RESEARCHED AUTHORITY
St Albans
St Albans Council · Sources checked 13 September 2026
- Driver licensing
- Official route/source found
Separate hackney/private-hire licences last up to three years. Applicants must be 21 with 36 months UK/EEA driving experience, right-to-work evidence, DBS and a GP Group 2 medical. Apply to renew eight to twelve weeks before expiry.
- Vehicle licensing
- Official route/source found
Current vehicle guidance requires Euro 6 at first application, hire insurance, V5, evidence of card-payment facilities and basic DBS issued within three months unless already licensed by St Albans. Hackneys need a tariffed meter calibration certificate and evidence of a connected printer. Vehicles under one year are exempt from MOT/compliance evidence; testing is annual until age seven, then compliance testing every six months. Compliance certificates must be within one calendar month of licence commencement. Tyre/brake MOT advisories must be rectified before grant. Factory window tints are accepted but additional tinting is not. Dual-plated vehicles are refused. Existing non-wheelchair hackney licences retain replacement grandfather rights only if renewed on time. Licences run up to one year; failure of required tests suspends use until passes are obtained. Application guidance displays £282 new and £263 renewal (£222/£203 fully electric), without a commencement date on this page.
- Operator licensing
- Official route/source found
Operators submit signed application, each applicant's Basic disclosure and right-to-work evidence, recent photograph, public liability insurance, driver/vehicle lists and £602 fee. Original right-to-work evidence is checked in person. New applicants attend operator training (£90 per person). Successful licences last five years and must be granted before operating; tacit consent does not apply. Each renewal requires Equality Act/safeguarding refresher training, listed at £40. Premises used as a booking office need planning permission. Fees are current displayed figures without a printed commencement date.
- Licensing fees
- Official evidence found; detail still to confirm
The council's current driver page displays £406 for a new driver, £136 for a one-year pro-rata grant, £381 renewal and £127 one-year pro-rata renewal; it also lists DBS £77, Versant test £54, hackney knowledge test £77, new-driver training £90 and renewal training £40. The current vehicle page displays renewal at £263, reduced to £203 for a fully electric vehicle. The operator page displays a £602 five-year fee and £90 new-operator training, but its renewal checklist separately says fee payment of £680. Because the operator figures conflict and the pages print no common effective date, this is a partial current-page snapshot rather than a complete fee schedule; applicants should confirm the payable amount before applying.
- Taxi tariff
- Official evidence found; detail still to confirm
Official card effective 18 January 2023: all initial charges include 880 yards; subsequent intervals are 76.52 yards. T1 £3.90/15p; Sunday T2 £5.07/19p; T3 £5.85/22p applies to 23:30–06:00, public/bank holidays except Christmas/New Year's Day and both eves 20:00–23:30. T4 Christmas Day through Boxing Day 06:00 and New Year's Eve 23:30 through New Year's Day 06:00 is £7.80/30p. For 5–8 passengers, ordinary £5.85/22p, night/holiday £7.31/27p and those festive windows £11.70/45p. Waiting is 20p per 18 seconds, electronic/telephone booking £1 and fouling £75. Airport/zone charges are additionally listed; printed airport examples are historical, not current airport prices. The 2023 newsletter confirms implementation, but current hub linkage and incomplete-interval rounding remain unverified.
- Mandatory qualifications
- Official route/source found
Driver Training Day and English qualification evidence are required. The specific knowledge section exempts private-hire applicants; hackney applicants must pass routes, Highway Code, maths and policy sections.
Withheld or still needing confirmation
- Current page contains conflicting fee figures versus the application-pack table; fees withheld pending reconciliation.
- Vehicle/operator and fare card not extracted.
- The operator page conflicts between £602 and £680, and the current pages do not print one common effective date or a complete vehicle charge table.
- Preserve prior verified fields.
- Preserve prior fields. Full continuing conditions and independently dated fee schedule not refreshed.
- Current-link proof not recovered; retain dated official evidence rather than unqualified current claim.
- New Year's Day after 06:00 and Sunday/night precedence require clarification.
- Do not treat the card's old airport prices as current charges.
- Exact emissions thresholds, application documents, inspection schedule and fees are not supplied by the DfT return.