Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping to get some help or guidance here, as I’ve been going back and forth with TfL for the past couple of months over a PCN I received, and I’m now at a point where I’m not sure what to do next.

The PCN is for allegedly stopping where prohibited (on a red route or clearway) outside 2 York Way, N1, near King’s Cross station. I'm a PCO licensed driver, and from what I can recall, I was there to pick up a passenger at the time of the contravention.

As many fellow drivers will know, ride-hailing apps (Uber, Bolt, etc.) often place the passenger pickup point at the closest possible GPS location, even if that’s not a safe or legal place to stop. This often leads to confusion for the passenger, and we’re left trying to guide them to where we actually are — all while on a red route or in a restricted area we didn’t choose. From memory, this is what happened on the night in question.

Unfortunately, I no longer have the trip receipt as some apps like Bolt only store job history for a short time, while others keep it for years. I explained all this to TfL and even provided my PCO badge number in the appeal, hoping it would support my case and prove I was working at the time — but they rejected it anyway.

It’s been a very frustrating and exhausting process over the past 2 months. I had genuinely believed that being a licensed PCO driver, with the understanding that pickups can sometimes happen on red routes under certain operational allowances, would result in the PCN being cancelled. Sadly, that hasn't been the case.

I’ve attached the wording I used in my appeal below for reference.

I now have about 1 day left before the 50% discounted payment period expires, and I’m stuck between paying it or taking it to the tribunal. I wasn’t stopped for long — certainly not more than 5 minutes, as per the platform’s rules around waiting time before cancellation — and I was there for a legitimate passenger job.

I’d really appreciate any advice on whether it's worth taking this to tribunal or if I should just pay and move on. This whole experience has been discouraging, and I feel like I’ve been backed into a corner despite trying to do the right thing.

Thanks in advance for any help or guidance.

Location of contravention: https://maps.app.goo.gl/y8D9H4xEGa6vo87x7

https://imgur.com/a/rsdrpZg

So, looking at the GSV view and also reading your narrative, it is clear you stopped and were stationary for 5 minutes on the double-red lines in the street alongside Kings Cross Station.

This is what Transport for London say about Taxis and Private Hire vehicles on their website: -

Quote

Taxi & private hire
Always display your licence and exemption sticker. Private hire vehicle owners will now be offered red route exemption stickers at the point of inspection. We will not, under any circumstances, issue a red route sign to an individual whose vehicle is not on site for a licensing inspection.

You can pick up and drop off passengers on most red routes as long as you display your private hire vehicle (PHV) license. It will tell police, CCTV operators and other road users that you're allowed to do this. It also means that you'll avoid receiving a penalty charge.

You can't stop on the parts of the red route with a wide red line, pedestrian crossings or zigzags.

So provided you display your PHV licence you should be exempt, and any PCN served incorrectly should be cancelled by TfL. However, you have not posted up the other information we need to see, like your PCN, and the correspondence between you and TfL, so please do so.

The problem is that I see no PHV licence visible on your vehicle, so that seems to be the problem. I assume it's a yellow plate with your licence details on it. However, maybe London is different. Here in Crewe ply-for-hire cabs have white plates, and privated hire cars yellow ones. They are always mounted as near the rear number plate as possible.

Thanks for your reply and for taking the time to look into this — I really appreciate the help from everyone so far.

Regarding the PHV licence display: in London, TfL issues private hire vehicle licence badges in the form of two small circular stickers. These are attached from the inside of the vehicle — one on the top left corner of the front windscreen and the other in the same position on the rear window. Unlike some other councils where large external plates are used, TfL’s method makes the badges harder to spot unless you're viewing the vehicle from quite close up, especially at night or from certain angles. In most cases, the front badge is the most likely one to be picked up by a camera, but even then, visibility can vary.

That could very well be why the licence wasn't clearly visible in this case — even though it was there. I’ve always kept it in place as required.

As for the correspondence with TfL and the actual PCN, I’ll upload those shortly for context. I’m just going through and gathering everything properly before posting.

Again, thank you to everyone who's responded — your help has been genuinely appreciated.

One other thing, If i do try to take the appeal further as TFL has Suggested, on what statutory grounds could i even appeal under and what are the chances of me winning the appeal.

OP, let's sort out who's who first pl.

You are not the registered keeper; you do not have a PCN in your own name; whether to appeal to the tribunal is not your decision although you may act for the keeper with their consent.

If the keeper lost at appeal would they charge you a fee for processing payment of the penalty?

TfL say you were stopped for 4 minutes, you say you had your brake lights on all the time which proves it was more momentary. The CCTV will show, I suspect TfL are correct. You then drove off without anyone boarding and you don't have any job sheet or similar record for the day.

Barring there being procedural grounds to make an appeal worthwhile then why risk the discount?

We really need to know who's who.

Thanks for the reply — let me clarify the situation:

I'm not the registered keeper of the vehicle, but I hire it directly from the company that owns it — no third party involved. I was also the driver on the night in question.

If I do decide to challenge it at tribunal, there won’t be any extra charges from the company that owns the vehicle — they’re not involved beyond the hire. So the only risk on my end would be losing the discount and having to pay the full PCN amount. I’ve never taken a case this far before, so I’m not fully sure what costs or steps might come with the tribunal process.

Normally, if I make a mistake or stop somewhere I shouldn't, I take the hit, pay the PCN, and treat it as a lesson. I don’t usually challenge things unless I genuinely believe there’s some justification — and in this case, I was genuinely there to pick up a passenger.

Unfortunately, if the PCN had arrived even a few days earlier, I might’ve been able to retrieve the relevant job record or cancellation proof. But by the time it came through, that data was gone. So at this point, there’s no point dwelling on what I could’ve done.

I’m seriously considering just paying the discounted rate now — unless there’s a clear procedural ground to challenge it. I'm aware that appealing and then losing means paying full price, and with limited evidence and no guarantee, it may not be worth the time and stress.

You can treat this as more of a last attempt to check if there’s any solid ground to go on. If I’d known about this forum earlier, I would’ve started here — but it is what it is.

Thanks again to everyone who's taken the time to help.

Please Advice.