Private hire drivers' licence documents

All our applicants should have passed a driving assessment within the previous six months before they submit their application. Applicants are advised to ensure that their driving is at an acceptable level, at least to DVSA standards prior to taking the test. It may be worth considering refreshing driving skills with an instructor.

Our providers for driving assessments are:

The Blue Lamp Trust

• Online: Driver assessment
• Website: The Blue Lamp Trust
• Phone: 0333 700 0157

Taxi Driver Tests

• Online: Taxi Driver Tests
• Phone: 07360 653 938

The fee for this test is payable to the assessor. A vehicle with appropriate insurance must be provided by the applicant to take the driving assessment. Bookings must be made online. The vehicle may have manual or automatic transmission.

Applicants should note that we cannot issue a licence unless they have held a full UK driving licence (or equivalent) for more than two years and their current licence must be issued in the UK by DVLA.

All private hire and hackney carriage drivers are required to have an enhanced DBS check and have that DBS on the update service or obtain a new DBS certificate every six months.

A DBS can be obtained at any time using our provider.

48 hours after you have submitted your DBS application and your identification documents have been verified, you will receive an application form number via email. You can use this to apply to the DBS Update Service.

You can subscribe to the update service within 30 days of your new DBS certificate issue date. After this you will need to apply for a new certificate.

Note that we can only accept a certificate that has been requested for the purposes of Other Workforce – Hackney Carriage Driver or Other Workforce – Private Hire Driver

Drivers are required to obtain safeguarding training from one of our approved providers within the last three years. 

All private hire and hackney carriage drivers are required to undergo safeguarding training to an approved standard. The course must be a classroom or virtual classroom course as approved by Southampton City Council. This may also be done online in a virtual classroom using Teams, Zoom or similar video conferencing facilities. Note that eLearning courses are not acceptable.

Our current providers for an approved safeguarding course are:

The Blue Lamp Trust

• Website: The Blue Lamp Trust
• Phone: 0333 700 0157
• Book: Safeguarding

Personnel Checks

• Phone: 01254 355 679
• Website: Personnel Checks
• Book: Training

All medical reports must be completed within the last 4 months by either your General Practitioner (GP) with whom you are registered (your Doctor) or one of our approved medical providers (listed below). If you use an approved provider, you will need to obtain your medical summery from your own GP and take this to your appointment.

Our medical form is required to be completed for all new applicants for hackney carriage or private hire driver's licences and when licensed drivers are aged 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, and annually thereafter, in line with DVLA best practice guidelines. The medical form is available from our offices or can be downloaded below.

Our approved medical providers are:

D4Drivers (Rymans Ltd)

Website: D4Drivers
Telephone: 0300 3030 668

Chartwell Surgery (Townhill Surgery)

Website: Chartwell Surgery
Telephone: 023 8047 2232

Regency Medical - Portsmouth (Medique Limited)

Website: Regency Medical
Telephone: 0203 734 3629

Download our medical form.

All drivers are required to obtain this qualification within six months of being issued a hackney carriage or private hire licence. We advise drivers to obtain this prior to application but we will licence a driver without this for a period of six months whilst they complete their course.

Courses are available all over the country by various suppliers. We have found some local providers to assist applicants but you can choose to go wherever you wish. Please note that Southampton City Council does not recommend or endorse any particular BTEC provider:

Bfluent School of English

• Phone: 023 8067 8500
• Mobile 07765 280 153
• Email: info@bfluent.co.uk
• Website: Bfluent

Private Hire Academy

• Phone: 023 9234 5798
• Email: intro@phac.co.uk
• Website: Private Hire Academy

N-Gaged Training & Recruitment

• Phone: 08000 433 623
• Email: mail@n-gaged.co.uk
• Internet: N-Gaged Training

Upton Training

• Phone: 07368 468 596
• Email: info@uptontraining.co.uk
• Internet: Upton Training

Value Group Training Services

• Phone: 01722 349 341
• Email: tony@vgts.co.uk
• Internet: Value Group Training Services