The Forecourt Request

Decline the hire and explain why, politely but without hedging.

• A private hire vehicle may only be used for a journey that has been pre-booked through a licensed operator before it begins. Accepting a fare offered at the roadside is plying for hire, which a PHV driver is not licensed to do.
• The practical consequences stack up on three fronts:
  1. Criminal – it is an offence under the private hire provisions of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976; the court can fine you and the council can review your licence.
  2. Licensing – a conviction or even a credible complaint goes to your 'fit and proper person' status; suspension or revocation is realistic, and that ends your livelihood.
  3. Insurance – your policy covers pre-booked private hire only, so in a collision on this trip you would be uninsured. Passengers would be exposed and you would personally carry the loss.
• Offer the lawful alternative: 'I can't take a walk-up fare, but I can give you the number and it'll be with you in a few minutes.' That is customer service and it removes the temptation to bend the rule.
• Do not negotiate, do not accept 'I'll say it was booked', and do not let cash change the analysis.

It depends entirely on whether a genuine booking is actually created and accepted by the operator.

What makes the hiring lawful:

• The booking is made with and accepted by the licensed operator, not by you as the driver, before the journey begins.
• It is recorded in the operator's system with the pickup details, so it can be produced if the council or police ask.
• The vehicle and driver are dispatched by the operator to that booking.

So the honest version works: he books through the app, the operator accepts it, the job comes to you or to whoever the operator allocates, and there is a record.

The dishonest version does not:

• If you hand him your phone, or sit at a station forecourt inviting people to 'book on the app' so you can take them, you are still soliciting a street hire and simply papering over it. A council enforcement officer or police officer observing the approach would treat that as plying for hire.
• If the operator allocates the job to another car, that car goes - you do not take it because you were there first.

Also check where you are parked: station forecourts are often private land with their own byelaws and waiting restrictions, and some councils restrict PHV waiting near ranks. Standing there touting for work is a licensing risk in its own right.

Work through three checks: who is licensed by whom, what the insurance covers, and whether London or local rules bite.

1. The cross-border position. Since the Deregulation Act 2015, an operator licensed in England or Wales outside London may accept bookings for journeys that start anywhere in England and Wales, provided the operator, the driver and the vehicle are all licensed by the same authority. Here all three are Ashfield-licensed, so the structure is sound and a Brightwater pickup is permitted.
2. London is different. The cross-border provisions do not extend to London. A journey starting in London requires a London-licensed operator, driver and vehicle. If the 'Brightwater' office is actually inside Greater London, stop and re-check before accepting.
3. Insurance and records. Confirm your policy covers the full journey, including the return leg and any period of waiting, and confirm the operator logs the booking before you set off - if you are stopped, the record is your evidence that this was a pre-booked hiring.

Then the practical local points: check any waiting or parking restriction at the pickup point, and do not sit on a rank in Brightwater, because a hackney rank is not a PHV stand and waiting there invites a plying-for-hire allegation.