ALL THINGS LICENSING
the relevant legal terms and are both an offence under s.45 of the TPCA 1847.
ment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 (LGMPA) and councils can only administer and enforce the legislation available to them. As such ‘exhibiting for hire’ is not something local authorities can deal with, as the problem effectively doesn’t exist as it isn’t defined in law.
So what is the law about being available for hire?
Section 45 of the TPCA sets out that hackney carriages can only be driven, stand or ply for hire if a licence in the controlled district is in force. This means that a hackney carriage must be licensed in the area and can be hailed in the street or taken from a rank.
The LGMPA deals with PHV and operator licensing and says that vehicles and operators in an area must be licensed, although this has obviously been clarified by case law which allows vehicles to pick up bookings outside of their licensed area provided a booking is taken by a licensed operator and the ‘trinity’ of licences match.
Council’s also regularly get complaints about vehicles and/or drivers ‘touting’. This can involve touting in the legal sense as explained below, or be misunderstood for plying/standing for hire as set out above. ‘Touting’ is the ‘solicitation’ of prospective passengers to hire the vehicle to carry them and is an offence under s.167 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. It involves a person actively trying to engage prospective customers to hire the services of a vehicle, licensed or otherwise.
The complaint in this case
So, turning to the issue faced of ‘exhibiting for hire’. The complaint in this case involved vehicles licensed by a different authority parked in busy areas such as a town centre, railways station or near taxi ranks waiting for customers who had make a booking via the operator.
The complaint stated that as licensed vehicles were parked in an area where they were not licensed but available for passengers who had booked them, they were ‘exhibiting for hire’. As described above, exhibiting for hire is not a term defined in law. The offence of ‘plying for hire’ and ‘standing for hire’ are
PHTM OCTOBER 2023
However, whether a vehicle is plying or standing for hire centres completely around the intentions of the driver according to case law. The issue of whether drivers have been ‘plying’ has been the subject of a number of higher court rulings and often involves whether the driver had the intention of being available for immediate hire. Notable case law is Nottingham vs Woodings 1994, Chorley vs Thomas 2001 and Gateshead vs Henderson 2012. Windsor and Maidenhead vs Khan also confirms that a customer can make a booking with a nearby PHV (having seen it and its telephone no), be directed to the vehicle by the operator -provided it’s legally parked and provided the driver was not involved in the booking process).
As such, the mere presence of licensed vehicles parked on the street waiting for bookings is not either plying/standing for hire, or the undefined term of exhibiting for hire.
What about vehicles ‘available’ on an app?
The complaint continued that in addition to being seen on the streets of this district, there were some PH operators using smartphone apps where the presence of a vehicle could be seen for a potential customer to make a booking with the operator.
This scenario has been dealt with comprehensively by the Higher Courts in the Reading v Ali 2019 and UTAG v TfL 2022 cases which involved firstly a challenge to a conviction for plying for hire and secondly a decision to grant an operator licence where it was attempted to be argued that the display of vehicles on a smartphone app amounted to plying for hire.
However, it has been comprehensively ruled that the outline of vehicles on an app inviting prospective customers to book with the operator is not plying for hire.
Both the financial challenges facing local authorities and the law around vehicles being available for hire are frequent topics discussed at IoL events and as it is October, I start to look forward to the IoL’s annual National Training Event which takes place from 15 to 17 November again at Stratford Upon Avon. At the time of writing there are still a few residential spaces available and the event again promises to hold a packed agenda of hot topics affecting the licensed sector. I would again urge members of the trade to join the IoL to be part of the latest goings on.
For details, please visit:
www.instituteoflicensing.org 69
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