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UK Only – Licensing Rules For Providing Classic Or Sports Car Hire Together With a Driver

Posted by johnny No Comments

Over the past few months the FBHVC (Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs) have reported on the regulations governing the hire of vehicles with drivers and from this emerges a cautionary tale that is important to all classic and sports car hire companies in the UK, that are thinking of providing chauffeur driven services as part of their car hire business.

Three of this year’s FBHVC Newsletters have carried details of the relevant legislation including a court case where the owner of three classic cars was facing eight charges in relation to a hiring that took place in October 2007, ostensibly to take a group of people to the theatre. The company concerned lost the case.

The FBHVC view is that – at least in England and Wales – if a car is hired out for the carriage of passengers with the services of a driver, then the car, the driver and the person collecting the fee must all be licensed for the purpose with their local authority. The only exemption is for use in connection with weddings and funerals. Similar arrangements exist in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Three levels of license are required: operator (the person who handles the bookings); driver; and vehicle. Those hiring chauffeured historic vehicles for purposes other than weddings or funerals need all three. The first two should pose no problem, and are not generally hugely expensive. The last is a nightmare as authorities may set their own conditions to determine whether a vehicle is ‘safe and suitable’ and different authorities have different attitudes, some being absolutely rigid in refusing to license anything more than five years old. Conditions, once a vehicle is licensed, can be onerous, such as being required to pass an MoT twice a year.

This means that casual hire of chauffeured classic or historic vehicles for school proms, birthday treats, wedding anniversaries and any other special occasion is illegal unless the necessary licenses have been obtained. “Private hire” vehicle insurance may have been purchased, but is likely to be invalidated if there is a failure to comply with the licensing regulations.

The background reason for this legislation is to protect the public from unscrupulous operators using unsafe vehicles and/or providing criminal drivers. Those who make a living from PHV spend a considerable sum on licensing and testing before they can start to carry passengers, so it is hardly surprising that they expect the authorities to enforce the regulations so they do not face unfair competition from those who ignore the rules.

For those that like the details the relevant legislation is Part II of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1976, regarding the licensing of Hackney Carriages and Private Hire Operators, Section 75 of which has been repealed by Section 53 of the Road Traffic Safety Act 2006.

I know of one licensed driver locally that will report drivers of unlicensed vehicles to the local authority if he thinks they are breaking the rules.

One classic car hire company to my knowledge has received a letter from the licensing office of their local council, explaining the rules, so they are being enforced. So far they seem to have targeted mainly the stretched limo sector, but if you turn up at a school prom in a Mk2 Jaguar (or similar) then you run the risk of falling foul of the authorities.

In summary, chauffeur hire is ok for weddings and funerals, but if you are not fully licensed you cannot provide chauffeur drive cars for other events like: school proms; local concerts; local tours etc.

If you are in any doubt then check the licensing office of your local council.

For more information see the article on Page 3 of the FBHVC Newsletter #5, 2008.

http://www.fbhvc.co.uk/

Tony Merrygold – The Open Road – Classic Car Hire

Expert in running a classic car hire company having been in business in the UK since 1997 running The Open Road. Tony runs courses telling people how to start up a car hire company, having trained over 100 people over the past three years.

Combining his knowledge of marketing and the classic car hire industry, in early 2008 Tony launched a new web portal Classic Car Hire World http://www.classiccarhireworld.com – listing classic and sports car hire companies around the world. Within three months of its launch this site acheived a Google PageRank of 4/10 and was showing on the first page of google.com when users searched for ‘classic car hire’.

Tony also runs a sales and marketing consultancy concentrating on working with Small and Medium Enterprise (SME), helping them grow their business.