Request ID: FOI-2907-2223 Date published: 06 March 2023
You asked
LTPH was made aware of signal issues when taking card payments on the card readers located in the back of Taxis since 2016. Could you confirm what steps LTPH have taken to resolve this recurring issue and confirm if LTPH have informed the current approved card reader providers of this issue and confirm the dates this happened. Could you kindly provide copies of any letters / emails sent and any reply’s received.
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-2907-2223
Thank you for your request received on 6 February 2023 asking for information about taxi card readers.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. You asked:
I wish to seek approval for the two card readers below the first one being Izettle and the second one called Lo Pay. Could you kindly advise what is the criteria for approval.
The criteria is published here: https://content.tfl.gov.uk/electronic-payment-devices-in-taxis-and-private-hire-vehicles.pdf
Could you also advise me of the process, if a Taxi Driver wishes to apply for an exemption from using the card reader in the back of the Taxi due to Health and Safety concerns and others issues. However still wanting to take card payments from the front of the Taxi by holding the card reader against the partition behind the Taxi Driver. This would of course reduce the risk significantly of catching Covid in the Taxi and other infectious.
All taxi drivers must accept card and contactless payments via the approved TfL fixed card payment device located in the passenger compartment and provide printed receipts for those payments upon request.
There are no exemptions from the card payment mandate (https://content.tfl.gov.uk/london-cab-order-2016-fare-tariff-and-card-mandate.pdf), including the requirement that a card payment terminal must be fitted within the passenger compartment.
LTPH was made aware of signal issues when taking card payments on the card readers located in the back of Taxis since 2016. Could you confirm what steps LTPH have taken to resolve this recurring issue and confirm if LTPH have informed the current approved card reader providers of this issue and confirm the dates this happened. Could you kindly provide copies of any letters / emails sent and any reply’s received.
To provide the information you have requested would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.
Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.
We have estimated that it would cost over £450 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take in excess of 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested.
We are in continual discussion with the taxi trade and our stakeholders about any ongoing issues, including those related to payment issues. We do not hold a separate record of every time issues with accepting card payments was discussed so we would have to review several years’ worth of correspondence and documents in order to determine whether the information was held.
Please note that guidance for drivers who are experiencing difficulties accepting card payments, including the rare instances of a network-outage, is provided on our website:
To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope by asking a specific question regarding card payments rather than requesting correspondence. If you want to refine your request or make a Freedom of Information Act request in future, please bear in mind that the Freedom of Information Act allows you to request recorded information held by us. Our corporate retention policy means that documents are generally not held for more than seven years unless there is a clear business need to do so, for example if they are to be included in our Corporate Archive.
Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, we do not have to answer your question if it would require the creation of new information or the provision of a judgement, explanation, advice or opinion that was not already recorded at the time of your request.
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please feel free to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
