Could you tell me the number of private hire companies in London with a fleet size of vehicles of over 50 vehicles? Is there a breakdown of each company name. I understand that the name of companies may not be possible but as there companies which are open and online to call and book a car it might help me. I am currently doing a case study on the effects Uber may have on London and this would be a fantastic help. Any information would help me as all I have been able to find is that there are 87,409 private hire vehicles in London (as of march 31st 2017).

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Our ref: FOI-0190-1819/GH

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 20 April 2018 asking for information about private hire operators.

Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy. I can confirm that we do hold the information you require.

However, in accordance with the FOI Act we are not obliged to supply the information requested as it is subject to a statutory exemption to the right of access to information under section 41 and 43(2). In this instance a section 41 exemption has been applied as the information you have requested was provided to TfL by a Third Party (the Operators) in confidence. The information is not in the public domain, and there was not a reasonable expectation that the information would be made public by TfL. Therefore we consider that disclosure would constitute an actionable breach of confidence. Since section 41 is an absolute exemption, it is not necessary to consider whether the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

We also consider in this instance that a section 43(2) exemption applies as following disclosure, even without the operator names, it would still be possible to make accurate assumptions about a large number of operators. Larger competitors would be able to get accurate data about their competitors’ fleet size, an insight into each company which could be used to aggressively compete against them.

The use of this exemption is subject to an assessment of the public interest in relation to the disclosure of the information concerned. We recognise the need for openness and transparency by public authorities, but in this instance the section interests of the larger private hire operators, and enable their competitors to access useful information about them which would potentially reduce the competitiveness in the private hire market. This could ultimately have a bearing on the value for money private hire vehicle users may expect to achieve from using the service and may overall negatively affect market forces shaping the private hire business in London.

That said, you may find the Customer Service and Operational Performance Panel paper of 13 July 2017 of interest, as this gives an overview of the approximate number of operators that fits into each tier of the new fees structure proposed in 2017. Please note that these figures are only estimates as at November 2016. The paper can be found on our website here: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/csopp-20170713-part-1-item07-taxi-and-private-licence-fees.pdf - the relevant information is contained in the second table in appendix two.

Operator licences starting from October 2017 are under the new tier system further information covering the number of licences that have been issued in each tier can be found here: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/phv-licensing-compliance-and-enforcement-january-2018.pdf

If you are not satisfied with this response please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Graham Hurt

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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