Out of area private hire briefing note

Cross border hiring refers to the practice of licensed private hire drivers and vehicles working outside the area where they are licensed. It is not illegal. The practice is permitted under current legislation and there are no geographic restrictions providing the operator, driver and vehicle are licensed in the same area (referred to as the triple licensing requirement). Local councils have no power to change or prevent this.

This restricts the ability for local councils to enforce effectively, set safety measures and knowledge standards for drivers, vehicles, and operators. This can undermine the confidence the public have in the licensed taxi and private hire trades within their area.

Any issues should be reported to the council where the taxi is licensed, and the local authority will deal with any complaints.

In addition to satisfying some specific criteria, such as holding a British driving licence for at least 12 months and having legal status to work in the UK (not exhaustive) anyone wanting to become a licensed driver must satisfy the local council where they are attempting to licence, that they are a “fit and proper person” to hold a licence.

There is no legal definition of what constitutes a fit and proper person so there is no industry standard test of ‘fit and proper’, each local authority will have prescribed standards.

Since 26 March 2012, councils across the UK have been able to request enhanced criminal record checks before issuing licences to taxi and private hire drivers. This check, commonly known as a DBS check, is applied by councils all over the UK despite it not being a legal requirement.

The government also recommends that councils require taxi drivers to meet the medical standard required of HGV drivers (ie the DVLA group 2 medical standard).

Provided that the company holds an operator’s licence and has a fleet of licensed vehicles and drivers issued by the same council they are permitted to operate anywhere in England and Wales.

There are no limitations on how many operators licences a single company can hold; therefore, they may hold multiple in various parts of England and Wales.

No local authority can impose licensing conditions on a private hire operator that would prevent the operator from doing something which the law permits. A council cannot ‘ban’ a licensed operator from a specified area.

The courts have recently determined a case in favour of an operator who had conditions restricting the movement of the fleet imposed on the operator’s licence.

Speculation that Oxford and Reading have imposed a ban on outside operators is incorrect.

Provided the triple licensing requirement is met, the vehicle is operating within the law and both the licence and insurance are valid wherever the vehicle operates, they are not invalid because they are out of the area they were licensed.

It is common practice for local private hire operators to obtain a second private hire operator’s licence from another council area and then subcontract local bookings to the second private hire licensed operator and dispatch vehicles/drivers licensed by the second council.

The law allows holders of hackney carriage licences, to be available for hire in the area they are licensed, to carry pre-booked journeys anywhere in England and Wales.

‘Intended use policies’ can be adopted by councils who want to reduce the number of hackney carriages working predominantly to carry pre-booked fares in other areas rather than being available for hire in their licensed area.

These policies only have relevance to the licensing of hackney carriage drivers. Any attempt to implement similar policies in respect of private hire drivers would fail because the restrictions would be in direct conflict with the principles of cross border hiring.

Provided the application is complete, meets and satisfies all the specified criteria and the relevant fee is paid, the application cannot be rejected. 

Where authorised officers from a local council detect offences that fall within their area, these can be investigated, and a suitable criminal sanction considered as appropriate.

When certain offences are committed under the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 and Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, authorised officers are able to take action against vehicles/drivers not licensed by their authority.

These are limited to offences where only the local authority where the offence took place has the option to consider prosecution action. For example, waiting on hackney stands and illegally plying for trade.

Whether vehicles are required to carry a company sticker or other identity marking is a matter for the respective council who licence the vehicle. For example, Blackpool Council require private hire vehicles to display the message “licensed private hire vehicle not insured unless pre-booked”.

Blackpool does not require the company name to be advertised on vehicles licensed by them but does permit it. Other councils may have different requirements on what must be displayed on the licensed vehicle, compared with what is permitted to be displayed.

Local authorities do not set the fares for private hire vehicles, only hackney carriages and this is a maximum chargeable fare only, the trade could decide to charge less.