RESEARCHED AUTHORITY
Southampton
Southampton City Council · Sources checked 13 September 2026
- Driver licensing
- Official route/source found
HC applicants must have held full UK/equivalent driving entitlement over two years and currently hold a DVLA-issued licence. Medical required at entry and ages45,50,55,60,65 then annually.2026 policy specifies enhanced DBS including both barred lists six-monthly and continuous Update Service subscription.
- Vehicle licensing
- Official route/source found
2026 policy identifies HC as white and PH as non-white. Licensed vehicles require approved taxi camera systems. Detailed age, accessibility and testing rules remain to be fully checked.
- Operator licensing
- Official route/source found
Application guidance requires at least basic DBS evidence for all individuals named on the operator licence. Consult Appendix5 of the adopted taxi policy and use the council operator application form.
- Licensing fees
- Official evidence found; detail still to confirm
Secondary evidence only: TaxiTools, checked 31 July 2026, reports three-year HC driver £375 or PH driver £325; annual HC vehicle £180 or PH vehicle £160, and short-term up to six months £100. Operator maximum five-year fee £1,500, one-year £450 and four-year £1,235; topography test £50. It describes the schedule as from January 2025, last varied January 2026. The current council page is inaccessible to this review; its earlier consultation alone is not final adoption proof.
- Taxi tariff
- Official route/source found
Adopted fare revision effective17March2026 is published on the council noticeboard. Calculator agent independently encoded five single-passenger schedules and tested11 cases; this licensing summary does not claim every passenger/extras combination supported.
- Mandatory qualifications
- Official route/source found
Current PH driver page states BTEC transporting passengers by taxi/private hire qualification within six months of licence grant. Complete training/test route and accepted exemptions remain to be reviewed.
Withheld or still needing confirmation
- Direct retrieval intermittently blocked; indexed council text used for stated licensing facts.
- Full vehicle/training/operator conditions still incomplete.
- Do not treat2025 fee consultation as final fee authority.
- Numeric fees are secondary-source evidence and require direct confirmation; no independent operative official numeric table was recovered.