After over 25 years, 'The Knowledge' training school for licenced taxi drivers is closing it’s doors. Partly, it is believed because of the influence of Uber.

Uber is a phone app which allows people to book and pay for a private hire vehicle to get around the city, rather than hailing a traditional Black Taxi Cab at the kerbside.

 

The Knowledge is a world famous test, and professional taxi drivers needed to pass this in order to gain their Green Taxi Driver Badge. It taught them the quickest routes across the capital and extensive knowledge of  London's 25,000 streets, allowing drivers to avoid traffic and give an efficient service to clients.

 

Minicab, Private Hire and Uber drivers instead use a sat nav or mobile phone to navigate, rather than using personal knowledge of the city.

 

Traditional Black Cab drivers have been protesting about Uber since it came to the capital three years ago. At one point they brought central London to a standstill, when Transport for London decided to licence many, many new minicabs each week due to the influx of mobile phone apps such as Uber.

 

Taxi drivers complained that nearly 88,150 new minicab drivers had been licenced in a year, and the Uber app effectively meant people could hail a taxi via the 'e-hailing' feature, which enables people to see the nearest minicab on their phone. They felt this contravened the traditional understanding that Private Hire vehicles are pre-booked, and only Taxis can be hailed at the roadside.

 

If Uber decide to come to Southampton, the Southampton Hackney Association (who represent the Taxi drivers in the city), feel that any driver who enrols as a Uber driver, should have proper and correct insurance on their vehicle, a DVLA licence, and a Southampton Hackney Carriage Licence and that the old style Topography Test, which was a verbal one, should be re-introduced.