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It would appear some people have forgot the meaning of Hackney carriage, so here it is again.
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Meaning of 'hackney carriage'.

For the purposes of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847, 'hackney carriage' does not include a stage coach used for the purpose of standing or plying for passengers to be carried for hire at separate fares.

With this exception it includes every wheeled carriage, whatever may be its form or construction, used in standing or plying for hire in any street within the prescribed distance and every carriage standing upon any street within the prescribed distance, and having on it any numbered plate required to be fixed upon a hackney carriage or any plate resembling or intended to resemble such a plate.

In the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, unless the subject or the context otherwise requires, 'hackney carriage' has the same meaning as in the Town Police Clauses Act 1847.

1 Apart from any statutory definition, 'hackney carriage' means a carriage exposed for hire to the public, whether standing in the public street or a private yard: Bateson v Oddy (1874) 38 JP 598, DC. The name is derived from an old French word denoting an ambling horse or mare: Oxford English Dictionary.

2 See the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 s 38 proviso. See also R v Cambridge City Council, ex p Lane (1998) 96 LGR 817, [1999] RTR 182, CA.

3 A licensed hackney carriage is nonetheless 'used in standing or plying for hire' even though at the time it is employed otherwise: Hawkins v Edwards [1901] 2 KB 169, DC; Yates v Gates [1970] 2 QB 27, [1970] 1 All ER 754, DC.

A carriage plies for hire even though the driver only asks for voluntary contributions from passengers: Cocks v Mayner (1893) 58 JP 104, DC. In the absence of touting, a specially engaged carriage which is not exhibited outside the proprietor's premises does not ply for hire: Cavill v Amos (1900) 64 JP 309, DC; Cogley v Sherwood [1959] 2 QB 311, [1959] 2 All ER 313, DC. [b]

As to unattended vehicles see Vant v Cripps (1963) 62 LGR 88, DC.

An unlicensed private hire vehicle ought to have been found to be plying for hire when waiting beside a hackney carriage stand: Pettigrew v Barry (1984) Times, 12 July.

When the driver of a marked licensed private hire vehicle agreed to carry two persons who had enquired as to his availability to do so, the vehicle was held to be plying for hire: Nottingham City Council v Woodings [1994] RTR 72, DC.

[b]4 'Street' includes any road, square, court, alley, thoroughfare or public passage: Town Police Clauses Act 1847 s 3. However, subject to what follows, it does not include a roadway to a station which is owned by the railway or other private property: Case v Storey (1869) LR 4 Exch 319; Curtis v Embery (1872) LR 7 Exch 369; Skinner v Usher (1872) LR 7 QB 423, DC; Jones v Short (1900) 64 JP 247, DC. See, however, Eastbourne Borough Council v Stirling (2000) Times, 16 November, DC ('plying for hire in any street' included a situation in which a private hire vehicle was in a prominent position just off the street and the public were in numbers on the street); Marks v Ford (1880) 45 JP 157, DC.

5 In the area within which the provisions of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 with respect to hackney carriages are in force (see para 1053 ante), those provisions and any byelaws of the local authority are as fully applicable in all respects to hackney carriages standing or plying for hire at any railway station or railway premises within such area as if such railway station or railway premises were a stand for hackney carriages or a street: Public Health Act 1925 s 76.

However, the provisions of s 76 do not apply to any vehicles belonging to or used by any railway company for the purpose of carrying passengers and their luggage to or from any of their railway stations or railway premises, or to the driver or conductor of such vehicle: s 76 proviso (a). Nothing in s 76 empowers the local authority to fix the site of the stand or starting place of any hackney carriage in any railway station or railway premises, except with the consent of that company: s 76 proviso (b). Section 76 extends the provisions of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 to railway property and does not give a right to ply for hire without the permission necessary under the British Railways Board Byelaws 1965, byelaw 22(2): see Hulin v Cook [1977] RTR 345, DC.

Apart from the qualifying words 'in any street', a carriage may be said to ply for hire if it stands ready to take up passengers on private property: Clarke and Goodge v Stanford (1871) LR 6 QB 357, DC; Allen v Tunbridge (1871) LR 6 CP 481; Bateson v Oddy (1874) 38 JP 598, DC; Foinett v Clark (1877) 41 JP 359, DC; Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Co v Thompson [1918] 2 KB 105, DC; White v Cubitt [1930] 1 KB 443, DC. The vehicle must, however, be exhibited to the public as available for hire: Cogley v Sherwood [1959] 2 QB 311, [1959] 2 All ER 313, DC; Vant v Cripps (1963) 62 LGR 88, DC.

5 Ie by the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 or the special Act. The expression 'special Act' is construed to mean any Act which is passed for the improvement or regulation of any town or district defined or comprised in it and with which the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 is to be incorporated: see s 2.

The 'prescribed distance' is either the area of the local authority or, if the area is divided into hackney carriage zones, the zone for which the hackney carriage is licensed: see para 1053 ante; and the Department of Transport Circular 8/86 (17 November 1986) and Advice Notes issued by the Department of Transport (May 1997) and the Welsh Office (February 1998). As to the concept of hackney carriage zones see the Circular and the Advice Notes.

6 Ibid s 38. As to the area to which the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 applies see para 1053 ante. See also R v Bournemouth Borough Council, ex p Thompson (1985) 83 LGR 662.

7 Ie the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 Pt II (ss 45–80) (as amended). As to the application of Pt II (as amended) see para 1054 ante.
8 Ibid s 80(1).

UPDATE

Meaning of 'hackney carriage'
note 4—Eastbourne, cited, reported at [2001] RTR 65, DC.