Hackney carriage vehicle standards

Birmingham City Council will only licence purpose built hackney carriage vehicles, van derived vehicles should be meeting the European Whole Vehicle Type Approval or the GB Low Volume Type Approval. Be aware that the Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) is not an equivalent standard and will not entitle you to licence an otherwise non-compliant vehicle. It has come to our attention drivers/proprietors are purchasing second hand vans and minibuses and having them converted, this is not acceptable and where identified at the application stage, such vehicles will be refused a licence.

It is a well-known and established requirement that vehicles presented for licensing must be M1 classification. It has been alleged, a number of N1 vehicles have been put through for licensing using the tear off portion of the log book, which does not indicate M1, or N1. Proprietors should be aware that where a log book subsequently indicates the vehicle is in fact N1 (i.e. a converted van) officers reserve the right to seek revocation of the licence.

In light of the increasing number of enquiries and attempts to licence such vehicles, applicants seeking to licence van or minibus derived vehicles will be asked to produce a legitimate type approval certificate, before a licence can be issued. This will apply in particular to any vehicle described as mini-bus or panel van on the logbook, rather than taxi. Where the logbook indicates the vehicle is N1 classification, current policy does not allow the vehicle to be licensed. If applicants persist in passing off N1 vehicles as M1 in the absence of a full logbook, it may be necessary to reconsider the practice of accepting the V4 tear off altogether.