Taxi drivers brought Newcastle city centre to a standstill as they turned-out in force to fight a “threat” to their livelihood.

Scores of cabbies took part in a go-slow convoy through the city in protest against the council’s decision to scrap the ‘knowledge’ test for new drivers.

Newcastle City Council got rid of the stringent test, which demands cabbies in the city have in depth knowledge of the area they cover, earlier this year.

The authority has argued that the increased use of apps and sat navs and changing in Government legislation means the traditional exam is no longer necessary.

However, seasoned cabbies say the city has now been flooded with inexperienced drivers, and this is not only threatening their livelihood, but putting passengers’ safety at risk.

To make their point scores of taxi drivers from companies across Tyneside took part in a slow-moving convoy on Monday, which brought parts of the city to a standstill.

Beginning at Claremont Road the convoy snaked its way through Spital Tongues, down Barrack Road, past St James’ Park, the Royal Victoria Infirmary and the Haymarket before circling through the Civic Centre carpark. And the drivers repeated their route several times sounding their horns in protest as they passed the council’s offices.

As rush hour approached the convoy caused disruption to traffic, triggering huge tailbacks.

But Mark Lillie a licenced Hackney carriage and private hire driver with North Tyneside Council, who was previously licensed under Newcastle City Council, told the Chronicle the protest was necessary to protect the public.

“I don’t want it to have a huge impact on the public. I don’t want to alienate them. I want them on side. I want them to realise we are doing them a favour. It’s about their safety,” he said.

“There is a constant queue out the door at Newcastle licencing office. When will they end - when every one in Newcastle holds a taxi badge?”

“We want Newcastle city council to either put an upper cap on the total number of private hire cars - 1,800 looks enough for demand in the trade - and bring back a locality test like North Tyneside, Gateshead and Northumberland.

“Gateshead and North Tyneside, for instance, still have a locality test so, let’s say a company from there struggles to recruit drivers due to drivers not passing test, they now bring the new ‘post code’ driver into their fleet. In four months, we have gone from 1,200 Newcastle private hire cars, slowly built up over 20 years, to now 1,600 and counting. It’s an increase of at least 400 ‘postcode drivers’.

“Members of our group have seen cars drive down one way streets the wrong way, one car went around one of Newcastle’s busiest city centre roundabouts the wrong way, and some are turning left and right when signs forbid them to do so.

“It’s all down to them not really having a clue where they were or going.”

And as we travelled in convoy Robert Gibson Brennen, known as Gibson to his pals, told us how he believed public safety was being put at risk by the saturated taxi market.

He said: “I’ve been stopped by new taxi drivers who ask me where the station is. It’s certainly quieter now and the downside of that is you have to work longer hours, you talk to any of the drivers and they are working 60 or 70 hour weeks, which isn’t conducive to a safe working environment.”

Council officials say the decision to make the changes relates to government legislation, and the increased use of satellite navigation systems and app based systems.

Another driver Tony Best said the new generation of drivers did not even know where some of Newcastle’s most famous landmarks are.

“It’s important for tourists that taxi drivers have good local knowledge,” he said. “If they don’t know a lot about the city you can tell them about the landmarks. A big part of the knowledge is knowing about local landmarks.”

A Newcastle City Council spokesman said: “We have received more applications for private hire drivers licences since the locality tests were replaced with an interview-type test. However, this is for a number of reasons including more drivers from outside of the area wishing to compete for fares in the busy city centre. Despite the increase, we continue to vet all applications very carefully as the safety of the travelling public is our highest priority.”

However, the drivers have vowed to continue their fight and say they will hold further protests in the future if the council refuse to negotiate.

Mark added: “This is just the first one. There will be more. Some of the drivers have even talked about boycotting Saturday nights. Then there would be thousands of revellers om the town that can’t get home.”

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/taxi-drivers-bring-newcastle-city-10418220
---------------------------------------