"I earn €7,000 a month." It’s the most frequently repeated phrase in adverts for private hire licences — and the least substantiated. Anyone can write it; almost no one backs it up. The income certificate from VTC360 exists to turn that phrase into verifiable data, and the effect on the price is measurable.
What exactly do we verify?
When a seller requests verification of their licence history, the team cross-checks three independent sources, month by month:
- Platform settlement statements. Payment statements from Uber, Cabify or Bolt for the period, downloaded from the platform’s portal, showing a breakdown of journeys, commission and net amount.
- Bank statements. The actual deposits into the account holder’s account must match the payment statements. If the money did not reach the bank, it does not count.
- Tax consistency. We verify that the declared turnover is consistent with the above; a series that does not pass this cross-check will not be certified.
The result is a monthly series of verified earnings — typically covering 12–18 months — which we publish on the profile page along with its versioned methodology and issue date. We do not gloss over poor months: if there was a dip due to a breakdown or a change of driver, that is how it is recorded. The credibility of the series lies precisely in this.
The certainty scale
Not all licences can have their history certified, and that’s fine: that’s why there are three levels.
- Verified history: the licence has been generating revenue for months and can demonstrate this document by document.
- Projection based on comparables: the licence is currently inactive (due to retirement or a change of business activity) and we estimate its revenue-generating capacity using comparable completed transactions in the province, across low, medium and high ranges.
- Guaranteed income: a verified operator within the network contractually guarantees a minimum monthly income for an agreed period. This is the highest level: the uncertainty is borne by the operator, not the buyer.
Why the price varies
A professional buyer factors in the uncertainty. Given two identical licences in the same province, the one that provides proof of income sells for more and faster, for a simple mathematical reason: the buyer is paying a multiple of the expected income, and without verification they apply their own defensive discount — or simply do not make an enquiry.
We see this in the marketplace itself: certified listings attract the majority of requests for information packs and are sold with less haggling over the asking price. Certification does not inflate the value of the licence; it eliminates the discount due to mistrust that the seller was unwittingly absorbing.
Rule of thumb for sellers: if your licence is generating revenue, get it certified before listing it. The cost of the certificate is recouped in the very first negotiation that doesn’t begin with ‘How can you prove this to me?’.
What this certificate is not
It is neither a valuation nor a guarantee of future income: it is the verification, backed by documents, of the licence’s past performance. Projections are labelled as such, with their range and comparables clearly shown. And guaranteed income is an enforceable contract, not a commercial promise.
If you’re selling, start by valuing your licence and request certification upon registration. If you’re buying, look for the seal on the listing — and if it’s not there, you know what to ask: the certainty ladder explains what each level certifies.