Taxi Driver Online

Taxi drivers to take test

CAB drivers in Cambridge are facing a rigorous new testing regime, the News can reveal.

Plans are being considered to get new drivers to take a driving test, run by the city's Driving Standards Agency test centre.

And existing drivers are also being urged to sit an NVQ exam - in how to be a cabbie.

One senior driver branded the moves a bid by officials to "tick boxes".

The driving test would have to be taken by would-be cabbies who wanted to work in the city area. Specially-trained examiners would go on the road with drivers to make sure they can drive safely and professionally in a "real environment".

The test would include manoeuvres designed specifically with taxis in mind, and if they pass, cabbies will get a "certificate of competence".

Cambridge City Council is consulting drivers about the idea, and if its licensing committee approves it, the scheme could start later this summer.

But Robert Soanes, secretary of the Cambridge Hackney Carriage Drivers' Association, said it was not the only new test coming in.

He said: "We're also being urged to do a National Vocational Qualification, Level 2 - in how to be a taxi driver.

"You have to do a written exam, which includes questions about braking distances and looking after your customer, and you take an examiner out in your cab so they can assess, presumably, how good your chat is.

"In my view, all of this is unnecessary. To become a taxi driver you have to have a clean licence, and you also have to do a test on your knowledge of the city's streets. What they're trying to do is formalise everything - and tick boxes."

Cambridge cabbies have recently been embroiled in a row over illegally-parked cabs in St Andrew's Street.

The new DSA test for drivers has already been agreed by other councils around the country, among them Bury St Edmunds.

Hilary Workman, licensing services manager at St Edmundsbury Borough Council, said: "The council is fully committed to improving road safety at all levels, and the assessment scheme is seen as an excellent way to ensure that drivers licensed by this council are of a consistently high standard."

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