Taxi Driver Online

Taxi bosses want test to be scrapped

PRIVATE hire bosses are calling for a knowledge test required by new drivers to be scrapped. To gain a licence from Sefton Council to work as a private hire driver, people must pass the Topographical Knowledge Test which came into effect in 1993.

But Terry Evason, a director of Litherland-based SRC Taxis, says the test is causing a decrease in driver numbers, thereby reducing the amount of vehicles for hire on a 24-hour basis.

He has joined forces with Chris Carr, a director at Blueline Taxis in Maghull, to put their concerns to the council. Terry has obtained figures showing a 33 per cent reduction in private hire driver applications between 1993 and 2004 – 3,050 drivers licensed in 1993 compared to 2,029 in 2004 – and by 2005, over 1,020 drivers had left the trade.

He said: “Other local authorities have found alternatives to the knowledge test. “Many things have transpired over the past 14 years to render this test useless; the harnessing of new technologies by the surviving companies in Sefton has meant that drivers now enjoy equipment supplied by the operators that includes satellite navigation and GPS technology and A-Z references.

“The knowledge test has created a shortage of drivers which has in turn restricted the incomes of smaller firms and has put them at a great disadvantage in seeking to recruit drivers.

“Sefton must have procedures to ensure that applicants are fit and proper people, and the vast majority of all Sefton’s procedures are acknowledged as fair and just.

“How could anyone object to CRB checks, medical checks and the DVLA licence checks which are equally of paramount importance, but the same cannot be said for the much maligned knowledge test..”

However, a council spokesman said a review of taxi licensing is underway. He added: “We are currently carrying out a comprehensive review of the taxi licensing portfolio which includes looking at the knowledge test and limitations on licence numbers.

“The review will involve consultation with existing trade representatives, individual taxi drivers, staff and other local authorities.”

_________________
IDFIMH

I think a knowledge test is important - especially with all the influx of 'foreign' drivers

Deja-vu..

_________________
Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

You can say that again.

_________________
IDFIMH

Deja-vu..

_________________
Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

So having more drivers will restsrict their incomes then?

So basically he wants those at the bottom of the pile to be less well off so that people like him a bit further up can coin a bit more in? Greedy barsteward

_________________
Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

And I must be going of my rocker here, because isn't the reason PH drivers flock to Sefton to get badged and plated then go to work in Liverpool because the Sefton test is a a piece of pi$$?

And presumably the figures quoted include drivers working in Liverpool?

_________________
Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Drivers should need to take the knowledge test You can't rely on SAT NAV alone as they do sometimes go wrong
If the applicant does know his/her way around then they should have no problem in taking the knowledge test

If you can't pass the test you should drive a bus,they go the same way every day



YES probably It's not really fair on Liverpool P/H as they don't go to work in Bootle Sefton do they?

Yet more evidence of operators not giving a flying f*** about drivers or punters.

It takes three months for a CRB to come through, and from memory the Sefton knowledge can take a month or so to do for even the thickest.

So HTF is getting rid of a PH knowledge going to speed up new entrants.

_________________
IDFIMH

Ah well if they are from eastern europe or asia it has been said that they don't get the proper CRB, just a letter to say they are ok. So this may be quicker.

_________________
Grandad,

The knowledge test wasn't the reason these Private hire drivers left the Taxi trade because they were already licensed, therefore there must be other reasons?

Like everyone else, I can think of a many reasons why people might wish to leave the private hire and hackney carriage trade but if you ask existing Sefton drivers if the knowledge test should be scrapped, I would be highly surprised if they said "yes".

I suppose these two private hire operators don't read TDO because if they did they would then know that there are other alternatives to being licensed in Sefton.

Regards

JD

_________________
Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

_________________
Grandad,

The London Minicab trade would collapse overnight if a meteorite ever hits the satellite.

I suspect not. If PH drivers just headed for the softest option then surely they'd be flocking to Knowsley, which has NO knowledge test. Bear in mind also that a large number of Sefton PH driver applicants nowadays are X-Liverpool Hackney Drivers who have already passed Liverpool's 'difficult' test. Their motive for choosing Sefton is plain and simple... it's the only way to gain access to millions of Delta passengers...

_________________
Don't knock it, 'til you try it....

And good luck to them.

Just for my own little interest do you agree with the numbers giving in the article of only 2000 licensed PH drivers?

Surely you must have most of them.

And when your firm was much smaller was there other firms with 1000+ drivers?

_________________
IDFIMH