Driving for Bolt: the full guide

Bolt is the main competitor to Uber for private hire in most UK cities. The work looks the same from the driver's seat. The details that matter for your money are how the payout is calculated, what the tribunal said about your status, and how to report the income.

What you need

Bolt does not issue licences. Private hire is licensed by your local council, or by Transport for London in London, and Bolt checks you hold what they require:

• A private hire driver licence, which means a DBS check, a medical and whatever knowledge or English test your authority sets.
• A licensed private hire vehicle that meets the authority's age, size and emissions rules. Bolt can point you at rental partners if you do not have one.
• Private hire insurance covering hire and reward for passengers.
• A phone on Android 9 or iOS 16 or later.

Registration is online: you choose your city and licence type, upload documents and verify your identity.

How the payout is worked out

Each fare depends on distance, time and location, with campaigns on top at times and tips when riders leave them. Bolt takes its commission and pays the balance. The pay cycle runs Monday 00:00 to Sunday 23:59, and the payout follows the balance statement each week.

Bolt advertises a median weekly figure for UK drivers. It is a median of what riders paid, before your costs, across every city, so it tells you little about one driver in one town. Your own logged hourly rate after fuel, the car and tax is the number to trust.

Report the fares, not the payout

Profit comes out the same either way, which is why so many drivers report the payout. It still matters. The VAT threshold, the trading allowance and Making Tax Digital all look at turnover, and a driver who reports net figures can be past a threshold without knowing.

Worker status

In November 2024 an employment tribunal found that Bolt drivers represented by Leigh Day are workers, not self-employed contractors, because of the control Bolt has over the work. It went further than the Uber ruling on one point: pay should cover the time logged into the app, not just time on trips, so long as the driver was not logged into a rival app at the same time. Compensation is decided separately.

Worker status is an employment-law category. For HMRC you are still self-employed, nothing is taken at source, and you still file a Self Assessment return. If you drive for Bolt and another app at once, keep a record of your logged-in times per app, because that split is exactly what a holiday pay or minimum wage claim turns on. Worker status and what the Uber ruling changed sets out the three categories.

The 2026 VAT change

In March 2025 the Upper Tribunal ruled against Bolt on how it accounted for VAT, and from 2 January 2026 private hire and taxi operators can no longer use the Tour Operators' Margin Scheme. An operator that contracts with riders as principal now accounts for 20% VAT on the whole fare rather than on its margin.

That is the operator's VAT, not yours. You only register for VAT if your own taxable turnover goes over the threshold, and HMRC's guidance says drivers are affected only if they themselves used the margin scheme. What drivers do feel is the knock-on: fares go up or the operator's share changes. The 2026 VAT change on private hire explains it in full.

Costs and tax

Private hire has the heaviest costs of any app work: the licence and its renewals, the vehicle licence, private hire insurance, the car, and often a weekly rental. Claim business miles at 55p for the first 10,000 and 25p after, or claim actual costs instead. Licence renewals, and the DBS checks and medicals needed to keep your licence, are allowable, and so is the commission.

If you rent your car, the choice between the mileage rate and actual costs deserves arithmetic rather than habit. Renting a PCO car: mileage rate or actual costs works it through.