Somerset West and Taunton licenses 288 vehicles as at 1 April 2024 — 179 hackney carriages and 109 private hire vehicles.
Hackney carriages lead the licensed fleet, so a meaningful share of driver earnings never passes through a booking channel at all — it comes off ranks and street hails.
At this size the operator is often still on the phones, so anything that removes a keystroke from taking a booking pays for itself immediately.
265 driver licences are in force against those 288 vehicles, or 0.92 drivers per vehicle. Most vehicles are effectively single-driver, so utilisation is capped by driver hours rather than by vehicle supply.
Somerset West and Taunton requires a licensed private hire operator to record 6 of the 12 booking details the DfT surveys: passenger name, pick-up time, pick-up date, pick-up point, main destination and vehicle registration.
That is a middling regime — some fields are mandatory, the rest are left to the operator's judgement.
Not required here: time the booking was made, date the booking was made, driver name, driver licence number, name of the booker and dispatcher name.
On vehicles, hackney carriages are held to no age or emissions standard restrictions and private hire vehicles to no age or emissions standard restrictions.
Somerset West and Taunton does not cap hackney carriage licence numbers, so the fleet can grow with demand. What limits growth is the cost of meeting the standards, not waiting for a plate to come free.
In-vehicle CCTV is permitted but not required here, so it stays an operator decision rather than a licence condition.
Daily roadworthiness checks are a condition in Somerset West and Taunton, so there is a per-vehicle, per-day record to produce on request.
Before a new driver in Somerset West and Taunton can be sent a job, background screening is enhanced dbs and barred list checks, a topographical or navigational assessment must be passed, drivers must meet a minimum spoken and written English standard and safeguarding training covering child sexual exploitation and county lines is required.
23.6 per cent of the licensed fleet in Somerset West and Taunton is wheelchair accessible — 66 hackney carriages and 2 private hire vehicles.
That is a moderate accessible share: servable with notice, but not something to promise on demand at peak.
Somerset West and Taunton publishes a list of designated wheelchair-accessible vehicles, which brings its drivers within section 165 of the Equality Act 2010.
Somerset West and Taunton departs from the majority answer on 7 of the surveyed licensing policies.
Requires daily PHV roadworthiness checks: "Yes" here, against "No" for 50 per cent of authorities.
Hackney English-standard requirement: "Oral" here, against "Both" for 50 per cent of authorities.
PHV English-standard requirement: "Oral" here, against "Both" for 51 per cent of authorities.
Hackney safeguarding training: "No safeguarding" here, against "Both" for 72 per cent of authorities.
PHV safeguarding training: "No safeguarding" here, against "Both" for 72 per cent of authorities.
Disability awareness training for hackney drivers: "No" here, against "Yes" for 64 per cent of authorities.
