Private hire and hackney carriage driver licence guide

How to apply for a private hire or hackney carriage (taxi) licence with Solihull Council. 

This guide will help you through the application process, as well as explaining what happens after your licence has been granted. This includes your obligations on the licence holder, as well as our role and responsibilities of Solihull Council.

Please read all sections carefully. We are not responsible for any cost or disadvantage, if you do not read or follow our licensing requirements, policy guidelines, rules or conditions.

Our licensing policy

You can download our Taxi and Private Hire Licensing Policy.

Our frequently asked questions page can help you understand the changes in the new policy.

How to apply

Before applying, you will need to complete the following pre-application criteria.

Practical Driving Assessment 

You must undertake an assessment with the Blue Lamp Trust.

Your certificate needs to be less than 12 months old when you apply for your licence. 

Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) disclosure certificate 

You must obtain an Enhanced DBS disclosure certificate that is less than 1 month old when you apply.

You can apply for an Enhanced DBS check with TaxiPlus.

The certificate must:

• be enhanced (we will not accept basic or standard)
• be for the occupation of taxi/private hire driver under ‘other workforce’
• include a check of both the adults’ and children’s barred lists

You must subscribe to the DBS update service within 30 days of the certificate being issued to enable us to check your criminal record on a regular basis.

If you already have an enhanced certificate that meets the above criteria and are subscribed to the DBS update service, you may provide these details instead.

Medical assessment with a General Medical Council (GMC) registered medical practitioner 

Please print our medical assessment form and take it with you to your chosen GMC registered medical practitioner. You will need a medical assessment under the DVLA Group 2 medical standards.

The certificate should be dated within 1 month when you make your application.

Training requirement

You will need to complete our Private Hire and Hackney Carriage training course that will assess your suitability for a licence. 

Book your training course 

The course takes approximately 4 hours (breaks provided) plus an extra 60 minutes for a test at the end. The course will cover:

• safeguarding and understanding Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSAE) risks, including County lines exploitation
• disability awareness and the Equality Act 2010
• customer service and communication skills/language skills
• the Highway Code and road safety
• vehicle maintenance
• compliance with legislation, conditions and policy requirements

The course will be interactive, and you will need to actively take part so that the trainer can assess your understanding. 

There will be 48 questions on the test (8 on each subject) and will be a combination of spoken, written and multiple-choice. To pass, you must get 36 questions right (75%). You will be contacted within 5 working days with your results.

If you fail the test, you may retake the whole course or just the test and a fee will be payable for this.

Your certificate needs to be less than 12 months old when you apply for your licence. 

DVLA licence check code 

You must get a check code from the DVLA so we can view your driving licence.  

The code is only valid for 21 days.

Right to work

If you have a UK passport (either current or expired) you must provide this as proof of your right to work in the UK. 

If you are a British citizen but do not have a current or expired UK passport, there are other documents you must provide. You can check this at GOV.UK. 

If you are not a British citizen, you must provide a share code to enable us to check your eligibility to work in the UK.

HMRC tax check (where applicable)

If you currently hold a private hire or hackney carriage licence in any other authority or have held one with this or any authority within the last 12 months, you must complete a tax check and provide the 9-character check code to us 

The code will expire after 120 days.

You will not need a tax check, if you:

• do not currently hold a private hire or hackney carriage licence
• have not held one within the last 12 months in this or any other authority

We will require you to sign a declaration confirming that you do not have a licence.

Additional documents required

You will need to provide a:

• DVLA photo-card (both sides), or both sides of the old-style paper licence if you do not have a photo-card
• clear, current passport-style photograph of your head and shoulders
• completed application form

Book an appointment

Once you have all your documents ready and have completed all the pre-application criteria, please email us at licensing@solihull.gov.uk to book an appointment. 

You need to provide:

• your full name
• your date of birth
• your mobile number
• the reason for your appointment

We will not accept walk-ins, so you must make an appointment.