Aberdeen councillors have unanimously voted to keep the controversial "Street Knowledge Test" for private hire drivers. The decision rejects intense pressure from Uber and local business leaders who wanted the exam scrapped to combat a severe shortage of cabs in the city.

The decision followed a tense council meeting where the public gallery had to be threatened with ejection due to rowdy heckling.

A recent council consultation of 1,800 people revealed a deeply divided city, with 45% of respondents voting to keep the test for all drivers and 43% wanting it removed.

Uber, which began operating in Aberdeen in summer 2024, spearheaded the campaign to remove the exam for private hire drivers who only take pre-booked fares.

Matthew Freckelton, UK head of cities at Uber, argued that bigger cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh do not require the test. He warned that the lack of drivers is a major safety concern, highlighting a consultation response where a woman had to wait 1.5 hours in the rain just to get home from dinner.

"Removing the test is not a radical experiment. It is an alignment with national best practice," Freckelton said. "The lack of taxis is a serious health and safety hazard for females."

Business groups also warned that the shortage is crippling Aberdeen's night-time economy and turning away major corporate events.

Bob Keiller of the group Our Union Street claimed that venue operators at P&J Live are losing conferences to other cities because organisers fear attendees will be left stranded. Keiller also argued that the survey results were skewed by the taxi trade itself, stating that "the vast majority of the trade don’t wish to see the removal of the street knowledge test, the vast majority of the public do."

"The lack of taxis is also killing inward investment. Organisations are actively avoiding coming to Aberdeen," Keiller warned.

However, disability advocates and local taxi firms strongly defended the necessity of the test. Hussein Patwa, co-chair of the Disability Equity Partnership, explained that vulnerable, older, and disabled passengers rely on highly knowledgeable drivers to navigate the city safely.

"For many people, taxi and private hire vehicles is not simply a life-scale choice or a form of transport, it is a lifeline," Patwa said. "The quality and knowledge of the driver can be the difference between independence and isolation."

Local taxi bosses also dismissed claims that the test is blocking recruitment. They revealed that a recently updated, streamlined version of the exam is already a success, adding more than 120 new drivers to Aberdeen's roads over the last 12 months. Chris Douglas, boss of Aberdeen Taxis, noted: "I don’t remember a time where a test delivered 120 new drivers in a year."

Russell McLeod, managing director of Rainbow City Taxis, added that axing the test for private hire cars would do nothing to fix shortages at actual taxi ranks or the airport. Speaking after the meeting, McLeod welcomed the verdict to keep the test as a "common sense decision."

Councillors ultimately decided to maintain the status quo but promised to revisit the issue in two years. Council licensing solicitor Sandy Munro summarised the final agreement: “The upshot is essentially the majority of the policy remains unchanged. And obviously leave the street knowledge test as is the current position to require the Street Knowledge Test for all applicants.”

• Share on Facebook
• Share to X