If you run a business that involves the booking of private hire vehicles (standard taxis), you must be licensed as a private hire operator. Private hire vehicles are only allowed to pick up people through pre-arranged bookings through a licensed operator and are not allowed to be hailed in the street. 

All 3 licences (private hire vehicle, private hire driver and operator) must be issued by the same local council authority. 

If you apply for an operator licence you will need to: 

• do a ‘fit and proper test’  
• allow your business premise to be assessed to check that it is suitable 
• have an office address in South Cambridgeshire 

All applicants must read the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy and relevant appendices before submitting an application.

Licence cost

Operator licences are charged on a 1 or 5 year basis:

• 1 year charge: £250
• 5 year charge: £930

Operator licence renewal

• 1 year charge: £205

What you need for an operator licence or renewal application

Safeguarding and disability awareness training must be no older than 12 months since the date of application.

Blue Lamp Trust offer approved training for safeguarding and this must be the “virtual classroom course” plus you must take the separate disability awareness course. The e-learning course is not accepted. 

STC Safeguarding offer an approved virtual classroom course which combines safeguarding and disability awareness.

Please note that when we signpost or refer to external organisations for services this is not an endorsement or a recommendation of an external organisation or private individual by South Cambridgeshire District Council. We encourage residents and businesses to carry out their own research to compare different service providers to best meet their needs.

You will also need the following documents:

• basic DBS certificate - less than 1 month old (for non-driver operators) 
• proof of national insurance 
• proof of right to work 
• ICO registration certificate 
• training procedure 
• complaints policy 
• customer service policy 
• disability awareness policy 
• disciplinary procedure 
• lost property procedure 
• public liability insurance (if this applies to you) 
• landlord permission to run a business from the address (if this applies to you) 

Apply for a DBS check

Operators who are not also licensed drivers need to submit a basic DBS disclosure less than 1 month old.

Proof of right to work

All applicants must provide proof of right to work at the time of their application. We will only accept original documents.  

Check the Home Office employers Right to Work checklist [PDF, 0.1MB] [PDF, 0.1MB] to see what documents are valid. 

Invalid licences

An operator’s licence cannot be issued if you do not have the right to work in the UK.

A licence is not valid if your immigration status changes to not having the right to remain or live in the UK. Where this applies, the person must immediately stop operating and return their operator’s licence to us within 7 days.