Information and application forms for a Private Hire Operators Licence

A private hire operator's licence is required by any person making vehicles available to undertake private hire bookings. This applies to all private hire bookings where a vehicle with less than 8 passenger seats is used to undertake the hiring regardless of the terminology used to define the vehicle, i.e. executive hire, minicab, chauffeur hire private hire etc.
An operators licence is also required when advertising private hire services and handing out business cards.

A licence is not required in respect of private hiring undertaken by hackney carriages.

Private hire operators may take bookings from outside the borough where they are licensed: the licence should be obtained from the local authority for the area in which they are based.
Private hire operators may only give bookings to drivers and vehicles licensed by the local authority that issued the operators licence.

A private hire operator is required to keep records of all hirings which they accept and details of the drivers and vehicles used to undertake those hiring. These records must be keep available for inspection by authorised officers of the council at all reasonable time.