New London Limo Licensing Laws...

In London, limousines and luxury chauffeur driven vehicles are regulated as Private Hire Vehicles and defined by the fact that they are hired out with a driver or chauffeur, to the public. However, some limousines operating in London have avoided having to abide by the licensing for Private Hire Vehicles as their passengers are from private contracts.

Therefore, the terms ‘to the public’ have now been removed from the Road Safety Act to make it irrelevant whether the limousine or luxury vehicle is transporting passengers gained through a contract hire, or from the public. The exceptions in the previous Act will still stand to not apply the licensing to taxis, public service vehicles and vehicles used solely for weddings and funerals. A similar change to the limousine licensing laws is being made for operators outside of London too.

The Department of Transport will ask for the new licensing law clarification to be enacted on 1 April, 2008. While the deadline for applying for the new limousine licenses in time for the changes to the legislation closed at the end of November 2007, licenses will still be issued after this date, but limo hire company operators must be sure to only use limos in their fleet which are already compliant.

While the limousine licensing laws try to keep up with the industry and the new developments and vehicles which seem to change almost daily, until the laws are adapted to allow, regulate or license new types of limousines or operators, limo hire companies need to make sure they don’t dampen the efforts of the official channels of change by simply operating their unlicensed limousines anyway.

For more information about hiring a correctly licensed limousine for your area and event, contact Limo Broker now.