No Limit: How long can your child's driver work in a day?
The Route – KinRoute's Insights · 5 Oct 2026
When you arrange transport for your child, you check the driver's licence, the car and the reviews. But have you ever wondered how many hours your driver has already been on the road today?
It may surprise you, in London, private hire and black cab drivers have no legal limit on their daily working hours (TfL). That covers a lot of drivers: London alone has 104,900 private hire driver licences (DfT, 2026).
Why is there no limit?
Great Britain's drivers' hours rules were written for buses, coaches and lorries. Vehicles with up to 8 passenger seats, which includes every taxi and private hire car, sit outside them (GOV.UK).
Most drivers are also self-employed, so the working time rules that limit most employees to an average 48-hour week do not apply to them. And because many drivers work through more than one app, there is currently no way to add up their total hours across them (TaxiPoint).
TfL covers fatigue in the SERU assessment every new driver must pass, but in practice, managing hours is left to each driver and operator. That matters, because tiredness slows reactions and wears down patience, two things you want at their best when children are in the car.
How others approach it
Where limits do exist, 10 hours keeps coming up as the line.
Who | Daily limit | Rest or weekly rule |
London private hire and black cabs (TfL) | None set by law | Guidance on rest and fatigue |
10 hours driving | 16-hour maximum working day; 10 hours' rest between days | |
A major ride-hailing app (since 2018) | 10 hours on trip | 6-hour unbroken break before driving again |
New York City taxi and for-hire | 10 hours with passengers per 24 hours | 60 hours per week |
Each provider decides its own approach, so it is always worth asking.
The KinRoute approach
When KinRoute launches, every driver agreement will include a 10-hour daily limit. We are not required to set one; we have chosen to, because the person driving a child should be rested and fully present.
Every journey will be planned in advance, so each driver's day can be shaped around rest, and no one's day is stretched at the last minute.
The takeaway
Whoever drives your family this term, it is a fair question to ask: how long has your driver's day been?
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