FAQs

These are individuals who have been issued a licence by BCP Council to drive either a Hackney Carriage or Private Hire vehicle. All individuals have to provide evidence that they meet our strict eligibility criteria which includes professional qualification safeguarding training, medical checks, DVLA licence checks, driving assessments, a local knowledge test and an enhanced criminal records check.

These licenced vehicles can pick up passengers without any prebooking needed. They wait on ranks at key locations such as the train station or within the town centre area. In BCP, we require all these vehicles to be white with a blue stipe and a roof sign with the word “TAXI” on it. 

As well as working on ranks, Hackney Carriage vehicles can also accept prebooked journeys which can made through any operator regardless of where they are licenced.

These are licenced businesses who accept, or invite, prebooked journeys either by phone or via an app such as United Taxis Ltd, PRC Streamline Taxis or Uber.

These licenced vehicles can only accept prebooked journeys via a Private Hire operator which is licenced by the same local authority.

There are three zones in BCP which are the previous council areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole. Each Hackney Carriage vehicle is licenced in one of these zones and the vehicle can only rank, or pick up, passengers who have not prebooked a journey within the zone that they are licenced to operate in.

Currently the Hackney Carriage zones of Bournemouth and Poole have a limited number of Hackney Carriage vehicle licences available within each zone. This means that once all the licences have been issued, any new applications will be refused.

The restrictions were put in place several years ago before the formation of BCP Council. In order to impose a limit, the local authority must show that there are no unmet demands for Hackney Carriage vehicles. To keep such limits, the local authority must undertake a survey at least every three years. This survey is paid for by licence fees.

Most local authorities do not impose quantity restrictions and the Department for Transport regards this approach as best practice. As such, BCP Council is proposing to align our policy with recognised best practice and remove the restrictions.

All new Hackney Carriage vehicles must be wheelchair accessible. This means they must meet the prescribed dimensions to transport someone in a standard sized wheelchair., Hackney Carriage vehicles must meet the minimum wheelchair space standard of 1350mm high, 700mm wide, and 1200mm long.

Local authorities are only permitted to require Hackney Carriages to be wheelchair accessible, we cannot require Private Hire vehicles to be wheelchair accessible.

At the time of consulting, 50 wheelchair accessible vehicles are licenced by BCP Council. All local authorities are required to publish a register of wheelchair accessible vehicles which can be found here(External link).

Once the consultation is completed, the Licensing Committee will consider the responses and, if necessary, amend the policy documents. The final policies will then be agreed and considered for approval at a Full Council Meeting. The date of this meeting has not been confirmed yet.