The Knowledge Taxi - London Knowledge The Knowledge Taxi - London Knowledge Learning The London Knowledge Pay a visit to London and a black mini cab will probably be one the the first things you will see. The London taxi drivers are almost as famous as the black cabs in which they drive, this is mainly due to their in-depth knowledge of London and ability in taking their occupants to their desired destination amid the congestion and the chaos that you often find when travelling through London’s streets. Easy you might think with the world of sat navs? Think again. Hail down a black cab in London and you can be assured that the driver will know the shortest and quickest route to your destination without the aid of a satnav. It doesn’t matter if you give them a street name, a famous landmark, a hotel name or famous point of interest, they will know exactly where it is and they will get you to it in the shortest route possible. London taxi drivers go through stringent training to obtain their licence, they need to pass “The Knowledge”, a test which is amongst the hardest to pass in the world, it has been described as like having an atlas of London implanted into your brain.

No two days are ever the same for London cabbies, they just never know who is going to be climbing into the back of their cabs. Taxi drivers meet people from all walks of life, the rich and famous, arguing couples and tourists who always have a question or two that they would like answering. Add this factor to the amount you can earn as a London taxi driver and it is a career many feel is well worth the effort. An effort that requires you to memorise every possible route through the city as well as memorising landmarks and points of interest, museums, parks, police stations, churches, theatres and schools and not just the famous landmarks like Buckingham Palace and Nelsons Column. The hardest of all taxi driver tests in the world is how many have described “The London Knowledge” a reputation which very few would argue with. To become an All-London taxi driver or Green badge holder you need to master no fewer than 320 basic routes, all of the 25,000 streets that are scattered within the basic routes and approximately 20,000 landmarks and places of public interest that are located within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross.

This is where The Blue book is required, a handbook for budding taxi drivers which contains all of these routes and landmarks. It takes the average person between 2 and 4 years to learn the knowledge, a lot however depends on how much time and effort they are willing to dedicate in learning it. Many students print off pages from the Blue Book which you can download by clicking here and using a moped they go over and over a route at a time until they have mastered it before moving on to the next one. A big advantage of having the blue book in digital format is the ability to print off pages when required. Could you imagine riding around with a hardback version only to have it destroyed by the English weather. Becoming a London Cabbie Becoming a London taxi driver isn’t something you can achieve in a few weeks, days or even months not unless you have a brain like superman. Because the use of sat navs is prohibited, remembering the many points of interest and quickest routes across London can take two to three years to master and often even longer.

Below we have broken down the stages of becoming a London cabbie into easy digestible segments: 1) Send off for an application pack including a medical assessment form in writing to: The Public Carriage Office London N1 9PU 2) Get yourself a copy of the Blue Book and start learning the routes, the quicker you start learning the quicker you can put in for a test. 3) Receive your application pack, fill it in and send it off with your medical report and character checks. 4) Receive a reply from the PCO 5) When ready sit the first self assessment (Usually within the first 6 months and is optional). 6) Sit the written examination. 7) Sit several ‘Appearance’ (1-2-1 oral tests) tests. 8) Final Talk and Obtain your licence. One – Write to the Public Carriage Office 15 Penton Street, London N1 9PU and request an application pack. Two – Get yourself a copy of the Blue Book and start learning the routes, the quicker you know the routes the sooner you can become a Cabbie.

My advice would be to download yourself a copy, having it in a digital format means you are able to print off a route at a time and work on it. Depending on your style of learning and assuming you will be driving the route in either a car or on a moped having a single page for reference is far easier than carrying a book around with you. This way you can get on with it while waiting for a reply from the PCO. Three – Fill in the forms and send them back with the relevant documents; a) Medical and Character Check: After requesting an application pack to become a London taxi driver the Public Carriage Office (PCO) will request that you visit your family doctor for a DVLA Group 2 medical examination. You must have been under this doctor for at least 12 months. The medical covers many areas of your health and fitness including; heart problems, black outs, diabetes, epilepsy or psychiatric problems that you might have had. b) The character check is usually in the form of a criminal record check, if you have any convictions ensure you state them when applying.

Four – Assuming all is fine with your application you will receive a Knowledge of London introductory pack which includes a DVD and a copy of The Guide to learning the Knowledge of London. Five – When you have managed to learn the first 80 runs you can contact the PCO and arrange to sit a self assessment test. This is a written test where you mark your own paper with a tutor present who will help you with any concerns or questions. The tutor will talk you through the answers informing you of how well or poorly you have done. This is an optional test that you can take to see if you are on the right track, it counts as nothing towards the final tests and no results are stored. Six – The written test is in two stages and to progress you must obtain a 60% pass mark. Stage one tests your knowledge of the routes contained within the book, it is multiple choice, you will be given three routes from location A to location B and you must identify the shortest route. Stage two tests you on the points of interest also contained within the Blue Book, again multiple choices, you are given a point of interest and four possible locations and you must pick the correct location. Seven – There are three oral exams known better as appearance tests.

The tests last between 20 and 30 minutes and evolve around an examiner asking you the location of two different points of interest. You must know where each one is and also be able to tell the examiner the best way of getting from one to the other in the shortest time. Each appearance test increases with difficulty as you progress. Eight – Assuming all the previous sections are adequately completed you will be invited along to apply for your green badge licence to become a London taxi driver. It is a case of turning up, showing your driving licence and paying the licence fee. Click to download and access an online Knowledge Test If this all seems daunting remember; Assuming you are healthy and have no serious criminal record then becoming a London cabbie boils down one thing, your knowledge of London. If you know all the possible routes and points of interest like the back of your hand then you are going to sail it. Learning the routes and points of interest contained in the Blue Book is all it really takes to become a London taxi driver, the sooner you learn them the quicker you will obtain that green badge licence.

Becoming A London Taxi Driver Have you got what it takes to become a London taxi driver and gain yourself the respect of being amongst the best taxi drivers in the world? Some have said and maybe hoped that the London Knowledge will become easier because with so much technology around surely one day black cab drivers will be allowed to use satellite navigation in their quest to gain their green badge licence? The answer is no, satellite navigation will never be permitted as an aid to learning the Knowledge, you are going to have to do it the hard way getting yourself a blue book of runs and learning each of the routes and points of interest. The following youtube clip explains why an experienced London mini cab driver will always beat and be better than any satellite navigation aid, one quick example, a tourist jumps in your cab and asks to go the the nearest McDonalds? – Not something your sat nav can help you with is is. You might not believe it now but watch the clip and listen to how many vaild points and genuine real life experiences of why a sat nav would be of no use for this London taxi driver.

London Knowledge Points Of Interest If remembering the 320 knowledge runs isn’t hard enough in itself to learn in order to become a London cab driver what about the 30,000 points of interest? It can seem a daunting task and it does put some people off but that is what separates those that become London black cab drivers and those that are not up to it. There is no right or wrong way to learn the points of interest, some have found it easier learning the points of interest first before attempting the runs while others have found that they pick the landmarks up better while doing and practicing the runs. Now for a reality check, once you have passed the knowledge test are you really going to remember all 30,000 points of interest? Of course you are not. My tip would be for you to concentrate on the more obscure points of interest, you probably know already where Big Ben and London Bridge is, I doubt very much that you are going to be asked to tell the examiner where these are located. You are more likely to get asked where the only Nazi memorial in London is situated – Waterloo Place / Outside 9 Carlton House Terrace.

If a tourist climbed into your cab asking to see this it is more likely that they will ask you to take them to see Giro the Nazi Dog. The next question is where does one start learning these points of interest? You could type a search into Google for ‘london points of interest’ and get an online map with around 100 various points scattered around, it won’t get you very far though. If you are serious about learning the London Knowledge you will need to get yourself a Blue Book of runs containing all the routes and landmark points or download yourself a copy. The London Knowledge Before anyone is allowed to drive one of the famous London black cabs they will need to pass a test known commonly as The Taxi Knowledge or London Knowledge. There are two types of licence which a taxi driver can apply for; the first is a yellow badge or suburban licence. Passing this test enables the driver to select from one of the nine suburban sectors in the city of London. On passing the test the taxi driver will be restricted to routes and work in his or her selected area. Below is a map of the nine areas in their respected numbered segments. Many drivers concentrate on one particular sector and once they have obtained their licence they then apply and expand into neighbouring areas.

There is nothing to stop anyone applying for more than one suburban area as there is no limit however if you are considering more than two sectors you may as well apply for a Green badge licence which gives the taxi driver a distinguised green badge licence to cover the whole area with an All London Licence. Before assuming that this will be an easy task there is one very important factor to remember, you will need to remember and familiarise yourself with all the possible routes as sattelite navigation aids are not permitted. Not only will you need to remember each and every route but some 30,000 points of interest which includes schools, landmarks, police stations and tourist attractions. So how long does it take the average person to learn the London Knowledge? On average between 3 and 5 years but it really depends on the individual, how serious are they about passing, how committed are they and how much time can they dedicated to learning the routes? Without a doubt they are going to need to Download The Blue Book of runs containing each of the routes and landmarks.

How a Predator’s Brain Maps Its Next Kill | WIRED How a Predator’s Brain Maps Its Next Kill Photo: Tony Sutton /Flickr Last week my friend and Map Lab co-conspirator Betsy Mason wrote about her love of geologic maps. These maps have crazy colors and patterns that indicate different kinds of rocks , and you can learn a lot about the geological forces that created spectacular places like the Grand Canyon by studying them. Betsy got hooked on these maps when she was a grad student in geology. I studied maps in grad school too. The ones I studied aren’t nearly as nice to look at — I’ll just concede that point right up front. But I am going to try to convince you they’re even more amazing than Betsy’s rock maps. You know why? Because they’re made from living cells and they exist inside your brain. Your brain actually has lots of maps. The brains of virtually all animals do. They use these maps to locate threats and opportunities and find their way through the world. Without brain maps, they wouldn’t just be lost, they’d be somebody else’s lunch. You need to pinpoint the sound and calculate a flight path that will put your talons in touch with your dinner.

And you need to do it fast. The brain maps you’re most likely to have heard of before reside in the hippocampus, a part of the brain that’s important for memory and navigation. Neuroscientists have found “place cells” and “grid cells” that encode locations in the hippocampus of rats. In humans, they’ve found that part of the hippocampus of London taxi drivers gets bigger as they learn the Knowledge required to navigate the city’s labyrinth of streets. This is all fascinating stuff, but I’m going to save it for another post. In this post I’m going to tell you about another type of brain map that gets less attention, but is every bit as important. While the hippocampus maps help animals (including cabbies and the rest of humanity) remember locations for minutes to years, the maps I worked on help animals pinpoint things that are happening RIGHT NOW. I studied these maps in the brains of barn owls. Here is the thing about owls: they hunt at night, and they have to use their hearing as well as their vision to catch their prey. And they have maps in their brains that help them do this.

Pretend for a minute that you’re a hungry barn owl up in a tree waiting for a tasty mouse to scurry by on the forest floor. You hear a rustle in the leaves. You need to pinpoint the sound and calculate a flight path that will put your talons in touch with your dinner. And you need to do it fast. The owl’s brain locates the source of the dinner mouse the same way your brain would locate a sudden noise in a dark alley as you’re walking alone at night. The details are a little different, but the principles are the same. First off, let’s say the dinner mouse is off to the left a bit. That means the sound it makes is going to reach your left year a tiny fraction of a second before it reaches your right ear. No problem. Your brain is all over that: 25 microseconds delay between the ears; OK… dinner mouse must be 10 degrees to the left. You take off. Photo: Sheribeari /Flickr But of course the mouse is moving around, and now you are in midair and you have to keep adjusting your course. How far up ahead is dinner mouse?

Unfortunately, the time difference between your ears doesn’t give you much help with that. But you have another trick. Because your ears are a little bit asymmetrical — your right ear canal is angled slightly upward and your left ear canal points slightly downward — sounds that come from above you (or from up ahead if you’re flying parallel to the ground looking down for dinner mouse) will be a few decibels bit louder in your right ear. See how it works? The difference in timing between the ears gives you the left-right position, and the difference in loudness gives you the up-down position (or up and back if you’re flying). The sound level and timing differences between the two ears are analogous to latitude and longitude in the owl’s brain map of sound. Without this brain map, the owl would never catch its dinner mouse. So where does the owl keep this map exactly? It’s in a place called the optic tectum, which is a fleshy peanut-shaped nubbin protruding from the midbrain. It’s not much to look at, but what it does is really cool. Now imagine that you are a neuroscience grad student.

It’s a rough life, but it’s better than being the owl in the scenario I’m about to describe. You’ve just inserted a very thin electrode, about as thin as a human hair, into the optic tectum of a barn owl. The owl is anesthetized so he doesn’t feel any pain. Your electrode is hooked up to a whole bunch of electronics, and when the neurons at the tip of your electrode fire, you can see a whole bunch of blips on a computer screen and hear a burst of noise on an audio monitor. If you don’t do anything else, you’ll hear a steady chatter of neurons firing. No big deal. Let’s say you have a small speaker you can move around and play bursts of sound at different locations in front of the owl. You move it all around, covering the entire hemisphere in front of the owl. For the most part, the neurons at the tip of your electrode don’t respond. They just keep chattering along. But then! When you play a sound from one particular location, let’s say it’s 8 degrees left, and 12 degrees up from the center of the owl’s head, the neurons go crazy.

You see a barrage of spikes on the computer screen and the audio monitor sounds like you’ve tuned into a firefight between two gangs with automatic weapons. You’ve found the auditory receptive field for these neurons. When a sound originates from this area of space, the neurons go nuts. When a sound comes from somewhere else, they don’t care. Congratulations! Another 12 hours of collecting data like this and you’ll have a point to put on a graph, and you’ll be that much closer to getting your Ph.D. Never mind that everyone else your age with half a brain is just finishing med school or making a fortune in tech while you’re stuck in the lab again on a Saturday night. It’s totally going to be worth it. Imagine you’re an owl standing in front of a translucent hemisphere. Flashes of light or sounds at the numbered locations map onto corresponding positions in your brain’s optic tectum. (Non-artist’s rendering: Greg Miller) Now you move your electrode down, a bit deeper into the tectum. The receptive field of these neurons is a little different. It’s still 8 degrees left, but now it’s only 6 degrees up. A little farther down, and it’s at 0 degrees.

Then minus 6. And so on. Elevation is mapped from top to bottom in the owl’s tectum, much as it is in actual space. The horizontal dimension (or azimuth , more precisely) is mapped along the long axis of the tectum. Neurons at the end closest to the beak have receptive fields directly in front of the owl. As you move gradually towards the back, you find neurons with receptive fields increasingly off to the side. You’ve just taken a whirlwind tour of the owl’s map of auditory space. For any given point in space, there’s a corresponding spot in the owl’s tectum that’s monitoring it, just waiting for something to happen there. But that’s just the start of the cool stuff that the tectum does. Instead of moving a speaker around, let’s say you darken the room and move a tiny light around. You’ll find that neurons in the tectum have visual receptive fields as well as auditory ones. What’s more, their visual and auditory receptive fields match up: A neuron that responds to a sound at 8 degrees left, 12 degrees up will also respond to a light there. The auditory and visual maps are aligned. And that’s not all.

Let’s say you flip a switch and deliver a tiny electric zap to this neuron. What happens next is both creepy and amazing. The owl’s head moves 8 degrees left, and 12 degrees up. So the tectum has not two but three maps that are overlaid and aligned with one another: auditory, visual, and motor, which is what neuroscientists say when they’re talking about the parts of the brain that plan and execute movements. The optic tectum is the place where the neurons that do all the computations needed to locate a sound — comparing the timing and level difference between the two ears, for example — hand off the results of those calculations to the neurons that figure out which muscles have to contract, and by how much, to move the head to that exact location. Because this arrangement works so well, when the owl in the tree hears a sound or catches a glimpse of a mouse, it can respond in time to catch its dinner. Other animals have similar brain maps, but the details differ in interesting ways. Pit vipers, for example, can detect infrared light, and their optic tectum contains an infrared map.

In humans and other mammals, the analogous part of the brain moves the eyes, not the head (barn owls can’t move their eyes independently of their head, so moving their head is the only option for shifting their gaze). I should make it clear, just in case it’s not, that I’m not the one who discovered all this. Or any of it. That happened long before I got to grad school, and everything I’ve described so far is just the background for the research I did. I studied how other parts of the owl’s brain represent space and what happens during development. The map in an owl’s optic tectum, for example, isn’t very accurate when the owl is born. It gets better as the owl grows up and interacts with the world around it. Those interactions refine the map, making tiny adjustments to account for things like individual differences in the size of the head and orientation of the ears. The result is a more accurate map that’s customized for the individual. I won’t bore you with the details of all that. In fact, the details even bore me a little, which probably tells you something about why I left science to become a journalist.

Even so, the owl’s auditory map still strikes me as an amazingly cool example of how circuits of neurons solve a real-world problem. It’s such an elegant mechanism. And it underlies a survival skill that’s essential for any animal: orienting to the world around it. What we lose when GPS does all our navigating for us - The Washington Post What we lose when GPS does all our navigating for us The inside track on Washington politics. Be the first to know about new stories from PowerPost. Sign up to follow, and we’ll e-mail you free updates as they’re published. You’ll receive free e-mail news updates each time a new story is published. You’re all set! By Emily Badger March 13, 2015 Follow @emilymbadger Image courtesy of Flickr user Aaron Parecki, who kept a GPS log of his travels around Portland. Thanks to a Creative Commons license. Technology has made cities easier to navigate and, arguably, harder to know. Need to find a restaurant across town? Your smartphone knows how to get there. Trouble remembering how to retrace your way to the subway? An app can tell you that, too.

Digital maps have effectively replaced the need for mental ones, with a number of curious implications: We now spend more time looking down than looking around, we no longer have to stop strangers to learn the way, we don't have to survey the city by landmarks (the subway was past the butcher shop!). Until now, there's been one reassuring holdout to the rise of GPS: traditional taxi drivers. I've met many who take pride in the fact that they can still do something most UberX drivers can't — navigate every corner of a city from memory. No hand-held devices, dashboards or ear buds needed. In London, a cabbie's ability to memorize the labyrinthine street network is a revered skill. "The Knowledge," it's called. It takes years to develop, a process that research suggests actually changes the brain . This development, though, was probably inevitable: New York has lately scaled back how it tests new cabbie applicants on their knowledge of the city's geography.

Writes Corey Kilgannon in the New York Times earlier this week: Knowing how to get around the five boroughs of New York City — understanding not just the geography, but the nuances of timing and the endless exceptions to every rule — is part of driving a yellow cab here. And as part of their training, New York cabbies have long had to face a rigorous set of geography questions on the 80-question test they must pass to get a license. Landmarks and popular destinations were on the test, but so were less familiar streets and alternate routes. It was not quite “ The Knowledge ,” the test London cabbies spend years preparing for, but even drivers from the city found it daunting. Now those questions have disappeared, happily for future test-takers, perhaps not so much for those who will be riding in the back seats. As of the past few weeks, the only geography that remains is in 10 questions that involve navigating the city with a map. The New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission says that it's constantly tweaking its test, and that future versions, after an overhaul of the taxi school curriculum, will still include geography questions.

But the commission acknowledges that technology has changed how its drivers get around (for the last two years, rules have allowed drivers to opt to keep navigation systems in their vehicles instead of laminated map books). And fewer geography questions may mean that the test can emphasize more questions about safety — including the new safety problems posed by using technology while driving. The shift away from geography is probably a practical concession to technological change. But it raises a couple of philosophical questions in any city that's considering such a move: If you take away the intimate knowledge of a city that cab drivers uniquely claimed for decades, what's the difference between a professional cabbie and your average UberX guy? What kind of job is a cab-driving job if it no longer requires these learned skills? And what happens in a world when even professional drivers don't know how to get around without technology? One aging cab company owner tells the Times that he's more worried about losing drivers than drivers losing their geography savvy. "With GPS," he reasons, "you don't need to know where anything is anymore." This is meant as a comforting thought. But it's an alarming one, too.

The issue isn't simply that any of us will be in a bind when our technology fails us, when the the power goes out , when a gadget breaks or a system goes down. It's that we'll lose other things while we're relying on technology: spatial skills, street smarts , serendipity, the occasional pleasure of getting lost, interesting encounters with strangers, discoveries on the way to where we're going when we're paying more attention to the route. OK, some of this is just urbanist romance. But I'm guessing researchers will tell us eventually that smartphone navigation, for all the benefits it brings us, is costing us something measurable, too. Maybe the ability to draw our own neighborhoods from memory, or the skill of judging distances, or the perception of details around us. (If you're already working on this, by the way, please let us know.) business Taxi Licences Cabology Questions Most taxi drivers are self-employed and own their own vehicle. This means that they are in charge of its maintenance, fuel, insurance, and accountancy. The job involves customer interaction as the driver picks up a diverse range of passengers and determines where they wish to go.

Drivers must know the shortest and cheapest route, and be capable of handling money for the fare. It may also be necessary to help with luggage and assist passengers with mobility difficulties. There are two kinds of taxi vehicle in operation: Licensed hackney carriages - These meet the truest definition of taxi in that these can be hailed off the street or at a taxi rank. They can be hailed in random locations where people frequent, picking up their fares as and when they are gestured to. The fares and the geographical boundaries for hackney carriages are set by the local authority. In London, hackney carriages are easily identified as the famous black cabs. Licensed Private Hire Vehicles (PHVs) - Also known as minicabs, these cars are not allowed to pick up passengers from the street and cannot display a 'taxi' light on the roof. Instead, they can be pre-booked by phoning or calling in at the minicab office which receives commission on their fares. They are often booked to pick up fares after nights out, from the airport or train, and even on school runs.

Legal Obligations The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) first introduced a non-statutory practical driving test for Hackney Carriage and Private Hire in 1999 and now DSA conduct tests on behalf of many Licensing Authorities on a national basis. Some Licensing Authorities insist that before you are issued with a Hackney Carriage or Private Hire drivers licence you must pass a Hackney Carriage/Private Hire assessment. If your Licensing Authority requires you to take the test, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the content of the test and that you take professional instruction prior to taking the test. The standard of the taxi assessment test is set at a level suitable for the full driving licence holder, which is therefore higher than the learner driver test. To become a taxi driver you will need to get a licence from the Council. The licence is issued under an Act of Parliament called the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 and is referred to as a Driver's License. The minimum age for applying for a drivers license is 21 years with one years driving experience (three years in London). To get a driver's licence the Council have to determine whether or not you are a "fit and proper person" under the terms of the Act.

This involves a series of tests and checks being carried out with various organisations so that the Council can determine your application fairly and consistently. Each licensing authority has its own conditions about issuing licences for taxi drivers, so you will have to check with your local authority as to the requirements expected of you. It is obligatory that you: Are able to work legally in the UK Hold a full UK driver's licence issued by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency or a full European Union driving licence together with a UK paper counterpart Most authorities also require: DVLA Check This check is designed to give the Council an idea of your individual driving history. This allows them to determine whether or not you are a safe driver and capable of driving a vehicle in the manner expected of a taxi driver. It is also used to confirm that an applicant has held a full driving licence for a period of at least twelve months. Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) Check This involves a search of your individual criminal record to establish whether or not you are a safe person to drive members of the public, some of which may be vulnerable, elderly, or infirm. The CRB is a central organisation that deals with all checks of criminal records for the Council.

Medical Examination To drive a taxi you must be able to physically carry out the work required of a licensed driver. This may involve lifting heavy objects such as luggage or wheelchairs. Certain medical conditions may mean that you are not capable of driving professionally. The test is carried out by the Health at Work organisation. All drivers licensed by the council will be required to undergo a medical examination at ages 45, 50, 55 and 60 and then annually after reaching 60 years of age, in line with DVLA requirements. Knowledge and Driving Test In order to become a licensed taxi driver it is important that you have a good knowledge of the area in which you are going to work. The knowledge test is set in four parts each designed to test your knowledge of the area, the Highway Code, taxi licence conditions and the ability to use an A to Z effectively. The driving test is designed to find out whether you are capable of driving in a safe manner to a number of locations and is carried out in your own vehicle in the presence of a Licensing Officer. All licensed London taxi drivers need to pass a special test before they can drive one of the Capital's famous black cabs. This test is called The Knowledge.

It takes between two and four years to pass the All-London Knowledge. Once you are licensed you can work anywhere in the Greater London area. All-London drivers - also known as Green Badge drivers - need a detailed knowledge of London within a six mile radius of Charing Cross. They have to learn 320 routes. The 320 main (standard) routes, or 'runs', through central London of the Knowledge are contained within the 'Blue Book' (officially known as the 'Guide to Learning the Knowledge of London'), produced by the Public Carriage Office which regulates licensed taxis in London. In all some 25,000 streets within a six mile radius of Charing Cross are covered along with the major arterial routes through the rest of London. A taxicab-driver must learn these routes, as well as the 'points of interest' along those routes including streets, squares, clubs, hospitals, hotels, theatres, embassies, government and public buildings, railway stations, police stations, courts, diplomatic buildings, important places of worship, cemeteries, crematoria, parks and open spaces, sports and leisure centres, places of learning, restaurants and historic buildings.

The Knowledge includes such details as the order of theatres on Shaftesbury Avenue, or the names and order of the side streets and traffic signals passed on a route. Suburban drivers (also known as Yellow Badge drivers) can choose from London's nine suburban sectors. They must know between 30 and 51 runs in detail. They also need to know all landmarks and places of interest on the runs. It takes around two years to become a licensed Suburban taxi driver. Once qualified, you can only work in the sector you are licensed for. Taxis and PHVs outside London Outside London, local authorities (district/borough councils or unitary authorities) are responsible for licensing taxis and PHVs. Licensing authorities have some say in terms of setting local licensing rules and standards. The licensing authority also carries out checks as part of the licensing process.

In relation to taxi licensing, local authorities can specify:  The type or types of vehicle which they are prepared to license  Specific colour requirements  Age limits  The strict standards and frequency of vehicle testing (above any statutory requirements that all vehicles must meet)  Whether a taximeter is required  Requirements on accessibility for disabled people The legislation governing PHV licensing means a licensing authority can grant a PHV licence to a vehicle so long as it is:  Suitable in type, size and design for use as a private hire vehicle  Not of such design and appearance as to lead any person to believe that the vehicle is a hackney carriage (taxi)  In a suitable mechanical condition  Safe  Comfortable The eyesight test At the start of your practical test you will be asked to read in good daylight (with the aid of glasses or contact lenses if worn) a registration mark fixed to a motor vehicle with letters and figures 79.4 millimeters high at a distance of 20.5 meters (20 meters for a new style number plate). If you fail the eyesight test, you will be unable to take the driving part but will still be able to continue with the wheelchair section.

The practical test The practical test will last for about 35 to 40 minutes, depending on traffic. During the test you should drive in a natural way, and should not adjust your driving to what you may feel the examiner would expect to see. The examiner will give you clear instructions which you should follow throughout the test.

During the practical test, you will be examined on the following:  awareness and anticipation  effective planning of prevailing road and traffic conditions  correct use of speed  emergency stop (one in three tests)  a maneuver involving reversing  Hackney Carriage/Private Hire Car related exercise  passenger safety and comfort  wheelchair element (for Black Cab style only)  Download Taxi safety Questions The wheelchair exercise If you are taking the taxi test with the wheelchair exercise you should also be able to:  demonstrate your ability to securely erect the wheelchair ramps, floor ramp etc  safely install the wheelchair in your vehicle  secure seat belts/safety harness and also secure any wheel belts/clamps fitted to your vehicle  reverse the process by taking off the belts, harnesses and clamps, taking the wheelchair out of the vehicle and putting the ramps away  At the end of test On passing the test you will receive:  a pass certificate  the offer of a debrief  an assessment copy If you pass the driving element of the taxi test you will receive a TPH10 certificate. If you pass the wheelchair element you will receive a WTA10 certificate.

If you fail the test you will receive:  the offer of a debrief  an assessment copy  training advice If you fail the taxi practical test you may retake the test again at a later date. You must, however, wait a minimum period of three clear working days between appointments. There is no limit to the number of times you can take the test. Fees for taking the taxi driving assessment Some councils and local authorities insist that you first must pass the Driving Standards Agency's practical assessment before they can grant you a Hackney Carriage or private hire vehicle driver's licence. You can choose to take your assessment on weekdays or - at extra cost - on a weekend or weekday evening. Your taxi driving practical test fees vary depending on the type of test needed. In order to plan for your taxi driving practical test, you'll need to contact your local council. Ask them for the Private Hire/Hackney Carriage Assessment Pack. The fees listed below are correct as of 30 March 2009.

Weekday Disrupting the cab: Uber, ridesharing and the taxi industry » The Journal of Peer Production Home Disrupting the cab: Uber, ridesharing and the taxi industry Where you are: Home · Issues · Issue #6: Disruption and the Law · Essays · Disrupting the cab: Uber, ridesharing and the taxi industry by Moira McGregor (Mobile Life @ Stockholm University), Barry Brown (Mobile Life @ Stockholm University) & Mareike Glöss (Department of Informatics and Media, Uppsala University) INTRODUCTION In the summer of 2014, four thousand London taxis brought the centre of London to a standstill following similar protests that had taken place in Paris, Madrid, Rome, Milan and Berlin, (Fleisher 2014). These protests were targeting the smartphone app Uber, a ‘ridesharing’ app that allows users to hail private cars for travel, as well as allowing drivers to earn money from picking up rides in over two hundred cities worldwide.

Uber, and similar apps such as Lyft and Sidecar, are part of a purported ‘sharing revolution’, where forms of consumption around shared goods and activities rival private, state or public consumption (Aigrain 2012, Belk 2014). The Uber app incorporates fleet and driver management, social interaction between driver and passenger, taxi hailing and payment. The threat posed to the incumbent taxi service providers, regulators and users resides in the transfer of control over aspects of an entire industry—such as pricing, discrimination and work allocation—to whoever controls the software. In this essay we present results from 32 interviews with drivers and users of Uber and Lyft, as well as conventional taxi drivers and private hire drivers. Interviews were conducted in San Francisco (SF) and London, two cities with different legislative and commercial history for taxi driving, as well being at respectively mature and fledgling stages in development of ridesharing services. Seeking a distinctive perspective, this essay looks beyond headline stories about Uber, or its executives, to document and focus on the impact of rideshare apps upon the lives of the key actors—drivers and their passengers.

We learn how the apps affects travel in the city, while excluding certain passengers and drivers; yet for some drivers the apps create new economic opportunities but also new financial risks. Rideshare apps warp the existing context—lowering the value of existing cab licenses and disrupting existing jobs. In doing so they subvert regulatory regimes and change the economic context of cities. Moreover, as critics increasingly characterise Uber as predatory and exploitative, its increasing corporatisation of ridesharing may seem incompatible to the purported goals of a just and sustainable ‘sharing economy’. Methods & Background We spoke with a mix of taxi drivers, Uber drivers and passengers. Ranging from 15 minutes to 1 hour 10 minutes, the average interview was 32 minutes long. We interviewed eight conventional taxi drivers (two SF taxis, two London mini cabs, four London black cabs), 17 Uber drivers (10 in London, seven in SF) and seven users (six SF Users and one London user). One Uber driver was female, all others were male. Interviews were transcribed and qualitatively analysed to produce in-depth understanding of the practices of our interviewees.

‘The drivers are scared of the customers but also the customers are scared of the drivers.’ (London mini cab driver) Cab driving is dangerous work which, while low-paid, offers opportunities for a reasonable living, at the price of long hours of work. Historically, London’s cab business is divided into two segments: black cabs which can pick up passengers on the street; and mini-cabs which can only accept fares booked in advance. ‘Black cabs’ charge higher fares, are regulated by city authorities, and drivers must pass ‘The Knowledge’, a difficult exam on geography of London, which takes three or four years to complete. The SF cab business is less segmented, however ‘Yellow cab’ drivers must pass an exam and work with a regulated ‘medallion’ — a license to drive in the city, with medallions changing hands for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Regulation impacts drivers’ experiences heavily, (Cooper et al. 2012, Hara 2011, Hodges 2007, Maguire and Murphy 2014, Moore and Balaker 2006). In de-regulated taxis markets (e.g.

Stockholm, Dublin, San Diego) increased numbers of drivers compete for passengers. In regulated cities however, costs are higher due to the price of ‘medallion’ or whichever regulatory tool permits them to drive. The SF taxi organisation statistics suggest an income of around USD$11 an hour for drivers and US Labour Statistics calculate an average salary of USD$14.52 per hour (Hara 2011). This large variation is in part due to chronic underreporting of salaries for tax avoidance purposes, with as much as 75 per cent of drivers underreporting income, (Hara 2011) making the ‘average’ driver elusive. It’s clear, however, that taxi driving is low paid — but above minimum wage. Uber entered these markets first in San Francisco in 2009, then internationally into over 200 cities worldwide (London launched 2012). Findings focus on groups affected most by ridesharing: Uber passengers; traditional taxi drivers; Uber drivers.

Uber passengers When discussing Uber with our passengers, traditional taxi services were a common point of comparison and since interviewees were self-declared Uber users, they were often hostile and dismissive in describing incumbent taxi drivers and experiences with them. New Uber app users must firstly obtain an Uber account, requiring a valid credit card and billing address, meaning that Uber cannot be used by the 10 per cent or so of Americans without a bank account, and other ‘unbanked’ passengers around the world. Our passengers found the app more reliable than incumbent taxi services, with Uber giving more information before and during the ride and, critically, committing a driver to pick them up once their order is placed through the app. Practicalities of downtown parking and alcohol consumption were motivators for Uber use. One survey of Uber users in SF found that if Uber was not available, around 8 per cent would not have taken the trip, 39 per cent would have taken a taxi, 33 per cent would have taken public transit and 6 per cent would have driven (Rayle et al. 2014).

Yet whether to take an Uber is not simply a practical judgment about time, distance and cost—it also involves judgments about whether it is a journey one can reasonably take by taxi, or whether a certain journey is too extravagant to make by taxi. Journeys that took place as part of nights out eating or drinking, for example, were still more ‘taxi-able’ than routine trips to work. Once a taxi has been ordered via the Uber app, it displays a countdown until the driver arrives, alongside a picture of the driver and details of the car model and registration. Although traveling in a stranger’s car, our Uber passengers described this as a preferable experience to getting into a taxi. They believed a private car would be better maintained than a taxi cab, whereas the relationship between traditional taxi driver and a leased fleet cab is much looser, less accountable — with SF passengers giving accounts of unkempt taxi cabs. When actually in the car and on route, the security of the ride came to the fore. The ability with Uber to see the ride route taken on the receipt afterwards, as well as the rating system, all contributed to the perception of Uber’s security—the accountability of the ride serving to protect against both overcharging or physical harm.

While traditional drivers have to go through checks that are at least as strenuous as those for Uber, our passengers perceived Uber drivers as more trustworthy; our users talked about enhanced levels of service and friendlier Uber drivers. Earlier work has referred to the ‘homophily’ of the sharing economy, (Ikkala and Lampinen 2015) meaning that often similar ‘types’ of people provide and use these services (in terms of class, education and race). For our Uber passengers, this was presented as, ‘Uber drivers are like me’. Drivers are rated by passengers at end of journey, and vice versa. Many of our passengers were unaware they were rated by drivers and could be refused rides if they had low ratings. As for rating drivers, most passengers would give stars, and would also drop stars occasionally—some giving low ratings as a feedback ‘service’ to drivers. Ultimately, the Uber ride closes with payment. The automated “paymentless” payment had unexpected ramifications; one was that parents could pay for their children’s Uber rides (and thereby track their child’s location via receipts). Alternately, one passenger commented on the awkwardness of trying to split an Uber fare after the ride, since no cash changes hands in the car.

Incumbent taxi driving One impact of city regulation in both cities is that traditional taxi vehicles (the yellow and black cabs) are significantly more expensive than regular cars. This, combined with additional requirements such as a license to drive (SF medallion), means that drivers have large outgoing costs to meet before breaking even each day. As one driver put it to us, they didn’t earn anything for the first three hours of their nine-hour shift. To get passengers, both London black cab drivers and SF drivers relied on watching for passengers hailing them on the street (although some used digital despatchers like Flywheel and Hailo). Our London drivers described the need to visually screen or ‘interview’ potential passengers before they got in to assess whether the ride might be worthwhile or ‘troublesome’. Taxi driving is dangerous, so some caution about passengers seems reasonable. Yet the ‘interview’ can cause issues for passengers—regarding race and cab drivers, one study suggests taxis are around 11 per cent less likely to stop for a African American passenger (Cooper et al. 2012): ‘Yeah, you have an interview at the door, you don’t just get in.

I always speak to ya before you get in.’ (London black cab driver) To add to these issues, incumbent drivers had to find good fares; one driver described how he targets hotels for passengers in need of an airport ride. Amongst drivers there was considerable competition over passengers and recent work discusses issues of taxi drivers’ low mutual dependence and high mobility, (Elaluf-Calderwood 2009). Once hailed, the driver needs to navigate to the destination requested by the passenger. The London black cab drivers made least use of technology, relying instead upon their distinctive, expert knowledge of the city, which they were quick to defend — one driver mentioned that whenever pitted against a ‘GPS’, the black cab invariably won. London mini-cab and SF drivers navigated using a mix of their own knowledge of the city and GPS. Clearly the GPS has become an established part of taxi driving. The interaction with the customer is one part of the drivers’ job that requires constant assessment and flexibility. Davis’ classic paper stresses the importance, at that time, of tipping for drivers, and the lengths to which drivers went to maximise their tips (Davis 1959).

Yet SF drivers also referred to cases where a passenger seemed in some financial difficulty and they would give a free fare, like one passenger on his way to be married. There was also a darker side of the relationship, with passengers behaving inappropriately in the car and causing additional time and cost for the driver but also acting as a potential risk. Working the night shift causes particular problems in that passengers are frequently inebriated, with resulting problems of behavior and violence. Threats include passengers running from a cab without paying or even attempting to rob the driver. Indeed, cab driving is a dangerous business, (Gambetta and Hamill 2005). As for payment, our taxi drivers talked about the popularity of cash transactions. Along with the tradition of being a cash-only business, our London black cab drivers put this down to tax avoidance. ‘We’re talking about tax evasion. That’s what you’re talking about.’ (London black cab driver) Uber Driving To become a driver with Uber is fairly streamlined; the driver, their documentation and vehicle are scrutinised and approved, if found suitable by Uber.

This procedure requires little contact between driver and company, and is perceived by most drivers as rather effortless — as an example, the female Uber driver interviewed was recruited through Twitter. Thereafter the relationship between Uber and their drivers is managed almost entirely though the app and while this suited many drivers who prefer to stay out on the road, some were frustrated by low interpersonal contact with Uber staff. The working day of the Uber driver is somewhat similar to traditional taxi driver. While they do not have to pick up a taxicab—because they must provide their own vehicle—they nevertheless have to acquire customers, navigate to their destination and get paid. The Uber app is central to this work, amalgamating the ride dispatch function of a traditional cab firm, along with ‘innovations’ such as ratings, navigation and payment. To obtain fares an Uber driver logs into the app and indicates they are ready to drive, (these and other features can be seen in online videos used as part of their training program). While drivers can decide whether to accept a ride — they are only given a name, distance, address and passenger rating, and they are penalised if they reject too many rides.

As one SF driver put it: ‘this new technology matches you with the passenger.’ Once allocated a ride, the driver then needs to drive to and find the passenger. This can involve some searching and communication. The information provided to both driver and passenger via the Uber app make it easier to find each other, especially where supply may be contested, e.g., outside a busy club. The importance of navigation knowledge has radically diminished in taxi driving; while some of the Uber drivers we spoke with took pride in knowing ‘their’ city, most had not undergone any formal navigational training and relied heavily on GPS systems. While the Uber application provides an in-built map, navigation was largely conducted instead using Google Maps and Waze as they provide real-time traffic information. In turn, social interaction plays a more central role in the Uber driver’s working life. Many drivers saw customer interaction as a positive job experience; some even claimed to drive for the social interaction with others. Another aspect of the app that differs from conventional cab driving is the use of ratings. Drivers are rated by passengers from 1 to 5, and low scoring drivers can be suspended from the Uber service.

Acting as a form of surveillance, ratings force drivers to attend to passengers and causes anguish when their rating falls: ‘…we really work hard to have those stars.’ This adds a form of ‘emotional labour’ (Hochschild 2003) to the job—alongside the responsibility of driving safely and efficiently; the driver is required to adapt to customers‘ social and emotional needs. Thus, some Uber drivers mentioned feeling dependent upon somewhat arbitrary customer ratings. The rating system has, nevertheless, increased the drivers’ sense of control and security; since customers are registered and rated through the app, the drivers now know who’s getting into their car and that payment will be made—making the work safer for them. The customer preregistration payment system has made Uber taxi payment easier, and drivers are no longer required to process transactions or carry cash in the car. However, some drivers criticised the practices of Uber in terms of dealing with pricing policy, suggesting that they are carrying the risks of driving alone. As one long-term Uber driver put it: ‘They don’t spend the gas, they don’t spend the maintenance for the car, they don’t do nothing. How do you think they’re worth $15 billion?

Do you think they make it from the customer? No…they make it from the drivers.’ (SF Uber driver) Contrasting Uber and Taxi drivers The negative reputation of traditional taxi companies and moreover, their control over the car and the driver, play a factor in the choice of many Uber drivers to distance themselves from the incumbents. Uber drivers have some freedom and independence in choosing how many hours to work and when to end and start a shift, unlike most SF taxi drivers. Many of our interviewees were driving Uber part time, to supplement incomes. Yet this perceived independence stands in strong contrast to Uber’s control over prices and commission. In addition, the unobtrusive role the company adopts in daily business, is viewed with concern by some drivers. Uber itself is reduced to the app, company personnel can only be contacted through email. The flexibility and casualisation of the job can thus be seen as a blessing or a curse. While Uber calls their drivers ‘partners’, the drivers carry a big part of the risk and responsibility without being in control of fares or regulations. Finally, how much do Uber drivers actually earn?

Uber provide only very general figures—some media reports claim an hourly rate of around USD$27, with others claiming that after costs drivers make below minimum wage. In some markets Uber guarantee at least USD$15, and USD$25 at peak times. While this suggests Uber drivers are making more than existing cab drivers—with Uber aggressively cutting rates, these figures could be in decline. Discussion and conclusion These interviews reveal how ridesharing is changing the nature of taxi services. The livelihood of drivers from Lagos to Shanghai is impacted by decisions made by those designing and implementing the Uber app: we need to move from notions of the ‘app economy’ to understanding the effects of the app in the economy. Our analysis seeks to focus on the changing everyday practice of drivers and customers, by paying attention to the app’s role in managing labour and money. By avoiding simplistic descriptions of Uber as wholly ‘good’ or ‘bad’, we see whom it affects and how apps make winners and losers. At first glance both Uber customers and drivers are clear winners. The app circumvents the complex system of ‘middle-men’, to match customers and drivers together more efficiently. Our drivers wait less time for rides, and passengers get faster service.

Yet this means that existing cab drivers, companies, owners of medallions and city authorities have less control over taxi driving, and passengers. While the app opens new customer segments by offering cheaper rates and efficiency, it excludes others without bank accounts and smartphones. Also excluded are existing cab drivers who don’t fit Uber’s preferred driver profile. This creates something of a two-tier cab market—dividing both drivers and passengers. As the market leader, Uber now essentially sets the rates and working conditions for a considerable slice of the taxi driving market worldwide, undercutting years of government regulation. A central concern is what this shift in control means for the wages of drivers, which can now be cut (or raised) at will by the rideshare provider—more broadly invoking a transformation of labour itself. A critical perspective might identify here processes of increased surveillance, deskilling, casualisation and intensification with the advent of ridesharing—indeed, the critical might also question if Uber can be said to fairly represent the shared economy, which sets out to share profits and risk more equally and sustainably. This said, we should not discount the advantageous changes Uber brings to an occupation that was characterised by poor wages and conditions.

Importantly though Uber drivers currently have no control over prices—while previously they at least had forms of political representation with the ability to influence regulations. As for the increase in part-time work and casualisation of driving, for many drivers this is the appeal of Uber, while helping to deal with the spiky nature of demand. These considerations show that a more nuanced perspective on the economical effect of Uber must be critical, without ignoring the benefits for drivers and passengers that ridesharing can provide. In this paper we have tried to understand how an app can influence the economic and social conditions of users, drivers and passengers. This concern for understanding the economic role of apps—echoes arguments of authors Harvey et al (2014) who provide a compelling critique of the ‘pro-social’ nature of technology research, identifying clearly different yet little expressed economic assumptions in work. It is clear that there is more work to be done in understanding not the app economy, but the app in the economy. References Aigrain, P 2012. Sharing: Culture and the Economy in the Internet Age, Amsterdam University Press: Amsterdam. Belk, R 2014.

‘You are what you can access: Sharing and collaborative consumption online’, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 67, pp. 1595–1600. Cooper, J Mundy, R & Nelson, J 2012. Taxi! Urban Economies and the Social and Transport Impacts of the Taxicab. Ashgate Publishing Limited: Farnham Davis, F 1959. ‘The cabdriver and his fare: Facets of a fleeting relationship’, American Journal of Sociology, pp. 158–165 Elaluf-Calderwood, S 2009. ‘Organising self-referential taxi work with mICT: the case of the London black cab drivers’ (phd), The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Fleisher, L 2014. ‘Thousands of European Cab Drivers Protest Uber, Taxi Apps’, Wall Street Journal, 11 June Gambetta, D & Hamill, H 2005. Streetwise: How Taxi Drivers Establish Customer’s Trustworthiness, Russell Sage Foundation Publications: New York Hara, D 2011.

‘Taxicab Regulations and Taxi Driver Income’, report prepared for the Taxicab Inquiry of Victoria, Australia. Harvey, J, Golightly, D & Smith, A 2014. ‘HCI As a Means to Prosociality in the Economy’, in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI ’14. ACM: New York, pp. 2955–2964. Hochschild, A R 2003. The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling (2nd Edition), University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles Hodges, G R G 2007. Taxi!: A Social History of the New York City Cabdriver (1st Edition), Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore. Ikkala, T & Lampinen, A 2015. ‘Monetizing Network Hospitality: Hospitality and Sociability in the Context of Airbnb’, presented at CSCW 2015, ACM Press: Vancouver Maguire, M & Murphy, F 2014. ‘Neoliberalism, securitization and racialization in the Irish taxi industry’, European Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol.

17, pp. 282–297. Moore, A T & Balaker, T 2006. ‘Do Economists Reach a Conclusion on Taxi Regulation?’, Econ Journal Watch Vol. 3, pp. 109–132. Rayle, L, Shaheen, S, Chan, N, Dai, D & Cervero, R 2014. App-Based, On-Demand Ride Services: Comparing Taxi and Ridesourcing Trips and User Characteristics in San Francisco, University of California: Berkeley. Sygic Truck GPS Navigation - Android Apps on Google Play Sygic Truck GPS Navigation Top Developer Description Truck GPS Navigation by Sygic, maker of the #1 world’s most installed offline GPS navigation app. Get one of the most reliable navigation apps for professionals with first class routing and highly accurate premium maps. Enjoy navigation tailored for large vehicles and trusted by 1.000.000 truck drivers worldwide. Try 14 days for free. You can upgrade to Premium anytime.

BEST PROFESSIONAL NAVIGATION • All-in-one app with special routing for Truck / RV / Van / Caravan / Camper / Bus / Car • Detailed navigation & trucker paths for large vehicles with specific restrictions in the map • Maps are stored offline on your device so internet connection is not required, works with GPS signal • Regular free map, POI and speed camera database updates for 3 years • Personal routing profiles for different vehicles (height / weight / length / axle and more) • Optional real-time traffic information and speed cameras database AVAILABLE MAP REGIONS • Best maps: High quality up-to-date HERE maps for trucks, stored on your device • Offline: Works with GPS only, internet is not needed, great abroad • 1st class guidance: Turn-by-Turn navigation with Voice Instructions • Easy exits: Lane Guidance and Junction Views • Easy orientation: 3D and 2D Cities & Landscapes • Never miss: Google™ Street View with images for destinations FOR TRUCK • Set truck parameters and hazardous materials • Avoid roads not suitable for your truck and cargo • Go via the most convenient trucker path for you • Truck specific POIs: Stops, parking, petrol & weigh stations and more • Waypoints: Multiple places for loading and un

loading your cargo • London Lorry Control Scheme (LBTS) FOR RV / CARAVAN / BUS • Profile configuration for RV / Caravan / Camper / Motorhome / Bus • Camper specific POIs: Campgrounds, parking stations and more • Avoid detours and narrow roads OTHER FEATURES • Spoken Street Names to focus on the road • Dynamic Lane Guidance to know the right lane • Speed Limit Display and Speed Camera Warnings SAFETY AND COMFORT • Notification of upcoming Speed Limit change • Avoid paths not suitable for trucks or recreational vehicles • Avoid Toll Roads on part or on entire route • Avoid roadblocks, motorways … GREAT EASY TO USE SEARCH • Google™ Local Search to find anything • Find and Navigate to: • Import of custom interesting locations - POIs • Customizable navigation screen • Road incident sharing with drivers community • SOS / Help to find assistance nearby • Customizable spoken warnings • Smooth Hardware Accelerated 3D rendering • Vehicle audio integration – Bluetooth or cable • Graphics optimized for tablet & HD displays ADD-ONS • Live Services (Real time Traffic information + Speed Cameras): Avoid delays and speeding tickets • Head Up Display (HUD): Projects GPS navigation instructions onto your windshield Read more 1 1,349 Michael Morris Customer service

 is rubbish!!

Why do sygic never get back in touch with a response!! Followed instructions on how to back up saved favourite places data because of a new device and it didn't work!! I've lost over nearly 3years of data! You need to upgrade the software so it backs up to the users licence!! I AM NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS!! Bruno Fernandes Useless for above 18t in London I understand that it works with the London Lorry Control Scheme but if you got a council permit and need to deliver on restricted areas the Sat Nav will not help you to find the shortest direct route between a ERN and your delivery or back to a ERN after delivery. It will do the lazy thing.... Just leave up to the driver to short himself up. Could be a useful tool but fails when you need it most. Pawel Bak I have been using this app for over a year know. I had to restore device to factory settings and lost over 100 "favourites locations". Why do they not update on the user account and restore like license details!!!??? Dave Allen No customer service Paid for my license for your program and no one will help fix the problem. I have emailed and everything.

I use this everyday and now I paid for something I can't use and email for customer service is 2 day wait. Get it together. Purchased license on 11/11/16 and now it tells me it's expired. Refund my money or fix it. Hugo Penafort Worst gps app ever Untill now I've used this app every day in Europe and I regret a lot. I've been sent to places that no truck can't pass. Ive ben sent out of the hiway and back again a milion times for no reason. The app stops working for no reason. Some times in route for no reason it loses the route. You almost cant see the country borders... etc etc etc... This could be a nice gps navigator for trucks but this guys are very lazy to make some functional updates... Im very sad to spent 120€ in this defective gps navigator. Dee Denko Not for commercial truck drivers in US Trial version. 3 days in use. 1) 1/4 mile before Weight Station - are you kidding me? It's TOO late! Should be at least 3-4 miles! 2) Where is a Truck Stops?

TS and Rest areas are No.1 for OTR. List of regular gas stations are useless in majority of cases. 3) Wrong speed limit in KY: 60 mph instead of 70. 4) Voice always plays via BT headset even if switched off in settings. 5) No Mile marker + wrong miles (compare to the signs on the roads). Please learn competitors before ask money for your product. User reviews Michael Morris January 8, 2017 Customer service is rubbish!! Why do sygic never get back in touch with a response!! Followed instructions on how to back up saved favourite places data because of a new device and it didn't work!! I've lost over nearly 3years of data! You need to upgrade the software so it backs up to the users licence!! I AM NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS!! Full Review Sygic. November 18, 2016 Hello, we apologize for the delay. I have already addressed your support request. If provided solution would not be helpful, please let me know in reply to my e-mail for further investigation. Thank you. Robert from Customer Care Team.

Hugo Penafort November 26, 2016 Worst gps app ever Untill now I've used this app every day in Europe and I regret a lot. I've been sent to places that no truck can't pass. Ive ben sent out of the hiway and back again a milion times for no reason. The app stops working for no reason. Some times in route for no reason it loses the route. You almost cant see the country borders... etc etc etc... This could be a nice gps navigator for trucks but this guys are very lazy to make some functional updates... Im very sad to spent 120€ in this defective gps navigator. Full Review Sygic. June 10, 2015 Thank you for your feedback. We would appreciate very much, if you could send us more info about the problems, so that we are able to fix the issues. Please write us to truck@sygic.zendesk.com with all the detail you remember - your truck settings, the prohibited locations where you were routed, start and destination points etc. Thank you. Dee Denko December 10, 2016 Not for commercial truck drivers in US Trial version.

3 days in use. 1) 1/4 mile before Weight Station - are you kidding me? It's TOO late! Should be at least 3-4 miles! 2) Where is a Truck Stops? TS and Rest areas are No.1 for OTR. List of regular gas stations are useless in majority of cases. 3) Wrong speed limit in KY: 60 mph instead of 70. 4) Voice always plays via BT headset even if switched off in settings. 5) No Mile marker + wrong miles (compare to the signs on the roads). Please learn competitors before ask money for your product. Full Review Sygic. December 11, 2016 Hello, we apologize for the bad experience you had with our product. If there is something that can be done to meet your expectations, or resolve any issues you might have, please submit a help request at: urgentsupport@sygic.com. We will gladly provide you with best possible support. Robert from Customer Care Team.

Grzegorz Galant December 22, 2016 I begin to be wary of your 'updates', it's not good when an app you've checked after updating to be working, goes bad right after getting into truck cab. That sucks, no sat nav and long way ahead to be done. Now what? Edited: Have managed to get it running but only after clearing whole sygic folder (it wasn't faulty sd card). Bookmarks gone now. Always something.. Otherwise a good app, could avoid 7.5t limits more strictly and stick to the motorways more when in fastest route mode. Full Review Sygic. November 28, 2016 Hello, thank you for your feedback. In this case please contact us directly on: urgentsupport@sygic.com. We will help you as soon as possible. Thank you. Robert from Customer Support Team. grant blodgett November 27, 2016 Poor customer service Great app but takes them over a week to contact and try to fix issues. APP gets 5 stars Full Review Sygic.

November 14, 2016 Hello, we will gladly help you with any issues you might have regarding the application. Please create a help request at: urgentsupport@sygic.com, keep in mind to provide as much relevant information as possible to ensure fastest solution to your issue. Matus from customer care team. Harry Myer December 26, 2016 Keeps crashing Galaxy Note pro 12.2 all current up dates, plenty of memory. Sometimes it run for a few minutes, always crashes Full Review Sygic. December 27, 2016 Hello, we will gladly help you with any issues you might have regarding the application. Please create a help request at: urgentsupport@sygic.com, keep in mind to provide as much relevant information as possible to ensure fastest solution to your issue. Robert from Customer Care Team. torcescu mihai December 6, 2016 I try to open , but is not working.I buy trafic live and i can't use it.Why.What's up?More stars when fix the problem. Full Review Sygic.

December 8, 2016 Hello, we will gladly help you with any issues you might have regarding the application. Please create a help request at: urgentsupport@sygic.com, keep in mind to provide as much relevant information as possible to ensure fastest solution to your issue. Robert from Customer Care Team. Michael Phillips November 19, 2016 Hated it. It was very difficult to use for route planning. It ALWAYS wants to use your current location as the origin and icludes it in every "navigation" you instigate. Full Review Sygic. November 21, 2016 Hi. It is easy to plan routes - just turn off the GPS on the phone for the time, when you want to plan a trip. In menu - Route you can save those routes and load them later. Daniel Yordanov January 13, 2017 to many bugs after the update After the update is shutting down on its own unable to start at all an now I'm starting to think that I have waisted my money Full Review Sygic.

January 16, 2017 Hello, thank you for your feedback; please could you provide us with more details about the issue? Feel free to contact us at: urgentsupport@sygic.com; with as much details of the issue as possible for proper and fast resolution of your request. Thank you in advance. Matus from Customer Support Team. Arkadiusz Jasiński November 14, 2016 Doesn't work after actualization. After I installed new version of sygic, navi can't connect to the network. I can't download any maps. After 2 years using it now it's useless. Full Review Sygic. November 15, 2016 Hello, we will gladly help you with any issues you might have regarding the application. Please create a help request at: urgentsupport@sygic.com, keep in mind to provide as much relevant information as possible to ensure fastest solution to your issue. Matus from customer care team. Javier Bautista January 13, 2017 At this very moment the app isn't working for me. I would put in an address and it's giving me regular routes.

No truck routes and I've tried searching for a solution. I've gone onto the settings to see if there would be a solution there. If anyone can help I'll greatly appreciate l. Full Review Sygic. December 8, 2016 Hello, we will gladly help you with any issues you might have regarding the application. Please create a help request at: urgentsupport@sygic.com, keep in mind to provide as much relevant information as possible to ensure fastest solution to your issue. Robert from Customer Care Team. AnubisDwolf January 11, 2017 Full Review Sygic. January 11, 2017 Hello, thank you for your feedback. We would like to know why our application did not meet your expectations. Feel free to contact us at: urgentsupport@sygic.com; with more feedback. Thank you in advance. Rudolf from Customer Support Team. Adis Biedorfas January 15, 2017 Adis It could be handy if system could ask about paid roads, motorways etc before calculating a trip Full Review Sygic.

November 14, 2016 Hello, thank you for your feedback; please could you provide us with more details about the issue? Feel free to contact us at: urgentsupport@sygic.com; with as much details of the issue as possible for proper and fast resolution of your request. Thank you in advance. Matus from Customer Support Team. Rayford Gaines November 17, 2016 I paid for it not working I just loose $27 dollars Full Review Sygic. November 21, 2016 Hello, thank you for your rating. In this case please contact us urgently at: urgentsupport@sygic.com. We will help you as soon as possible. Thank you. Rudolf from Customer Support Team. Jose hernandez December 14, 2016 This gps is for cars not truck the truck setting r gone Full Review Sygic. December 19, 2016 Hello, as this is a rare issue please contact us directly at: urgentsupport@sygic.com. We would need to know as much relevant information as possible to ensure proper level of support.

Provide us with your device model, Android version, application version and if possible screenshots of the situation. Matus from Customer Care Team Jose Salazar November 15, 2016 I pay twice and no service I pay today again and no service, fix the problem or refund my money Full Review Sygic. November 21, 2016 Hello, we will gladly help you with any issues you might have regarding the application. Please create a help request at: urgentsupport@sygic.com, keep in mind to provide as much relevant information as possible to ensure fastest solution to your issue. Robert from Customer Care Team. December 14, 2016

Question: In what city must taxi drivers learn "The Knowledge" to navigate without the aid of maps?
Answer: London