Ask any taxi or private hire driver if they’ve ever had a moment of panic about an upcoming expiry date and you’ll get a very honest answer. Between your private hire licence, vehicle licence, DBS check, medical certificate, insurance renewal, and DVLA driving licence, there’s a lot to keep on top of — and the consequences of letting any one of them lapse are serious.
Driver Matty’s free Licence and Certificate Tracker is built to take that stress off the table entirely.
What Is It?
The Licence and Cert Tracker at DriverMatty.com is a simple, free tool that lets you log all your expiry dates in one place. You enter the dates, the tool categorises everything into Good, Due Soon, and Urgent, and then — crucially — you can download a single calendar file and import the whole lot into Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook in one click. Every reminder, all at once, sitting in your phone or computer ready to alert you well before anything runs out.
No account needed, no subscription, no data sent anywhere. Just a clean, practical tool that does exactly what it says.
Why It Matters More Than You Think
The rules around letting a private hire or taxi licence expire are unforgiving. Under UK law, you cannot legally work as a taxi or PHV driver once your driver licence expires — full stop. There’s no grace period for carrying passengers. If you’re on the road without a valid licence, you can be prosecuted.
It gets worse if you leave it too long. In London, if your PCO licence has been expired for more than three months, TfL will no longer treat it as a renewal — you’ll be classed as a new applicant and have to go through the entire application process again from scratch, including fees, tests, and the medical. Other councils operate similar rules. Peterborough City Council, for example, states that drivers who miss the renewal deadline are de-licensed and must reapply as a new driver.
The same risk applies to your vehicle licence. Driving a taxi or PHV without a valid vehicle licence is also a prosecutable offence — and your insurance won’t be valid either, which creates an entirely separate legal problem.
What Drivers Need to Track
The tracker covers all the key dates that private hire and taxi drivers need to stay on top of. That typically includes the private hire driver licence itself, usually issued for three years but varying by local authority; the vehicle licence; the DBS enhanced disclosure check; the Group 2 medical, which is required every five years for most drivers; insurance renewal; and the DVLA driving licence. In London, PCO badge holders also need to track their badge expiry separately.
Every one of these has a different renewal window, a different lead time, and a different set of documents required. Keeping them all in your head — or scattered across different reminder apps and bits of paper — is asking for trouble. Pulling them all into one calendar view makes the whole thing manageable.
The Tax Check Wrinkle
One thing worth knowing when it comes to licence renewals: since April 2022 in England and Wales, and October 2023 in Scotland, drivers renewing a taxi or private hire licence must complete an HMRC tax check as part of the process. This confirms how you’re paying tax on your self-employed earnings. It adds a step to the renewal process that some drivers aren’t aware of until they’re already in the middle of their application — so building extra lead time into your renewal reminder is sensible.
Keep the Tools Working For You
The Licence and Cert Tracker sits alongside Driver Matty’s other free tools — the Uber Earnings Calculator and the Shift Planner — as part of a suite of genuinely useful resources built specifically for UK private hire and taxi drivers. None of them require a sign-up, and all of them are designed around the practical realities of the job.
For any driver who’s ever had that sinking feeling about whether they’ve renewed something on time, it’s well worth five minutes to get everything logged.
You can use it free at DriverMatty.com.
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Sources
- Driver Matty — Licence & Certificate Tracker
- GOV.UK — Driver licences for taxis and private hire vehicles
- GOV.UK — Vehicle licences for taxis or private hire vehicles
- Zego — How to get a UK taxi licence 2026
- Get Licensed UK — PCO Licence guide
- Peterborough City Council — Private hire licence renewal
- Stockport Council — Renew your private hire licence
