Significance of 'minicab' in the U.K.?

[GorillaMan]

@acsenray

Your friends are that vague about telling you where to meet them – “A pub somewhere in the middle of Duncannon Street”? If one of my friends said that, I’d insist they call back with a more specific location – a name and, if not the exact address, at least the nearest cross-street – or I’d tell them to forget it.

Remember that Duncannon Street is at most a mile long, because by law all roads are renamed after they exceed that length (that’s a joke). But yeah, a good London cabbie will regard it as pride, indeed practice, to narrow things down in such a way from vague clues.

[hammos1]

@acsenray

Your friends are that vague about telling you where to meet them – “A pub somewhere in the middle of Duncannon Street”? If one of my friends said that, I’d insist they call back with a more specific location – a name and, if not the exact address, at least the nearest cross-street – or I’d tell them to forget it.

Lots of London streets are very short- 50 yards long would not be uncommon- so if I was given directions like that I would assume the info given was sufficient.

[GorillaMan]

@hammos1

Lots of London streets are very short- 50 yards long would not be uncommon- so if I was given directions like that I would assume the info given was sufficient.

For Duncannon Street, 50 yards is not far off!

[ianzin]

Okay, so it’s possible to nitpick The Great Philosopher’s example and subject it to stress testing… oh! the fun we have here on the Dope! … but his point is a good one.

To drive a black cab you have to pass The Knowledge Of London exam (usually referred to as The Knowledge) which takes 2-3 years of study. In simple terms, drivers of black cabs know London’s streets and how to get from A to B to an impressive level of detail. They also have to have a background check and sign papers promising to be ‘of good character’ and to provide good service.

If you think they have provided bad service you can complain to the London Hackney Carriage Office (the driver’s details and his licence number and the LHCO details are on display there in the cab, by law) who will, in theory, investigate the matter and if necessary discipline the driver or take away his licence and write back to you. In practice, I doubt they will do anything at all, but that’s a different story.

To drive a minicab, you don’t have to have any qualifications at all except to be able to drive a car. Before SatNav, sometimes you got a driver who knew how to get where you want, or close to it, but as often as not the driver only knew major routes and landmarks and was relying on you to give more specific directions - which was fine if you knew where you’re going and how to get there. Otherwise, he would start referring to maps or radio back to base for help!

And if you think a minicab has given bad service… tough, there’s nothing really you can do.

These differences influence a Londoner’s decision about which to take, plus all the other differences already noted about price and so on.

Today all the minicab guys have SatNav (GPS) and just ask you for the postcode of where you want to go.

I once asked a black cab driver how he felt about this ‘new’ technology and he said, “Well, it’s like everything else these days, innit? It’s de-skilling.”