Medical patient transport taxi accounts across the UK

## What is a medical patient transport taxi account? A medical patient transport taxi account is a corporate account held by a healthcare organisation — a private clinic, dental practice, hospice or care provider — that allows nominated staff to book taxis for patients on the organisation's behalf. The patient does not pay, does not need to have the app installed, and does not need to have a card on file. The provider is billed monthly and settles a single VAT invoice. At CabsOn we treat these accounts as a distinct product rather than a generic business account with a "medical" label attached, because the requirements are genuinely different: wheelchair-accessible vehicles have to be a guarantee not a preference, drivers need passenger-assistance training, data handling has to satisfy a DPO who is used to clinical-adjacent scrutiny, and billing has to align cleanly with practice accounting software. ## Who typically opens a CabsOn medical account? The three most common categories are private medical practices (private GPs, consultant clinics, physiotherapy and rehabilitation providers), dental clinics (particularly for sedation appointments where the patient cannot legally drive home), and elderly care providers (residential care homes, nursing homes, home-care agencies, hospices). Occasionally we also serve occupational health providers arranging employee assessments and IVF clinics arranging cycle-related travel. The common thread is a duty of care to the patient combined with an operational need for reliability. A sedation dental appointment cannot proceed if the escort transport does not arrive, and a care home cannot send a resident to hospital in a vehicle that turns out not to have wheelchair access. ## How do we handle wheelchair-accessible bookings? When a booker selects a wheelchair-accessible vehicle, the ride is routed only to drivers whose vehicle is registered on our platform as a WAV — typically a converted Peugeot, Volkswagen, Ford or Mercedes with a rear ramp and floor-anchored securement points. If no WAV is available at the requested time in the requested area, we tell you at the point of booking. We do not accept the booking and then quietly downgrade the vehicle at dispatch, which is a common complaint about generic taxi apps used ad hoc for patient transport. Drivers accepting WAV bookings have completed a passenger-assistance module covering safe ramp operation, wheelchair positioning and securement using the four-point anchored restraint, and communication with passengers who have hearing, vision or cognitive impairments. Manual chairs, powered chairs and folding walkers are all accommodated. Bariatric requirements should be flagged when the account is set up so we can confirm suitable vehicle availability in your area. ## How does monthly VAT invoicing work for medical accounts? We consolidate every ride booked against your account into one PDF invoice on the 1st of each month, covering every ride in the previous calendar month. Each line shows the date and time, pickup and destination, patient reference (as your booker entered it — many practices use initials plus an internal ID rather than the full name, and that is fine), fare, and 20 percent VAT shown separately. The invoice is also available as CSV so your bookkeeper can import it directly into Xero, QuickBooks or Sage without re-keying. Invoices are downloadable from the corporate portal and, if you prefer, emailed automatically to a dedicated accounting inbox on the day of issue. Payment terms are 14 or 30 days on approved accounts, and we accept bank transfer, direct debit and card payment for account settlement. Purchase-order numbers, department cost-centres and per-department budgets are all supported, which matters if you are a multi-site care group needing to attribute rides to a specific home. ## How is patient data protected? We are UK GDPR compliant, we host data on UK infrastructure, and we ask for the minimum information required to complete the ride. That means pickup and destination address, a name or reference for the driver to greet, a mobility flag if a WAV or extra assistance is needed, and a contact number your reception team or the patient's family can be reached on at pickup. We do not ask for and do not want the reason for the appointment. If your organisation is running a Data Protection Impact Assessment — as any healthcare provider should when introducing a new supplier that touches patient data — we can provide a written data-processing summary describing what we hold, retention periods, sub-processor use, and how a subject-access request would be actioned. Your DPO can attach this to the DPIA directly. ## How does CabsOn compare to NHS non-emergency patient transport? Honestly, they solve different problems and we would encourage anyone thinking about patient transport to be clear which one they actually need. NHS non-emergency patient transport (NEPTS) is a clinical transport service with trained ambulance care assistants, stretcher capability where required, oxygen, and formal medical handovers at both ends. It is the correct answer for patients whose condition means they need supervision or equipment during the journey. It is free at the point of use for eligible patients and access is through the NHS. CabsOn is a licensed private hire taxi service. We are the correct answer when the patient is ambulant or a wheelchair user, does not need clinical supervision, and simply needs safe, comfortable, reliable transport to a private appointment. We are typically faster to book, easier to bill through a private practice, and better suited to routine appointment travel. But we are not a substitute for NEPTS where NEPTS is clinically appropriate, and we will decline bookings we believe should go through the NHS instead. ## What does it cost? Fares match our standard private hire pricing for the vehicle category and route — we do not add a medical surcharge, and monthly invoicing is not billed as a separate service fee. WAV bookings are priced against our standard WAV tariff, which reflects the higher operating cost of an accessible vehicle. Waiting time at pickup is included for the first fifteen minutes for return journeys from a clinic; standard per-minute waiting time applies beyond that. For volume accounts — typically care groups running several sites or clinics booking several rides per week — we agree fare rebates against previously agreed monthly spend thresholds. These are negotiated during account setup rather than published as a public rate card, because they depend on your route mix. ## How do you set up recurring dialysis, oncology or physio schedules? Recurring rides are configured once and then reproduce automatically until you edit or end the schedule. For a dialysis patient attending three times a week, the booker sets the schedule (patient reference, pickup, destination, vehicle category, notes) and the rides appear as confirmed bookings in the portal each week. When the treatment pattern changes — a step-down from three to two sessions, or the addition of a return leg from a different address — the amendment is a single edit rather than a re-booking. For care providers with several patients on similar appointment cycles, we can pre-load the full schedule during a scheduled operations call and then hand day-to-day control to your care coordinator, who from then on only needs to notify us of changes. ## How do we open an account and start booking? Registration is at /corporate/register. You provide your organisation name, address, VAT number if applicable, and a nominated finance contact for invoicing. We verify the account, agree credit terms, and add the bookers your practice wants to authorise. Most single-site clinics are live within an hour. Multi-site care groups typically take one to three working days because we spend time configuring departments, budgets, address whitelists and approver chains before we hand over. Once live, you can start booking immediately through business.cabson.uk or by email. There is no minimum monthly spend and no exit fee if you decide the account is not right for you.