Taxi Licensing information for passengers and the general public

The Licensing and Regulatory Committee has the powers to refuse, revoke or suspend an applicant's or driver's licence.

The Taxi Licensing Office operates under Licensing Law and has certain delegated powers from the Committee and can investigate complaints by passengers concerning drivers after receiving a completed complaints form. The complaints form should have as much information as possible (as it may be submitted in evidence before a court) and returned to the Taxi Licensing Office. Officers will then contact the vehicle driver and ask them for their explanation. Dependant on this and any previous complaint history, officers will then decide on the action to take (e.g. none, advice, verbal warning, written warning, caution, referral to the Committee or prosecution,).

We license over 1,000 drivers and over 900 vehicles (including a maximum of 859 Hackney Carriages) therefore identification of the driver and vehicle is important. When working the driver must have their badge (which includes their name, photograph and number) visible. Our licensed vehicles have a yellow plate on the rear with black writing showing the plate number displayed. Other authorities' plate colourings are likely to be different.

How to make a complaint

Our Taxi Licensing Office does not have the powers to enforce:

• Parking Infringements (e.g. parking on double yellow lines or double parking). For parking infringements contact our Parking Enforcement Services Unit
• Obstruction (e.g. causing obstruction on the public highway including parking too near road junctions). For obstruction infringements contact West Midlands Police
• Traffic offences (e.g. using hand-held mobile phone while driving, road rage, careless or dangerous driving). For traffic offences contact West Midlands Police
• Criminal offences (e.g. assault, threats, harassment, theft of mobile phone, indecency). For criminal offences contact the West Midlands Police
• Litter dropped by licensed vehicles - contact our Environmental Crime Team
• Running a vehicle engine and sounding a vehicle horn when stationary can be offences. These offences are infringements under Regulations 98 & 99 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986. For infringements of these regulations contact West Midlands Police
• Vehicles licensed by another local authority (e.g. Nuneaton & Bedworth, Warwick, Rugby or Solihull). Contact the relevant local authority which has licensed these vehicles

Private Hire and Hackney Carriage Vehicles

Private Hire and Hackney Carriage vehicles are allowed to pick up and drop off passengers where there are parking restrictions e.g. red or yellow double lines.