Most of the taxi drivers Acorn Insurance spoke to recently are working 10 to 12 hours a day just to maintain an income, according to Ashley Coakley, head of taxi insurance at Acorn. He sees the financial pressure behind those longer hours as a major influence on claims, with fatigue a particular concern.
Asked whether night shifts, local licensing changes or app-based work were driving the biggest change in claims, Coakley pointed to a combination of factors. He started with the cost of living and the longer hours it is pushing drivers to work. “That amplifies the level of risk,” he said, highlighting fatigue and the potential for accidents that might otherwise have been avoided.
The strain mirrors the wider cost pressures already squeezing UK broking clients. Rather than warnings, Coakley favours policy features and risk management tools that help drivers work safely and sustainably. “We don’t want to lecture the drivers about it,” he said. For drivers working long hours, he added, insurance needs to be straightforward and available.
Telematics can help identify signs of fatigue and provide evidence following non-fault accidents. But introducing it depends on trust, Coakley said, because experienced drivers can worry about being “judged by an algorithm rather than a person”. Brokers need to explain how it can protect drivers and be clear about what would trigger an intervention, such as speeding. “When you introduce that telematics, it works best when drivers feel it’s something that they’re part of and not something done to them,” he said.
Those longer hours can also span several types of work. “They might be mixing traditional taxi with app-based bookings, airport runs, school contracts,” Coakley said. Some drivers take on fast food and other delivery work too, while many use more than one ride-hailing app to keep bookings coming in. That blend “creates a more varied risk profile”, shaped by working hours, journey types, passenger expectations, urban or rural driving and the requirements of individual licensing authorities.
The biggest mistake Coakley sees is brokers underestimating that complexity. “If you treat a taxi as a simple motor fleet or personal lines with certain features like hire and reward, you could miss some of the nuances like that multiple licence authority piece, the specialist work that they might do,” he said.
School runs, healthcare work and transporting disabled passengers each carry particular obligations. Specialist vehicles such as wheelchair-accessible black cabs add further considerations. Standard personal motor data, he said, will not capture that detail.
The best brokers, in his view, will “capture that insight that sits behind the risk: how the driver’s working, what pressures they’re under, how their business is evolving” and build the policy around it. That understanding also matters after an accident. The vehicle is the driver’s livelihood, which makes repair arrangements and access to a replacement vehicle particularly important in limiting time off the road.
The draft Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Bill, announced in the 2026 King’s Speech, would replace England’s patchwork of local licensing rules with a single framework. The plans include a strengthened national database and tighter cross-border enforcement. Coakley said, “a national framework could remove some of the complexity, but the transition would need to be quite carefully managed.”
Some drivers currently hold licences with two authorities so they can trade across boundaries. “Taxi drivers are already under financial and operational pressures, and the new system needs to support them whilst improving safety and standards,” he said.
Done well, reform could give brokers greater consistency across licensing authorities and better access to verified information about drivers and their histories. Coakley also flagged oversaturation in particular areas as a possible challenge.
Whatever shape reform takes, placing taxi cover well will depend on understanding how a driver’s working week actually breaks down.
