Taxi Driver Online

Cabbies Face Testing Time on the 'Knowledge'

8th August 2008

Many would-be cabbies don't know their way round Preston, it has emerged.

Some applicants were unable to say which road the Town Hall was on – even though they were in the building being tested on how well they knew the city.

A total of 122 tests were failed in 12 months, with six people failing more than three times this year.

Including re-sits, 111 drivers passed the one-hour test, which asks applicants to name the shortest route between two landmarks, and a communications test.

The £20 tests can be re-taken as many times as is needed at a cost of £10, but anyone who fails four times has to wait two months for another re-take.

Michael Rooney, who owns private hire firm Ribbleton Taxis and passed the knowledge test first time in 1990, said the tests were unnecessary.

He said: "They keep making it harder and harder and harder. It's come to the stage now where you're getting nobody passing it."

But Mark Selley of Preston Hackney Carriage Association, said: "We have to encourage anything that raises standards. It's not always going to be natives of the town that sit the test."

The "knowledge" is one of a package of measures used to assess applicants.

First they must pass a communications test to make sure they understand spoken English. They are also asked to sit a four-day course for a BTEC Level Two award in Transporting Passengers by Taxi and Private Hire.

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Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

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Trick question: they were in the building. They must have known where it was or they wouldn't be there sitting their tests.




"Take me to the Town HALL" You know what, that's where I sat my test ....

Lets hope the questions don't get any harder . . . .

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

I think if you fail three times in a year you should be barred from trying again for another 12 months.

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IDFIMH

Is expecting drivers to know where they are going to really unnecessary, or is this PH operator just a greedy c***?

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IDFIMH

The second option is the more plausable one.

If he & other operators can get drivers licensed who don't have the necessary qualities, they're in the pound seats.

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.