have a fleet of taxis, minibuses, motorbikes, vans or HGVs, it can be a complicated procedure to get them insured individually.

Ideally, you should try and get one policy that will cover the entire fleet, making the whole coverage a lot easier to manage.

It’s surprisingly simple to save money by adopting smarter and more fuel-efficient driving techniques.

With the potential to save up to one-third on your fuel costs, here’s eight ways to make your taxi driving more economical.

Telematics is a small piece of kit, often referred to as a black box, that can be easily fitted into your vehicle to record information about the journeys that you make.

The information that the box records can help you in many ways including potential savings on your insurance premiums and possibly reducing your vehicle’s fuel and maintenance bills.

Thinking of using Patons for your Taxi Insurance? With our 6 offices spread across the UK in locations such as Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester & London we have a team local to you.

Give your local office a call today and let them provide you with a quotation, you can find your local office number through the contact page on our website.

Over the next year, both business and private motorists will see further increase to the cost of their motor insurance as the impact of a number of changes takes hold.

In this article, we explore the changes and what they could mean to you as a taxi driver.