How to know whether a driver and a vehicle are authorised: the VTC authorisation and the taxi licence in Spain, and how to check the equivalent abroad

What is a VTC authorisation and what is a taxi licence?

In Spain, carrying passengers in a car for a price requires an enabling title, and there are two. The taxi licence is granted by the city council, is tied to one vehicle and one holder, and allows picking up customers in the street and at ranks at a tariff the council itself sets; to leave the municipality, the taxi also needs an interurban transport authorisation. The chauffeured hire vehicle authorisation, the VTC, is issued by the region on behalf of the State, is entered in the national register and allows providing services contracted in advance, with the price known before getting in and without being able to pick up customers in the street or wait at taxi ranks.

Both figures come from the same law, the Land Transport Organisation Act, and its regulation, and both subject the vehicle and the company to similar requirements: specific insurance, more frequent technical inspection, professional competence of the holder and a vehicle meeting the characteristics the rules set. The difference that matters to the traveller is not quality but the way of contracting: a taxi can be hailed by hand; a VTC only exists for whoever has booked it beforehand. A car offering a ride at the door of a terminal without a prior booking cannot be a VTC that complies with the rules, and if it is not a licensed taxi either, it is nothing.

Which badges and documents travel on board in Spain?

A taxi is recognisable from outside: the colours or stripe each municipality sets, the licence number visible on the bodywork, the roof light and the meter in the passenger's view, with the official tariff displayed inside. A VTC carries on the glass the official badge set by national regulation, plus the regional one where a region has created it, with the authorisation number, and has neither a meter nor a roof light. Inside, both must carry the vehicle and insurance documents, and the driver a valid driving licence and, where the region or the municipality requires it, the professional accreditation that allows them to drive that type of vehicle.

What is specific to the VTC is the service documentation: each trip must be contracted before it starts and communicated to the national register, so the driver can prove, if the inspectorate asks, for whom, from where and to where they are driving. For the passenger that documentation is useful indirectly: a platform that pre-books has told them beforehand which car, which plate and which driver they have been assigned, and the match between what was announced and what arrives is the quickest check there is. The piece on safety details which insurance and inspections lie behind it; here it is enough to know that badge, plate and booking must tell the same story.

How do you look up the Ministry's public register by registration plate?

The Ministry of Transport keeps the Register of Transport Companies and Activities, where the country's road transport authorisations are recorded, VTCs among them, and offers a public lookup on its electronic office where it is enough to enter the registration plate to learn whether that vehicle holds an authorisation in force, of which class and belonging to which company. No digital certificate or sign-up is needed: it is public information because the authorisation is an administrative act that concerns anyone who gets into the car. The lookup also returns the status, which can be in force, suspended or expired, and that word is the one that matters.

For taxis the path is different, because the licence is municipal: many councils publish the census of licences and the number each vehicle must display, and the taxi's interurban authorisation does appear in the national register. It is worth doing the lookup calmly before the trip when hiring an unknown company, not on the kerb with the car waiting: a serious platform has already done it when onboarding each vehicle, and says so in its terms. If the plate does not appear or shows as not in force, there are two possible explanations, an error in the data or a vehicle that should not be providing service, and both deserve a question before getting in.

Which signs warn of an unlicensed service and what do you do then?

The first sign is the way of soliciting: someone who approaches in the arrivals area or at the exit of a station offering a car nobody asked for is providing neither a taxi service, which is hired at the rank or by hailing the car, nor a VTC service, which requires a prior booking. The second is the price: a figure negotiated on the kerb, written nowhere and charged only in cash, with no receipt or invoice. The third is the car: no badge, no licence number, a plate the driver does not want written down, or a driver who does not match the one the booking announced.

There are less obvious signs that also count. A driver who asks to be paid outside the platform the booking was made with, to avoid the commission, leaves the passenger without a contract, without the company's insurance and with nobody to complain to. A booking that arrives without the plate or the driver's name before the service, or a company whose contact details include neither an address nor a tax identification number, allow nothing to be checked. If something does not add up, what you do is simple: do not get in, alert the platform through the channel used to book and, if there was an attempt to deceive, report it to the regional transport inspectorate or the local police with the plate, the place and the time.

How do you check the equivalent in other countries?

Outside Spain there is no single rule. In the European Union access to the road transport operator profession is harmonised only for vehicles with more than nine seats; taxis and chauffeured cars are a matter for each State, and often for each city, so the badge changes but the logic repeats: a public licence or authorisation, a visible identification on the vehicle and a document for the driver. In France the chauffeured vehicle carries an official badge and the driver a professional card; in Italy the chauffeured hire authorisation is municipal and the vehicle displays it; in Portugal the activity has its own licence and badge; in the United Kingdom the licence is granted by the local authority and the vehicle carries a plate with its number.

Further afield, the practical check is the same almost anywhere: that the booking comes from an identifiable company, with an address and tax details in its country, that it confirms the vehicle and the driver beforehand, that it publishes its terms and hands over a receipt or an invoice, and that the vehicle displays the identification the local authority requires, be it a plate, a sticker or a number on the door. At the big airports of almost any country there are signposted zones for booked cars and notices warning against anyone offering a car inside the terminal; that warning is the most useful clue. It is also worth asking about passenger insurance, which in many countries is not automatic as it is in Spain. The piece on how to choose an airport transfer in another country expands on these criteria.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Ley 16/1987, de Ordenación de los Transportes Terrestres: títulos habilitantes para el transporte de viajeros, taxi y arrendamiento de vehículos con conductor (consulted on 27 October 2026)
• Real Decreto 1211/1990, Reglamento de la Ley de Ordenación de los Transportes Terrestres: autorizaciones, distintivos y documentación a bordo (consulted on 27 October 2026)
• Ministerio de Transportes y Movilidad Sostenible · Registro de Empresas y Actividades de Transporte: consulta pública de autorizaciones por matrícula (consulted on 27 October 2026)
• Reglamento (CE) 1071/2009 sobre el acceso a la profesión de transportista por carretera: ámbito de aplicación (vehículos de más de nueve plazas) y competencia nacional sobre taxi y coche con conductor (consulted on 27 October 2026)