Taxi Driver Online

Express and Echo (Exeter)

December 20, 2007 Thursday

Cabbies given points warning

A council has issued clarification about how it regulates taxi drivers who accumulate penalty points.

Mid Devon District Council says that any licensed driver who accumulates six penalty points or more on their licence in a rolling calendar year, or nine or more points in a rolling three-year period, is required to prove their driving ability by passing a Driving Standards Agency test.

It says that if complaints about the standard of a particular driver were substantiated, then they could also have to pass the DSA test.

Since April, anyone applying for a licence to drive taxis, including hackney carriages and private hire vehicles, has had to pass a DSA test for taxi drivers.

Mid Devon licensing manager Marjory Parish said: "To license drivers, we need to be shown they are fit and proper persons. If they are not, we cannot license them.

"Most of our drivers already drive well and professionally, so we decided not to apply this requirement to existing drivers, but we will require that they pass the DSA test if problems arise with their driving."
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