Norwegian Taxi Licence Exam common mistakes
Norwegian Taxi Licence Exam · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Treating the taxi licence as a single permit and being unable to distinguish the driver's licence (kjøreseddel) from the vehicle licence (løyve), or forgetting that the løyve holder is responsible for the vehicle being registered and approved for taxi operation.
Candidates memorise 'you need a licence' as one fact and never separate the personal suitability/conduct requirement from the vehicle/operator approval, because both are colloquially called 'taxi licence'.
What to do instead
Build a two-column table: driver-side (personal requirements, conduct, medical certificate, police certificate of good conduct, renewal) versus vehicle/operator-side (løyve, vehicle approval, meter, roof sign, documents in the car). Test yourself by explaining who is responsible for each item.
Answering duty-to-carry questions with an absolute 'must always take every passenger', instead of recognising the specific lawful grounds for refusal such as obvious intoxication, threatening behaviour, or a passenger unable to state a destination.
The general principle (taxi must serve the public) is learned first and dominates recall, so the exceptions are never learned as a list.
What to do instead
Learn the refusal grounds as a short closed list and practise scenario questions: for each scenario say aloud whether refusal is lawful and on which ground, and what you must do instead (e.g. call assistance) if it is not.
Failing to apply the general speed limit on unmarked roads and the special limits in built-up areas, and confusing the rule for heavy vehicles or for towing with the rule for an ordinary taxi.
Candidates rely on road-sign recognition and have no mental default for 'no sign visible', and they mix vehicle-class exceptions into the general rule.
What to do instead
Drill the default limits as a fixed ladder (built-up area, outside built-up area, motorway) and separately list which exceptions apply to the vehicle you actually drive. Then answer 20 sign-free scenario questions where the only information is road type.
Giving a generic 'be polite' answer to service scenarios instead of a concrete sequence: greet, confirm destination, state the fare basis, offer help with luggage, inform about the route or any deviation, and close the trip with payment and receipt.
Service questions feel like common sense, so candidates answer with attitude words rather than the procedural steps the examiner is scoring.
What to do instead
Memorise a five-step trip script and rehearse it aloud for awkward variants: passenger in a hurry, passenger who wants a detour, passenger who is silent, passenger who complains about the route.
Explaining the taximeter and fare rules only in terms of 'the meter decides', without being able to state when the meter must be started, what the displayed price includes, how waiting time and fixed-price trips are handled, and what to do if the meter fails mid-trip.
The meter is treated as a black box because candidates never see the tariff regulation structure, only the device in the car.
What to do instead
Write out the fare calculation for three worked examples (short city trip, long trip with waiting, airport fixed price) and learn the failure procedure: what you may charge, what you must record, and who to notify.
Handling payment questions by saying 'we take card and cash' without knowing the rules on receipts, on refusing card payment, on rounding, and on what to do when a passenger cannot pay.
Payment is learned as a practical habit in the car rather than as a rule set, so the legal and procedural edges are never studied.
What to do instead
Make a one-page payment checklist: accepted means, obligation to give a receipt, what a receipt must show, procedure for non-payment, and how to record a disputed fare. Test yourself on each line.
Answering accessibility questions with sympathy rather than technique, e.g. not knowing how to secure a wheelchair, how to communicate with a hearing-impaired passenger, or how to assist a blind passenger with a guide dog.
Candidates assume they will 'just help', so they never learn the specific safe-handling procedures and legal entitlements such as carriage of assistance dogs at no extra charge.
What to do instead
Learn one procedure per disability category: wheelchair (ramp, brakes, four-point securing, passenger restraint), visual impairment (announce, offer arm, describe), hearing impairment (face the passenger, write), and assistance dogs (no refusal, no surcharge). Rehearse each as a spoken checklist.
Treating daily vehicle checks as a formality and being unable to name what is checked before each shift and what defect grounds the vehicle, e.g. tyre tread and pressure, lights, brakes, seat belts, first-aid kit, fire extinguisher, warning triangle, and the taxi equipment itself.
The check is done by habit in practice, so candidates cannot articulate the items or the pass/fail threshold under exam conditions.
What to do instead
Use a written pre-shift checklist in the same order every time and learn the legal minimum for each item (e.g. tyre tread depth, extinguisher condition and service date). Practise stating which defects mean 'do not drive' versus 'report and continue'.
Describing emergency response as 'call 110/112/113' without the correct sequence: secure the scene, protect yourself and passengers, assess, alert with precise location and number of casualties, then give first aid until relieved.
The emergency numbers are the only part reliably memorised, so the priority order and the content of the emergency call are never practised.
What to do instead
Rehearse the call script out loud: who you are, exact location with landmarks, number of injured, hazards, what you have done. Then rehearse scene safety and first aid priorities (airway, bleeding, shock) in that fixed order.
Ignoring rest-time, driving-time and fitness-to-drive rules, and answering fatigue questions with 'take a break if tired' rather than the actual limits and the obligation to stop when unfit.
Taxi drivers often work alone and irregular hours, so the rules feel abstract and are skipped in favour of customer-service topics.
What to do instead
Learn the concrete limits and the self-assessment rule: maximum driving periods, mandatory breaks, and the absolute duty not to drive when unfit through fatigue, illness, alcohol or medication. Answer scenario questions where the correct action is to stop work, not to continue carefully.