Things You Did Not Know About London's Black Cabs

The exam is 320 routes long

Transport for London publishes a book of 320 routes, called runs, and every candidate for a taxi licence must learn all of them. That is the Knowledge of London, and it is the reason your driver does not reach for a phone.

Learning a run is not learning a line

TfL requires the streets and landmarks within a quarter-mile of each end of every one of those routes, across a six-mile radius of Charing Cross. So the 320 runs are a scaffold; what actually gets memorised is most of central London.

It takes three to four years

TfL's own guidance says so. Candidates are tested face to face, repeatedly, and most fail appearances before they pass. Stage 6 adds a further twenty-five routes for drivers working a suburban sector.

There are two badges, and they are different colours

An All-London driver holds a green badge and may work the whole city. A suburban driver holds a yellow badge and works one sector. Every tour listed here runs in central London, which is green-badge territory.

Every licensed London taxi is wheelchair accessible

Not most. All of them. In TfL's words: "All taxis licensed by us are required to be wheelchair accessible and are automatically designated for the purposes of Section 165 at the point of licensing." No other sightseeing format in London can say that about its entire fleet.

The diesel fleet is retiring on a published deadline

Since 1 January 2018, every taxi presented for licensing in London for the first time has had to be Zero Emission Capable. Older diesel cabs come off the road at twelve years, or fifteen for the cleaner ones. The fleet is turning over whether anybody notices or not.

The cab pays no Congestion Charge and no ULEZ charge

TfL exempts licensed taxis from both. A private hire car is exempt from neither, unless it is a designated wheelchair-accessible vehicle on a booking. That exemption is one reason a driver can double back for something you spotted without the detour costing anything.

It can use roads other vehicles cannot

Bus lanes, and a handful of roads closed to general traffic — The Mall among them. On a sightseeing run that is worth more than any feature of the vehicle, and it is why the photographs on the gallery page show a taxi standing on Horse Guards Parade.

The licence belongs to the driver, not the firm

Which is why travellers on these listings write about people rather than companies, and why so many of them ask for somebody by name. Read the reviews page and the same first names come back across years: Paul, Michael, Gary, Andy, Tim, Rachel.

Some drivers hold a guiding qualification as well

Passing the Knowledge makes somebody an expert in the streets, not a qualified tourist guide. Some hold both. One tour here names the badges it employs: Blue Badge, City of London, City of Westminster, and Clerkenwell and Islington.

The roof sign is doing more work than you think

A lit sign means the taxi is for hire and must stop if you hail it, unless the driver has a reason not to. On a booked tour it is switched off, which is why the cab outside your hotel is not being flagged down by somebody else while you are loading in. Small detail, and it is the difference between a private booking and a queue.

Four other things a licensed cab carries as standard, none of which is optional:

• A wheelchair ramp and a bay, on every vehicle
• A separate passenger compartment with its own door on each side
• Enough headroom to sit upright with a hat on, which is a genuine Conditions of Fitness requirement and not a joke
• The ability to turn in the width of a London street, which is why the cab can double back for something you spotted

The trade is the oldest of its kind anywhere

London's hackney carriages have been licensed since the 1600s, which makes this the oldest continuously regulated taxi trade in the world. The vocabulary still carries it: a black cab is legally a hackney carriage, and the vehicle and the driver hold separate licences.

A cab can be hailed; a minicab cannot

That is the legal difference, and it is not a small one. A hackney carriage may be flagged down in the street and runs on a meter. A private hire vehicle has to be booked through a licensed operator in advance.

The whole licence, badge by badge, is on the black cab page, and what it buys you on an actual tour is on the planning page.

Why any of this matters when you book

Because it explains the price. A fare of $430 for three hours is not the cost of a car and a driver; it is the cost of a vehicle built to a rulebook and a person who spent three to four years learning the city before they were allowed to charge you for it. Whether that is worth it depends on how many of you are in the back, and that arithmetic is in what a black cab tour costs.

It also explains what you can ask for. A driver who has memorised the streets within a quarter-mile of 640 points can be redirected mid-tour without losing the thread, which is exactly what the reviews describe: a request for the City churches, or the Roman wall, or a street from a film, answered on the spot. What each route already stops at is on what a tour stops at.

Tours where the driver is the point

Private London Black Cab Sightseeing Tour – Personalized & Fun

Four to six hours with the route left blank and fuel, parking and water already inside the fare.

From $698 per group, up to 6

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Bespoke London Black Taxi Tours

Sold by the block and shaped around a list you hand over first, with snacks as well as water aboard.

From $606 per group, up to 6

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London: Iconic London Taxi Tour - Private 3-Hour Tour

An electric cab with a glass roof, a hearing induction loop, and pickup at Heathrow or London City.

From $419 per group, up to 6

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