The iconic Knowledge of London (KoL), a comprehensive test for taxi drivers to master the city’s streets, has evolved significantly over the decades. But has the KoL become harder or easier to complete?

With London’s expansion, the challenge of learning its intricate road network has intensified. Complex one-way systems like Covent Garden, and the introduction of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs), have significantly altered and elongated the routes.

London’s growth in recent decades has led to more restaurants, businesses, and landmarks packed into towering buildings and densely developed areas, utilising every square inch of the capital like never before.

It could be argued that these changes demand a deeper understanding and recollection of routes for taxi drivers undergoing the KoL examinations.

New areas and communities that did not exist for some cabbies whilst learning the capital decades ago. Canary Wharf was unheard of and the area was once disused docks, but now that has transformed into a sprawling network of towers on the Isle of Dogs, demanding closer attention on the Knowledge.

The Blue Book runs are seen as the foundational element when learning the Knowledge. These runs cover essential big road routes and areas in London, although students today have fewer routes to learn by rote. However, the learning does not stop at these runs, they are just a framework to build upon.

Learning includes additional routes like the ‘missing pieces’, one-way systems, livery runs for The City and turnaround books, which detail smaller roads. There’s also the ‘livery runs’ which help cabbies better understand and recite the City, there are books covering runs spanning the entire radius learned within the Knowledge, such as from Crystal Palace to Alexandra Palace.

Critically, despite all these changes over decades, the standard for passing the Knowledge has remained consistent at 30 per cent.

While the fundamental standards of the KoL have stayed the same, the testing criteria over the years have changed.

I was listening to a recent podcast between WizAnn’s Dean Warrington and the United Cabbies Group’s (UCG) Trevor Merralls, as the current standards were discussed at great length.

Interestingly from the Knowledge school’s perspective, the perceived height of difficulty was between the 1990’s and the 2000’s, the very time that Dean and I were undertaking KoL.

Students at that stage were learning more obscure points: blue plaques, door nameplates and obscure statuary.

Dean Warrington with his innovative KoL course estimated that students can now get through the KoL knowing roughly 6,000 places of interest, which are the most frequently asked questions, on top of the capital’s road network.

Is the Knowledge easier now?

No.

Is the Knowledge harder now?

No.

The required standard remains.

How students get to that standard more efficiently is likely to become the central discussion point moving forward, especially as the industry awaits Transport for London’s KoL review findings to be published soon.

Taken from an original article by Perry Richardson on TaxiPoint.

Perry Richardson writing on Taxi Point argues that The Knowledge is now irretrievably lost.

It is now hard to argue that The Knowledge of London (‘KoL’) is not only declining in interest and participation, but it’s also dwindling with little hope of coming back.

And the sad part of this story… does anyone really care?

The KoL was seen as an achievement to be proud of and a qualification into a respected trade that offered a job for life should the cabbie wish to trade. That has been slowly eroded away to the point where we now find ourselves.

Where has it all gone wrong?

The start of the decline in KoL applicants dates from when electronic hailing systems arrived. The boundary between what was a booking and what was a hailing was quickly blurred. It created confusion for those looking to enter the plying-for-hire market and provided an opportunity for those that would normally work off pre-determined bookings. The market was disrupted, and drivers suffered.

An explosion in private hire vehicle (‘PHV’) drivers ensued, saturating the market and making the job of a taxi driver unattractive, and for some in the trade, financially unviable. There were no caps on numbers introduced to safeguard taxis which offer 100 per cent wheelchair-accessible cabs.

A decade on and there is still no cap on numbers.

Publicly hailed taxis were then demoted to a similar status as delivery vans and private vehicles. Road space was lost, and this trend has continued rapidly for years. This has created doubt among those looking at the taxi trade as a prospective career and brought questions about whether London’s transport authorities actually see the service as a solution to inclusive public transport mobility.

Taxi tariffs have been stifled, slowly reducing the earning power of cabbies. Multiple tariffs frozen and below-inflation tariff changes, not always reviewed annually, have made the job less appealing to new entrants and pushed others out to higher-paid employment.

The number of licensed taxi drivers has continued to drop steadily. In 2015 there were 25,891 taxi drivers in London. Now, that figure stands at just 18,391 and will continue falling fast due to inaction.

Expensive vehicles and rising costs are a huge problem off the back of the global pandemic where the industry was brought to its knees. The industry is still catching up on lost revenue during that period, but now inflation and interest rates have pushed the only vehicle available to buy through the £100,000 mark if purchased on finance and a low deposit. Transport for London (‘TfL’) could have supported the industry by bringing in a new tariff that matched the increase in costs… but instead opted for a below-inflation tariff meaning cabbies will be at least another 4 per cent out of pocket this year.

After training hard at their own expense for upwards of four years, applicants then run the risk of losing that licence to work on the very first day of working if they accumulate points on their licence, but ridiculously are still able to then apply to work for a London bus company. The risk of losing a licence is too great now for the commitment each KoL application gives to the capital to serve it.

Lastly, and this is becoming even more prevalent when considering doing the KoL, how will the introduction of autonomous vehicles impact an industry that is already declining in numbers? No one knows the time scales involved or just how ‘autonomous’ a vehicle can be in a bustling London city with people, bikes and scooters flying in all directions. But what it does do is create doubt for those looking to enter the trade. No one has considered or explored what would happen to 300,000 taxi and PHV drivers across the UK. What would happen to their licences, plying-for-hire and disabled mobility?

A review into the KoL has been ongoing and findings were set for release last year. There is however still no further news on this.

Changes were needed years ago. Any changes brought in today would take years to filter through given the length of time to train KoL applicants. Dumbing down the KoL to fast-track drivers would devalue the qualification already obtained by drivers. But the problem isn’t the KoL test. If the job was worthwhile people would invest time and money to reach the standard required.

Can the Mayor of London and TfL find a way to make the job, not the KoL, more attractive and worthwhile? The last decade of decline would have many believe not.

How do we save and change The Knowledge of London taxi test?

Alarm bells are ringing in the cabbie community after data revealed the number of students currently being tested to become London taxi drivers has fallen to its lowest level yet, to just 552.

In November 2019 the number of candidates studying the Knowledge of London (KoL) at the testing stages, otherwise known as ‘Appearances’, dropped below 1,000 for the first time and stood at 943. In addition, 714 candidates had not yet reached the testing stages, but were signed on to the KoL and learning the capital’s road network.

Fast forward post-pandemic restrictions to August 2021 and the number of KoL candidates at the testing stages tumbles further to just 552, and worryingly only a further 363 candidates are currently waiting to reach the testing stages.

The KoL taxi driver test has recently come under scrutiny as industry representatives look for ways to increase the number of students undertaking the training.

What is The Knowledge of London?

As the iconic black cabs can be hailed in the street, taxi drivers must have a thorough knowledge of London within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross. Tens of thousands of road names and places of interest must be learnt. This is why taxi drivers have to learn and pass the world-famous Knowledge.

The KoL was introduced as a requirement for taxi drivers in 1865 and completing the test usually takes students three to four years.

How do you get tested on The Knowledge of London?

Each appearance usually consists of four questions about the shortest route between any two points in London. An appearance takes about 20 minutes, and you’ll get a score from A-D.

Depending on your score you will accumulate points; when you have enough you will progress to the next stage when appearances will become more frequent. However, if you get too many Ds, you may be put back to a previous stage.

At Stage 3, appearances are about 56 days apart, at Stage 4 they are about 28 days apart, and at Stage 5 they are about 21 days apart. On average you will have to score on four appearances to accumulate enough points to progress to the next stage.

According to trade sources, a final ‘Suburban’ test has recently been condensed to include fewer routes out of central London into the suburbs to speed up the final testing stage. Upon completion of the ‘Suburban’ test, the KoL student will then be handed their bill and badge to allow them to ply-for-hire as a licensed taxi driver.

There are currently 20,027 licensed taxi drivers in the capital. Of those 17,910 hold All London licences, otherwise known as ‘Green Badges’, and 2,337 hold ‘Yellow‘ Suburban licences.

What changes are being called for?

Let’s start with the obvious measures TfL could take to improve take-up onto the KoL. Scrubbing the fees to sign onto the KoL would be a great start and even subsidising access to KoL schools would speed up the process for students.

There is also an issue when it comes to the advertisement of the role to become a London taxi driver. In the past, word of mouth encouragement from those working within the trade would have been enough. However, with the explosion in social media that has now changed to become more of a hindrance when it comes to recruitment.

Jay Nicola, a driver who passed the KoL in early 2020, said negative drivers play a big part in the lack of recruitment onto The Knowledge. He said:

Drivers claiming it’s ‘dead’ and ‘not worth doing anymore’ are also 100% part of the problem. We all know it’s worth doing and isn’t dead. If it was that bad, they wouldn’t be sat in their cab on a rank having a moan up on Twitter! The doom and gloom this trade brings on itself are shambolic.

Another cabbie added:

Most responses are negative and that’s all I heard from cabbies when I was on the KoL. Sometimes I would get home and wonder if I was wasting my time, but so glad I persevered because I have the best job in the world in my opinion.

There is also the idea that The Knowledge should be better promoted as a career option to young adults leaving A-Level education in the capital.

You must be 18 years old at the time of applying to join the KoL and can only become a licensed taxi driver once you reach 21 years old.

There are not many jobs that will allow a 21-year-old access to starting their own business up in a stable income trade and many argue this is not spoken about enough.

One cabbie who passed the KoL in 2012 said:

At the end of the day this job is the best, and anyone can do it, but you’ve got to do the KoL. I did it because I was getting paid rubbish money and I was determined to pass it to earn better.

One cabbie, Russell Simmons, thought KoL students should be handed an exemption from the Congestion Charge to help them learn the roads. Simmons said:

When they sign on they should be exempt from congestion charge so they can come out during the day. My son did it in a Smart car like many other people but could only come out after 10 pm at night.

And finally, the last one, and possibly the most important, is not being ‘coy’ about the earning potential handed to licensed London taxi drivers.

People sign up on the KoL because there’s a guaranteed job at the end of it, but they need to be told reliably what wage they can expect to be earning from the outset.

Is it worthwhile leaving your current job as a postman, a delivery driver or a private hire driver, to take on the KoL? Financially yes, but how many know that and can trust it’s true?

The question potential KoL students should ask themselves is why so many cabbies don’t leave the industry to go and work in other low paid roles instead.

Like with any job, the role of a taxi driver has its drawbacks and will not be for everyone. If you do not like interacting with people, then this is not the job for you from the outset! But the job is rewarding both financially and in terms of job satisfaction.

Tweaks are needed from everyone connected to the trade, should the KoL survive long-term and they must come now.

Suggested changes

• Remove ‘Red Line’ on appearance testing
• Remove fees to start the KoL and look into possible funding options
• Remove Congestion Charge fees for all KoL students
• Remove the need for final ‘Suburban’ runs test
• Promote case studies based on drivers who have recently joined the industry. Was it worth it?
• Promote the true earning potential of the job
• Promote the role of a licensed black cab driver as a long-term career option
• Promote the role on social media via targeted and trusted channels
• Stop the negative ‘doom and gloom’ on social media from those in the trade comparing the industry to decades in the past
• Stop closing road access to licensed taxi drivers to provide long-term confidence in the trade
• Better support from those within the trade to help and mentor those studying.

Reproduced by kind permission of Perry Richardson editor of TaxiPoint the UK taxi industry news source.