There are two types of licensed vehicles: taxis and private hire vehicles.
There are a number of important differences between them:
Taxi vehicles
- taxi vehicles can pick up from taxi ranks throughout the district and can be flagged down in the street
- taxi vehicles can vary in design from the traditional London cab to people carrier type vehicles to ordinary saloon vehicles
- some taxis licensed in North Hertfordshire are wheelchair accessible and are required to be able to carry a person seated in a wheelchair in comfort - see details of taxi vehicles with wheelchair access
- taxis can be identified by an illuminated TAXI sign on the roof and council issued licence plates to the rear of the vehicle - these plates are yellow with black printing, and provide details of the vehicle and the licence expiry date
- fares for taxi vehicles are set by the council and all vehicles have a meter fitted which registers the fare to pay for journeys within the district boundary - a copy of the taxi tariff must be displayed in the vehicle
Private Hire vehicles
- private hire vehicles have to be pre-booked, usually by telephone call to a private hire operator, and they cannot be flagged down in the street
- the fare to be paid should be agreed with the operator at the time of booking
- private hire vehicles can be identified by council-issued licence plates to the rear of the vehicle - these plates are blue with black printing and provide details of the vehicle and the licence expiry date
- some private hire vehicles that undertake executive contracts / airport trips are exempted from displaying a vehicle licence plate - all exempted vehicles will display a blue 'tax disc' style licence on the front windscreen