Taxi driver licence

To drive a taxi you must apply for a taxi driving licence, and a taxi vehicle licence if you wish to use your own vehicle.

We issue two types of driver licences:

• Private Hire 
• Dual Driver - existing Hackney drivers must select Dual Driver when they renew.

Who can apply

You must:

• have held a full driving licence for at least 12 months
• be living at the address where your driving licence is registered
• have permission to work in the UK 
• provide evidence of a criminal record check from the relevant country or countries if you've lived in the UK for less than 10 years or you have spent 3 continuous months or more outside the UK

If you are not sure if you will qualify to apply to be a licensed driver please read Section 2 of our Taxi Policy for further information about our requirements.

If you have received any convictions or cautions in the past please check our Taxi Policy before applying. You can find detailed information regarding how long you must wait before applying after receiving certain convictions and cautions. Please read Section 2 and Appendix C regarding Relevance of Convictions and Cautions.

Please note that if you submit an application but do not meet the criteria of a 'fit and proper person' to be a taxi driver, your application may be refused and you are unlikely to receive a refund.

Read our Taxi Policy

If you've lived in the UK for less than 10 years

If you've lived in the UK for less than 10 years or you have lived outside of the UK for 3 months or more during the last 10 years, you must provide evidence of a criminal record check from the relevant country or countries.

No decision will be made on your application until we have received this and confirmed its authenticity. The checks need to cover the ten years prior to your application.

We will need the originals of any documentation sent to us. Where these are not in English, they must be translated into English by an accredited translation body. You will have to pay for any costs involved.

Foreign Embassy details for criminal record checks.

How much it costs

After passing the knowledge test

You will be sent an email from Employment Check within 10 working days regarding applying for your Enhanced DBS and receive an email from the Council within 10 working days with information on the next steps you need to undertake.

You will need to:

• pass a Driver Assessment course which can be booked from either of these two companies: Green Penny - Driver Assessment  or The Blue Lamp Trust - Driver Assessment 
• complete an online Safeguarding course which can be booked from either of these two companies: The Blue Lamp Trust - Safeguarding Course or Green Penny - Safeguarding Course  
• have a Group 2 medical test by a doctor of your choice, we will send you a Medical Form to complete or you can

Download the Medical form (PDF, 1.717KB)

You will need to:

• log into your MyAccount
• complete an application form
• upload your enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and have already joined the DBS Update Service (instructions will be sent to you)
• provide a copy of your full driving licence, with a Check Code that enables us to access your driver record. In order to obtain the check code please visit www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence and follow the instructions
• complete the Declaration on the application form confirming that you are aware of the guidance about your tax obligations.  Guidance can be found here on GOV.UK website (Schedule 23 to Finance Act 2011 (Data Gathering Powers) and Schedule 36 to Finance Act 2008 (Information and Inspection Powers), grant HMRC powers to obtain relevant information from third parties. This includes licensing bodies being required to provide information about licence applicants)
• pay the appropriate fee

Start a new driver's licence application

What happens next

Once we receive your application and all the required supporting information, we will decide if you are a fit and proper person to hold a licence.

Decisions will take into account previous convictions. Our Taxi Policy provides more information on our approach to convictions. On occasions, an application may be referred to a licensing sub-committee to decide.

If everything is ok, we will grant a licence. You will be issued with a driver's badge and a paper licence which you will be asked to collect from the Civic Centre.  We will aim to do this within 10 working days of your application being approved.

If your application is refused, we will write to you explaining the reasons why and how you can appeal.

Further information

You'll also need to apply for a taxi vehicle licence if you wish to use your own vehicle.

Download and read the Folkestone & Hythe District Council Taxi Policy.

Folkestone and Hythe Taxi Policy with appendices 2020 (PDF, 821KB).