Taxi Driver Online

New rulebook for city’s taxi drivers

TAXI drivers will need at least three years experience on the road before getting behind the wheel after a city council crackdown.

Anyone wanting to become a driver in Worcester will now need a minimum of three years driving experience in this country.

The city council has agreed to include the policy in a revised taxi handbook' which aims to ensure the public is safe when stepping in a cab.

Under the old rules, anyone with 12 months driving history could apply to drive a taxi.

Members of the licensing committee considered making the ruling apply only to people from abroad - before changing their minds to avoid discrimination claims.

The new taxi handbook also aims to combat noise problems in Worcester by saying taxi drivers cannot beep their horns when trying to get their customer's attention.

Chairman of the licensing committee Coun Dave Clark said: "What the rules will now say is that anyone applying to become a taxi driver needs to have three years experience behind the wheel.

"This will do two things. Firstly, it will ensure a foreign person, in the interests of safety, has to have enough experience of driving here.

"Secondly, it raises the overall standard of taxi drivers from where it was in the past. Our handbook used to state taxi drivers need only 12 months experience before applying to operate in Worcester.

"What we are trying to do here is up the ante in terms of safety. It applies from now."

Coun Roger Knight, who also sits on licensing, said: "I fully support the suggestion for requiring three years driving experience - with people from abroad we are talking about different roads and culture - we have a responsibility for public safety and if this helps promote public safety, we should go for it."

The committee decided to add a policy to the handbook stating anyone applying to drive a taxi must have three years driving experience in the UK regardless of where they are from.

The handbook also states taxi drivers can now be asked to undertake another driving assessment' if someone makes a complaint.

Any taxi drivers over the age of 70 will have to take an annual assessment to ensure they are up to standard.

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Yet another council that has s*** for brains, and/or a legal department that can't read.

Still councils know best.

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IDFIMH

Three years driving experience or three years holding a licence? They're not the same.

A licence in a drawer is not the same as in the wallet of someone who is actually driving.

Of course, it seems that it's only in the hire car trades that drivers are not required to formally prove their competence to drive.

I believe this is an essential quality control, particularly for those areas where there are no quantity restrictions.

Aren't we all fed up passing hails on zig zag lines, because of the severe penalty for picking up, only to see in the rear view that another, more desperate cabby has picked up anyway?

Or, the racing for fares, or the speed which drivers drive at, placing the public either in discomfort or worse, in danger.

And the poor, obstructive road position adopted when disengaging, the running of traffic lights and the wiping of ranks.

Isn't a real driving course, slanted toward the special circumstances of cabbying, now essential?

Quite simply their policy is a thinly disguised piece of racism.

What a load of b01locks.

The fact you have driven in the UK for 3 years doesn't mean you are safer than someone who has only driven here for six weeks but has driven elsewhere for decades.

It is crap. So a man called Mr Smith could pass his driving test in Worcester, move to France for the next three years and then return to England and on the next day apply for a Hackney licence, I bet he wouldn't be hindered. Where as Zbigniew or Miroslaw would be blocked.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

Aren't you confusing racism with quality controls and public safety?

TBH it doesn't really matter a f*** what we on here think, or for that matter what the brain dead of Worcester think.

What matters is http://www.taxi-driver.co.uk/LG(MP)A1976.pdf

Maybe someone should e-mail their legal department a copy.

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IDFIMH

Take my wife (please!) she passed her driving test 18 years ago, passed and hasnt driven since!

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Your address CC. Your address.

Haven't had an invitation like this since the onset of senility. Thankfully, though the flesh is weak, I have oodles of ambition.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

???????

Try again to make it more clear for Jasbar. Don't know how I messed up previous effort toanswer your question.

So how does the fact that you have lived in England for three years prove that you are a better driver than someone who hasn't?

All it proves is your most probably English.

If you want to make sure people can drive then set a test. But we have all already taken a test.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

Yeah TT, I have already proposed a driving course aimed at taxi driving, with a summative test at its conclusion.

Our licences are renewed for three years. It wouldn't be unreasonable to say to those renewing that when they come back in three years time they would need evidence to show that they had passed this process.

The only other thing I would add is that the qualification should be designed to make it as transferable as possible (those who had passed as a recognised advanced driver course could be given exemption from this part), so the skill could be used in other employment opportunities. A top up module specifically geared to taxi driving could be added to this.

Let's promote real standards.

Don't disagree Jasbar.

Your proposals would ensure standards were raised.

The Worcester policy claims to have the same effect, but all it is doing to restrict supply.

I am not a fan of restrict supply.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

Neither am I TT.

Restriction means another instrument of control, prejudice and promotion of vested interests.

When will councils realise that their role is to ensure public safety, perhaps set tariffs - albeit in consultation with the others, and nothing more.

They are not there to "manage" taxi and private hire trades. That is the function of the market, where it is the public who make the decisions through expressing their freedom of choice.