The Southampton Hackney Association (SHA) is an organisation which promotes the licensed Hackney Carriage Taxi drivers who all drive white taxis around the city of Southampton. We are licensed and insured to pick people up from the kerbside and from taxi ranks throughout Southampton. If you need a lift somewhere, you can safely hail any of the white taxi's, and know that you are in secure insured hands. (It's worth remembering that by contrast, the Private Hire minicabs, which can be any colour other than white, can only be pre-booked and must never pick people up who have not made prior contact to ride with them.)

Hackney Carriage Taxis are steeped in history; from material stored at the Archive Department at Southampton City Council, the SHA have read a ledger from The Watch Committee that goes back to the late 1800's about the Southampton Taxi Trade.

Taxis actually began way back with the Hansom Cab which first appeared in the reign of Queen Elizabeth the 1st! Wealthy carriage owners rented their horse and carriages out to help cover the costs of their keep, soon the cabs became known as Hackney coaches or cabs which comes from the Norman French word ‘hacquenée’ which means a horse suitable for hire.