Vehicle Licences- General Provisions
There are a number of distinctions between licences for Private Hire and Hackney Carriage Vehicles and these will be identified as appropriate. However, many of the requirements for licensing are the same for both vehicle licences.
Only a Chorley Council licensed driver may drive a Chorley Council licensed vehicle, whether or not the vehicle is carrying passengers. The type of licence, be it Private Hire or Hackney Carriage, must correspond to the type of vehicle licensed. The only exception to this is where the vehicle is driven for the purposes of mechanical assessment by a person authorised by the garage for that purpose.
A vehicle must be capable of being licensed for a minimum of 4 passengers and a maximum of 8 passengers. The proprietor of a vehicle must not allow the vehicle to carry more passengers than the licence specifies.
Chorley Council currently limits the number of Hackney Carriage Vehicles that are licensed to 36, 9 of which are wheelchair accessible (7 of these added by LSC April 2006 and conditions amended Nov 2006). Chorley Council does not require specific models of Hackney Carriage Vehicles, such as London TX range which are the recognisable traditional ‘black cab’ style.
There is no requirement for the Hackney Carriage to have a separate driver compartment, except for WAV’s and therefore there is a wide variety of makes and models of saloons and estate vehicles that are available to the trade for use as ordinary Hackney Carriages.
Hackney Carriage Vehicles, except WAV’s, must be white in colour to distinguish them from Private Hire Vehicles.