Passenger safety

1In an emergency

If you are in danger, call 999.

For anything else about your journey, call the telephone number at the foot of every page. While your journey is under way you can always speak to a person.

2Who drives you

Every chauffeur we send holds a current private hire driver licence from Hertsmere Borough Council. To get one, a driver must pass an enhanced check with the Disclosure and Barring Service (the council's licensing policy, paragraph 4.2.7), provide a medical certificate to the DVLA Group 2 standard, the standard asked of lorry and bus drivers (paragraph 4.4), and complete the council's training day and pass its knowledge test, which covers safeguarding, disability awareness and road safety (paragraph 4.6).

Every car holds a current private hire vehicle licence from Hertsmere and is insured for carrying passengers for hire, which the council cannot license a car without.

Conditions 17a and 20 of our operator licence allow us to send you only a car licensed by the council and driven by a chauffeur licensed by the council. Our system enforces that: if a licence or an insurance certificate runs out, that chauffeur or car can be given no journey and is taken off journeys already planned.

We check every licence when a chauffeur or car joins us and at every renewal, and we record who checked it and when. Conditions 25 to 27 require us to hold those records, and conditions 46 and 47 require us to inspect every car we operate each month and write down what we found.

Everyone in our office who takes bookings or dispatches cars has a basic criminal record check and is entered on a register of the people assessed as suitable to do that work, with the date of the check and the date they were assessed. Conditions 41 to 44 require it, and they also require us not to keep a copy of the certificate itself.

Some journeys are carried out by a partner operator holding its own private hire operator licence. Conditions 10 to 12 require us to record who we passed the booking to, to satisfy ourselves that they are correctly licensed and insured, to tell you, and to remain responsible for your booking.

3Where we are licensed

Operator, driver and vehicle licences all come from Hertsmere Borough Council, which is what the law requires: the three must match. A booking can then begin or end anywhere in England and Wales, Heathrow included.

Conditions 17a and 20 of our operator licence say it plainly: we may not send you a car that is not licensed by Hertsmere, driven by a chauffeur licensed by Hertsmere. Section 46(1)(e) of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 makes the same point as an offence rather than a condition.

4What we send you before pickup

Before your journey starts we send the passenger the chauffeur's first name, their private hire driver licence number, the car's registration number, and its make, model and colour. Where your message channel can show one, we also send a photograph of the chauffeur; by text message you get a link to it.

Condition 54 of our operator licence requires the make, model and registration, and requires us to tell you in advance that the car is unmarked and will not display a private hire plate. The first name, the licence number and the photograph go further than the condition, and they stay, because they are what you can actually check at the kerb.

We send this to the passenger even when someone else made the booking.

5Check before you get in

Check that the registration number on the car matches your message, and that the chauffeur looks like the photograph if you have one. Ask the chauffeur who they are there to collect, and let them tell you rather than saying your name first.

Do not look for a licence plate on the back of the car. Executive private hire cars are usually exempt from displaying one, under a written exemption the council grants for executive and corporate work (Hertsmere's licensing policy, paragraph 5.18). An exempt car carries its plate and the council's letter of exemption without displaying them, and shows a small blue licence in the front windscreen instead.

Your chauffeur wears the council's badge where you can see it, which their own licence requires, and must produce their licence to a council officer or a police officer on request. If you want to check the chauffeur or the car, Hertsmere is the authority that issued both licences and the place to ask.

6If the details do not match

Do not get in. Move somewhere safe and call us. We tell you whether the chauffeur or car has changed and send you the correct details.

If we ever have to change your chauffeur or car, we send you the new details before pickup, so a chauffeur should never arrive without matching details.

Never get into a car that approaches you without a booking. Condition 7 of our operator licence allows us to carry you only where the journey was asked for beforehand, and under section 46 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 it is an offence to operate a private hire vehicle without an operator licence, or with a car or a driver the council has not licensed.

7During the journey

Wear your seat belt. You can ask the chauffeur to stop somewhere safe at any time, and you can speak to a person at our office at any time during the journey.

You and the chauffeur can call or text each other through a temporary number, so neither of you sees the other's real telephone number. We record the car's location only while a journey is active.

8Children

You can book a rear-facing infant seat, a forward-facing child seat or a booster as an extra, and any charge for a seat is shown before you see the price. We need notice to fit a seat, and the booking form shows how much; if you book with less notice, our team contacts you before we confirm.

Choose the seat for your child's age, weight and height. If you are not sure which is right, tell us your child's age and weight in the note for the chauffeur and we will check.

If you do not book a seat, the law lets children travel in a licensed private hire car without one, but only on a rear seat. A child under 3 may travel without a seat belt, and a child aged 3 or over must wear an adult seat belt. This is less safe than a proper child seat, and we strongly recommend booking one.

If a child will be travelling without an adult, please call us before you book so we can talk it through with you.

9Travelling alone or late at night

Save our telephone number, which is on your confirmation. Share your booking details with someone you trust, and sit in the back.

If anything about the journey makes you uncomfortable, ask the chauffeur to stop somewhere safe and public, and call us. If you feel in danger, call 999.

10Reporting a safety concern

Tell us about anything that made you feel unsafe, even if nothing happened: the driving, behaviour, comments, the condition of the car, or a chauffeur whose details did not match. Call us during or straight after the journey, or use any of the routes on our complaints page.

We treat safety concerns as our most serious category of complaint, and the owner of the business sees them the same day. We may stop offering work to a chauffeur while we investigate, and condition 33 of our operator licence requires us to tell the council when we stop using one because we doubt they are fit and proper.

You can also complain in writing to Hertsmere Borough Council, the authority that licenses us, at licensing.taxis@hertsmere.gov.uk. If a crime may have been committed, call the police on 999 in an emergency or 101 otherwise. Where a complaint alleges violence, a sexual offence, or a risk to a child or a vulnerable adult, we report it to the council and the police immediately.

If a crime may have been committed, report it to the police yourself as well: call 999 in an emergency, or 101 otherwise. We give the police the booking record and any other information they lawfully request.

11Every version of this document

• Version 2026-09-2 (the version in force)In effect from 16 September 2026
• Version 2026-09-1In effect from 15 September 2026

A published version is never edited. A correction is a new version with a new effective date, and your booking keeps the version you agreed to.