TESTING TIMES FOR CITY TAXI DRIVERS

07:00 - 08 May 2008


Bristol City Council has infuriated some taxi drivers by announcing plans to make them sit a test. However, cabbies at one firm in the city have already passed a National Vocational Qualification exam in Road Passenger Transport (Taxi). SUZANNE SAVILL paid them a visit.

At first glance, it is an unlikely seat of learning. Beyond a white-painted door with the words "Taxis Booking Office" emblazoned on the glass, phones are ringing incessantly, voices are crackling over the radio receiver, clipboards are propped against a wall festooned with bits of paper, and drivers are constantly walking in and out.

Only the presence of a large green and white arch-lever file full of coursework on one of the desks indicates that this busy taxi office is a little different to the many others in Bristol.

Here at B &D Taxis on Fishponds Road, fifteen of the drivers have been doing more than taking passengers from A to B.

They have recently taken exams in aspects of their work ranging from helping passengers with special needs to providing professional customer care, and have obtained National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) Level 2 exams in Road Passenger Transport (Taxi).

Proprietor Alan Gleed hopes that ultimately all his 64 drivers will gain the qualification.

"As far as I'm aware we're the only taxi firm in Bristol where the drivers have this qualification," he said. "I think it gives the customer more confidence in us. We recently took on the account of the Soil Association and they were attracted by the fact that we have drivers qualified to NVQ level."

So what does he think of the furore that recently greeted the announcement from Bristol City Council that anyone applying for a hackney carriage driving licence would soon be required to sit a test?

"I'm aware there's been criticism, but my understanding is that the council had come under pressure to bring in a test from some cabbies who were concerned about drivers who didn't have basic English and numeracy skills," said Alan.

As a private hire firm, B &D Taxis - which has various major accounts including Horfield Prison, Avon Ambulance Service and University of the West of England - does not come under the same regulations as hackney taxis which pick up passengers in the street. They can only pick up passengers who have pre-booked a taxi.

However, Alan, 49, decided to encourage his drivers to take the GNVQ qualification after reading about it in a taxi magazine.

"A lot of it's basic stuff," he said, almost apologetically.

"Like health and safety questions about where to find the fire exit or the accident report book, or dealing with passengers with special needs - for example, establishing what sort of vehicle is most suitable for them, helping them into the front or back seat, and folding up their wheelchair.

"I expect my drivers to actually get out of the car and hold the door open for the passenger, and that's also the sort of thing they're expected to do for the exam."

It may seem rather basic to Alan and his drivers, but I suspect it would not to some cabbies - notably many of those I encountered when I lived in London, who often had no sense of direction and vehicles with a spine-shuddering bobsleigh motion and a musty aroma not quite concealed by the pine air freshener dangling from the rear-view mirror.

Cabbies like these probably would not want to have John Hilton and Ted Mason sitting in the back of their vehicles.

They are both employed by PDM Training and Consultancy, which carried out the assessments of the drivers from B &D Taxis for their Level 2 NVQ, which is awarded by the examining body EdExcel.

John, who is training contracts manager for PDM, explained: "A National Vocational Qualification is work-based learning that assesses people on their knowledge, which is funded by the Government through the Learning and Skills Council."

Tim Mitchell, 44, of Kingswood, is one of the 15 drivers at B &D who has so far passed the NVQ - and his standard of passenger service was visible from the minute I sat down in the back seat of his eight-seater Mercedes.

While I slid about trying to find a pen I'd dropped, Tim looked anxiously in the mirror and then politely asked me to make sure to put on a seatbelt.

"I think's it's good to have a proper qualification for taxi drivers," he said.

"Some drivers don't get out of the car when they go to a pick-up.

"They just pull up outside and beep their horn and then pop the boot open from inside without bothering to get out and help the passenger get their luggage in."

Tim, who has been a self-employed taxi driver for four years, and was previously manager of a car hire firm, added: "The stuff in the exam was the sort of thing that I do anyway."

Was it a bit awkward driving customers around while being examined?

"I'd always phone the customer in advance and let them know that there would be someone with us in the car doing an assessment and ask them if they'd mind," he replied.

Back in the B &D office, controller Jason Bullock is monitoring the computer screen on which numbered blue squares are moving around. "These are our cars," he explained. "We can track them at all times using GPS satellite navigation."

On another desk, near a map of Bristol broken up into numbered zones, another screen shows jobs that have been dispatched and their start zone and finish zone.

"These days it's important to provide the best customer service you can in any business," said Alan, who became a director of B &D taxis two years ago, after three years working as a driver and a career in sales before that.

"I keep telling the drivers that they're ambassadors for this company. I can go out and sell them and say how great they are. But at the end of the day, they can sell this company best of all through their professionalism."