Cab drivers face having to pass a Nottingham knowledge test under council plans to improve the service provided by the city’s taxi industry.
Nottingham City Council also wants to develop a new booking app and ensure drivers update vehicles to cut air pollution.
From May, drivers will also take a Nottingham knowledge and culture test covering general questions about the city.
Question topics will range from Robin Hood to Nottingham shopping centres.
The plan also includes ensuring all black cabs, known as Hackney Carriages, are ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEV) by 2025.
The authority wants at least 164 – or 40 per cent – of the 411 black cabs in the city to meet the emission targets by 2020.
There are also 24 private hire companies operating in Nottingham and the council’s target is for 25 per cent of the private hire fleet to be ULEVs by 2020 and 50 per cent of fleet by 2025.
The measures follow a public consultation run by the council, which attracted dozens of comments about areas for improvement.
‘There needs to be improvement’ Public responses to the City Council’s plans
- I feel there needs to be improvement in terms of the honesty of the drivers. I have come across taxi drivers who deliberately take unnecessary longer journeys (forgetting that we have probably travelled the same route many times so we know when they’re pulling a fast one) to earn more out of the taxi service.
- That all sounds exciting. Has any thought been given to cycle awareness training for taxis, or will that come under the proposed penalty point system?
- I prefer to use the Hackney Carriage vehicles because I find the drivers consistently helpful and professional in their manner. Their driving is usually not rushed, safe and courteous. I do find taxis fees a little high and would probably use them more frequently if cheaper. I’ve experienced time delays in pickup with both pre-booking and not. Some drivers of private hire vehicles do not fully understand or speak English, hence one of the reasons why they use GPS. I believe that all drivers need to have (as a standard requirement) a full knowledge of Nottingham City streets etc. This knowledge would help plan the cheapest route for customers and also avoid delays on busy roads etc.
Richard Antcliff, the council’s chief licensing officer, said: “We very much see taxis as an integral part of the broader transport offered in Nottingham.
“There is a genuine need for them to up their standards and we will do everything we can to help them.
“We have a range of incentives and disincentives as we aim to raise standards, decrease the age of the vehicles on the road and make them cleaner.”
Passengers could soon be using a mobile app to book their fares as the council looks to create an easier way for customers to give feedback and rate their driver.
Mr Antcliff added: “The app will give customers a choice, if they can see the rating of their driver it will help them make a decision about how to spend their money and also encourage the driver to offer the best possible service they can.”
The council argues the cost of switching to low emission vehicles will result in taxi drivers saving between £300-£400 a month in fuel, with electric charging points around the city available to use for as little as £1.
And a £1 million funding bid has been submitted to the Government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles but the council would still need to find £300,000 to develop more charge points around the city.
Ghulam Jelani, who is a hackney cab driver in the city for eleven years, said: “I wasn’t interested in the app because they will take a percentage out of the earning we make, already we are earning less so we will have to give someone else a share.
“The new taxis are expensive, £55,000 I heard, to get that money back is going to be impossible because the council are not helping, they are reducing their fares on public transport, whereas we can’t do that.
“The last five years we haven’t had a pay rise at all so I don’t think a lot of the guys would be able to afford 55 grand.”
A penalty point system will also be created to make sure taxi drivers follow expected standards when it comes to passenger and road safety.
Each license will receive a points allocation specific to their level of responsibility and exceeding the limit could lead to the license being cancelled.
