RESEARCHED AUTHORITY
Woking
Woking Council · Sources checked 13 September 2026
- Driver licensing
- Official route/source found
Woking's current step-by-step route requires a new driver to have held a full UK driving licence for at least 12 months, meet right-to-work and fit-and-proper requirements and demonstrate local knowledge. Before applying, the driver must obtain the Level 2 certificate in 'Introduction to the role of the professional taxi and private hire driver'. The process then includes the council application pack and appointment, DBS and DVLA checks, an approved practical taxi/private-hire driving assessment, a GP-completed medical and the council written knowledge test. The practical certificate is valid for 12 months and the medical report for six months. Driver licences normally renew every three years; Woking publishes annual renewal arrangements for drivers over 60 or holding a yearly C1 licence.
- Vehicle licensing
- Official evidence found; detail still to confirm
Current official step-by-step vehicle pages, recovered through their search-indexed text while direct access returns HTTP 403, require Euro 6 engine emissions and a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating. Private-hire specifications require a four-door saloon or estate and exclude convertibles/soft tops; hackneys need the prescribed illuminated TAXI roof sign with council crests. All vehicles must pass an authorised-mechanic inspection before licensing. Vehicles over three years require two inspections annually: at grant/renewal and six months later. Renewal requires the preceding six-month inspection certificate as well as a current inspection. The current application sequence separately includes ultra-low-emission requirements, which have not yet been fully recovered here; Euro 6 alone must not be presented as sufficient eligibility. A 2026 draft policy is not treated as adopted.
- Operator licensing
- Official route/source found
Operate from a Woking base with planning permission or lawful-use clearance, use Woking-licensed drivers and vehicles, and avoid 'taxis' or 'cabs' in the business name. Buy and study the operator application pack, pay for the knowledge check, and pass before the council invites the online application. Upload Basic DBS, vehicle signage and driver list and pay the licence fee. Booking records must satisfy licence conditions; missing or incorrect details can attract penalty points.
- Licensing fees
- Official route/source found
The published fee page lists a £10 application pack, £147 non-refundable initial driver application, and three-year driver licence at £365 with one medical submission or £340 without. Knowledge checks are £51. The annual vehicle licence is £250 and inspection £57. Annual operator new/renewal fee is £370, with £50 operator knowledge check. No effective date is stated on the page; these are checked published amounts, not an inferred financial-year schedule.
- Taxi tariff
- Official evidence found; detail still to confirm
Council chart updated 15 December 2022: daytime 07:00–23:00 starts £3.10 Monday–Saturday or £4 Sunday for up to 125 yards/22 seconds, then 20p per additional 125 yards/22 seconds. Night 23:00–07:00 and public holidays, except festive double rate, starts £4 then 30p per 125 yards/22 seconds. Festive double daytime rate applies Christmas Eve 23:00 to 27 December 17:00 and New Year's Eve 23:00 to New Year's Day 07:00. Printed first-mile totals are £5.72 weekday, £6.62 Sunday, £7.93 night and £11.44 festive; subsequent-mile totals £2.82/£4.23/£5.64. These totals do not reproduce a simple started-125-yard pulse calculation, so no automatic fare is derived. Each passenger beyond one adds 50p; soiling/damage £100; luggage and assistance dogs free. Outside-borough journeys remain on this scale unless otherwise agreed before departure.
- Mandatory qualifications
- Official evidence found; detail still to confirm
The council's application sequence requires the Level 2 Introduction to the Role of the Professional Taxi and Private Hire Driver qualification, a practical driving test, medical report and knowledge test. These requirements precede issue of a new badge. This verifies the principal application components only; qualification equivalents, pass marks, safeguarding refresher arrangements and certificate-validity periods have not been established in this review.
Withheld or still needing confirmation
- Driver/vehicle/operator substantive rules not yet extracted. Fare pulse versus first-mile conflict remains a calculator hold; no automatic fare estimate authorised.
- Use each live step in the council sequence for the current pack, accepted course and assessment providers, fees and document validity rules.
- Preserve prior fields. Exact fee and full ongoing conditions/DBS recency remain to be added.
- No exhaustive or refresher qualification claim.
- Printed first-mile totals conflict with simple pulse arithmetic; meter calibration/rounding and combined time-distance semantics unresolved.
- Official indexed text reviewed; direct page returns 403. Separate ULEV page may qualify these conventional-engine specifications and remains unresolved, so this is partial rather than a complete current vehicle specification.
- Preserve prior verified fields.
- Recover current ULEV class-specific requirements, application documents and final 2026 policy adoption status before marking vehicle guidance complete.