Can a VTC driver take direct clients?

The rule: the prior booking

The French Transport Code reserves unbooked pickups for taxis. A VTC driver carries only clients who booked in advance (article L3120-2). The booking channel is not prescribed: an app, a phone call, a WhatsApp message, an email or a form on your site are all prior bookings.

So keep a record: the message, email or booking note, with the date, time and pickup location. If you are checked, that is what proves the ride was booked (your client's text from the night before for a 6 a.m. Orly run, say).

What is forbidden: plying for hire

• Parking or cruising on the public road while waiting for a client.
• Picking up a passenger who waves you down in the street.
• Waiting near a station or airport longer than the time allowed before a booked pickup.

Penalties are set out, among others, in article L3124-4 of the Transport Code. They target pickups without a booking. Having clients of your own is not the issue.

What about the apps?

If you are self-employed (micro-entreprise, SASU, EURL), nothing stops you having clients outside the apps.

During a ride ordered through an app, however, the app's terms apply. Read them, because they usually govern what you may offer a passenger during the trip. In practice:

• Do not offer to redo the current ride off the app.
• Hand your card to a passenger who asks for it, for a future booking, where its terms allow.
• Build your clients alongside: Google profile, local businesses, word of mouth.

What to check on your side

• Your VTC professional card and your VTC register entry are up to date. You can show your register number on your page to reassure clients.
• Your insurance covers carrying passengers for hire on all your rides, not only app rides.
• A direct ride is invoiced like any other service, with your usual details.
• The price is agreed when booking, and the client knows it before getting in.

Outside France

Elsewhere, the rules change from one country to the next. In the UK, a private-hire driver taking their own bookings generally needs an operator's licence as well as a driver's licence. In California, carrying passengers on your own account falls under a TCP permit. Check with your local licensing authority before taking direct bookings.

Where Chauffeur Pro fits

Chauffeur Pro gives VTC and private-hire drivers a website, a QR code and business cards so their passengers book them direct, with no commission. A passenger who scans your QR code calls or messages you to book: that exchange can serve as your record of the booking. A booking made at the kerb stays risky. Chauffeur Pro is not affiliated with any ride-hailing app.