Licensing & Insurance

1. Operator licensing

Private hire work in England and Wales is regulated by local authorities under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 and, in London, under the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998. Comparable regimes apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Any business that takes a private hire booking must hold an operator licence granted by the local authority for the area it works from. Holding one is not optional and not a formality: an authority grants a licence only when it is satisfied that the applicant is a fit and proper person to run the operation, and it can attach conditions to that licence, suspend it or revoke it.

Three requirements follow from that licence and shape how we work: every journey must be booked in advance through the operator, vehicles may not be hailed in the street or stand for hire, and a record of every booking must be kept and made available to the licensing authority on request.

An operator licence runs for a fixed term and is renewed on the authority's own cycle, subject to the authority remaining satisfied about the operator and its record. We maintain ours continuously and in accordance with the issuing authority's requirements, because a lapse would end our ability to accept work rather than merely inconvenience it.

2. Driver licensing and checks

Every chauffeur who carries passengers for us holds a current private hire driver licence issued in their own name by a local authority. A driver licence is separate from the operator licence and from the vehicle licence: all three must be in place before a journey can lawfully be carried out.

The process behind that licence includes an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check with a check of the barred lists, a DVLA licence and endorsement check, a medical assessment to the DVLA Group 2 standard, and a right to work check. Many authorities also require a knowledge, safeguarding or English language assessment before granting the licence.

We verify each licence before any work is allocated and again at renewal, and we require immediate notification of any endorsement, medical change, charge or licensing action. Driving without a valid licence and the correct insurance is not permitted in any circumstances, and a chauffeur whose licence lapses is stood down until it is restored.

3. Vehicle licensing

Each vehicle used for private hire work is licensed by the relevant authority, displays the plates or identifiers that authority requires, holds a current MOT where its age makes one due, and passes the compliance inspection the authority prescribes, which is generally more frequent than the annual MOT.

Vehicles are serviced to the manufacturer's schedule and subject to the daily roadworthiness check described in our Health and Safety Policy. Any defect affecting safety takes the vehicle out of service until it is rectified, whatever that does to the day's schedule.

The vehicle class is confirmed at the time of booking. The specific make and model remain subject to availability, and any substitute is licensed, inspected and insured to the same standard as the vehicle it replaces.

4. Insurance cover

• —Motor insurance for hire and reward, covering the carriage of passengers for payment. Ordinary social, domestic and pleasure cover is not lawful for this work, and the Road Traffic Act 1988 makes the correct cover a criminal requirement rather than a commercial choice.
• —Public liability insurance, covering injury or damage to third parties arising from our activities.
• —Employers liability insurance where we employ staff, at the statutory minimum of five million pounds.
• —Passenger liability, included within the motor policy for injury to passengers being carried.
• —Cover confirmed in force for the vehicle and the driver before any work is allocated, and rechecked whenever a vehicle or a chauffeur joins the operation.

5. What insurance does and does not cover

Insurance is renewed annually and held continuously; we do not put a vehicle on the road whose cover has lapsed. A current certificate of motor insurance, and the employers liability certificate where staff are employed, are available to clients on request.

Our motor policy covers liability for injury and damage arising from the use of the vehicle. It is not travel insurance and it is not a guarantee against consequential loss such as a missed flight, a missed meeting or a lost commercial opportunity.

Passenger property carried in the vehicle is carried at the owner's risk. We recommend that valuables, laptops, documents and jewellery stay with the passenger rather than in the luggage compartment, and our Lost Property Policy sets out what happens to items left behind.

Nothing on this page limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded. The limits that do apply are set out in our Terms and Conditions of Booking.

6. Partner operators

Where demand or geography means we cannot cover a journey ourselves, we may use a licensed partner operator. We check that the partner holds a current operator licence, that the driver holds a current private hire driver licence, and that hire and reward insurance is in force before the work is passed on.

We will tell you in advance when a journey is being covered by a partner operator. Your contract remains with us, the quoted price does not change, and complaints are handled by us under our Complaints Procedure rather than being redirected.

7. Documents we will provide on request

• —A copy of our private hire operator licence, showing the issuing authority and the term it runs for.
• —A current certificate of motor insurance for hire and reward.
• —Our public liability certificate, and the employers liability certificate where staff are employed.
• —Confirmation that the chauffeur allocated to a journey holds a current private hire driver licence and has passed an enhanced DBS check.
• —Confirmation that the vehicle allocated is licensed by its local authority and holds a current MOT where one is due.
• —The published data protection, safeguarding and health and safety policies that a supplier onboarding pack usually asks for.

8. Verifying our credentials

Licensing authorities maintain public registers of licensed operators, drivers and vehicles, and will confirm the status of a licence on request. That is the check worth making about any chauffeur company, ours included, and it costs nothing.

Requests for the documents listed above reach us through the WhatsApp client service desk on +44 7775 554848 and the contact page at executive-chauffeurs.uk/contact, and we will normally respond within two working days. Corporate clients are welcome to make that request part of a routine supplier onboarding process.

Where a licence, certificate or policy has been renewed, the copy we issue is replaced at the same time, so what you receive is the version currently in force rather than the one filed when the account was opened.