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Due to essential maintenance, the following systems will be unavailable from 6.00pm on Monday 2 October until 8.00am on Tuesday 3 October: our online council tax, business rates and housing benefit services, and our welfare assistance form. You will also not be able to register to pay council tax online, make a change of address for council tax or cancel single person discount. You are still able to make a payment during this time. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Knowledge and locality test for taxi and private hire drivers


Before we can approve your taxi or private hire driver application, you must pass tests on road safety and the local area (knowledge and locality tests).

You are tested on the following:

  • Road safety (knowledge test)
  • Local area (locality test)

Contact us for a copy of the guidance document - it covers the full details of what's included in the tests and examples of the questions asked.

Road safety (knowledge test)

The test takes up to 60 minutes.

You are tested on your knowledge of:

Local area (locality test)

For taxi (hackney carriage) drivers the test takes up to 30 minutes, for private hire drivers the test takes up to 45 minutes.

During the locality test you are expected to:

  • be able to use an A-Z map
  • be able to describe routes within County Durham
  • know the location of all of our Vehicle Testing Centres
  • give accurate locations of a number of landmarks within County Durham
  • describe the location of three landmarks and a route either to or from each of those landmarks
  • be able to identify, from a list, a number of areas not located within County Durham

How much the tests cost

The knowledge test is £15.00 and the locality test is £25.00.

Contact us
Licensing
Our address is:
  • Durham County Council
  • PO Box 617
  • Durham
  • County Durham
  • United Kingdom
  • DH1 9HZ
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