Taxi Driver Online

Taxi drivers must pass English test

New taxi drivers in South Staffordshire will have to pass an extra driving test – and prove they can speak English – before being allowed to get behind the wheel, under plans revealed today. Until now, drivers in the district have only had to hold a normal driving licence for one year before being granted their taxi licence.

But from July, all new drivers will have to pass a 40-minute exam and prove their understanding of English before being allowed to carry passengers.

South Staffordshire Council is one of the only local authorities in the region that has had no form of test for new taxi drivers – with Wolverhampton, Dudley, Birmingham, Shropshire, Cannock and Walsall Councils already running similar schemes.

Under the plans, drivers will not be tested on driving skills but on their knowledge of rules and regulations for licensed taxis. The multiple choice exam will cover the highway code, taxi hire law and the council’s drivers and private hire vehicle conditions. A score of 30 out of 50 will be a pass and anyone who fails will be allowed two more chances before being banned from trying for three months.

The plans are outlined in a new document on taxi and private hire licensing policies which is due to be passed by the licensing committee on June 1. Councillor Kathleen Perry, chairman of the committee, said: “Our primary concern is always to make sure that our taxis and private hire vehicles are safe and that those licensed to drive them have the knowledge and understanding of the rules relating to taxis and private hire vehicles and the Highway Code as well as a sufficient level of English to be able to transport people safely.”

The 322 drivers already licensed by South Staffordshire Council will not have to pass the new test unless they lose their licence. Other changes include plans to allow any coloured vehicles to become a private hire taxi. Dark vehicles were previously deemed too similar to hackney carriages.

In Wolverhampton cabbies want a change in the rule to ban foreign drivers from getting licences for at least five years. Nasim Ullah, chairman of the Wolverhampton Hackney Carriage Drivers Association, said he did not believe recent arrivals in Britain should be able to pass criminal background checks without having lived in the country for a long time.

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IDFIMH

In years..just exactly what period of time is a "Long Time"

And are even past Immigrants getting a bellyfull of even more Immigrants??

Bloodnock has hit the nail on the head here..... All the Asian drivers here are complaining about 26 more immigrant drivers applying for licences.....

Are they complaining about immigrants applying or just people applying?

Or are they happy to have 1000s of new drivers as long as they don't come from an ethnic background?

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IDFIMH

No they are complaining about the number applying which happen to be mostly of Asian ethnicity. The Asian Guys already here have realised what we have been on about for years and now understand that we aren't racist in the real sense but realists resenting the over saturation of H/C and PH in the area.....

Well then they are not moaning about immigrants, just new drivers.

I moan about loads of new drivers, without mentioning their skin colour or countries of origin.

You should give it a go sometime.

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IDFIMH

Sussex, as I have said before, I tell it as it actually is without the PC. There is a growing immigration problem in this country and it should be highlighted as possible to what is actually going on and how it affects communities in the way it does..... Liebour completely F****d up and are now admitting to it!! No matter how you try to "cover up" the problem, it is here and the damage has been done..... I, like most, would prefer the madness to stop and the only way is to speak out even if the truth is ugly and disagreeable to the PC brigade!! That doesn't actually mean that we are all out and out racists does it?

It's about time to.

I have no truck with the PC brigade, but you are missing the point that there isn't any difference between not being PC and being viewed as a racist.

I can tell you this for nothing, in a court of law you would be fined for some of your views if you repeated them there.

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IDFIMH

That means that free speech is dead then doesn't it....... In other words you can think it but you can't say it.... The law is an ass as we already know and is so bound up it's own ass it contradicts itself at every turn.
The law is only there for those that can afford it....... period

Sadly you are PC but can't see it, but that's your problem.....

Enoch Powell was right, his opposers were wrong, but when an asian objects to foreigners i think we have gone full circle.....pmsl

Did the driver's rep say that?

I read a driver complaining that drivers who haven't been in the country for a long checkable period can't have a sufficient background check.

Nothing PC about that, nothing racist about that, just plain old common sense.

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IDFIMH

This exactly what is being done behind PC bullshit that covers up the ineptitude of LA's as a whole....
They see the problems arising too late and then try using sticking plaster to plug a torrent.....

Ya just can't see it or don't want to admit that immigration control has run amok and has been well and truly F****d up by Liebour letting far too many in then trying to raise the standards far too bloody late!!. But then again being the far left socialist you are it's not really that surprising.... When you have the invasion which obviously hasn't happened in your manor yet, I don't think you'll be so smug, welcoming and PC, standing on your pedestal, when you find your income dropping, hours increasing just to keep up with what you were earning originally by 40% or more because of over saturation of immigrants, believe it!! .....
Sussex, you can call me what you like but I know that many, many millions are thinking to what I am saying is true, but are afraid to say it, because they don't want to be seen as racist. Just PC bullshit whichever way you look at it, but that's life
I repeat, I am a realist, would you like to meet some of my Asian friends? Who BTW are not taxi drivers?

Precisely!!