Weymouth and Portland Private Hire / Hackney Carriage Licensing

Information on Private Hire and Hackney Carriage licensing for Weymouth and Portland Borough Council.

Hackney Carriage and Private Hire

The basic difference between hackney carriages and private hire vehicles is that hackney carriages are permitted to work from the various ranks in the town and can also be hailed in the street.

Private hire vehicles are only available by prior booking through a private hire office and are not allowed to be hailed in the street.

In order to help to distinguish between the two types of vehicle hackney carriages have yellow licence plates on the backs of their vehicles and private hire have blue plates.

Example Plates

New Taxi Open House Hours

As was notified to ALL drivers in the Summer Newsletter in July, we are now a combined team with our West Dorset District Council licensing colleagues. Staff will be combined in one location, namely the Council Offices, North Quay, Weymouth with a two day surgery in Dorchester.

A series of 'Walk in Surgeries' will continue at Weymouth, with the added options to visit us in Dorchester or making an appointment at either office. As no objections or other proposals were received to the new suggested hours the following will be implemented from Tuesday, 2 January 2013:

Weymouth: Monday and Thursday - 9am to 1pm and 2pm to 4pm - open house

Dorchester: Wednesday and Friday - 9am to 1pm and 2pm to 4pm - appointments only

You will also be able to make appointments for other days for urgent matters.

It will be more important than ever to telephone prior to your arrival at our offices to ensure a member of staff is available.

Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles

The following taxi drivers offer wheelchair accessible vehicles

Mr S Burt - Tel: 07791534415

Mr T Jarman - Tel: 07739366326 or 01305 775151 (Bee Cars)

Further useful information for taxi drivers

Information for potential taxi/private hire drivers (pdf, 40kb) (opens in a new window)

Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Conditions Booklet (pdf, 921kb) (opens in a new window)

Liquid propane fuel for taxis (pdf, 9kb) (opens in a new window)

Unmet Demand Survey (pdf, 2Mb) (opens in a new window)

Sample FULL inspection sheet - form obtainable on request (pdf, 117kb) (opens in a new window)

Hackney Tariff Card 2012-2013 (pdf, 9kb) (opens in a new window)

Licensing Charges Notice from 1 September 2012 (pdf, 27kb) (opens in a new window)

Taxis download forms and information
Application forms and documents for Private Hire and Hackney Carriage licensing for Weymouth and Portland Borough Council.
Weymouth and Portland Online Licensing Register
Search our online licensing register.