Taxi Driver Online

Hi can a private hire driver be licensed in London then take bookings from his home address in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. We now have a private hire vehicle licensed in London, no plate advertising his services in Wisbech stating he is Licensed in London. As normal we cannot get hold of licensing officer to discuss.

I believe that if he is a PCO licensed operator then the answer is yes.

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Grandad,

He must have a London operator's license, and with that he must have an operating base in London where the bookings are received.

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IDFIMH

Having spoken with my licencing officer about bookings out of area, he says the loophole at the moment is not to have an area-coded phone number, just a mobile. As a one or two car operator, I don't need an office to take bookings. The reason I asked is that I recently moved out of area, just a couple of miles over the border.

There's quite a few ?London hacks who live in the area, whether or not they take bookings here can't say because I don't know.

We have to have a landline number to have an operators license. Even hackneys are not allowed to display a mobile number on their vehicles.

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Grandad,

but in complete fairness, your council are pretty sh*te.

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

And here's me trying to join them!!!

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Grandad,

you'll up the average

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

To, legally, take bookings for the use of a private hire vehicle from his home address in Wisbech requires a private hire operators licence granted by the licensing authority responsible for the Wisbech area. The same applies if a mobile phone is used to take the bookings, anywhere, within the Wisbech licensing district. Following on from that requirement, at present, the only way for any journey booked though that, licensed, private hire operator to be legal is for the driver and vehicle to, also, be licensed by the Wisbech licensing authority. All three licences must be granted by the same licensing authority and that authority must be the authority that granted the private hire operators licence.
Telephone area codes and such have no effect on the legal requirement for a PHO licence to be granted by the Wisbech authority. Where the acceptance of the private hire booking is taken is the deciding factor - his home address in Wisbech.

Hi, Thank you all for your replies. This seems a very grey area. I have spoken at last to licensing officer and was told that he needed a fenland ops license and plate so it does seem he is acting illegally at present.

PCO licensed operators have different rules.

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Grandad,

So do Plymouth ones.

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Chris The Fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdlyi5mc ... re=related

Me thinks your licensing officer is advising you wrong,the courts held that where the phone rang was where the operator licence needed to be issued.so if you answer your mobile outside your area or even your operating address your committing an offence under the 1976 act.

Correct

That's interesting, so if you're a one-man operator and driver, going about your work, and it happens you're outside your operating area, or even on holiday in another country, you can't answer your mobile to respond to a prospective booking? What do you do? Don't answer it, and let it go to voicemail, and listen to it, when you're back in your area? Same with e-mails and texts?