The Basics: What is a Taxi?

What is a Taxi?

"Seriously, your kidding me right? Everyone knows what Taxis are!"

Upon first glance, the answer to this question seems pretty obvious, however, not all "Taxis" are actually Taxis. I'll Explain...

When everyday people use the word "Taxi", it tends to be used for any vehicle that seats between one and eight passengers and transports them from any location to any destination for a fee. 

This is only half correct because there are actually two kinds of "Taxi" and legally they are quite different. 

Now most people don't know the difference and in most cases they don't need to, it is the job for the Taxi companies and the regulatory bodies to ensure that the vehicles they operate are doing so within the law.

Without going into too much detail, the world of Taxis is divided into Public Hire and Private Hire, you are either one or the other and you can not be both. The main difference between Public Hire and Private Hire is that only Public Hire vehicles can pick up passengers from a Taxi Rank or be hailed in the street. 

The only way you can only travel in a Private Hire Vehicle if you have booked it in advance. However both Public Hire and Private hire vehicles can be booked either by telephone, over the internet, from an App on your mobile or from a kiosk.

Now strictly speaking only Public Hire vehicles are actually Taxis. Just to confuse things even more in the UK they are legally known as "Hackney Carriages", this is an old term dating back to the horse and carriage era. 

So where does that leave us with Private Hire vehicles? Well, they are often called other things like Minicab's or private hire cars. Other vehicles such as stretch Limousines, party buses or wedding cars are also types of private hire vehicles.

So, if you didn't before, now you know what a Taxi is.

~Taxi Blogger