The updated guidance on the council’s website is a reminder that there are two types of licensed taxi which operate within Cambridge city – hackney carriage vehicles and private hire vehicles.
Hackney carriage vehicles do not need to be booked in advance. People can use them by starting a journey from one of the dedicated taxi ranks in the city or by flagging them down in the street.
Private hire vehicles do need to be booked in advance through a taxi operator. They are not authorised or insured to pick up customers from the street without an advanced booking, and should not park and wait in order to ‘ply for hire’ or use taxi ranks.
The different types of taxi can be identified from the vehicle badges attached to them. Hackney carriages have a crest bearing the words ‘Cambridge Hackney Carriage’ and a pale blue identification plate on the rear of the vehicle. They also have a ‘Cambridge Licensed Taxi’ yellow roof sign on top of the vehicle.
Private hire vehicles do not have a roof sign or bear the crest. They display front and rear pale green identification plates, and must bear a company door sign stating ‘Private Hire – Pre-booked Only’.
During the past 12 months a number of people complained to the council that private hire vehicles were waiting in parts of the city centre and accepting passengers without an advanced booking.
In response, the council and Cambridgeshire Police arranged some ‘mystery shopper’ operations, which resulted in a number of prosecutions of private hire drivers for accepting passenger journeys without a pre-booking.
The impact of these operations was seen recently when no cases of vehicles accepting a fare without booking were witnessed during a similar operation on Friday and Saturday evenings.
Cllr Jeremy Benstead, Chair of Cambridge City Licensing Committee, said: “The council is proud of the taxi service it licenses and regulates for hackney carriage and private hire vehicles – both of which provide excellent service and choice to customers with different needs.
“The vast majority of our drivers and operators provide an excellent and professional service across the city. However, we still receive a handful of complaints about private hire vehicles attempting to take customers who have not made a prior booking via an operator. This is particularly prevalent around the night time economy.
“We are aware that this is a small minority of drivers acting contrary to the regulations, but it has a potential impact on public safety as private hire vehicles are not insured to accept passenger journeys without an advanced booking.
“We will continue to use a range of enforcement techniques and work with our neighbouring licensing authority to investigate and respond to this issue with a focus on taking robust action through formal processes where any driver is acting outside of the law or council policy.”
The updated guidance on the different types of taxis licensed to operate in Cambridge is available at www.cambridge.gov.uk/be-taxi-aware-information-for-passengers
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