Taxi and private hire law, conditions, safeguarding, equality and fares (all councils)

Every council knowledge test asks about taxi and private hire law. The two main laws are the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 for hackney carriages and the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, Part II, which added private hire licensing. This note covers both Acts, touting, safeguarding, equality duties, fares and customer service, and applies to all five councils in this app.

Hackney carriage vs private hire

The two trades look similar, but the law treats them very differently.

	Hackney carriage (taxi)	Private hire vehicle (PHV)
Getting work	May ply for hire: street hails and council stands (1847 ss. 37-38)	Pre-booked only, through a licensed operator
Licences needed	Vehicle (s. 37) and driver (s. 46, as applied)	Vehicle (s. 48), driver (s. 51) and operator (s. 55) - all three
Appearance	Council can require marks that identify it as a hackney (s. 47(2))	Must not look like a hackney carriage (s. 48(1)(a)(ii))
Stands	May wait on appointed stands (s. 63)	Offence for any other vehicle to wait there (s. 64)
Fares	Council's table of fares (s. 65)	Agreed through the operator; meter optional (s. 71)
Contract	Made with the driver	Deemed made with the operator (s. 56)

Under section 38 of the 1847 Act, a hackney carriage is any wheeled carriage "used in standing or plying for hire in any street". A private hire vehicle that picks up without a booking works outside its licence. The DfT statutory standards warn passengers that a private hire vehicle that has not been pre-booked "will not be insured and may not be licensed".

Key fact: All private hire journeys must be pre-booked through a licensed operator, and the operator must use drivers and vehicles licensed by the same council that licensed the operator. The DfT calls this the triple licensing lock (1976 Act s. 46).