New measures will see Liverpool taxi drivers made to pass a new 'street knowledge' test - as well as examinations in conversational English and numeracy.
The bold new plan is expected to be signed off at a meeting of the council's licensing committee tomorrow - and comes as the authority ramps up its moves to improve the licensed trade in Liverpool.
Last week, Mayor Joe Anderson said he wanted action after a taxi driver did not know how to get take him the short distance from Edge Lane to his home in Old Swan.
Under the new review of driver training - which has been out for consultation over the summer - there will be new tests in city knowledge, basic English and numeracy, amongst other things.
Street knowledge test
The new proposals for driver training have been recommended by the council's city manager.
The most striking concerns the administering of the 'street knowledge' test taken by drivers.
Currently, the testing is outsourced to a private company - but the council plans to now bring this in house.
If approved, there will be a fee charged to applicants for the street knowledge test.
The fee proposed is £65.00. After two failed tests, a further resit fee of £30.00 will be charged to the applicant. This resit fee will cover another 3 attempts at the test.
The council report states: "The requirement for licensed drivers to pass the Street Knowledge test is a crucial part of ensuring drivers licensed by the City Council have the necessary topographical knowledge and basic skills to work efficiently in the streets of Liverpool.
"To absolutely ensure this Test is delivered, invigilated and marked in a way which is 100% to the satisfaction of the City Council in terms of integrity, it is proposed that the City Council’s officers resume responsibility for the administration of the Test."
Maths and English skills
Another proposal that is expected to be given the green light at tomorrow's licensing meeting concerns a new 'essential skills' test for prospective drivers.
The proposed test will include additional numerical and English tests.
The report states: "There is currently no external process by training providers generically to assess the standard of an applicant’s numeracy and English language prior to the issue of a licence.
"The ability of a driver to properly calculate change to be given to a customer and converse with them on a basic level is as important as having a reasonable degree of knowledge of the City streets, landmarks and neighbourhoods.
"These are all matters which often give rise to complaints from the public."
"It is therefore proposed that, in order to ensure a uniform standard of English and Numeracy skills, during the street knowledge test a basic assessment will be carried out.
"This would include a section involving basic conversational English. The test will seek to ensure a candidate has a fundamental ability to answer simple questions, write receipts and calculate problems around change given to the customer."
Other proposals
As well as the above new testing plans - there are some other areas around driver training that form part of the new measures expected to get the green light tomorrow.
This will include adding new modules to the standard driver training - including those related to customers with wheelchairs, autism and age related issues like Dementia and Alzheimer's.
The new training package will also include a refresher on issues relating to Child Sexual Exploitation - which will be refreshed as part of the licence renewal process.
Joe Anderson
Speaking about the new plans, Mayor Anderson said: "The knowledge test has been privatised before - to get it done more quickly and to save money.
"But we just find that we are getting to a situation where there are a lot of people getting a license without having any understanding of the city.
"I had that incident where the guy couldn't take me to Old Swan from Edge Lane - a good friend of mine got a cab the other day and the driver didn't know how to get her to the Anglican Cathedral.
"If there are visitors coming to the city they can potentially be ripped off or just have a bad experience so we think these new measures are something we need to do."
