The taxi licence in France: free, bought or rented
Without an ADS there are no street hails, and it shapes a taxi driver’s budget far more than the exam does.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources
In France, what drivers call a taxi licence is officially an ADS (autorisation de stationnement, literally a parking authorisation). There are three ways to get one. Free of charge, by joining the waiting list at the town hall, or at the Préfecture de police in Paris; you renew your place every year, and drivers with at least 2 years’ taxi work in the last 5 get priority. A free licence issued since 1 October 2014 cannot be sold and lasts 5 years, renewable. By buying an older licence, which can be sold after 15 years of operation, or 5 years after a previous sale; service-public quotes €30,000 to €300,000, around €190,000 in Paris and €250,000 in Nice. Or by renting, under a lease-management contract of at least 1 year, at about €3,500 a month in Paris. You need a professional card to apply for a free licence or to rent one.
Taxi licence: buy on credit or rent?
Monthly repayment over 10 years
€1,555
| Gap with the rent, per month | -€1,945 |
| Interest over the term | €36,549 |
| Years of rent equal to the price | 4.5 |
Default price and rent: Paris orders of magnitude published by service-public. 4.50 % rate: replace it with your own offer.
What the licence gives you, and what it does not
The ADS is tied to one vehicle and one area, which is programmed into the meter. Only an ADS lets you take street hails and work from taxi ranks. Outside its area, a taxi can only carry passengers who booked in advance, and must show proof of the booking if checked (articles L3121-11 onwards of the Transport Code). The licence is not the professional card: the card qualifies you as a person, the licence authorises the business. An owner-driver needs both.
Service-public notes that the authorities can withdraw a licence after a breach of the rules, the holder’s death or medical unfitness, and that a holder can also hand it back.
Free licences: a waiting list set by law
New licences are issued free, in the order of public waiting lists: at the town hall (mairie) in most places, at the Préfecture de police in Paris. Article L3121-5 of the Transport Code sets three conditions to register: a valid professional card, not already holding an ADS, and no more than one list per person. You must renew your registration each year, and missing a renewal costs you your place.
Priority goes to drivers who can show 2 years of taxi work during the 5 years before the licence is issued, which in practice favours employees and tenants already on the road. Service-public warns that the wait often runs to years in big cities. None of the texts we read gives an average waiting time, so ask the town hall for your position rather than relying on hearsay.
Non-transferable, personal, five years
A free licence issued since 1 October 2014 cannot be transferred and lasts 5 years, renewable (article L3121-2); service-public says to request renewal 3 months before it expires. Article L3121-1-2 adds that the holder must operate it personally: no renting it to another driver, no employee driving it on your behalf. Those options only exist for licences issued before 1 October 2014. So a recent free licence is neither an asset to sell nor an income to rent out. It is a right to work.
Buying an older licence
Only licences issued before 1 October 2014 can change hands for money. Their holder may present a paying successor after 15 years of actual, continuous operation from the date of issue, or 5 years after the first transfer; in other words, a licence you bought can be resold once you have operated it without a break for 5 years. Every sale is recorded, amount included, in a register kept by the issuing authority, and the successor must document continuous operation (article L3121-4).
The only prices we publish
The seller sets the price. We do not quote listings or broker estimates, only the orders of magnitude published by service-public, page checked on 13 July 2026.
| Benchmark | Published amount |
|---|---|
| National range | €30,000 to €300,000 |
| Paris | about €190,000 |
| Nice | about €250,000 |
| Renting in Paris, per month | about €3,500 |
You do not have to be a driver to buy: service-public accepts a purchase without a professional card. The buyer must then show the licence is rented out or driven by an employee with a card, which the pre-2014 regime allows. If you want to drive it yourself, the card comes first; the steps are on the becoming a taxi driver page.
Renting: location-gérance
A tenant signs a lease-management contract (location-gérance) of at least 1 year with a specialist firm and pays monthly rent set by that firm. You are self-employed and keep every euro of takings, and according to service-public the firm maintains the vehicle. The flip side: no unemployment benefit if you stop, and the rent is due every month whether trade was good or not.
Renting is also the usual path towards a free licence, since 2 years of tenancy within the last 5 count towards priority on the waiting list.
Buying on credit versus renting: the numbers
The table below is produced by the site’s engine from three assumptions chosen for illustration: the published Paris price (€190,000), a €40,000 deposit and a 4.5 % interest rate. These are not observed bank terms. The comparison rent is the Paris figure from service-public.
| Loan term | Monthly repayment | Total interest | Gap with rent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 years | €2,085 | €25,142 | -€1,415 |
| 10 years | €1,555 | €36,549 | -€1,945 |
| 15 years | €1,147 | €56,548 | -€2,353 |
How to read it. The repayment stays below the rent for all three terms, but it only buys the licence: an owner still pays for the car, its upkeep and insurance, whereas service-public says a rental firm maintains the vehicle. At the Nice price (€250,000), with the same assumptions over 10 years, the repayment rises to €2,176. Finally, 4.5 years of Paris rent add up to the purchase price. That is roughly the horizon from which buying starts to make sense, provided the licence keeps its value, which nobody can promise.
Rerun the numbers with your own loan offer in the calculator at the top of the page, then feed the result into the net income calculator. The taxi driver earnings page compares an owner and a tenant on the same takings.
Licence-related penalties
Articles L3124-1 to L3124-5 of the Transport Code work on two levels. Administratively, the authority can warn the holder, or withdraw the licence for a period or permanently, if it is not operated effectively and continuously or if its terms are seriously or repeatedly breached. Criminally, running a taxi business without an ADS carries 3 years in prison and a €45,000 fine, with possible licence suspension for up to 5 years, impounding for up to 1 year and confiscation.
These rules sit alongside the provisions shared by taxis and VTCs in articles L3120-1 to L3120-5, including the duty to work on pre-booking only when you have no licence or are outside your area.