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Dear All,

I was wondering if anyone can offer any advice with bookings for a Chauffuer service.

I am starting up a new company and i will be fully licensed with my local council. My question is; am I able to provide my service to customers not in the area covered by my local council? If i get a booking from a neighbouring city can i go ahead and collect the customer or am i operating outside of the law or rules of licensing?

Cheers
Matt.

Some councils say that the bookings must either be picked up in your licensing area, or dropped off in it. However they are talking rubbish.

Provided the phone call goes to the operating centre registered with your council, then basically where that job is, or where it's going matter not.

In other words, if you and your vehicle are licensed in Liverpool, and the phone booking comes via your operating base, then you could do a job from Plymouth to Bristol, and it would be entirely within the law.

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IDFIMH

just dont mention it to mr. Preece !!

Thats a great help, thanks for your time.

I guess i am going to have more competition than i first thought!

Matt.

I'm just wondering what's the difference between a licensed Chauffuer service, and a licensed PH service.

Alex

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ʎɐqǝ uo pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ɐ ʎnq ı ǝɯıʇ ʇsɐן ǝɥʇ sı sıɥʇ

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I dont believe there is any!. I will just license myself and my vehicle for PH.

Matt.

chauffaurs wear a tie and polish there shoes ph drivers wear a fleece and trainers, chauffers become airport specialists and ph drivers are wannabee hackney drivers

maybe where you are !! we all wear shirt and ties down here and its the HC lads who wear the t-shirts and trainers....

MattC wrote:



As stated previously this may not apply to ALL licensing authorities, but in London, a Chauffeur comes under private hire licensing regs.

All providing the booking is taken by a licensed operator and the booking is prebooked by telephone and is undertaken by licensed driver, from the same authority as the operator, and the driver is registered as a driver for that operator, or is a operator himself, then it's ok to pick up and drop off anywhere. I suspect this applies to PH in all parts of the country.

The question that begs here is, why would you want to take a booking that starts and finishes a long way from your operational base

Yes one could charge on a fixed fare to include the dead mileage, but then would the punter be happy to pay the extra, I doubt it.

If you offer a good reliable service with clean comfortable cars with smart drivers who know where they are going, then you shouldn't have to leave your local area for work.

If you think there is not enough quality custom in your local area then set up as an operator in an area that has. At least that way when you do expand and take on more drivers you won't have to contend with them complaining with the dead mileage.

There is enough dead mileage in Chauffeuring as it is without creating more for no good reason

Regards

Eric

Eric, I quite agree with everything you say. I dont particularly want to travel long distances to collect bookings that are miles away.

The main reason i asked this question was because my operating base is on the border with three different counties with large towns very close to me in each county.

Matt.

quite right too,
we get the lunatics who wanna strangle us with our ties
not so good with the health and safety at work act.

we also need trainers, help with catching the runners.

MattC wrote:



Sounds like my idea of heaven, go for it and all the best of luck.

Regards

Eric