99 Per Cent Of Melbourne’s Taxi Drivers Fail New Taxi Test

There’s a push to improve taxi drivers in Melbourne via a test that mimics the infamous “knowledge” test that London cabbies undertake. The only problem is that all but one of the candidates so far has failed the test.

Image: Reinas Traidas

To make matters even more comical, The Guardian reports that the only candidate to actually pass the test, Karen Downie, is actually a taxi driving instructor herself.

The other 233 candidates all failed to get the minimum 85 per cent score needed to qualify as a Melbourne taxi driver under strict new rules. Which actually means it’s more than 99 per cent, for the pedantically minded.

The test doesn’t just cover actual road name and navigational tasks, but also issues of customer service and driver behaviour, with some drivers apparently (and rather sadly) struggling with questions relating to the proper treatment of disabled passengers.

I’m aware that the standard internet response to all of this is to rather quickly cry “Uber!” as though it’s the solution to every single taxi woe, although I’m not personally convinced that’s always true.

The obvious counterpoint to the Melbourne Taxi story would be this one that suggests that there’s a growing problem with people randomly hopping into private cars.

Why? Because they presume that the private car is in fact the Uber they’d just ordered.

[The Guardian/Gawker]


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