MyRide Glossary

The language of modern mobility, made simple.

A practical reference for dispatch, fleet operations, bookings and the technology connecting every journey.

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443 terms

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3-D Secure: An extra card-holder check, usually a bank app prompt or one-time code, used to authenticate an online card payment.

A

A-GPS (assisted GPS): A phone feature that uses mobile-network data to get a first location fix in seconds instead of minutes. It is why a driver’s app finds them quickly after leaving a tunnel or car park.
About to clear: A driver status shown near the end of a job, signalling they will be free within a minute or two and can be lined up for a following booking.
Acceptance rate: The share of job offers a driver accepts out of those sent to them. Operators watch it alongside rejection rate when judging reliability.
Accessibility request: A passenger’s or booker’s stated need for adjusted service, such as a wheelchair accessible vehicle, extra boarding time, a ramp or a driver who can assist. It tells the operator which vehicle and driver to send.
Account booking: A journey charged to a customer’s credit account and invoiced later, rather than paid at the time of travel.
Account customer: A business, public body or individual who books on credit and is invoiced periodically instead of paying the driver at the end of each journey. Account jobs are normally tied to an agreed rate card and billing terms.
Advance booking: A journey booked for a future date or time, as opposed to an immediate request.
Aged debt: Unpaid invoices grouped by how long they are overdue, typically 30, 60 and 90+ days, so collection effort goes where it is most needed.
Airport access fee: A charge passed on to the customer for entering an airport drop-off or pick-up area, usually set by the airport.
Airport pickup point: A named place at an airport where a passenger meets their driver, such as a meet-and-greet point, a short-stay car park or a taxi rank. Clear directions, shared with both passenger and driver, help them find each other.
Airport transfer: A pre-booked journey to or from an airport, usually priced at a fixed fare and tracked against the flight. Operators typically build in waiting time, parking or drop-off charges and a meet-and-greet option.
Allocated: A booking status meaning a driver has been assigned to the job but has not yet started travelling to the pickup. It sits before on route and POB in the usual job lifecycle.
Allocation: The act of assigning a booking to a specific driver and vehicle, whether done by a dispatcher or by the system.
Amendment: A change to an existing booking, such as the pickup time, address, passenger count or vehicle type, which may change the fare.
Anomaly detection: Software that spots activity that looks out of the ordinary, such as a sudden spike in cancellations. It surfaces problems for a human to check rather than waiting for someone to notice.
ANPR (automatic number plate recognition): Cameras that read vehicle number plates automatically. Operators meet it at airport and station access points, and in clean-air and congestion-zone charging.
API (application programming interface): A set of agreed instructions that lets one piece of software talk to another, for example a hotel’s system sending bookings straight into a dispatch system. It saves staff re-typing jobs by hand.
API key: A long, secret code that identifies which system is making an API request and what it is allowed to do. Treat it like a password and replace it if it is ever shared by mistake.
APNs (Apple Push Notification service): Apple’s service for delivering push notifications to iPhones and iPads. It carries job offers and booking updates to drivers and passengers on iOS.
Apple Pay: Apple’s wallet-based payment method, in which the card is held on the passenger’s device and authorised biometrically. Accepted in the passenger app alongside stored cards.
Approved driver: A driver who has met the checks and standards a customer or contract requires and is cleared to carry out its work. Approval often covers enhanced DBS, training and vehicle standards.
Arrival notification: A message sent to the passenger when the driver is at, or about to reach, the pickup point. It commonly carries the vehicle registration so the passenger knows what to look for.
Arrived at pickup: A job status set when the driver reaches the pickup point, normally the point at which waiting time starts to count.
ASAP booking: A job needed immediately rather than for a future time, so it must be allocated to the nearest suitable available driver straight away.
Assistance dog: A trained dog, such as a guide dog or hearing dog, that supports a disabled person. Licensed taxi and private hire drivers must carry assistance dogs without extra charge, unless they hold a medical exemption certificate issued by the licensing authority.
ATA (actual time of arrival): The time a driver actually reaches the pickup or destination, compared with the ETA to measure punctuality.
Audit trail: A time-stamped record of who changed what and when, such as who edited a fare or reassigned a job. It settles disputes and supports compliance checks.
Auto-dispatch: Rules-based allocation that matches a booking with the most suitable available driver.
Availability status: A driver’s current state in the system, such as available, busy, on a job, on break or offline, which decides whether they can be offered work.
AVL (automatic vehicle location): Technology that reports each vehicle’s position to the dispatch system in near real time, usually from the driver’s phone or an in-vehicle unit.
AWS (Amazon Web Services): Amazon’s cloud platform. Used here for file and document storage (S3), queues and notifications (SQS and SNS) and operational metrics (CloudWatch).

B

Back-to-back jobs: Consecutive bookings arranged so a driver finishes one and starts the next with little or no gap or empty running. Also called follow-on jobs.
Bank holiday surcharge: A higher rate charged on public holidays, normally applied by bringing in a separate holiday rate card rather than adding a percentage.
Bariatric transport: Transport for passengers whose size or weight needs a larger vehicle, wider seating, a reinforced ramp or specialist handling equipment. It is commonly commissioned in patient transport and social care.
Barred list: A list kept by the DBS of people banned from working with children or with vulnerable adults. An enhanced DBS certificate for a driver is normally requested with a check of the relevant barred lists.
Basic DBS check: A certificate showing only unspent convictions and conditional cautions. It is lower level than the enhanced check normally required for taxi and private hire drivers.
Battery optimisation: A phone setting that puts apps to sleep to save power, which can stop a driver app sending its location when the screen is off. Drivers usually need to exempt the app so tracking stays reliable.
Bidding: A model where drivers offer to take a job, often at a stated price, and the operator picks between them instead of the job being pushed to one driver. The accepted bid sets what that driver is paid.
Bonus points: Loyalty points credited outside the normal earning rules, for example as an apology or as part of a campaign, so their effect can be tracked separately.
Booker: The person who makes or pays for a booking, who is often not the person travelling. Corporate and care work often needs separate contact details, notifications and billing for each.
Booking channel: The route a booking arrives through, such as phone, website, app, WhatsApp, corporate portal or third-party partner.
Booking fee: A fixed charge some operators add to a fare to cover taking and administering the booking. Not to be confused with a weekly fee charged to a driver.
Booking records: The record of each private hire booking that a licensed operator must keep, typically including the passenger, pick-up and destination, driver and vehicle. Licensing conditions set what must be recorded and for how long it is kept.
Booking reference: The unique code or number identifying a booking, quoted on confirmations, invoices and in any dispute.
Booking status: The stage a booking has reached. The underlying states are booked, accepted, completed, cancelled, unconfirmed and no driver available; progress through a job is reported separately as driver assigned, driver arrived, passenger on board and no-show.
Booking template: A saved trip, such as a regular airport run or commute, that can be booked again in one step instead of being entered from scratch.
Booster seat: A raised seat or cushion that positions an older child so the adult seat belt fits correctly. It is used for children who have outgrown a full child seat but are still too small for the belt alone.
Breadcrumb trail: The line of recorded location points that shows the path a vehicle actually took. Operators use it to check a route after the event, resolve complaints and verify mileage.
Breakdown recovery: The process of replacing a failed vehicle on a live job, getting the passenger moving again and arranging recovery of the stricken vehicle.
Broadcast dispatch: A dispatch model in which a job offer goes to many eligible drivers at once and the first to accept wins it. The opposite approach offers each job to one chosen driver.
Broadcast message: One message sent at once to many drivers, such as everyone in a region, a driver group or a shift. It is used for weather warnings, busy-period notices and policy updates.
Bulk upload: Adding many records at once from a spreadsheet, such as a batch of bookings, drivers or vehicles. Each row is checked, and any with errors are reported so they can be corrected.
Business intelligence (BI): Tools that turn raw booking and fleet data into charts and tables a manager can act on. It answers questions like which hours are busiest and which accounts are most profitable.

C

Call recording: Saving the audio of a phone call between a customer, dispatcher or driver. It helps with training, complaint handling and settling what was agreed, and is subject to data protection and notification rules.
Call-off contract: A contract awarded to a supplier under an existing framework agreement or dynamic purchasing system. Each call-off sets the specific volumes, prices and service terms for that buyer.
Cancellation fee: A charge made to the customer when a booking is cancelled inside the cancellation window or after a driver has been sent.
Cancellation window: The period before pickup during which a customer can cancel free of charge.
Card mandate: The record of a customer’s consent for a stored card to be charged later, held as the date and terms they agreed to. It is what lets a saved card be used for a future journey without re-entering the details.
Card-on-file: A customer’s payment card stored securely against their profile so future bookings can be charged without re-entering details.
Cash job: A booking paid directly to the driver in cash at the end of the journey.
Changelog: A dated list of what has been added, changed or fixed in a software release. Read it to find out whether a feature you asked for has shipped or a workflow is about to change.
Chaperone: An adult who accompanies a child or vulnerable passenger for safeguarding or support reasons. In transport contracts the role is separate from the driver and is often provided by the customer.
Chargeback: A forced reversal of a card payment initiated by the cardholder’s bank after the customer disputes the transaction.
Chase-up: A call or message to a driver, customer or subcontractor to confirm a job is on track, usually shortly before the pickup time.
Chauffeur work: Premium private hire where a professional driver provides a high-specification vehicle, formal presentation and a personal service, usually booked in advance. It often runs on hourly or day rates rather than metered fares.
Child seat: A forward-facing or rear-facing restraint suited to a child’s weight and height. It must be requested at booking so the operator can supply a suitable one or confirm the passenger will bring their own.
Child sexual exploitation (CSE): The sexual abuse of a child or young person in exchange for something such as money, gifts or affection. Drivers and operators are expected to know the warning signs and how to report concerns.
Cirium FlightStats: A commercial flight data service giving scheduled and actual arrival times, delays and diversions. It drives airport pickup timing so a driver is not sent for a flight that is two hours late.
Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982: The Act under which taxis and private hire cars are licensed in Scotland, with each local council acting as licensing authority. It is separate from the legislation that applies in England and Wales.
Clean Air Zone (CAZ): An area where vehicles that do not meet set emission standards may pay a daily charge to enter. Which taxis and private hire vehicles are charged depends on the zone’s class and the vehicle’s emissions standard.
CLI (calling line identification): The caller’s phone number as shown to the person receiving the call. Dispatch software can match it to a returning customer’s record before the call is answered.
Clocking on: A driver signing in to start a shift or become available for work, either by logging in to the driver app or through a manual log.
Commission model: A driver arrangement where the operator keeps a percentage of each fare and the driver receives the rest.
Community transport: Not-for-profit transport run by charities and community groups, often using volunteer drivers and minibuses, for people who cannot use or access conventional services. Operators typically work under a section 19 or section 22 permit.
Complaint handling: The process of recording, investigating and responding to passenger or customer complaints within an agreed timescale. Contracts often require evidence of response times and outcomes.
Compliance test: A vehicle inspection set by the licensing authority, usually stricter or more frequent than an MOT, that a taxi or private hire vehicle must pass to be licensed or stay licensed.
Concessionary travel: Discounted or free public transport for eligible groups such as older and disabled people, funded by local authorities. Some areas also offer taxi vouchers or tokens under similar schemes.
Congestion charge: A road-use charge, such as the London Congestion Charge, that operators often pass on to the customer as an extra.
Controller: The person on the operator’s desk who takes bookings, allocates drivers and handles problems in real time. Often used interchangeably with dispatcher.
Corporate travel policy: A company’s rules on who may book transport, which vehicle classes and suppliers are allowed and what spending limits apply.
Cost centre: An internal department or budget code a corporate customer attaches to a booking so the spend can be allocated on its invoice.
Cost centre coding: Tagging each booking with an internal department, project or budget code so the charge can be allocated correctly. It lets an account customer’s invoice be split and reconciled by team.
Courier and parcel work: Collecting and delivering documents, parcels or goods by car or van instead of carrying passengers. Some taxi and private hire operators use it to fill quiet periods.
Coverage zone: A defined geographic area where a service, vehicle type or group of drivers is available.
Credit control: The process of monitoring customer balances, chasing late payments and deciding when to suspend an account.
Credit limit: The maximum unpaid balance an account customer may build up before further bookings are blocked or flagged.
Credit note: A document issued to reduce or cancel part or all of a previous invoice, for example after an overcharge or a refund.
Crew transport: Moving airline, rail, maritime or production crews between airports, depots, hotels and ports, often on tight timings and in multi-passenger vehicles. It is commonly contracted and scheduled around rosters.
Cross-border hiring: Using a driver or vehicle licensed by a different authority from the one that licensed the operator. Outside the sub-contracting provisions it can breach the licensing rules, so operators should check which authority licensed each driver and vehicle.
Cruise transfer: A booked journey between a cruise port and an airport, station, hotel or home address, timed around ship embarkation and disembarkation. Luggage volumes and port access arrangements need planning.
CSV and JSON: Two common file formats for moving data between systems. CSV opens as a spreadsheet; JSON is a structured text format used mainly by software and integrations.
Customer account: A customer’s record holding their contact details, saved addresses, payment methods and booking history.
Customer wallet: A balance held against a customer’s account, made up of prepaid funds, promotional credit or loyalty rewards, that can be put towards the cost of a booking.
Cutover: The moment an operator stops using the old system and starts using the new one for live work. It is usually planned for a quiet period, with a fallback in case something goes wrong.

D

D4 medical form: The DVLA medical examination report completed by a doctor for drivers of lorries and buses. Many licensing authorities ask for a medical to the Group 2 standard on this form when a taxi or private hire driver applies for or renews a licence.
Dashcam: A camera mounted in a vehicle that records the road, and sometimes the cabin. Operators use footage to resolve accident claims, passenger disputes and driver-conduct complaints.
Data export: Saving records, such as bookings, invoices or driver lists, as a file to keep or analyse elsewhere. It is also how data is moved to a new supplier.
Data import: Loading existing records, such as customers, drivers and vehicles, into a new system from spreadsheets or an old platform. It is a core part of migrating without re-entering everything by hand.
Data residency: The country or region where your data is physically stored. Some contracts, particularly in the public sector, require customer and passenger data to stay in the UK.
Data retention: How long personal data is kept before it is deleted. Under UK GDPR data should be kept no longer than necessary, so operators should set and follow a retention period for booking, driver and customer records.
Data subject access request (DSAR): A request from an individual to see the personal data an organisation holds about them. Operators generally have one month to respond under UK GDPR.
Data warehouse: A separate, large store that collects data from many systems so it can be analysed together without slowing down live dispatch. It is what long-term reporting is usually built on.
Dead mileage: Distance travelled by a vehicle without a passenger, usually between jobs or operating areas.
Dead reckoning: Estimating a vehicle’s position from its last known location, speed and direction when the GPS signal is lost. It keeps the vehicle moving on the map through tunnels and underground car parks.
Deep link: A web or app link that opens a specific screen, such as one booking, rather than just the home page. It lets a text message take a driver or customer straight to the right job.
Demand responsive transport (DRT): A flexible service where routes and times respond to passengers’ booking requests instead of following a fixed timetable. It is typically run with minibuses or taxis and booked by phone or app.
Deregulation Act 2015: The Act that, among other changes, lets private hire operators sub-contract bookings to operators licensed in other areas and lets licences run for longer periods. It changed how cross-border work is treated.
Designated list: The list a licensing authority keeps of the wheelchair accessible taxis and private hire vehicles to which the Equality Act 2010 duties on carrying wheelchair users apply.
Designated safeguarding lead: The named person in an organisation responsible for handling safeguarding concerns and reports. Operators with school or care contracts are often asked to name one.
Dial-a-ride: A door-to-door, pre-booked shared transport service for people who cannot use ordinary buses, often run by councils or community transport groups. Journeys are grouped by area and time.
Disability awareness training: Training that prepares drivers to assist passengers with different disabilities and needs. The statutory standards recommend that licensing authorities require it.
Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS): The government body that issues criminal record certificates and maintains the barred lists in England and Wales. Licensing authorities use its checks when deciding whether a driver is fit and proper.
Dispatch boundary: A geographic rule controlling which drivers can receive work from a particular area.
Dispatch priority: A rule that ranks jobs or customers so urgent, VIP or contract work is allocated before standard bookings.
Dispatch screen: The operator’s main working view showing bookings, driver status and allocation controls, usually alongside a live map.
Dispatcher: A person responsible for allocating bookings to drivers and keeping jobs moving. In a taxi office this role is often called a controller.
Driver app: The mobile application a driver uses to receive jobs, navigate and update job status.
Driver availability: Whether a driver is currently free, busy or off shift, and in what area. Operators use it to decide who can be offered a job.
Driver badge: The identification badge issued to a licensed driver, which the driver is usually required to display or show on request. It confirms the holder has been licensed by that authority.
Driver churn: The rate at which drivers leave an operator over a given period. High churn raises recruitment and onboarding costs and can affect service consistency.
Driver details message: A message to the passenger giving the allocated driver’s name, photo, vehicle make, colour and registration. It helps the passenger confirm they are getting into the right vehicle.
Driver earnings statement: A record given to a driver showing fares, charges, commission or rent, deductions and net payment for a period. It is the basis for reconciling pay with completed jobs.
Driver group: A named set of drivers, such as airport specialists or wheelchair-accessible drivers, used to limit which jobs they are offered.
Driver licence (taxi or private hire): The licence from a licensing authority that allows a person to drive a hackney carriage or private hire vehicle. It is separate from the DVLA driving licence and is granted only if the holder is fit and proper.
Driver onboarding: The steps that take a new driver from application to working, including licence and document checks, vehicle inspection, account set-up, app training and induction.
Driver portal: A secure web area where drivers view documents and expiry dates, statements, jobs and messages, and update their details.
Driver preferences: A driver’s stated wishes about the work they want, such as job types, areas, vehicle capability or shift pattern.
Driver rating: A score given by passengers, and sometimes operators, reflecting the quality of a driver’s service.
Driver rent: A fixed fee, usually weekly, paid by a self-employed driver to an operator for the radio or app service and use of its booking base. The driver keeps the fares earned, less any agreed charges.
Driver scorecard: A summary of one driver’s performance, typically covering acceptance rate, cancellation rate, average rating, earnings, hours online and compliance status. Operators use it in coaching conversations.
Driver settlement: The calculation of what an operator owes a driver, or the driver owes the operator, for a period after fares, commission, fees and deductions.
Driver shift: A planned period, usually set out as a weekly pattern, when a driver intends to be working and available for jobs. Actual working time is measured separately from when they were signed on.
Driver welfare: The wellbeing of drivers, covering working hours, rest breaks, fatigue, safety, harassment and access to support. Operators and contracts increasingly expect it to be monitored.
Drivers’ hours rules: Legal limits on driving time and rest that apply to vehicles built to carry more than nine people including the driver. Ordinary taxis and private hire cars fall outside them, but minibus and coach operators must follow them.
Drop-off point: The agreed place where a passenger leaves the vehicle, which may differ from the address on the booking. It is chosen for safe, legal stopping and, where relevant, nearest accessible entrance.
DTMF (dual-tone multi-frequency): The tones made when someone presses keys on a phone keypad. Automated phone systems use them to let callers confirm a booking or choose an option by pressing a number.
Duty hours: The hours a driver has been on duty, normally split between time on a job, time with a passenger on board and time waiting for work. Operators track them for pay, fatigue management and contract reporting.
Duty of care: An organisation’s legal and moral obligation to protect the safety and wellbeing of its staff and passengers while they travel. Corporate buyers use it to justify approved suppliers, tracking and incident reporting.
DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency): The government agency that holds driver and vehicle records for Great Britain. Operators and licensing authorities use its services to check licence entitlement, endorsements and vehicle details.
DVLA check code: A one-time code a driver generates from their online DVLA account to let someone view their driving licence record. It is valid for 21 days, so a fresh code is needed for each check.
DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency): The agency responsible for MOT testing standards and for roadside and operator checks on commercial passenger vehicles. Its examiners can inspect buses and coaches, and minibuses used under a PSV operator licence.
Dynamic market: The Procurement Act 2023 successor to the dynamic purchasing system: a list of qualified suppliers that stays open to new joiners for its whole life, from which buyers award individual contracts. Unlike a DPS it can cover works, services and goods of any kind.
Dynamic pricing: Any approach where the fare varies automatically with conditions such as time of day, demand or vehicle supply, rather than coming from a single fixed rate card.
Dynamic purchasing system (DPS): A procurement route under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 that let suppliers apply to join a list of pre-qualified providers at any time during its life, with buyers running individual competitions among members. The Procurement Act 2023 replaced the DPS with the dynamic market for new arrangements from 24 February 2025, though existing systems continue to run.

E

Emergency SOS alert: A panic button in the driver app that immediately alerts the operator with the driver’s live location and current booking, so help can be sent quickly.
Employers’ liability insurance: Insurance that an employer must hold to cover claims by employees injured or made ill through their work. A minimum of £5 million cover is required, and it is not needed for self-employed drivers with no staff.
Encryption at rest: Scrambling stored data so it is unreadable without the right key if a disk or backup is stolen. It protects customer and payment-related records sitting in the database.
Encryption in transit: Scrambling data as it travels between a phone, browser and server, shown by the padlock and “https” in a web address. It stops anyone on the same network from reading it.
Endpoint: A specific web address on a system’s API that does one job, such as creating a booking or listing drivers. Developers connect to endpoints, and each one has its own rules and permissions.
English language requirement: A requirement that drivers can communicate well enough in English to deal with passengers safely. Licensing authorities increasingly test spoken and written English before granting a licence.
Enhanced DBS check: A criminal record check that, for taxi and private hire drivers, includes the barred lists. It is the level the statutory standards expect for driver licensing.
Equality Act 2010: The Act that protects people from discrimination, including in transport services. Part 12 sets specific duties on taxi and private hire drivers towards disabled passengers.
Escort: An adult who travels with a passenger who needs supervision or support during the journey, such as a child with additional needs. The term is often used interchangeably with passenger assistant in contracts.
Estimated arrival: The predicted time the driver will reach the pickup or the passenger will reach the destination, based on distance, traffic and job status.
ETA (estimated time of arrival): The predicted time a driver will reach the pickup or destination, based on location, distance and traffic.
Euro 6: The current European emissions standard for new diesel cars and vans. A Euro 6 diesel typically meets the requirements of the London ULEZ and most Clean Air Zones.
Extras: Optional or incidental charges added to a fare, such as tolls, parking, child seats, meet and greet or waiting time.

F

Failover: Automatic switching to a backup server or connection when the main one fails. A good setup means dispatchers barely notice that anything went wrong.
Fare breakdown: The fare split into its parts, such as base fare, distance charge, time charge, waiting time, tolls, surcharges and any discount. Showing it before a customer confirms makes the price easier to understand and to query.
Fare dispute: A customer’s challenge to the amount charged, which the operator reviews against the meter, route, quote and booking record.
Fare estimate: An approximate price shown before the journey, based on expected distance and time, that may differ from the final metered fare.
FCM (Firebase Cloud Messaging): Google’s cross-platform push notification service. It delivers job offers, booking changes and alerts to the driver and passenger apps.
Feature flag: A switch that turns a feature on or off for some users without a new software release. It lets a supplier trial a change with one operator first and roll it back instantly if needed.
First-ride promotion: A discount or offer aimed only at new customers, to encourage their first booking.
Fit and proper person test: The test a licensing authority applies to decide whether a driver or operator is suitable to hold a licence. It considers matters such as convictions, conduct, character and honesty.
Fixed price: A fare agreed before the journey that does not change with traffic or route, unless the booking itself changes.
Flag-down work: Hackney carriage work picked up when a passenger hails a cab in the street. Only licensed hackney carriages may be hailed; private hire vehicles must be pre-booked.
Flagfall: The initial charge applied when a meter starts, before any distance or time is added.
Flagged booking: A booking marked for a person to review, for example because no suitable driver could be found automatically. The dispatcher sees the reason and can step in.
Fleet utilisation: The proportion of available vehicle time spent on paid work, as opposed to waiting, repositioning or sitting idle.
Fleet-owned vehicle: A vehicle owned or leased by the operator and allocated to a driver, instead of one the driver owns. The operator is responsible for its licensing, insurance and maintenance.
Flight-linked pickup: An airport job whose pickup time follows the flight’s actual arrival, so the driver is allocated and timed around delays and early landings.
Framework agreement: An overarching agreement with one or more suppliers that sets terms, prices and conditions for future contracts. Buyers then award individual call-off contracts under it.

G

Geocoding: Turning a typed address or postcode into a point on the map. Quotes, pickup pins and driver allocation all depend on it being accurate.
Geofence: A virtual boundary around a real location that can trigger pricing, dispatch or communication rules.
GNSS (global navigation satellite system): The umbrella term for satellite positioning, covering GPS plus others such as Galileo, GLONASS and BeiDou. Modern phones use several at once, which improves accuracy in built-up areas.
Google Geocoding API: A Google Maps Platform API that converts an address into coordinates, and coordinates back into an address. It turns a typed pickup into a point a driver can be routed to.
Google Maps Platform: Google’s suite of mapping, routing and places APIs and SDKs, billed by usage. It provides address search, geocoding and the map displays in the dispatcher and passenger apps.
Google Pay: Google’s wallet-based payment method for Android devices, where the card is held on the device and authorised there. Accepted in the passenger app alongside stored cards.
Google Places API: A Google Maps Platform API for searching and autocompleting real-world places. It powers the address autocomplete in the booking form, so a dispatcher types a few characters rather than a full address.
GPS (global positioning system): Satellite-based positioning that tells a phone or tracker where it is. It is how a vehicle’s live position is known.
GPS drift: When a reported position wanders away from the true one, for example showing a car on the wrong street between tall buildings. It can cause false late alerts and wrong mileage if not filtered.
Gratuity: A voluntary tip paid by the customer to the driver, either in cash or added to a card payment.
Group booking: A single booking covering several passengers travelling together, which may need more than one vehicle or a larger vehicle. The group shares one pickup, one destination and one point of contact.

H

Hackney carriage: A licensed taxi that may be hailed in the street, take passengers from a taxi rank and be hired without pre-booking. Fares are charged on a meter at rates set by the licensing authority.
Hackney carriage quantity restriction: A cap on the number of hackney carriage licences a council issues, which outside London is allowed only where there is no significant unmet demand. Private hire licences cannot be limited in this way.
Haversine distance: The straight-line distance between two points on the Earth’s surface, ignoring roads. Often used as a fast first estimate of how close two points are, before real driving routes are worked out.
Heatmap: A map shaded by intensity, with hotter colours where more bookings or idle drivers are clustered. It shows where demand is and where vehicles should be positioned.
Hire and reward insurance: Motor insurance that covers carrying passengers for payment. Standard social, domestic and pleasure cover does not include it, and licensing authorities require it for taxi and private hire vehicles.
HMRC employment status: HMRC’s classification of a person as an employee, a worker or self-employed, which determines tax, National Insurance and employment rights. Drivers’ status turns on the facts of the working relationship, not the label in a contract.
Holding authorisation: A temporary hold on a customer’s card for the expected fare that reserves the funds but is not yet a charge.
Home-to-school transport: Transport provided by a local authority for eligible pupils, often through contracted taxi or minibus operators. Contracts usually require drivers and passenger assistants to hold an enhanced DBS check.
Hospital discharge run: A journey taking a patient from a hospital ward to their home or another care setting after discharge. It often involves waiting for medication or paperwork and needs assistance at both ends.
Hotel account: Taxi or private hire work booked through a hotel’s front desk or concierge on an account. Operators usually agree service levels, accounts and sometimes commission with the hotel.

I

Idle time: Time a vehicle or driver is available but not doing paid work, including time waiting for a job offer.
In-app chat: Messaging between driver and passenger inside an app, so neither needs the other’s phone number. It is useful for pickup instructions and last-minute changes.
Incentives: Extra payments or rewards offered to drivers to influence behaviour, such as covering busy periods, hard-to-fill areas or high completion rates. They are separate from the base fare.
Incident: An unplanned event that disrupts a service, such as a system outage or a major slowdown. Suppliers log, rank and report incidents so you know what happened and what is being done.
Induction: The first structured briefing for a new driver or staff member on company policy, safety, systems and customer standards. Contracts often require a recorded induction before work starts.
Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): The UK’s independent regulator for data protection and information rights. Operators that process personal data usually have to pay it a data protection fee.
Integration testing: Checking that connected systems work together properly, for example that a booking made on a partner’s site arrives correctly in dispatch. It is done before go-live to catch problems with real data flows.
Invitation to tender (ITT): The document a buyer issues to invited or interested suppliers setting out the requirement, evaluation criteria and how to submit a bid. It is the core of a competitive tender.
Invoice run: A scheduled batch process, often weekly or monthly, that generates invoices for all completed account jobs in the period.
Isochrone: A map shape showing everywhere reachable within a set travel time, such as 15 minutes from a rank. It gives a more realistic coverage picture than a simple circle.
IVR (interactive voice response): A phone system that lets callers use keypad presses or speech to choose options or take actions without an agent. Operators use it to route calls, confirm bookings and reduce control room call volume.

J

Job offer: A request sent to a driver, normally to their app, to accept or decline a booking within a set time.
Job offer timeout: The time a driver has to respond to an offer before it expires and passes to someone else.
Job sharing: Passing bookings between operators in a network so each can cover the other’s peaks, gaps and out-of-area work.
Journey share: Sending live trip details, such as the route and ETA, to a friend, family member or colleague. It supports passenger safety and peace of mind.

K

Knowledge base: A searchable library of help articles, FAQs and policy documents that staff, drivers or customers can use to find answers themselves.
KPI (key performance indicator): A number chosen to measure how well the business is doing, such as average pickup time, acceptance rate or cancellations per hundred jobs. Good KPIs are few, clear and checked regularly.
KPI penalties: Financial deductions or service credits applied when a contractor misses agreed key performance indicators, such as punctuality or completed journeys. They are set out in the contract.

L

Late-night surcharge: A higher rate for journeys in late-night or early-morning hours, normally applied by switching to a different rate card for those times.
Late-running alert: A signal that a driver is unlikely to reach the pickup on time, raised once the pickup time has passed or the driver’s ETA overshoots it. It usually surfaces as a status on the dispatch board rather than a message.
Latency: The delay between an action and the system’s response, such as a driver accepting a job and the dispatcher seeing it. Low latency matters because dispatch decisions are made in seconds.
Licence conditions: Rules attached to a driver, vehicle or operator licence by the licensing authority, such as record keeping, vehicle standards and notifying changes. Breaching them can lead to suspension or revocation.
Licensing authority: The body that grants taxi and private hire licences, usually the local council, and Transport for London in London. A driver, vehicle or operator is licensed by one authority and its rules apply to them.
Licensing committee referral: Escalating a driver to the licensing authority’s licensing committee or sub-committee after a serious complaint or conduct issue. The committee decides whether the driver remains a fit and proper person to hold a licence.
Live map: A real-time map showing driver and vehicle positions, statuses and active jobs, used by dispatchers to make allocation decisions.
LLM (large language model): An AI system trained on huge amounts of text that can understand and write natural language. Used in assistants, summarisation and search tools.
Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976: The Act that sets up private hire licensing for operators, drivers and vehicles in England and Wales outside London. Parts of it also apply to hackney carriage drivers.
Localisation: Adapting software to a place and its users, covering language, time zone, date and time format and currency.
Location accuracy: How close a reported position is to the true one, usually given as a radius in metres. A reading of 5 metres is reliable for a pickup; 100 metres might put the driver on the wrong road.
Lone worker: A person who works without direct supervision, which includes most drivers. Employers and contracts expect procedures such as check-ins, panic alerts and risk assessments.
Lost property: Items passengers leave in a vehicle, which the operator must log, store and return or hand on according to its procedure. Many operators record the booking, driver and date to trace items.
Loyalty programme: A scheme that rewards repeat customers, usually with points earned on each booking that can be exchanged for discounts. Some programmes have tiers that earn points faster.
Luggage allowance: The amount and type of baggage a vehicle can carry, or that a booking permits. It affects vehicle choice, particularly for airport and cruise journeys.

M

Machine learning: Software that improves at a task by learning from past data rather than following fixed rules. It is used for things like estimating arrival times and predicting demand.
Manual dispatch: Allocation of a job by a person choosing the driver, rather than by the system.
Map matching: Snapping noisy GPS points onto the nearest sensible road so a vehicle appears on the street it is actually driving along. It cleans up the track used for mileage and arrival times.
Mapbox: A location platform providing map tiles, search and routing, built partly on OpenStreetMap data. Its map loads are metered alongside Google Maps usage.
MapLibre GL JS: An open-source JavaScript library that renders vector map tiles in the browser. It draws the live dispatch map.
Meet & greet: A managed airport or port pickup where the driver meets the passenger at a specified point.
MessageBird: A cloud communications provider for SMS and voice. Used for passenger messaging and for proxy numbers that connect a passenger to a driver without revealing either number.
Metered fare: A fare calculated by the taximeter from distance travelled and time elapsed against the applicable tariff.
Minibus permit: Short for a section 19 or section 22 permit, which allows a non-profit organisation to run a minibus or community bus service without a full PSV operator licence.
Minimum fare: The lowest amount charged for any journey, regardless of how short it is.
Mission Control: MyRide’s central workspace for bookings, live fleet activity, dispatch and operational oversight.
Mixpanel: A product analytics service that records user events and funnels. It tracks how dispatchers and passengers actually move through the apps.
Modern slavery: Offences covering slavery, servitude, forced labour and human trafficking. Drivers may unknowingly transport victims, so safeguarding training usually covers the warning signs.
MOT (Ministry of Transport test): The annual roadworthiness and emissions test required for most vehicles over a set age. Licensing authorities often add their own, stricter compliance tests for taxis and private hire vehicles.
Multi-passenger booking: A booking with several passengers who may have different pickup or drop-off points on the same trip. It requires route sequencing and capacity checks.
Multi-stop booking: A single booking with more than one pickup or drop-off location, priced as one journey.
Multi-tenancy: One software platform serving many separate companies, each with its own private data, settings and users. It keeps costs down while ensuring one operator never sees another’s information.
MyRide Partner: MyRide’s app for drivers, used to receive and complete jobs, manage schedules and compliance documents, and see earnings in real time.

N

Named driver list: A list of specific drivers authorised by a customer to work on a contract. Only listed drivers should be sent on that contract, which supports continuity and safeguarding.
Native app: An app built specifically for one phone type, such as iPhone or Android, and installed from an app store. It can use phone features like background location more reliably than a web page can.
Nearest-driver allocation: The simplest dispatch model: send the job to the closest available driver by distance or travel time. It is easy to explain but can leave the rest of the board worse off, which is why most modern systems score the whole batch instead.
NEPTS (non-emergency patient transport service): NHS-commissioned transport for patients who meet medical eligibility criteria and need help getting to or from healthcare appointments. It is separate from 999 emergency ambulance response.
No-show: A booking where the passenger does not appear at the pickup within the agreed wait, leaving the driver to leave the job and possibly charge a fee.
No-show fee: A charge made when the passenger does not appear at the pickup point within the agreed waiting time.
Nominatim: The open-source geocoder built on OpenStreetMap data, which converts between addresses and coordinates. Used as a geocoding option alongside Google’s.
Northern Ireland taxi licensing: Taxis in Northern Ireland are licensed under the Taxis Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 and administered by the Department for Infrastructure, not by councils. The rules differ from those in Great Britain.
NR3S (National Register of Taxi Licence Refusals, Revocations and Suspensions): The register, run by the National Anti-Fraud Network and designated under the Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles (Safeguarding and Road Safety) Act 2022, in which English licensing authorities record driver licences refused, revoked or suspended on safeguarding or road safety grounds. Authorities must search it before granting or renewing a licence. It began in 2018 as the NR3, covering refusals and revocations, and took in suspensions from April 2023.
Number masking: Routing calls through a temporary middle number so a driver and passenger can talk without seeing each other’s real phone numbers. It protects the privacy of both parties.

O

OAuth 2.0: An open authorisation standard that lets an application access another service on a user’s behalf using tokens instead of passwords. Integrations such as Xero or Google Workspace use it to connect an operator’s account securely.
OBD (on-board diagnostics): The standard port in modern vehicles that gives access to engine and fault data. A plug-in tracker can read mileage, fuel use and warning codes from it.
Offline mode: The ability of an app to keep working, and store its actions, when there is no signal, then send them once back online. It matters for drivers in rural areas, tunnels and airport car parks.
On break: A driver status used while taking a rest or meal break, during which no new jobs are offered.
On route: A booking status meaning the driver has started travelling to the pickup point. It follows allocation and precedes arrival at the pickup.
On-time performance (OTP): The percentage of jobs where the driver arrived at or before the agreed pickup time. It is a standard contract and service-level measure.
One-time passcode (OTP): A short code sent by SMS or email that works for a single sign-in or check. It confirms that the person signing in has access to that phone number or email address.
OpenStreetMap (OSM): A free, openly licensed world map built by contributors. It is the underlying data for the OSRM routing and Nominatim geocoding used here.
Operating base: The premises from which a private hire operator takes and manages bookings, which must usually be in the area that licensed the operator. Operators generally have to tell the authority if they change it.
Operator licence: The licence a private hire operator needs to accept bookings and send licensed drivers and vehicles to them. In London and outside it, the operator must be licensed by the authority covering its operating base.
Optimised assignment: Scoring every candidate driver against every waiting booking and solving the whole board at once, rather than filling jobs one at a time. A slightly farther driver may win a job if that produces a better result across the batch.
OSRM (Open Source Routing Machine): An open-source routing engine that calculates routes, distances and durations over OpenStreetMap data. It produces the distances and times behind route-based pricing and ETAs without a per-request map fee.
Out-of-hours surcharge: A higher rate for journeys outside normal operating hours, such as nights, weekends or early mornings.
Overflow work: Bookings that exceed an operator’s own capacity at a given time and are passed to other operators or subcontractors.
Overwatch: The live dispatch board inside Mission Control, bringing the booking form, live map, driver list and trip tables together on one screen.
Owner-driver: A driver who owns and runs their own licensed vehicle, usually working as self-employed under their own insurance. They may work for an operator or on their own account.

P

Parallel running: Using the old and new systems side by side for a period to check the new one gives the same results. It lowers the risk of switching but means staff double-enter work for a while.
Passenger assistant (PA): A trained adult who travels on school or care transport to support passengers, manage behaviour and help them on and off the vehicle. Councils often set DBS and training requirements for the role.
Passenger on board (POB): The status or time showing the passenger has been picked up and the journey is under way. It is used for fare calculation and for tracking progress.
Passenger receipt: A document sent to the passenger after a journey showing the fare, extras, date, route and payment method.
Patient transport eligibility: The criteria used to decide whether a patient qualifies for NEPTS, based on medical need and not on convenience or cost. A clinician or booking service normally assesses it.
Payment intent: A Stripe object that tracks a payment from creation through authentication to successful capture, including any retries.
Payment link: A secure web address sent to a customer by email, SMS or WhatsApp so they can pay for a booking online.
Payment terms: The agreed time a customer has to pay an invoice, commonly 14, 30 or 60 days from the invoice date.
Payout: A transfer of money from the operator or payment provider to a driver’s or supplier’s bank account.
PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard): The security standard that businesses handling card data must follow, which is why operators use hosted payment providers rather than storing card numbers.
PCO (Public Carriage Office): The former name of the body that licensed London taxis and private hire vehicles, now part of Transport for London. Many drivers still call a London private hire licence a PCO licence.
PCV (passenger-carrying vehicle) entitlement: The category D1 or D driving licence entitlement needed to drive minibuses and buses. It is separate from a taxi or private hire driver licence.
Peak demand: Periods when booking volume rises sharply, such as rush hour, school runs, event finishes or airport arrival banks.
Penalty points: Endorsements added to a driving licence for motoring offences. Twelve or more points within three years normally means disqualification, and licensing authorities may take points into account when judging a driver.
Pet transport: Carrying passengers’ pets, or pets alone, in a vehicle. Operators set their own policies on carriers, charges and cleaning, and assistance dogs are treated differently.
Pickup point: The exact place where a passenger is collected, which can be a doorstep, terminal bay or agreed meeting point. Clear pickup points reduce missed pickups and waiting time.
Pickup SLA: The service-level commitment for how promptly or punctually a driver must reach the pickup, often written into corporate and public-sector contracts.
Ping rate: How often a vehicle or driver app reports its location, such as every 5 or 30 seconds. Faster pings give a smoother map but use more battery and data.
Plate (licence plate): The plate issued by the licensing authority and fixed to a licensed vehicle, showing its licence number. It lets passengers and enforcement officers identify the vehicle and the authority that licensed it.
Plotting: Allocating jobs by their position on a map, so a dispatcher can see where drivers and pickups are and match them geographically.
Plying for hire: Offering a vehicle for immediate hire to the public, for example by waiting at a rank or being hailed. Only hackney carriages may do this, and a private hire vehicle doing so is committing an offence.
POB (passenger on board): A driver status showing a passenger is in the vehicle, so the car is not available for a new job.
Points expiry: A rule that makes unused loyalty points lapse after a set period, which encourages customers to book again before their points run out.
Polling: A system repeatedly asking another “is there anything new?” at set intervals. It is simple but slower and heavier than being told straight away, as with push updates.
Port transfer: A booked journey to or from a seaport or ferry terminal, often coordinated with sailing times and port access rules. It is similar to a cruise transfer but also covers ferry traffic.
Post-ride charge: A charge added after a journey has ended, such as a cleaning fee, a waiting overrun or an extra stop, recorded with a reason and amount. The customer is told and charged separately from the original fare.
Postcode centroid: The single central point used to represent an entire postcode on a map. It is quick but approximate, so a pickup can land some distance from the real door, especially in rural postcodes.
PostHog: A product analytics and session-recording platform. Used to understand how the dispatcher web app is used and where people get stuck.
Pre-assigned job: A booking allocated to a named driver in advance, often because of customer preference or a regular arrangement.
Pre-authorisation: A temporary hold placed on a customer’s card before a journey, then captured for the final amount once the job is complete.
Pre-booked job: A booking made in advance for a future date and time, as opposed to one needed straight away.
Preferred driver: A driver a customer or account asks for by name on their bookings. Where a system cannot name an individual, the same effect is usually achieved with a small group of drivers restricted to that customer.
Price lock: A guarantee that the quoted fare will not change after the customer confirms the booking, provided the details stay the same.
Private hire vehicle (PHV): A licensed vehicle that can carry passengers for hire only if the journey was pre-booked through a licensed private hire operator. It cannot be hailed in the street or use taxi ranks.
Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998: The Act that introduced licensing of private hire operators, drivers and vehicles in London. It is administered by Transport for London.
Pro forma invoice: A preliminary invoice issued before a service is provided or paid for, which is not a formal demand for payment.
Production environment: The live version of a system, where real bookings, drivers and payments are handled. Changes made here have real consequences, which is why testing is done elsewhere first.
Progressive web app (PWA): A website that can be added to a phone’s home screen and behaves much like an app, without an app-store download. It is quick to roll out but has fewer phone features than a native app.
Promo code: A code a customer enters at booking to receive a discount, either a percentage or a fixed amount.
PSV (public service vehicle): A vehicle with more than eight passenger seats that carries passengers for hire or reward. Operating one normally needs a PSV operator licence from a traffic commissioner.
Public liability insurance: Insurance covering claims by members of the public for injury or damage caused by a business’s activities. Licensing authorities may require operators to hold it.
Purchase order (PO): A document from a corporate customer authorising a spend, whose number is usually required on the supplier’s invoice.
Push notification: A short alert sent to a phone or browser even when the app is not open. Drivers get new job offers this way, and customers get arrival and status updates.

Q

Queueing: Holding drivers in an ordered line, for example at an airport, station or rank, so jobs go out in turn.
Quote: A price given to the customer for a defined journey, which the operator agrees to honour if the booking details do not change.

R

Radio dispatch: Allocating jobs to drivers by voice over a two-way radio rather than through an app.
Rail replacement: Substitute road transport, such as coaches, minibuses and taxis, that carries rail passengers when train services are disrupted or closed for engineering work. It is usually commissioned at short notice and in volume.
Rank work: Passengers picked up from a taxi rank by queue order, rather than from a pre-booking or an app request.
Rate card: The set of prices an operator charges a customer or account, such as fixed fares between zones and mileage rates. Corporate accounts often have their own negotiated rate card, while walk-in customers see standard pricing.
Rate limit: A cap on how many requests a system or API key can make in a given time, such as 100 a minute. It protects the platform from overload, and badly built integrations can hit it.
Rating and feedback: Passenger scores and comments about a completed journey, and in some systems the driver’s rating of the passenger. Operators use them to monitor service quality and deal with problems.
Reallocation: Moving a booking from one driver to another after it has already been assigned, because of a rejection, breakdown, delay or change of plan.
Reconciliation: Matching bookings, card settlements, driver payouts and invoices against bank and accounting records to find discrepancies.
Referral fee: A payment to a hotel, agent or partner that introduces a booking, usually a percentage of the fare. Operators doing hotel or concierge work are often asked for one.
Referral programme: A scheme in which an existing customer invites someone new, and both receive a reward once the new customer completes a qualifying first journey.
Refund: Money returned to a customer, either in full or in part, after a cancellation, overcharge or service failure.
Rejection rate: The share of offered jobs that a driver declines or lets expire, tracked to spot unreliable availability or poor-fit work.
Release cadence: How often a supplier ships new versions of its software, such as weekly or monthly. A steady cadence means improvements and fixes arrive regularly, without large disruptive updates.
Remittance advice: A document sent with a payment that lists the invoices or jobs it covers and any deductions.
Rent model: A driver arrangement where the driver pays the operator a fixed weekly or monthly fee and keeps all fares.
Repeat contract: A recurring journey schedule used for school, healthcare, corporate or other routine transport.
Repositioning: Moving a vehicle without a passenger to an area where demand is expected, to shorten future pickup times.
REST API: The most common style of API, where systems exchange data over standard web requests. If a supplier says it has a “REST API”, most developers will already know how to connect to it.
Return journey: A second leg of travel booked with the first, taking the passenger back to the original pickup or another agreed location.
Revenue split: The agreed way the money from a shared job is divided between the operators involved, as a percentage, a flat fee or a mix of both.
Reverse geocoding: Turning a map position into a readable address. It is what puts a street name against a parked vehicle or a dropped pin.
Ride type: A class of service and vehicle a customer can book, such as standard saloon, estate, MPV, executive, minibus or wheelchair-accessible. Bookings are matched to vehicles that meet the ride type’s requirements.
Right to work check: A check that a person is legally allowed to work in the UK, which employers must carry out before someone starts. Licensing authorities also check immigration status before granting driver licences.
RingCentral: A cloud phone system with APIs for calls, call handling and recordings. It connects the office phone lines to the dispatch screen so an inbound call can be matched to a customer.
Role-based access: Giving each user only the permissions their job needs, such as dispatchers handling bookings and accountants viewing invoices. It reduces mistakes and limits the damage if an account is misused.
Route optimisation: Software that picks the most efficient order and path for a set of stops, reducing distance and time. It matters most for shared rides, school runs and multi-stop work.
Run sheet: A driver’s list of jobs for a day or shift, with times, addresses and passenger details, common in contract and school work.

S

SaaS (software as a service): Software you subscribe to and use over the internet instead of installing and maintaining it yourself. The supplier looks after servers, security and updates.
Safeguarding: Protecting children and adults at risk from abuse, neglect and exploitation. For drivers and operators it covers vetting, training and reporting concerns.
Safeguarding training: Training that helps drivers and operator staff recognise signs of abuse and exploitation and know how to respond. The statutory standards recommend licensing authorities require it.
Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006: The Act that created the system of barred lists maintained by the DBS in England and Wales. It underpins the checks used for people working with children and vulnerable adults.
Safety check-in: A request for a driver or passenger to confirm they are safe, with help raised if they do not respond or an emergency button is pressed. It is a common lone-worker control.
Sage: Accounting software widely used by UK businesses. Account booking summaries can be exported in a Sage-compatible format so invoices do not have to be retyped into the ledger.
Sandbox environment: A safe test copy of a system with dummy data, where you can try things without affecting real bookings. Developers use it to build and check integrations before going live.
SCA (strong customer authentication): A UK and EU rule requiring two independent checks for most online card payments, typically met through 3-D Secure.
Scheduled reports: Having a report generated and sent automatically at set times, such as a weekly revenue summary every Monday, rather than someone running it by hand.
School transport contract: An agreement under which a transport provider takes pupils to and from school on fixed routes and timetables, usually let by a local authority. It is normally for an academic year or longer.
SDK (software development kit): A ready-made bundle of code and instructions that helps developers add a supplier’s features to their own app. It saves building the connection from scratch.
Section 19 permit: A permit under the Transport Act 1985 allowing a non-profit body to use a minibus to carry its members or clients for hire or reward without a PSV operator licence. Passengers cannot be the general public.
Section 22 permit: A permit under the Transport Act 1985 allowing a community bus service to run for the public on a non-profit basis. It is an alternative to a PSV operator licence for qualifying community groups.
Self-billing: An arrangement where the operator prepares the invoice on the driver’s or supplier’s behalf for the work they have supplied, with their agreement.
Self-employed driver: A driver who works for themselves and not as an employee, usually paying a rent or commission to an operator. They are responsible for their own tax, insurance and working hours.
SEN (special educational needs) transport: Home-to-school travel for children with special educational needs or disabilities, often door to door with a passenger assistant. Entitlement is usually set out in the child’s education, health and care plan.
SendGrid: An email delivery platform for transactional and marketing email. It sends booking confirmations, receipts and driver notifications.
Sentry: An error and performance monitoring service that captures crashes and exceptions with the context needed to reproduce them. It covers the dispatcher web app and the mobile apps.
Service area: The complete geographic region in which an operator accepts and fulfils bookings.
Service level agreement (SLA): A written, measurable standard of service and the consequence of missing it. In a transport contract that means punctuality, response times and complaint handling; in a software contract it means things like uptime and fault response times.
Shared ride: A journey where passengers with different bookings travel together in one vehicle for part or all of the route. Each passenger pays a share or a reduced fare.
Single sign-on (SSO): Logging in once with a company account to reach several systems, instead of remembering separate passwords. Larger customers often require it so staff access can be switched off in one place.
SIP (session initiation protocol): A standard way of setting up internet phone calls, used to connect a phone system to the telephone network. A SIP trunk is the internet line that replaces traditional phone lines.
SIP trunk (Session Initiation Protocol trunk): A voice-over-internet connection that carries a business’s phone calls to its phone system instead of physical lines. Operators use it to run control room phones, number routing and call recording on dispatch software.
Slack: A team messaging platform. An incoming webhook posts operational alerts from the platform into a staff channel.
Social care transport: Transport arranged by or for local authority adult and children’s services to take people to day centres, respite, appointments and activities. Passengers often need assistance and consistent drivers.
Soiling charge: A fee charged to a customer when a vehicle needs specialist cleaning after being soiled during a journey.
Speech-to-text: Software that turns spoken words into written text.
Split payment: Sharing the cost of one journey between more than one payer or method, for example part on account and part by card. It is a common account-customer request and is handled differently by every system.
Standby driver: A driver held in reserve to cover cancellations, breakdowns or demand spikes.
Statement: A periodic summary of what one party owes another. On driver pay it lists the week’s jobs, fees and the resulting balance; on an account it summarises invoices and payments.
Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Standards: Department for Transport guidance issued under the Policing and Crime Act 2017 on safeguarding and road safety. Licensing authorities in England must have regard to it when making licensing decisions.
Stretcher transport: Moving a patient who must lie flat, using a vehicle with a stretcher or trolley and trained crew. It is a specialist type of patient transport and not ordinary taxi work.
Stripe: A payments platform handling card payments, stored cards, payouts and in-person terminals. It is the primary card processor here.
Stripe Connect: The part of Stripe that handles payments and payouts on behalf of third parties, each with their own connected account. It supports paying drivers and operators their share.
Stripe Payment Intent: A Stripe object representing a single attempt to collect a payment, tracking it through authentication and capture. Its sibling, the setup intent, saves a card for later without charging it.
Stripe Terminal: Stripe’s in-person card payment product, covering the reader hardware and its APIs. It takes a card payment in the vehicle at the end of a journey.
Sub-contracting (private hire bookings): Passing a booking to another licensed operator, which the Deregulation Act 2015 allows across licensing areas. The operator who receives the booking must be licensed and is responsible for the vehicle and driver used.
Subcontracting: Giving a booking to an outside operator or self-employed driver to fulfil, usually for a commission or agreed rate.
SumUp: A card payment provider known for low-cost in-vehicle card readers. Supported as an alternative to Stripe Terminal for taking payment in the car.
Surcharge: A charge applied on top of, or instead of, the standard rate for a particular condition. In practice time-based and bank-holiday rules swap in a different rate card, while location-based charges are added as fixed amounts.
Surge pricing: A temporary fare increase some operators apply when demand far exceeds the vehicles available. It is common in ride-hailing and rare in traditional private hire, where fixed and account rates are expected.
Suspension and revocation: A licensing authority’s powers to stop a licence temporarily or to end it permanently, for example because the holder is no longer fit and proper. Refusals and revocations are recorded on NR3S.

T

Tap to Pay: Taking a contactless card or phone payment directly on a driver’s smartphone, without a separate card machine.
Tariff: The set of rates, such as flagfall, price per mile and waiting time, used to calculate a fare for a type of journey.
Tariff table: A structured list of rates that sets out how fares change by distance, time band, day or vehicle type.
Taxi rank: A designated place where licensed hackney carriages wait to be hired by passengers. Private hire vehicles cannot use ranks to pick up passengers.
Taxicard: A London scheme run through boroughs that gives eligible disabled residents subsidised taxi and private hire journeys. Members pay a reduced fare and the scheme meets the rest.
Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles (Safeguarding and Road Safety) Act 2022: An Act aimed at improving passenger safety by requiring licensing authorities in England to share information on drivers who have been refused or lost a licence. It also covers how licensing authorities handle applications from drivers licensed elsewhere.
Telematics: Technology that collects data from vehicles, such as location, speed, harsh braking and fuel use, and sends it to a central system. It helps monitor safety, driver behaviour and running costs.
Tender: A formal offer to supply services at a stated price and quality in response to a buyer’s competition. Public bodies award contracts by comparing tenders against published criteria.
Text-to-speech: Software that reads written text aloud in a synthetic voice. It is used for automated call-backs and announcements.
Three-licence rule: The rule that, for a private hire booking, the operator, the driver and the vehicle must all be licensed by the same licensing authority. Sub-contracting under the Deregulation Act 2015 is the main exception.
Tile server: The service that supplies the map images you see, delivered in small square pieces called tiles. If it is slow or unavailable, the map on screen loads slowly or appears blank.
Tokenisation: Replacing a card number with a unique token that can be used for later payments but is useless if stolen.
Toll charge: A fee for using a toll road, bridge or tunnel on the route. Operators decide whether it is charged to the customer, the driver or the account.
Topographical test: A test of a driver’s knowledge of local roads, places and routes. London black cab drivers sit a much more demanding version known as the Knowledge.
Total Transport: A government-backed approach that pools transport budgets from areas such as education, health and social care to run services more efficiently. It was piloted by the Department for Transport with local authorities.
Town Police Clauses Act 1847: The Act that governs the licensing of hackney carriages outside London. Licensing authorities use its provisions for matters such as vehicle licences and ranks.
Tracking link: A web link showing a vehicle’s live position and ETA without the passenger needing to install an app. It reduces calls asking where the vehicle is.
Traffic commissioner: The official who licenses and regulates operators of buses, coaches and lorries in Great Britain, including PSV operator licences. They can attach conditions and revoke licences.
Training record: The documented history of a driver’s or staff member’s training, including dates, content and expiry. Customers and regulators may ask to see it as evidence of competence.
Transport for London (TfL): The body that licenses London’s taxis and private hire operators, drivers and vehicles. It also administers the London Congestion Charge and ULEZ.
Travel desk: A team, internal or outsourced, that books and manages travel for a business, including ground transport. It acts for travellers and enforces the company’s travel policy.
Travelling salesman problem: The classic puzzle of finding the shortest route that visits a list of stops once and returns to the start. It gets very hard as stops increase, so route software uses clever shortcuts to find a good answer quickly.
Twilio: A cloud communications platform with APIs for SMS, voice and conversations. Used for passenger messaging, call handling and proxy numbers that mask the driver’s and passenger’s real numbers.
Two-factor authentication (2FA): A second check at login, such as a code sent to a phone, in addition to the password. It stops someone getting in with a stolen or guessed password alone.

U

UK GDPR: The UK’s version of the General Data Protection Regulation, which with the Data Protection Act 2018 governs how personal data is collected, used and stored. Operators must have a lawful basis for processing driver and customer data.
ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone): London’s emission standard zone, where vehicles that do not meet the standard pay a daily charge. Compliant petrol cars are generally Euro 4 or later and diesels Euro 6.
Unallocated job: A booking with no driver assigned yet. A growing unallocated list close to pickup time is a warning sign for dispatchers.
Update Service (DBS): An annual subscription that keeps a person’s DBS certificate up to date and lets an authorised organisation check its status online with their consent. It means a driver need not apply for a new certificate each time.
Uptime monitoring: Automatic, round-the-clock checks that a system is reachable and working, with alerts when it is not. It is how suppliers measure the uptime figures they quote.
Utilisation rate: A ratio of productive time or paid miles to total available time or miles for a vehicle or driver.

V

V5C (vehicle registration certificate): The DVLA document, often called the logbook, that records a vehicle’s registered keeper and details. Licensing authorities usually require it to prove ownership or keepership when a vehicle is licensed.
VAT on transport: Value added tax charged on fares by VAT-registered operators; most passenger transport in the UK is standard-rated at 20%.
Vehicle Enquiry Service (VES) API: A DVLA service that returns a vehicle’s tax, MOT status and basic details from its registration number. Operators can use it to check vehicles automatically.
Vehicle licence: The licence issued by a licensing authority permitting a specific vehicle to be used as a taxi or private hire vehicle. It is tied to the vehicle and renewed after passing the required tests.
Vehicle swap: Moving a driver onto a different vehicle, or putting a replacement vehicle on a booking, for example after a breakdown or when a larger car is needed. A driver normally has to be off duty to change vehicle.
VES (Vehicle Enquiry Service) API: The DVLA API that returns a vehicle’s tax and MOT status, make, colour, fuel type and first registration date from its registration number. It checks that a vehicle entered into the fleet is taxed, tested and as described.
Via point: An intermediate stop on the route between pickup and destination, usually included in the fare calculation.
VIP and executive travel: Higher-service transport for senior staff, clients and high-profile guests, with premium vehicles, vetted drivers and tight punctuality. Discretion and flexibility are usually expected.
VIP customer: A customer flagged for priority handling, which may mean closer monitoring, a premium vehicle or a restricted group of drivers. The flag sits on the customer record, so it applies to every booking they make.
VoIP (voice over internet protocol): Making phone calls over an internet connection rather than traditional phone lines. It allows cheaper calls and lets dispatchers answer from a computer or app.

W

Wait-and-return: A booking where the driver waits at the destination and then takes the passenger back, priced with waiting time included.
Waiting area: A defined place where drivers or passengers wait, such as an airport car park or terminal holding bay. Rules on where and how long vehicles can wait affect operations and cost.
Waiting time: The time a driver waits at a pickup after arriving, which may be free for a set period and chargeable afterwards.
WAV (wheelchair-accessible vehicle): A vehicle adapted to carry a passenger seated in a wheelchair, allocated only to jobs that need that capability.
Webhook: An HTTP callback in which one system automatically posts data to a URL on another when an event occurs, such as a booking being completed. Operators use webhooks to send job updates to accounting, CRM and customer systems in real time.
WebSocket: A constantly open connection between a browser or app and a server, so updates arrive instantly without asking. Live maps commonly use it.
what3words: A geocoding system that divides the world into three-metre squares, each with a unique three-word address. Accepted where a postal address is imprecise, such as a car park entrance or a field gate.
WhatsApp Business Platform: Meta’s API for sending and receiving WhatsApp messages at scale through approved providers, using pre-approved templates for outbound messages. Used for booking confirmations and passenger replies on a channel people already have.
Wheelchair accessible vehicle (WAV): A vehicle designed or adapted to carry a passenger who stays seated in their wheelchair. Some licensing authorities require all or part of their taxi fleet to be WAVs.
Wheelchair accessible vehicle (WAV) work: Journeys carried out in vehicles fitted with a ramp or lift and wheelchair restraints. Demand comes from private bookings, contracts and local authority and NHS work.
White label: Software or an app sold under your own brand name, logo and colours rather than the supplier’s. Customers see your company, not the technology behind it.
Worker status: A legal category between employee and self-employed, which carries rights such as the minimum wage and paid holiday. A 2021 Supreme Court ruling found that private hire drivers engaged through a major app-based operator were workers rather than self-employed.

X

Xero: Cloud accounting software for invoicing, bank reconciliation and reporting. Account and contract bookings are pushed to it as invoices rather than retyped.

Z

Zoho Sign: Zoho’s electronic signature service. It handles driver documents and forms that need signing, with the signed copy stored against the driver’s record.
Zone pricing: Automatic fare rules associated with a location, boundary, airport, port or service region.
Zone queue: An ordered list of drivers waiting in a defined zone, with work offered to whoever has been waiting longest.

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