RESEARCHED AUTHORITY
West Oxfordshire
West Oxfordshire Council · Sources checked 13 September 2026
- Driver licensing
- Official route/source found
Provide right-to-work identity documents, Group 2 medical and vision assessment with the council medical declaration, enhanced DBS and maintained Update subscription.
- Vehicle licensing
- Official route/source found
Hackney-carriage applications require insurance, meter calibration, V5 or purchase evidence and MOT unless under one year from first registration; wheelchair-accessible vehicles additionally need LOLER and weight-test certificates. New and transfer vehicles must normally be under five years, renewals under fifteen; wheelchair-accessible vehicles are exempt and other specialist exceptions may apply. Equipment includes meter, roof and no-smoking signs, first-aid kit and extinguisher. Applicants not already licensed locally as a driver or private-hire operator require a basic DBS annually. Apply at least seven days before expiry for the reduced renewal charge; an expired licence requires a new application.
- Operator licensing
- Official evidence found; detail still to confirm
Current operator guidance requires application/payment, tax-check information where applicable, proof of right to work and basic DBS, except applicants already licensed as drivers in the district. Renewal applications should be returned at least seven days before expiry for the reduced fee; expired licences require a new full-cost application and no reminders/refunds are promised. Operators must maintain written annual booking/dispatch-staff criminality-check and ex-offender policies, including adequate arrangements when outsourcing. Time-limited right-to-work permission is rechecked on renewal. However, the same page instructs basic-DBS applicants to subscribe to the DBS Update Service without explaining a qualifying standard/enhanced certificate route. Operator-only criminal-record processing therefore remains an explicit clarification gap; the page's unrelated vehicle-transfer paragraph is not treated as an operator application requirement.
- Licensing fees
- Official route/source found
The current-linked schedule dated 9 March 2026 applies from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. Three-year dual-driver licences cost £327 new or £240 renewal; conversion from private-hire to dual £71. Hackney and private-hire vehicle licences each cost £327 new or £240 renewal. Five-year operator licences cost £522 new/renewal; one-year licences £131. Knowledge test £99; vehicle transfer to another person £33; transfer to another vehicle £235 for a year or £111 for the remaining plate period. Replacement driver badge £36, external plate £44 and internal plate £36.
- Taxi tariff
- Official route/source found
Current linked card dated 12 October 2022: first mile or part £5 (R1), £7.50 (R2), £10 (R3); then respectively 20p/30p/40p each started one-twelfth mile. R1 Monday–Saturday 07:00–22:30. R2 Monday–Saturday 22:30–07:00, all Sundays/public holidays, and minibus/MPV hires with five or more passengers at any time. R3 Christmas Eve 19:00 to 27 December 07:00 and New Year's Eve 19:00 to 2 January 07:00. Waiting all bands 20p each started 30 seconds. Soiling £100; wheelchairs, mobility aids and guide/assistance dogs free. These are maximum fares within the district; outside-boundary fares should be agreed in advance. The card does not explicitly resolve multiseat R2 versus festive R3 precedence, so do not invent an additional multiplier.
- Mandatory qualifications
- Official route/source found
Book the district-specific knowledge test; sessions may be held in West Oxfordshire, Cotswold or Forest of Dean, but the paper must match the authority applied to.
Withheld or still needing confirmation
- Old /test/ route excluded as stale; full training, fees, vehicle/operator and fare card still require extraction.
- The official four-page PDF was independently checked page by page and the taxi-fee rows match this summary. Third-party assessment, medical and DBS costs are not included in this council-fee summary. The obsolete /test/ pages and 2025–26 PDF are not used.
- Preserve prior fields. Partial: page mixes Basic DBS with Update Service instructions and includes unrelated vehicle-transfer text. Full current policy and exact fees require reconciliation; those instructions are not silently copied.
- Clarify operator-only basic-DBS versus Update Service instructions; vehicle-transfer text appears unrelated and is not adopted as an operator requirement.
- Multiseat festive precedence needs confirmation before enabling that combination; ordinary one-passenger bands have explicit distance pulses.
- Hackney-carriage route verified; private-hire-specific standards and exact 2026–27 charges not extracted.
- Preserve prior verified fields.