Chauffeur Business Start Up Help

[Brookenstein]

Hi Guys,

This is my first post as I am looking for some advice/help. I am looking to start up my own chauffeur business, I already have my first vehicle, insurance, website and operators license etc all I am missing is registering my company as I have heard a hell of a lot of conflicting reports!

I have done my research on a couple of companies who offer wedding hire, prom hire and chauffeur driven services and looked into companies house to see how they are registered and there are some that run as either.......
'77110 - Renting and leasing of cars and light motor vehicles'
'6023 - Other passenger land transport'
'49320 - Taxi operation'

Now I am aware of a company who carry out chauffeur drivers and wedding cars and are registered as 'renting and leasing of cars' so I am guessing this is not correct and is illegal ????

I have had advice that I need to register with my local council as a taxi service and all of my drivers have to be registered as taxi drivers also ???? But then for instance my wife would not be able to drive the vehicle as she is not registered as a taxi driver.

Please can someone help me as if I have to register everyone that drives the vehicle as a taxi driver even when they are not carrying out work then this will work out pointless and very costly. I just don't know how these companies registered as renting and leasing get around this and don't get shut down ?

Thank you very much for reading this and to anyone that comments.

 

[Turnkey Businesses]

i don't know for sure but the taxi service sounds like the most obvious listing for what you are offering. it is essentially a private hire taxi company with longer vehicles isn't it? you might find that the companies operating under 77110 are just that, technically not operating as a chauffeur firm, but in fact hiring the vehicles out to self employed chauffeur drivers who then need to deal with all the legal stuff themselves or you might just find that when doing their first annual return they had no idea what to list their business as and just took a punt at the first thing that came to mind.

i would seek some proper advice though, either legal or at least council to get an official answer on legality nationwide and at the council level for a business you want to start.

 

[Mr A P Davies]

I can't tell you exactly, but it sounds to me like your private hire. I don't think the fact that your a chauffeur, and not just running people to an airport, will alter this in the view of the licensing authorities. This will likely be more of an insurance thing.

A taxi license, called a hackney license, will allow you to pick up and drop off kerbside, and pull onto taxi ranks. That's not what your about, unless you want it that way. Your being booked in advance, not driving around looking for work.

Your not renting or leasing a car either, your providing a service, unless of course, you want to go down that route.

Possibly, the reason other companys are registered in different ways, is because it's an additional to their core business.

I'm on shaky ground here, as far as giving advice on this bit, but when I looked into it a few years ago, you do not need to be licensed for private hire. Insured, yes, but there is nothing to stop Joe Bloggs from ringing me up and asking me to give him a lift, and I charge him, providing I have public liability.
This is very different from Joe Bloggs flagging me down on the street.

The council should be able to provide you with the rules and regs in black and white, or a funny green colour, if I remember correctly.
Asking the right question to the right person is usually the difficult bit.

I'd be pretty certain you do not need a hackney license to run a private hire though. That I am pretty confident of.

 

[Scalloway]

I don't think it matters too much what code you use to register your company, it is just something that is used for government statistics.

I had a quick google on personal use of a private hire car. The first one I looked at, Wycombe District Council, says this on their website.

http://www.wycombe.gov.uk/council-services/business/licences-and-street-trading/taxi-licences.aspx

Legislation: Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976.
...

Once licensed, a private hire vehicle is always a private hire vehicle until the licence expires. Therefore, even if the vehicle is used for social and domestic use it may only be driven by a private hire vehicle driver licensed by the same council that licences the vehicle.
http://www.wycombe.gov.uk/council-services/business/licences-and-street-trading/taxi-licences.aspx

http://www.wycombe.gov.uk/council-services/business/licences-and-street-trading/taxi-licences.aspx

 

[Brookenstein]

Thanks very much guys I think I am going to make a few calls and go from there but these have helped in my pursuit.

 

[Jamiepa]

You should always start by contacting your local taxi licensing office. There are more than 200 of these offices throughout the country – all of which have different rules and conditions. These licensing offices split ‘Hire and Reward’ businesses into two categories. The first would be a Taxi license, and the second being a ‘Private Hire’ license. Although you may be classing yourself as a chauffeur, you will still fall into the second category.

The taxi licensing office will determine whether or not they will a non-taxi driver to drive your vehicle.

From an insurance angle this would not be problem, you would just need to disclose which drivers will be using the vehicle for the "carriage of passengers for hire or reward".