Renting a taxi licence in France: lease management and tenant drivers
French law lets only some taxi licences be rented, and only in a specific legal form.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources
Renting a taxi licence in France means running someone else’s licence (autorisation de stationnement, ADS) in return for rent. The Transport Code frames it tightly. Since the law of 1 October 2014, a licence holder must run the licence personally (article L3121-1-2), and licences issued after that date cannot be transferred and last five years (article L3121-2), so they cannot be rented out. Only licences issued before 1 October 2014 may be run by employees, by a tenant manager (locataire-gérant) who leases both licence and car under the commercial code’s lease-management rules, or by a cooperative that rents the taxi to its members. Service-public, the government information site, adds that the contract lasts at least 1 year, that the rental firm maintains the car, that the tenant keeps all fares and has no unemployment cover. Rent is freely set and runs at about €3,500 a month in Paris, according to the same source.
Renting a licence: the takings you need
Meter takings needed per week
€2,250
| Of which rent, per working week | €913 |
| Rent as a share of takings | 41 % |
| Contributions per month at that level | €900 |
Default rent: Paris order of magnitude published by service-public. Fuel, servicing and insurance: the engine’s example values, 46 working weeks.
What the Transport Code says
Three provisions settle the matter. They sit in articles L3121-1 to L3121-8, as amended by the law of 1 October 2014 on taxis and VTCs.
- Personal operation. Article L3121-1-2 sets the principle: the holder runs the licence personally and proves actual, continuous operation under conditions set by decree.
- The exception for older licences. The same article provides that where someone holds one or more licences issued before 1 October 2014, they may be run by employees, or by a tenant manager to whom the rental of the licence and the car has been granted under articles L144-1 to L144-13 of the commercial code. A worker cooperative (société coopérative ouvrière de production) holding licences may also rent the taxi to its members who are authorised to drive.
- Newer licences cannot be transferred. Article L3121-2 states that licences issued after the 2014 law are non-transferable and valid for five years, renewable.
The upshot: only licences predating 1 October 2014 can be rented. A free licence recently granted by a town hall can be neither sold nor rented; its holder has to drive it. Our page on the taxi licence explains both regimes.
Tenant manager, cooperative member or employee
| Arrangement | What you get | What you pay | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tenant manager (locataire-gérant) | licence and car, leased together | monthly rent, about €3,500 in Paris per service-public | self-employed, no unemployment cover |
| Cooperative member | the taxi rented by the cooperative | the rental set by the cooperative | per the cooperative’s rules |
| Employee | a company car | nothing: you earn a fixed wage plus a share of takings | employee |
In everyday French, the first arrangement is called “taxi locataire”, the tenant taxi. Service-public uses the same idea: you rent a licence from a firm specialising in taxi licence rental, through a lease-management contract of at least 1 year; you pay monthly rent; the rental firm maintains the car; you keep all your fares; you are not covered by unemployment insurance if you stop.
Lease-management rules
The Transport Code points to the commercial code, whose general rules are summarised on service-public’s lease-management page:
- the contract is published as an extract or notice in a legal notices outlet within 15 days of signing;
- the tenant manager registers the business within 15 days of starting work;
- between signing and publication, owner and tenant manager are jointly liable for debts arising from the business;
- the rent is freely agreed and subject to VAT at the standard 20 % rate, which the owner may pass on if the contract says so.
Those rules apply to any lease management; service-public’s taxi page adds the one-year minimum. Read the contract for the split of costs: service-public says the rental firm maintains the car, but insurance, tyres, taxi equipment and the excess after an accident should all be written down. If French is not your first language, have the contract checked before signing, since it binds you for a year.
What the rent means in takings
Licence rent is a fixed cost: it falls due every month, good week or bad. So the useful question is not “what does the licence cost” but “how much must I take to live with this rent”. That is what the calculator does: from the rent and the monthly net income you are aiming for, it finds the weekly meter takings that produce it, using example fuel, servicing and insurance costs and the contributions of your tax regime.
The regime matters a great deal. As a micro-entrepreneur, contributions are charged on takings and rent is not deducted; under the real-profit regime, rent reduces the profit on which contributions are charged. For a tenant the gap is often large, so try both options. Our page on how much a taxi driver earns compares an owner and a tenant on the same takings.
Renting now, owning later
Renting is not only a cost: it counts as activity. Service-public states that priority for a free licence goes to employed or tenant drivers already active for at least 2 years. And the health insurance framework agreement opens approval to the licence holder or the person running it, after 3 years of actual use: see our page on CPAM-approved taxis.
The flip side: renting an expensive licence for years means paying its price without ever owning it. The calculator on the taxi licence page compares buying on credit with renting, month by month.
What is not allowed
Renting out a licence issued after 1 October 2014, or having someone else run it outside the permitted arrangements, falls outside article L3121-1-2. Articles L3124-1 to L3124-5 allow the authorities to withdraw, temporarily or for good, a licence that is not actually and continuously run or whose terms are seriously or repeatedly breached. Before signing, check the licence’s issue date and who is renting it to you: the holder, a rental firm or a cooperative.
Checklist before signing
- Was the licence issued before 1 October 2014? Ask for the grant decision.
- Is the contract a lease management of both licence and car, for at least 1 year?
- Who pays for servicing, insurance, compulsory equipment and the excess?
- Is the rent quoted before or after VAT?
- With that rent, do realistic takings leave the net income you need? The calculator tells you.
A self-employed tenant registers and pays contributions like an owner-driver: see our page on self-employed taxi drivers, and the route to becoming a taxi driver puts the licence in its place among the steps.