UK Taxi & PHV common mistakes
UK Taxi & PHV · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Answers that a private hire vehicle may be hailed in the street or pick up a passenger who flags it down at a rank, treating a PHV like a hackney carriage.
Both are 'taxis' in everyday speech, and candidates who have seen PHVs working at ranks or airport pick-ups assume the distinction is cosmetic rather than a criminal offence.
What to do instead
Learn the single dividing rule: a hackney carriage may be hailed or wait on a rank; a PHV journey must be pre-booked through a licensed operator before it starts, and plying for hire in a PHV is an offence. Practise classifying scenarios (flag-down, rank, app booking, walk-up at a hotel) until the answer is automatic.
Assumes one licence from one council allows the driver to work anywhere in the country, or that the vehicle, driver and operator licence all come from the same authority as a matter of course.
Candidates memorise 'I need a licence' but not that there are three separate licences, each issued by a specific authority, and that hackney carriages may only ply for hire in the district that licensed them.
What to do instead
Build a three-column table (driver / vehicle / operator) and note who issues each and where it is valid. Learn the cross-border position: a PHV booked through its licensed operator may undertake the journey, but a hackney carriage cannot stand or ply outside its own district. Rehearse the rule against your own authority's conditions.
Chooses to stop on zebra crossing zig-zag lines, in a bus stop or bus lane, or on double yellow lines because the passenger waved from that spot or asked to be dropped there.
Customer pressure feels like a lawful excuse, and candidates muddle 'no waiting' with 'no stopping' or believe a taxi has a general exemption from parking restrictions.
What to do instead
Learn that zig-zags and bus stops are 'no stopping' for any vehicle, that yellow-line restrictions bind taxis too, and that the driver must move to a lawful, safe place and explain why. Drill the rule: the customer chooses the destination, the driver chooses where it is legal and safe to stop.
Guesses route questions from general knowledge of the area and cannot name key destinations, railway stations, hospitals, one-way systems or the main approach roads between them.
Local knowledge is assumed to be picked up on the job, so candidates never practise map work and rely on a satnav they will not have in the test.
What to do instead
Study the authority's street atlas systematically: learn a fixed set of landmarks (stations, hospitals, retail centres, council offices, motorway junctions) and the primary route between each pair, including one-way and no-left/right-turn constraints. Practise planning routes point-to-point aloud, then check them on the map.
Gives the wrong tyre or defect answer, for example stating a lower minimum tread depth, or saying a defect can be noted at the next scheduled service rather than reported before the vehicle is used.
Vehicle knowledge is treated as common sense rather than a rulebook, and pre-use checks are skipped in real working life, so the candidate has no reliable facts to draw on.
What to do instead
Memorise the core figures: 1.6 mm minimum tread across the central three-quarters of the tyre around the entire circumference, plus correct pressures and the ban on cuts, bulges and cord exposure. Learn the walk-around check routine and the rule that a safety-related defect means the vehicle is off the road until repaired and recorded.
Fails to confirm the destination and fare basis at the start of the journey, speaks in rapid local idiom, and does not check that a passenger with limited English has understood.
Experienced drivers compress the greeting into a single mumbled question, and candidates answer communication questions in the way they actually behave rather than the way the standard requires.
What to do instead
Use a script: greet, confirm the full destination and preferred route, state whether the meter or a pre-agreed fare applies, and ask the passenger to say if they need anything. Use plain English, check understanding by asking the passenger to repeat back, and write down key details if speech is a barrier.
Answers that a driver may refuse to carry an assistance dog because of an allergy, religious objection, or because the dog will shed hair in the vehicle.
Personal discomfort is confused with a lawful excuse, and candidates do not know that the duty is statutory and that only a formal exemption certificate provides a defence.
What to do instead
Learn that licensed taxi and PHV drivers must carry assistance dogs, at no extra charge, and that refusing without a valid exemption certificate is unlawful discrimination. Learn the exemption route (medical grounds, certificate displayed in the vehicle) and the practical steps: ask before touching the dog, never distract it, and never separate it from the passenger.
On a safeguarding scenario, chooses to 'keep an eye on it', question the passenger personally, or say nothing because the disclosure was confidential, instead of recording and reporting through the proper channel.
Drivers see themselves as a neutral pair of hands rather than a person with a safeguarding duty, and fear of getting it wrong or breaching confidence overrides the correct response.
What to do instead
Learn the fixed sequence: listen without leading, do not investigate or promise secrecy, note exactly what was said, and report promptly to the operator and, where there is immediate risk, the police or local authority. Rehearse who to contact in your own authority's area and what information to pass on.
States that tiredness on a long shift can be managed by opening a window, turning up the radio, drinking coffee or pushing on to the end of the shift.
Fatigue is normalised in the trade and candidates repeat coping habits they have heard from experienced drivers rather than the safe standard.
What to do instead
Learn the answer that actually works: stop somewhere safe, take a short sleep or a proper break, and plan shifts with breaks before tiredness sets in. Know that taxi and PHV drivers fall outside the heavy-goods drivers' hours rules, so the legal duty to be fit to drive rests on the driver personally, together with the operator's responsibilities.
Starts the meter before the passenger is aboard or before the journey begins, adds unauthorised extras for luggage or soiling, or rounds the fare up without telling the passenger.
Drivers copy informal habits from colleagues, assume extras are universal, and have not read their own authority's tariff and conditions of licence.
What to do instead
Learn the local tariff scale, the permitted extras and when the meter is switched on (when the journey begins with the passenger aboard), plus what to do if the meter fails. For PHVs, confirm the agreed fare before setting off. State any extra charge before it is applied and give a receipt on request.