How to become a private-hire car driver

Official title: Private-hire car driver

Private-hire car driver drives a motorised vehicle to transport passengers on a pre-booked basis and charges a fixed fare, usually a flat fare. He/she does not pick passengers up via street hails and does not drive around a fixed route.

Main tasks

• Driving and tending ambulances, vans, cars or taxis, to transport passengers
• Assisting passengers with handling of luggage
• Collecting fares, payments for deliveries, or documents certifying deliveries
• Operating telecommunications equipment to report location and availability and follow directions of control centre
• Determining most appropriate route
• Assisting physically challenged passengers
• Operating equipment to facilitate the loading and unloading of physically challenged passengers

Ways in

• Apprenticeship: Work-study diploma. Related ITE work-study diplomas: Work-Study Diploma in Land Transport Engineering (Vehicle). You are employed by a company and study at ITE at the same time. Peernovo matched these from course names.
• Polytechnic or ITE: ITE course (Nitec or Higher Nitec). Related ITE courses: Higher Nitec in Automotive Engineering; Technical Engineer Diploma in Automotive Engineering. Peernovo matched these from course names; ITE does not publish which jobs each course leads to.
• Licence or registration: Taxi, private-hire car and bus drivers need a vocational licence from the Land Transport Authority on top of a driving licence. That means a medical check, a course and a test. Taxi and private-hire drivers must be at least 30, bus drivers at least 21. Law: Road Traffic Act 1961. Regulator: Land Transport Authority (LTA) (https://www.lta.gov.sg).

Pay · Outlook · AI and this job

• Generative AI could change some tasks in this job, by the ILO's global estimate.

Related jobs

• Taxi driver
• Chauffeur
• Van driver
• Ambulance driver
• Parking valet

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Questions people ask

How do I become a private-hire car driver?

Ways in include: ITE course (Nitec or Higher Nitec); Work-study diploma.

Will AI change the work of a private-hire car driver?

Generative AI could change some tasks in this job, by the ILO's global estimate.

Sources

• International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026

Updated 4 October 2026