London Cabbie Knowledge

I know someone doing it. I sounds extremely difficult and requires lots of driving/riding around London as well as remembering routes you'd never actually take in a car, ie. explaining the as-the-crow-flies route between Camberwell and Willesden or some such. Pay is meant to be good once you've cracked it though.

Didn't Stephen Fry do it? I saw he owns a black cab but someone actually said he did the knowledge? Could be bullshit obviously.

I would pay for him to go and do it, as long it meant no more self-indulgent-aren't-I-clever-mehhhh-blackadder-was-funny-but-I've-become-staid-and-smug-as-I've-aged-smuggity-smug-mug on TV any more.

Stephen Fry.

The stupid man's thinking man.

I had him in the back of my cab once.

Fnar.

You're having a go at an actor that hosts Quite Interesting for being smug?

Isn't that the whole purpose of his role on that thing?

The whole show is a cockmincing travesty.

That must be why I enjoy it. I've still not gained a single pub quiz answer from it though the bunch of losers.

The Duke of Edinburgh has a Fairway, so does Noel Edmunds, he drives around with one of those blow-up women (not Palestinian, like a sex doll)

I read a thing about the Knowledge quite a while ago:
http://blackcablondon.wordpress.com/the-knowledge-of-london-training-to-be-a-london-cabbie-my-experience-of-the-process/

Worth a look. Pity so many cabbies loose all empathy with other road users.

This site actually drove my question. I see loads of moped'd (!) people doing the knowledge but never seen a bicycle personage doing the knowledge. Curiosity peeked I stumbled on the same website - which is an interesting read :)

2-4 years to learn the knowledge, on average. Sounds tough.

Cabbies aren't as rich as legend makes out. In a recession the first thing to go is the taxi ride home, on expenses took a ride from Marylebone to Stepney , a £ 30 fare, the other day and the drive seamed genuinely pleased gettting such a good fare.

If they work a lot of often unsocial hours an are lucky plenty of cash can can be taken, but there are big overheads too, a new Merc cab costs over £40k that do need to be fueled, insured an looked after. Oh an if you've got a licence but not a criminal record, you can have a go at it, just about anyone can enter the trade.

Not an easy living.

Pre recession, 5+ years ago, we couldn't get a cab home in the evening after beers in the City. Even for a £40 fair we'd have to go to 5 or 6 cabs before one would take us. The past 2 or 3 years not a single cab has turned us down. We get the odd driver who complains about going 'sarf ov the river', but when we say "no worries mate, we'll get that other free cab behind you" they soon change their mind. Big fairs like this are in short demand.

Our next door neighbour is a cabbie and he doesn't do the City anymore but stays out at Heathrow. It's a bit of a gamble, but they can pull in a big fair so it's worth it.

Pre recession, 5+ years ago, we couldn't get a cab home in the evening after beers in the City. .

This, but going very East. The one thing I had going for me, was that very often I was the cabby's last fare home, as they would live East too. It has got much, much easier to come East, and I can't remember the last time that a cab driver declined.

Black cab drivers have to learn A LOT. A number of my uncles were taxi drivers and I know one went up three times to get his badge before passing. My dad had a local badge (not central London) during the 1970s as well as his full time job to make ends meet.

get cabs often with work, and I often try to steal (a little bit of The) Knowledge from them. very interesting. Basically they just have their routes, and they hop on the nearest one to where you are, and hop off it at the nearest point to where you are going. It normally works but not always.

I also got told that the new TX4s or whatever they are do about 7mpg, which is insane. I've been told they spend so much on fuel that they can't even recover VAT on all of it because the tax man thinks they MUST be trying to rip them off.

They all seem to complain about the [impending?] loss of the Fairway - which is even worse on emissions...*

*please note all opinions stated are derived from the back of a cab, are not my own, and may bear very little resemblence to the truth.

Quick Google search revealed the claim average is 30-36mpg, that's pretty low for a diesel engine.

Why so low? I thought modern economical diesel can easily average 60mpg nowadays.

I suspect I am misremembering or he was exaggerating.

However, this (About 6 posts from the bottom) is as near as I could get to justifying my wild assertion up there^^

"Series 1,2.3 Metrocab - 25 mpg (pre euro 3 upgrade)
LTI fairway - 22 mpg
TX1 - as above (same engine)
TX2 - 18-20 ish mpg
TX4 - 17 mpg
TTT Metrocab - 18-20 mpg

all above figures for London central work only & are aprox figures. (spoke to one TX4 owner who reported a return of 28 mpg from his)"

But 60mpg would be a small light car with good conditions (i.e. not an average of 12(?) miles an hour, stopping and starting all over central London)

Tbh I don't think 15-20 is that bad for the conditions as you say. I suspect if you get most modern cars, especially those capable of carrying 7 people + luggage, and make them trundle along in 2nd all the time the results would be much the same.

Quick Google search revealed the claim average is 30-36mpg, that's pretty low for a diesel engine.

Why so low? I thought modern economical diesel can easily average 60mpg nowadays.

We get around 38mpg on a good day in our ford s max diesel and around 45mpg on the motorway so yeah it's lower but when you factor in that taxi drivers are cunts and drive like it then it's not so bad

Tbh I don't think 15-20 is that bad for the conditions as you say. I suspect if you get most modern cars, especially those capable of carrying 7 people + luggage, and make them trundle along in 2nd all the time the results would be much the same.

They probably don't have access to the cheapest deisel either in the City ... no wonder they are grumpy ;)

Dare I suggest it is somewhat their own fault and compare it to the likes of servicemen getting shot? Comes with the territory, really.

Dare I suggest it is somewhat their own fault and compare it to the likes of servicemen getting shot? Comes with the territory, really.

You suggesting we should have a poppy day for cabbies? For their sacrifice in getting bankers and politicians around London ;)