Cambridge City Council Taxi Knowledge Test

The Cambridge taxi knowledge test is one of the few council taxi tests in England you can take at home. Cambridge City Council runs it online through TestReach, a remote invigilation service, so instead of travelling to a test centre you sit at your own computer while an invigilator watches through your webcam. The test itself is long and strict: 100 questions, eight sections, and 80% needed in every one.

This guide explains the format, the at-home technical checklist, what each section asks, the notification deadlines from the Cambridge handbook, a numeracy worked example, how to learn the city's points of interest, and how to practise. UK Driver Licence Prep is an independent study aid, not part of Cambridge City Council or TestReach. Facts come from the council's new taxi driver's licences page, its Taxi Handbook and Licensing Policy (version 10, September 2026) and its taxi licensing fees, checked in October 2026.

Cambridge taxi knowledge test at a glance

Item	Detail (as of October 2026)
Who takes it	All new hackney carriage, private hire and dual driver applicants
Before the test	STC Safeguarding and Disability Awareness Training (certificate dated within 3 months)
Where	Online at home, remotely invigilated by TestReach
Questions	100 multiple choice, one correct answer and three wrong
Sections	8
Time	Up to 2 hours
Pass rule	80% in each section
Attempts	3 within 12 months, paying each time
After 3 fails	Application rejected; wait at least 6 months from the last attempt
Fee	£105 first test, £75 retest (licences starting after 1 April 2026)
Results	Shown at the end of the test; upload the PDF to the licensing portal
Cancelling	At least 7 working days' notice; a no-show counts as an attempt

Key fact: Cambridge gives you three attempts within 12 months. A missed appointment without notice uses one of them, so treat every booking as a real attempt.

Taking the Cambridge test at home: technical checklist

The remote format is convenient, but a technical problem can cost you an attempt. Check everything days before, not minutes before. The council's requirements:

Requirement	Detail
Device	A laptop or desktop computer. Phones, Chromebooks, iPads and tablets will not work; a non-touchscreen device is recommended
Operating system	Windows 7 or later, or macOS 10.10 or later (Big Sur users need 11.3 or later)
Processor and memory	Intel Core i3 or equivalent, 4 GB of available memory
Camera and sound	A working webcam, microphone and speakers
Internet	At least 2 Mbps
Screen	At least 13 inches, 1024 × 768 resolution recommended
ID and room	Show the invigilator your photo ID and the room you are using

Before the day

1. Install and test TestReach's software on the computer you will use, as soon as you receive your enrolment email.
2. Choose a quiet room where nobody will walk in. Clear the desk of papers, phones and books.
3. Plug in the laptop and use a wired connection if your Wi-Fi is unreliable.
4. Tell your household the time of the test. Interruptions can end a remote exam.
5. Have your photo ID ready next to the computer.

Exam tip: Do a full practice run at the same time of day as your booking: computer on, software open, webcam working, room clear. Then sit a timed mock straight afterwards to get used to two hours at the screen.

How to register and book

1. Complete the STC training. The two-hour online Safeguarding and Disability Awareness course comes first. Your certificate must show a QR code and be dated within three months when you register.
2. Check eligibility. The handbook says you need a full UK or EEA driving licence held for at least two years, at your current address, and the right to live and work in the UK.
3. Register and pay on the council's licensing portal.
4. Wait for confirmation. The council confirms your registration, then TestReach emails you to enrol and book a slot.
5. Sit the test and upload your result PDF to the portal.

You have 12 months in total from registering for the knowledge test to the grant of your licence, so do not register until you are close to ready.

The eight sections

All eight sections need 80%. The council does not publish how many questions are in each section, so you cannot calculate how many mistakes each allows. Assume every section matters equally.

Section	What it covers	Practise
General	Hackney carriage vs private hire, licence and badge, notifying changes	Local policy
Points of interest	The street on which Cambridge places are located	Local area
Numeracy	Fares and change	Fares and numeracy
Conditions and policy	The Taxi Handbook and Licensing Policy	Local policy
The Highway Code	National rules of the road	Highway Code
Signage	Traffic signs and road markings	Road signs
Safeguarding	Recognising and reporting concerns	Safeguarding
Equality and customer service	Disability duties and good service	Equality

General, and conditions and policy

Appendix K of the handbook lists the kind of thing these sections ask: the difference between hackney carriage and private hire, whether fares are charged by meter or quote, what to do with your paper licence and badge, how and when to tell the council about convictions, address changes or accident damage, seat belt laws, helping passengers with luggage, and disability awareness. The answers are all in the handbook, so the handbook is your main textbook. Some examples of its rules:

• You must not smoke in a licensed vehicle at any time, and must not let passengers smoke.
• Your badge must be worn so that it is plainly visible, and it remains council property.
• Hackney carriage fares set by the council are a maximum; out-of-district fares can be agreed before the journey.
• Private hire operators set their own fares, but if a meter is fitted the fare chart must be displayed.

Highway Code and signage

Two separate sections, so road knowledge counts twice. Revise the whole Highway Code, not just the parts you use daily, and learn signs by shape and colour: circles give orders, triangles warn, rectangles inform. Our guide to the Highway Code for taxi drivers picks out the rules councils test most.

Safeguarding, equality and customer service

These follow the STC course you take first, so review your course notes before the test. The national duties come from the Equality Act 2010 and the Department for Transport's statutory taxi and private hire vehicle standards.

Notification deadlines: the Cambridge handbook table

Section 33 of the handbook lists how quickly you must tell the council about changes. These are exactly the kind of numbers the general and policy sections test.

Change	Deadline
Change of address or name	Within 7 days
Lost driver's badge or vehicle plate	Within 1 working day (and do not work until it is replaced)
Lost paper licence	Within 7 days
Accident damage or damage to the vehicle	Within 72 hours
Change in medical circumstances	Within 48 hours
Any criminal offence under investigation, charged or not	Within 48 hours
Any conviction	Within 48 hours
Changes to your DVLA licence, including penalty points	Within 7 days (tell the council as soon as you know of an endorsable offence, even if you plan to appeal)

Scenario

Police stop you and say you are being investigated for an offence, but they do not charge you. Do you need to tell the council? Yes. The Cambridge handbook says any criminal offence under investigation must be reported within 48 hours, whether or not you have been charged. Many drivers assume only charges or convictions count; in Cambridge, an investigation is enough.

Key fact: In Cambridge, losing your badge means telling the council within one working day and not working until the replacement arrives.

Numeracy: a worked example

The numeracy section tests fare and change sums without a calculator. Cambridge's hackney fare table changes from time to time, so the figures below are an illustration of the method, not the current tariff.

Example. A passenger's fare is £13.40 and they pay with a £20 note. How much change do you give?

• Count up from the fare: £13.40 + £0.60 = £14.00; £14.00 + £6.00 = £20.00.
• Change: £0.60 + £6.00 = £6.60.

Example 2. Three friends share a £22.50 fare equally. Each pays £22.50 ÷ 3 = £7.50.

Counting up from the fare, the way shop staff do, is quicker and safer under pressure than subtracting. Practise until sums like these take under 20 seconds.

Points of interest: learning Cambridge street by street

The handbook says you need to know all streets within the city boundary and the places residents and visitors want to go. In the points of interest section, a place is named and you choose the street it is on. Appendix K lists the categories:

• every college, porters' lodge and university building, including sports grounds, libraries and conference centres
• pubs, nightclubs and members' clubs
• restaurants and takeaways
• theatres and cinemas
• hospitals
• hotels and bed and breakfasts
• sports centres and swimming pools

The handbook also makes clear it is your job to buy maps and use other resources to learn the city. Start with well-known places and their streets:

Place	Street
Addenbrooke's Hospital	Hills Road
Cambridge railway station	Station Road
King's College	King's Parade
Trinity College	Trinity Street
Fitzwilliam Museum	Trumpington Street
Cambridge Arts Theatre	Peas Hill
Corn Exchange	Wheeler Street
Parkside Pools	Parkside
Grafton Centre	East Road
Abbey Stadium (Cambridge United)	Newmarket Road

The colleges alone make a long list, and several have porters' lodges on different streets from their best-known frontage. Learn them in groups by area: the city centre colleges along the river, then those to the north across Magdalene Bridge, then the newer colleges to the west. Our Cambridge bank includes local area questions, but a printed street map is still the best tool for this section.

Not your council? South Cambridgeshire

Cambridge City Council licenses drivers within the city. South Cambridgeshire District Council, which covers the villages and towns around the city, is a separate licensing authority with its own rules and process. If you want to work mainly outside the city, check which council your operator or the ranks you plan to use require. This page covers the city test only.

How our Cambridge practice matches the test

Our Cambridge route has 2,219 questions: about 2,000 shared council questions on the Highway Code, signs, law, safeguarding and equality, and questions written for Cambridge's handbook, numeracy and area. The ten Cambridge mocks use the real format: 100 questions in 120 minutes, with 80 correct as the overall line and your score in every section shown against 80%.

	Real test	Our mocks
Questions and time	100 in up to 2 hours	100 in 120 minutes
Pass rule	80% in each of 8 sections	Results show every section against 80%
Format	Online, remotely invigilated	Online in your browser, timed, with explanations afterwards
Points of interest	Street of a named place	Local area questions; add a street map
Route planning	Not a separate section	Not included

The shared core is explained on our council taxi knowledge test page. If you are weighing up other university cities, the Oxford taxi knowledge test also needs 80% in each section.

Your study plan

1. Today: take the free Cambridge diagnostic to see which sections need most work.
2. This week: book the STC training, download the Taxi Handbook and Licensing Policy, and read our free Cambridge council note. Learn the notification table.
3. Next three weeks: one section a day in rotation, plus 20 points of interest a day from a street map. Practise change sums without a calculator.
4. Before registering: sit the free Cambridge mock 1 in one sitting, on the computer you will use for the real test. Print the Cambridge worksheet for revision away from the screen.
5. Then: Pro unlocks mocks 2 to 10 and section practice from £6.99 a week; see pricing. Register when every section is above 85% on three mocks in a row, because you only have three attempts.