London Cabbie, London-Built: Own Your Bookings, Own Your Brand

For licensed London Hackney carriage drivers. UK-only positioning. The companion post — the platform overview that this one builds on — is The Booking System Built for One Driver — Not a Fleet.

BAT.TAXI didn't soft-launch in London by accident.

We could have started anywhere. Manchester. Edinburgh. Dublin. Berlin. Every city with a licensed taxi trade has the same problem we're trying to fix — the customer relationship has been quietly taken from the driver and handed to the taxi app platforms. So why London first?

Two reasons. London is internationally known for being the best in the world. And as London is about to take the first hit from the change that's coming for every taxi trade everywhere, London drivers need to face these changes head on and show the rest of the world how to deal with these changes.

This post is about why we built BAT.TAXI for cabbies, why we built the Driver Pack specifically for London, and what's actually in it.

Why London first

You did the hardest taxi test in the world. The Knowledge isn't just a licensing exam — it's two to four years of brain-rewiring memorisation that's been documented in neuroscience papers. The Knowledge literally changes the shape of your hippocampus. There is no equivalent qualification anywhere else in the global taxi industry.

You hold a badge that means something. You work a rank discipline that goes back to 1654. You drive a vehicle that's distinct from anything else in the city — the only one that can pick up off the street. You serve the only city in the world where a tourist will book a taxi as a holiday photograph just because it's a London black cab.

And right now, the trade that built all of that is being squeezed harder than it's ever been squeezed before:

All taxi apps funnel work away from you and take a cut of every job they offer back, all whilst keeping control of the passenger relationship you once owned.
LTDA has publicly warned the trade could be "functionally extinct by 2045" if nothing changes.
96,000 private hire vehicles vs ~14,500 licensed Hackneys in London — that ratio is the highest it has ever been.
Waymo's driverless service is planned to begin in London in Q4 2026. The Jaguar I-Paces are already mapping the city.

We started in London because the trade that holds the highest qualification deserves the tool that respects it. We started in London because the trade most at risk needs an answer first. And we started in London because if BAT.TAXI works here, it works everywhere — every other taxi trade in the world looks to London for what comes next.

What BAT.TAXI is, in thirty seconds

If you haven't read the platform overview, the short version: BAT.TAXI is a pre-book only booking system built around the licensed driver as the principal. You invite your own customers via WhatsApp, SMS, email, or QR code. You quote your own jobs. You take your own pre-booked work — minimum one hour between booking and pickup. Overflow goes to a trusted Co Driver if you can't take a job (the lead time exists specifically so the redirect actually has time to fulfil). Your customers belong to you — and if you ever leave BAT.TAXI, we cascade-delete the entire customer list from our database. Walk out, and your customers walk out with you.

The concept's been manually proven for eighteen months before the platform launched. The launching platform is the digitalisation of a service that's already working.

For the full feature breakdown — quote system, Co Driver redirect, message centre, ratings, pause invites, airport pricing — read The Booking System Built for One Driver — Not a Fleet.

This post is specifically about what makes the London version different.

The Driver Pack — what we built for London specifically

The Driver Pack is BAT.TAXI's London-only product tier. £99 first year — and that £99 includes a free year of the BAT.TAXI platform (worth £39.99, bundled in). From Year 2 the platform renews at £39.99/year. It includes everything in the digital Platform Only tier — and adds something that only makes sense if we can hand it to you in person: physical in-cab marketing materials designed to turn every passenger into a future regular.

The pack contains 250 personalised full-colour business cards, 3 personalised tip-up-seat adverts, 1 personalised partition sticker (carrying your prices, name and contact details), 2 front/rear window stickers, a business card holder, a "Please take a card!" partition sticker, a wipe-dry name board and pen. Delivery is approximately two weeks once you sign up. Delivery takes this long because each driver pack is personalised to the individual driver.

Option 1 also unlocks the Airport Pricing dashboard feature — you list your own airport prices on sign-up (e.g. your fixed Mayfair-to-Heathrow rate), the system prints those prices on the partition sticker and tip-up adverts, and they appear in your dashboard under "Airport Prices" too. (Option 2 drivers can still quote fixed-price airport runs through the general quote system, but don't get the dedicated Airport Pricing feature because they don't have the printed materials for the prices to appear on.)

The longer video on the bat.taxi homepage shows the Driver Pack materials in a real cab, walking through how they work. Watch it for the full visual — but the core idea is simple.

When a passenger gets in the back of your cab, they're a one-off fare. They might tip well. They might never see you again. The Knowledge got them safely from A to B; the meter says what they owe; the relationship ends at the kerb.

The Driver Pack changes the geometry of that journey. There is now a way for the passenger to save you — your cab, your number — into their phone in about two seconds. A QR code positioned where they actually look. A piece of paper they take with them. The relationship doesn't end at the kerb. It begins there.

The next time that passenger needs a ride to Heathrow at 5 AM, they don't open an app. They message you. You quote. They confirm. The booking generates a proper, TfL-compliant booking record. You take the pre-booked job. You keep doing your rank and hail work the rest of the day. Nothing about your existing operation has to change — except you now have a customer list that's actually yours.

That's the loop. The Driver Pack is what makes the loop work in the back of a real cab, with real passengers, on day one.

Why it's London only

The Driver Pack is physical. We deliver the in-cab materials directly. That means we need to be on the ground.

Right now, we're on the ground in London. As the Hackney rollout expands across UK cities — Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol — the Driver Pack will follow. Cabbies in those cities can sign up to the digital Platform Only tier today (£4.99/month or £39.99/year) and switch to the Driver Pack the moment we arrive.

If you're a London cabbie, the Driver Pack is the right tier on day one. It's designed specifically for the in-cab moment that defines London Hackney work.

The Waymo question, briefly

The unspoken thing every London cabbie is doing maths on: what happens when Waymo turns up?

The short answer is that driverless taxis are going to take the easiest, most predictable fares. The point-to-point work where nobody needs help, nobody has bags, nobody is in a hurry, nobody has any special requirement. That's the work driverless cars are technically good at.

What they can't do is the work that defines actual Hackney work. The wheelchair fold-out for an accessible passenger. The six suitcases for a family going to Heathrow at 4 AM. The elderly passenger going to a hospital appointment who needs help to the door. The late-night fare home for a vulnerable passenger. The local knowledge that turns a 45-minute drive through three diversions into a 22-minute drive through Mayfair. No algorithm is replicating any of that this decade.

But here's the catch: in a driverless future, the value-rich work goes to the cabbie who already has the relationship with that passenger. The relationship — not the badge, not the cab — is the asset that survives the transition. Cabbies who own their customer base by the time Waymo scales up have something Waymo structurally can't take. Cabbies who don't own that customer base are competing for hail work with a fleet that doesn't sleep.

We've written a longer piece on this — Waymo Is Coming to London. Here's How Licensed Cabbies Stay Irrelevant-Proof. Read it after this one.

What it costs

Driver Pack (London only): £99 first year (marketing pack + platform included free for Year 1, saving £39.99). From Year 2 the platform renews at £39.99/year. Includes the full BAT.TAXI platform plus the in-cab marketing materials, hand-delivered, plus the Airport Pricing dashboard feature.

Platform Only (UK national rollout + international): £4.99/month or £39.99/year (annual saves over 30%). Full BAT.TAXI-branded platform; no physical kit, no dedicated Airport Pricing feature (you can still quote fixed-price airport runs via the general quote system). The right tier if you're outside London or already have your own marketing approach.

For context: the leading UK ride-hail platform's average take rate is around 29% according to Oxford / Worker Info Exchange research from June 2025. A cabbie doing £2,000 a week in fares is paying that platform roughly £580 a week — £30,000 a year — in commission on whatever share of their work runs through it. The Driver Pack costs £99 in Year 1 and £39.99 a year ongoing. The maths is not subtle.

What you actually get when you sign up

The Driver Pack tier is everything in the digital platform plus the physical kit:

Quote system — fixed-price quoting, no surge.
Booking management — pending → confirmed → completed.
Co Driver redirect — your trusted backup when you can't take a job.
Customer invites via WhatsApp, SMS, email, or QR code.
Customer-to-customer invites (your passengers can invite their friends and family directly to you).
Pause invites — turn off new sign-ups when your book is full, without affecting existing regulars.
Airport pricing — fixed quotes for Heathrow, Gatwick, City, Stansted, Luton.
Message centre — everything in one inbox.
Ratings — two-way; you rate the passenger as well.
Customer cascade deletion — leave us, and your list goes with you.
Plus, in London only: the physical in-cab Driver Pack materials.
Plus: information buttons on every function — no manual to read.

No enterprise SKU. No "contact sales for pricing". You sign up, you're live the same day. If you're in London, the Driver Pack materials arrive shortly after.

How to start

Go to bat.taxi/driver-location-selection. Pick London. Sign up. Three minutes.

If you want to see the Driver Pack in action before signing up, watch the longer Driver Pack video on the bat.taxi homepage — it walks through the in-cab materials with a real cab and a real cabbie. If you want a thirty-second overview of how the platform itself works, watch the shorter video on the same page.

FAQ

Why is the Driver Pack only available in London? The in-cab materials are physical. We hand-deliver in London during the soft launch so cabbies get the kit working from day one. As the Hackney rollout reaches Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Bristol, the Driver Pack will follow city by city. Outside London right now, the Platform Only tier (£4.99/month or £39.99/year) gives you the full digital platform; you can switch tiers when the Driver Pack arrives in your city.

Can I keep working the rank and the hail? Yes. The Driver Pack is for the pre-booked direct work — the regulars who message you directly because they've met you once. It doesn't replace your rank or hail work; it adds a third income stream alongside them. Many cabbies start the first month doing rank as usual and just observing the BAT.TAXI inbox quietly fill.

How far in advance does the customer have to book? Minimum one hour between the booking being made and the pickup time. That lead time is what lets you (or a Co Driver) actually get there. Customers using the Driver Pack QR materials understand this — for last-minute work they hail or use an app, exactly as before. The pre-book service is for the planned work: the Heathrow at 4 AM, the hospital appointment, the regular standing booking.

Is this just FreeNow with extra steps? No. Platform-based services own the customer. You're a supplier to them. When you stop using their app, the customers stop seeing you — because they never had your number, only the platform's. BAT.TAXI is the opposite: every customer who arrives via your QR code or your invite is in your own contact list. We cascade-delete them from the system the day you leave — irreversibly, so export your records first. Different category of product entirely.

Will TfL be happy with the booking record? Yes. Every pre-booked job generated through the BAT.TAXI invite system creates a proper, exportable booking record with the fields TfL requires for pre-booked work. Rank work and hailing don't need a booking record — those work as they always have.

What's the difference between Driver Pack and Platform Only? Driver Pack adds the physical in-cab marketing materials, hand-delivered. That's the only product difference. The digital platform is identical. London-based cabbies should take the Driver Pack tier (it pays for itself quickly via the in-cab loop). Cabbies in other UK cities take Platform Only until the Driver Pack reaches them.

What if I'm not on the Knowledge yet — does this work for Knowledge boys? The product is available to all licensed Hackney drivers. Knowledge boys passing out can use BAT.TAXI from day one — that's once the badge is in their hand. The cab itself is what holds the Driver Pack materials, so you'll need the badge sorted first.

How long does the Driver Pack physical kit last? Designed for in-cab use, so depending on how much use/damage the tip-up-seat ads and in-cab marketing receive, will determine the life span of the marketing material. Replacements are available by contacting support@bat.taxi. Price will be determined by what is required and the cost of P&P.

Can I cancel? Yes. Cancel any time. When you do, BAT.TAXI cascade-deletes your full customer book from the system — it's irreversible, so export your records first; keeping them is your responsibility, not ours. Walk out and they walk out with you — that's the whole point.

What happens when Waymo launches in London? Read Waymo Is Coming to London. Here's How Licensed Cabbies Stay Irrelevant-Proof for the long answer. The short version: the cabbies who already own a direct customer base by Q4 2026 are insulated. The driverless cars take the easy fares; the human cabbies serve the value-rich ones. Owning the customer relationship now is the prep for that change.

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