Temporary Taxi Insurance

No. Ordinary short term cover excludes carrying passengers for payment and carries no passenger liability. The moment a fare is charged it stops responding, which is the whole reason this is a separate product.

Yes. Insurance and licensing are different things. A policy makes the paid journey insured; the council licence is what permits you to do the work at all. No insurer can supply the second.

Often yes, and it is one of the commonest uses. The driver has to hold the right badge and be named on the policy, and the vehicle has to be the licensed one.

It does, and it is asked about directly. Private hire work has to be pre-booked through an operator, while public hire can also be hailed or taken from a rank. Work outside your licence sits outside the policy.

It can, provided the replacement is a licensed vehicle. Cover follows the plated car, so putting the policy on an unplated one would not let you work.

Sometimes, though the choice narrows considerably in the first year or so. Expect fewer options and a higher price, and be ready to give the badge dates as well as the licence ones.

No. Taxi bonuses are earned on annual policies, so a run of short cover leaves you no further forward when you come to buy a full year. Badge years still count, which is the thing worth protecting.

Rarely on short cover. Replacement vehicle and loss of earnings sections belong to annual taxi policies, so a driver relying on them should be looking at a full year rather than a fortnight.

Where the licence permits it, yes. The platform is how the job arrives; what matters to the insurer is the licence you hold and the pattern of the work, so describe both accurately.

You are uninsured from the hour the policy ends, in exactly the way driving without cover would be. There is no grace period, so buy a little more time than you think you need.

For a few weeks it can be. Across a whole season the cost per week starts to favour an annual policy, so if the work looks like continuing it is worth pricing both properly.

Many do, but check before you buy. Operators and councils sometimes specify what they will accept as evidence, and a policy that does not meet it is no use however quickly it arrived.

Not unless the policy says so. Carrying goods for payment is a separate arrangement again, and a taxi policy is written around passengers rather than deliveries.

Declare them. Specialist insurers price convictions rather than refusing them, though the choice narrows as the record grows, and anything undeclared is a straightforward route to a refused claim.

Start with passenger liability and the licence type accepted, because a policy missing either is not taxi cover. Then compare the excess, the vehicle terms and the exact period.