The Shields Gazette reported on Tuesday 27 October 2026 that South Tyneside Council has agreed to remove local roads and routes from the knowledge test for new hackney carriage and private hire driver applicants. In that account, a sit-down test will no longer ask how to get around the borough efficiently, and a sat-nav can be used instead of showing the shortest or fastest route from memory. The report names three Reform councillors, Karen Pittuck, Jason Diamond and Chris Fox, as having taken credit for scrapping the knowledge element of the licensing test.
Councillor Karen Pittuck, lead member for highways, neighbourhoods and community safety, said: "We have reviewed the knowledge test for new taxi and private hire driver applicants and agreed to remove the part which tests their knowledge of local roads and routes.
"With modern sat-nav technology now widely available, we believe this is a sensible and proportionate change and brings us in line with the approach taken by other local authorities in the region.
"It is important to be clear that the knowledge test itself has not been removed.
"Applicants will still be tested on important areas including council bylaws, relevant legislation and the Highway Code.
"They must also continue to meet the council's other licensing requirements and undergo checks to make sure they are suitable to hold a licence, including safeguarding training, criminal records, medical, driving licence and right-to-work checks."
The other councillors
Councillor Jason Diamond said: "It makes no sense to maintain outdated requirements simply because they have always been there.
"This is about cutting unnecessary bureaucracy while keeping the important checks that protect passengers."
Councillor Chris Fox added: "We have been prepared to challenge outdated rules and ask whether they still make sense today.
"Removing unnecessary barriers can help both private-hire and hackney carriage drivers while maintaining appropriate passenger protections."
A driver calls it a disgrace
Ken Wood, 73, a taxi driver and former South Tyneside Alliance Group councillor, told the Shields Gazette: "We all know sticking a sat nav on can take you anywhere but from A to B, you can end up anywhere.
"The borough is getting drivers from all over the place and a lot of them don't know where they are or where they are going.
"I totally disagree with the knowledge test being scrapped, every passenger wants their driver to know where they are going without a sat nav.
"If this test is scrapped, passengers run the risk of ordering a taxi in Westoe with a planned destination of Cleadon and being driven everywhere in between.
"I really do think this plan is a disgrace."
Wood describes the knowledge test as scrapped. Pittuck's quotation limits the change to local roads and routes, and keeps the rest of the test.
The rules still published
South Tyneside Council's taxi licence page still tells applicants to pass a knowledge test, complete the Blue Lamp Trust safeguarding course, and supply a medical note from a GP who has access to their records. A licence for a hackney carriage or private hire driver is granted only when the council is satisfied that the applicant is a fit and proper person.
The council's published Taxi and Private Hire Policy took effect on 1 April 2022. It still requires a knowledge and locality test, with questions on the South Tyneside area as well as licence conditions, byelaws, legislation and relevant Highway Code questions. A licensee who leaves the trade and returns within two years does not have to sit the test again. The test also challenges an applicant's English language proficiency.
The hackney carriage byelaws in that policy still include a route duty. Byelaw 10 requires the driver of a hackney carriage hired to a particular destination to take the shortest available route, subject to any directions from the hirer.