Our Diamond Accredited Taxi Driver Trainers can help you with training requirements for the standard DSA Taxi Test or the DIA Taxi Test, details of which are below.

Training includes the following:

• Pre-start check
• Candidate study plan
• Cabology
• Potential Taxi driver assessment and fault analysis report

Requirements for Taxi and private hire drivers to acquire or renew their licence vary considerably amongst the 400+ licensing authorities within the United Kingdom. The Diamond program addresses this by providing continuity of driving and testing standards nationally.

New laws relating to passenger transport and the management of existing laws mean having to constantly review the changes and how they may apply to licensed Taxi and private hire drivers. Training is provided by professional Driving Standards Agency (DSA) approved Driving Instructors who have successfully completed the Diamond Accredited Taxi-driver Training (DATT) course, gaining the necessary skills and information to pass on to potential or existing Taxi drivers. All DATTs are individually covered by public liability and professional indemnity insurance to the tune of £10 million and £5 million respectively.

The Diamond Test has been accredited by the DSA and is the only advanced test to use the DSA marking schedule. The test is conducted by Diamond Advanced Examiners who are themselves examined annually by supervising driving Examiners from the DSA. In addition to this Diamond's own supervising examiners conduct periodic quality checks to ensure uniformity across the country.

The Diamond Taxi test mirrors the DSA Taxi assessment with a maximum of 9 driving faults allowed but is significantly less expensive. Flexibility has been built into the test , being available within a couple of weeks rather than months and we are looking at including wheelchair assessment as part of the test, thus saving you, the Taxi driver or manager, valuable downtime and the associated costs.

Upon passing the Diamond Taxi Test, a driver is automatically enrolled into the MasterDriver Club free for the first twelve months and will receive all the benefits of membership, including reduced insurance premiums, regular copies of Driving magazine, discounted recovery, car hire, hotels, car parking and periodic updates on the changes in various laws and Highway Code. As a condition of membership a driver would be required to have their driving reassessed every third year, thereby maintaining a good standard of driving.

You may be aware that the national pass rate for the DSA Taxi assessment last year was 50.9% (Jan '07 to DEC '07) and that two-thirds of those who didn't pass received serious or dangerous faults - its worth noting here that just one serious or dangerous fault would be enough to fail a learner test! This pass rate is only slightly higher than the learner rate and is probably due to the fact that as professionals, Taxi drivers do not see the need for training - unfortunately the opposite is true. Any driver after a period of time develops habits, not all good, and would probably not pass the standard driving test again without at least some refresher training.