Taxi Driver Online

Irritate me no, amuse me yes. All the pious preachings from Oddy and Steve Mac on the radio make my day.

Still why should they bother themselves with such trivial issues as the KOL?

Ollie

The only vested interest we have is LTI vehicles, the Knowledge is a quality control which is like any other in the world.

The future will be a fully licensed Knowledge Sat Nav system which you will rent from PCO for £X per week/year. It will have all London roads both covering both yellow and green badge areas. It will have a full list of all points in London. It will also cover the whole UK. It will be updated weekly by the net.

Is that from your experience then Sussex?

In what way is an oral test of a route between two points draconian or from the dark ages?

Whatever the merits of the KOL, the taxi drivers still have a vested interest in its retention.

As regards quality control, would it be reasonable to specify that taxi drivers have to be able to do the 100m in less than 11 seconds and have a PhD in Chemistry?

Of course not - to use the OFT's words, quality control must be 'proportionate'.

Whether the KOK is or not is another matter, but I think just tos say that since it's a quality control matter then its OK doesn't quite address the issue.

Oh yes, all anyone has to do is to read the section in the report titled KOL.

I was going to paste the relevant bits, but most of it should confirm to anyone without a green badge that the whole proceedure is well and truely in the dark ages.

Of course not - to use the OFT's words, quality control must be 'proportionate'.

Just think if Eastbourne had a Knowledge test and no restrictions on numbers like London, you would have your plate by now.

The future will be a fully licensed Knowledge Sat Nav system which you will rent from PCO for £X per week/year. It will have all London roads both covering both yellow and green badge areas. It will have a full list of all points in London. It will also cover the whole UK. It will be updated weekly by the net.

If any of you guys have use Sat Nav you will know what I am talking about. The only problems come from the mapping software and POI's. If the PCO spent some money on these issues the door would be open.

The punter gets in the cab, puts in the address he wants to go into the touch screen in the back of the cab and bob's yer unkle. Your punter can even watch the journey on the screen, see the ETA, DTG, route etc.

The only barrier to entry them will be money. Why put all that effort in to learning the knowledge? A child would be able to do it with a robust Sat Nav system.

You need to get in at ground level, this will happen, it's not if but when.

Peace


PS Sat Nav's don't work in snow, not normally a problem but what's that on the news.....

I would say learning your way around the Metropolis would be a reasonable control?

My TomTom has demonstrated quite well how it will never replace what I know about a vast area of our Capital.

I know there are good reasons to keep the KOL, but if designing it from scratch I don't think I would make it quite as rigorous as it is now.

I think the part of the report that does point to the dark ages is;

Many organisations believe that these problems are leading to an ageing and declining licensed taxi driver population. Indeed, 98% of licensed taxi drivers are over 30, and there are more drivers aged over 70 than there are aged under 30.