Taxi and PHV national database for low emission zones starts 1st May

The legislation that will require licensing authorities to submit certain taxi and private hire vehicle licensing information to a central database will come into force on 1 May 2019. 

Further to my previous article on The Air Quality (Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles Database) (England and Wales) Regulations 2019, it has now been confirmed by Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) that the regulations will come into force on 1 May 2019. 

These regulations will make it a requirement for licensing authorities in England and Wales to upload information about vehicles licensed by them to a central data base. The information on this database will be used by councils to implement and enforce ultra-low and clean air zones. 

The requirement will be that the information will be uploaded on a weekly basis and will include the following information about licensed taxis and private hire vehicles:

• Vehicle Registration Mark;

• Start and expiry date of the vehicle licence;

• Whether the vehicle is a taxi or PHV;

• Name of the licensing authority;

• Licence plate number; and

• An indication of whether it is a wheelchair accessible vehicle.

Whilst the regulations will come into force next week, DEFRA has indicated that it does not expect to go live until January 2020 to coincide with the start of the first charging Clean Air Zones in Leeds and Birmingham.

DEFRA is yet to provide further guidance.

Taxi image author: TaxiPoint