On the 24th March 2021, the Department for Transport published a document entitled “Transport: Disability and Accessibility Statistics, England 2019/20” that makes for interesting reading should you, for instance, be a taxi driver or the driver of a private hire vehicle.

In England, in 2019, adults who had a disability used a taxi or private hire vehicle more than someone who did not have a disability. Those with a disability, on average, made 17 trips in a taxi or private hire vehicle compared to 11 trips being made by those without a disability in such vehicles. Those trips covered a total of 64 miles for those with a disability and 65 miles for those without a disability.

Wheelchair accessibility was provided by all 19,000 taxis in London but outside London the figure dropped to 82%. If you take into account every licensed vehicle in London, only 17% are accessible by wheelchair whereas outside London the figure drops to only 10%.

It is pleasing to see that there was an increase in the number of authorities who insisted on taxi drivers being trained on disability awareness between 2019 and 2020 although it is disappointing that a larger percentage of authorities do not insist on such training. In 2019, 44% of authorities insisted on such training whereas in 2020 the figure was 47% for taxi drivers. In the case of drivers of private hire vehicles, in 2019, 41% of authorities insisted on such training whereas in 2020 the figure was 44%.

So, how satisfied were disabled and non- disabled passengers who used taxis and private hire vehicles in England but not including London in 2019? Well, overall, 73% of those with a disability were satisfied compared to only 69% without a disability. 75% of disabled users were satisfied with reliability compared to 72% without a disability. 77% of disabled users were satisfied with availability compared to 74% of users without a disability. Only 58% of disabled users were satisfied with the cost compared to only 57% of users who were not disabled.