how to covert your car to a taxi?

Question

im trying to covert my car to a taxi i want to know how much it is to get a meter installed and the insurance prices

Answer 1

Meters can be purchased through suppliers to the taxi trade. Google will bring this up.

You will have to get a hackney license for yourself as driver and a hackney license for the car as well. Our local council was about £500 for those for three year licenses. Your car will probably go through a council inspection every 6 months depending on where you live. You will also have to get public liability insurance. (£1k a year when I did it). Most now ask for a police interview to confirm your a fit person to hold a license.

Most councils have a waiting list for a hackney plate. Ours is about 3 years. Until then its private hire.

Quite frankly, unless you have the car working 24/7 I wouldn't bother. I was putting in 70-80 hour weeks to make a living.

Answer 2

First of all you need to decide if you want to be a PRIVATE HIRE vehicle or HACKNEY CARRIDGE as there are different regulations for each. With HACKNEY you will have to buy your own licence plate which here in Southampton sell for around £40k if you can find one. There may be a limit on the age of the car you use and sometimes even the colour and size of the car.
You will then need to apply to your local council to to have your licence plate registered to your vehicle Then the car will have to pass a very strict and detailed M O T test conducted by the council. The council will give you information about where to purchase a taxi meter and how to get it fitted. £300.00 should get you a decent meter fitted ,callibrated and local tariffs installed. To get a hackney on the road ready for work look to spending about £700 to £800 excluding the cost of the plate.
Well that's the car done now for yourself. You will need a HACKNEY CARRIDGE DRIVERS LICENCE to get this you will have to pass a tapography test or local area knowledge test cost around £200.00 you will also have to have a CRB check (Criminal Records Beaurau) as you will be working with vulnerable people. The licence will be around £100 per year.
With the above Hackney set up you can pick up any passengers you wish to you will not need a radio in your car and you can use council Taxi Ranks.
PRIVATE HIRE VEHCLE is pretty much the same except you pay the council a yearly fee for the plate which is a PH plate not a HACKNEY plate so there is no major expense of buying a plate for £30 or £40k. But you will have to sign up with a private hire Taxi company and pay monthly subs for a radio system as you can only pick up pre booked passengers and you CANNOT use council Taxi Ranks. You could apply for your own OPERATORS licence but that gets a bit complicated.
INSURANCE I have been driving Private Hire in Southampton for about 5 yrs my insurance costs approx £1,300 per year for a 2002 ford Galaxy 6 seater with £10million pounds public liabillity cover.

I would say your best bet is to go PRIVATE HIRE if your car is OK and passes all tests look at set up cost of about £1,000 plus your first months subs.
Go and talk to some local cabbies, private hire taxi companies and your local coucil's LICENCING office they will give you all the information you need.

Big problem is different coucils have different rules and regs I have tried to explain the process here in Southampton it may be totally different where you live.

Answer 3

you need to contact the local council to find out if you can license your car as a taxi. they will also be able to tell you about meters

Answer 4

Have some kids & your car will soon turn into a taxi.

Answer 5

That is easy just go to your local council and ask in the Hackney carriage dept
If you ask on here you are wrong