Centaurus and municipality: who issues your taxi licence in Flanders?

When you start a taxi business in Flanders, you will quickly hear about Centaurus2020.

That can create the impression that Centaurus is the administration that issues your licence.

That is not exactly the case.

Centaurus is the digital portal. The municipality remains the authority that processes your licence application.

In practice :

Operator → Centaurus2020 → Municipality → decision on the licence

What is Centaurus2020 ?

Centaurus2020 is the platform provided by the Flemish Region to submit and manage, among other things :

• taxi licence applications ;
• vehicles linked to a licence ;
• bestuurderspassen (driver cards) ;
• certain authorisations linked to taxi operations.

The official platform itself describes Centaurus2020 as the system for the application and management of driver cards, licences, taxi vehicles and authorisations.

Centaurus is therefore above all the digital tool used to complete the formalities.

Who actually issues the licence ?

To operate a taxi service in Flanders, you need a vergunning voor individueel bezoldigd personenvervoer.

The application is submitted to the municipality where the company's operating seat is located (exploitatiezetel). The licence obtained is then valid throughout the Flemish Region.

The Flemish Region provides two ways to submit the application :

online via Centaurus2020, or directly with the competent municipality.

In other words, even when you complete your entire file on Centaurus, the application remains an application addressed to your municipality.

What is the municipality's role then ?

The municipality plays a central role in the Flemish taxi system.

It is notably competent to :

• issue licences to operators ;
• issue driver cards ;
• check compliance with certain obligations ;
• organise taxi ranks ;
• manage specific authorisations for rank taxis ;
• apply certain local conditions provided for by the regulations.

So it is the municipal administration that examines your file and decides on your licence.

When the file is complete, the Flemish Region indicates that a decision must be communicated within 45 days at the latest. If accepted, the operator receives the information needed to collect the licence documents. If refused, the reason must be communicated.

So Centaurus does not « validate » your software

This is an important distinction.

When applying for a licence, you must among other things provide information about the vehicle and the system or software used.

The official document list notably asks for a :

• model route sheet (dienststaat) ;
• model transport document (vervoerbewijs).

These models help show that the system used can display and record the required regulatory information.

When you attach these documents to your Centaurus application, Centaurus is used to transmit and manage the file.

It is not the IT portal itself that decides whether your file is accepted : the municipality processes the application.

That is also why, when a document is missing or a clarification is needed, you may need to exchange with the municipal administration.

Who to contact if my application stays pending ?

Here again, the distinction is very clear.

The Centaurus portal indicates that :

• for a question about the status of your application, you must contact your municipal administration ;
• for a problem with the technical operation of Centaurus, you can contact the Department of Mobility and Public Works (Departement Mobiliteit en Openbare Werken).

So :

« Has my file been accepted ? » → Municipality

« I cannot use Centaurus » → MOW technical support

And if I change something after obtaining my licence ?

Centaurus continues to be used after the licence is obtained.

For example, an operator can use Centaurus to request the addition of a new vehicle or the removal of a vehicle from the licence.

But here too, some changes require municipal intervention.

The official page gives a very telling example : when an operator requests the removal of their licence via Centaurus, the cessation is only final after municipal approval.

So the same principle always applies :

Centaurus = management tool

Municipality = administrative authority

Which municipality is competent ?

For the taxi operating licence, the rule is simple :

the application is submitted to the municipality where your operating seat is located.

Once issued, that licence is valid throughout Flanders.

This means, for example, that a company whose operating seat is in Ghent will normally submit its application to Ghent, even if its vehicles later carry out trips elsewhere in Flanders.

Be careful, however, not to confuse the operator's licence with the driver's bestuurderspas. For the latter, the municipal competence rules are different : a driver residing in Flanders normally submits the application to their municipality of residence.

And where does Chiron fit in ?

Chiron is something else again.

Chiron is neither the licence application portal nor the authority that issues that licence.

It is the central Flemish trip database.

Once operations are running, the operator must transmit the required trip information to Chiron.

The three roles can therefore be summarised as follows :

System / actor	Main role
Centaurus2020	Submit and manage administrative applications
Municipality	Examine the file and issue the licence
Chiron	Receive regulatory trip data

These three elements belong to the same Flemish taxi regulatory environment, but they do not fulfil the same function.

Concrete example

Imagine you create a taxi company whose operating seat is in Antwerp.

You prepare among other things :

• your company documents ;
• the vehicle documents ;
• the insurance papers ;
• your model dienststaat ;
• your model vervoerbewijs.

You then submit your application via Centaurus2020.

The file is processed by the competent municipality.

If the licence is granted, you can then continue with the steps needed for operations, including vehicles, drivers and transmitting trips to Chiron.

Centaurus therefore supports the administrative procedure, but the licence remains a municipal decision.

Key takeaways

The simplest way to understand the system is this :

Centaurus is the digital counter.

The municipality is the administration that processes your file.

Chiron is the trip database.

If you are waiting for a decision on your licence, contact your municipality.

If you simply have a technical problem using the portal, that is a Centaurus / MOW issue.

Official sources

• Centaurus2020 — Departement Mobiliteit en Openbare Werken : portal overview and distinction between technical questions and application follow-up.
• Vlaanderen.be — Vergunning voor taxidiensten : application procedure, required documents and role of Centaurus.
• Mobiliteit Vlaanderen — Information for cities and municipalities : municipal competence, operating seat and Flanders-wide validity of the licence.
• Vlaanderen.be — Rittendatabank Chiron : role of Chiron and connection procedure.