Liverpool City Council Street Knowledge Test

The Liverpool taxi knowledge test, officially Liverpool City Council's Street Knowledge Test, is the longest council knowledge test we cover: 110 questions on where things are in Liverpool and how to get between them. It is a test of stamina and organised learning as much as of knowledge. This guide explains the format, the attempt rules and fees, the training you must do first, the local rules worth knowing, a fare worked example, and how to learn hundreds of locations without getting lost in them.

This page is about Liverpool City Council in Merseyside, not Liverpool Street in London. UK Driver Licence Prep is an independent study aid, not part of the council. Facts come from the council's step 5 page on the Street Knowledge Test, its Street Knowledge Test terms and conditions (2025), its July 2025 licensing guidance, private hire conditions, hackney byelaws and 2025 rates of fare, checked in October 2026. The old short link liverpool.gov.uk/streetknowledgetest no longer works, so use the step 5 page.

The Liverpool Street Knowledge Test at a glance

Item	Detail
Who	New hackney carriage and private hire applicants, and anyone whose licence has expired
Questions	110 multiple choice on Liverpool and the region
Pass mark	80 correct (about 73%)
Format	Partly or fully on computer; a communications assessment may be added on the day
Time	Not published
Before you book	Liverpool Standard Part 1; DBS and DVLA checks passed; driving licence held 12 months
Fee	£70, covering 3 attempts on 3 separate dates
After 3 fails	One-month study rest, then £30 each for attempts 4 and 5
Resits	You may only need to resit the parts you failed
Feedback	None beyond your results letter
Refunds	Never
Translator	Not allowed
Cheating	Disqualification and a five-year bar on applying

The council's terms and conditions say to arrive at least 15 minutes before the start; its web page says ten minutes. Aim for 15 or more. Arriving late, or not turning up without changing your booking, costs you one of your three attempts.

Our Liverpool mock tests use 110 questions with 81 correct as our pass line, a little above the council's 80. The council does not publish a time limit, so our mocks allow 120 minutes; that is our assumption, not a council rule.

Key fact: £70 buys three attempts, but a late arrival or a missed booking uses one up. Treat every booking as a real attempt.

Before you can sit the test

Liverpool Standard Part 1

Before the Street Knowledge Test you must complete Part 1 of the Liverpool Standard with an approved provider. The council lists Unite the Union Taxi Education. Part 1 covers customer service, equality and diversity, tourism, licensing law and conditions, driver and passenger safety, disability access, street knowledge and route planning. Your certificate must be dated within six months when you sit the test.

Part 2 comes later: an in-vehicle workplace assessment that you must pass within 12 months of your first licence. Without it, your licence will not be renewed.

Checks and documents

You also need to have passed your DBS and DVLA checks, held a driving licence for 12 months and, if you lived abroad for three months or more since the age of 18, provide a certificate of good conduct. On the day, bring:

1. Your full driving licence showing your photo and current address.
2. A right-to-work document, such as a passport, visa, biometric card or UK birth certificate.
3. Your Liverpool Standard Part 1 certificate, dated within six months.
4. A card for any resit fees. Cash is not accepted.

Staff check your right-to-work documents and give you a certificate confirming they have been validated. Keep it: you upload it with your licence application.

Booking and changes

Book and pay through the link on the council's step 5 page, after reading the terms and conditions. You can change your test date up to 10am the day before, using the link in your confirmation email. After you book, the council emails you a list of addresses and routes to learn. That list is your most important study document.

Attempts and money: plan the economics

The Liverpool knowledge test has unusual attempt rules, and they reward preparation.

Attempt	Cost	Notes
1, 2 and 3	£70 in total	On three separate dates; you may only need to resit parts you failed
4 and 5	£30 each	Only after a one-month study rest

Fees are never refunded, there is no feedback beyond your results, and no translator is allowed. Our advice: do not use your first attempt as a "look at the test". Sit it when your mock scores say you are ready, and use the resits as a safety net, not a plan.

Exam tip: After a failed attempt, write down every location and route you were unsure of as soon as you leave. With no official feedback, your own notes are the only record of your weak areas.

How to learn Liverpool for a 110-question test

With 110 questions, you cannot rely on knowing the famous places. You need a system.

Learn by category

Sort the council's list into categories and learn one category at a time:

Category	Start with
Stations and transport	Lime Street station; the Queensway and Kingsway tunnels; John Lennon Airport via Speke Boulevard (A561)
Tourist sites	St George's Hall, the William Brown Street museums, the Cavern Club on Mathew Street, Strand Street on the waterfront
Hospitals	Aintree University Hospital on Lower Lane; Liverpool Women's Hospital on Crown Street
Theatres and venues	The Empire Theatre on Lime Street; Hope Street linking the two cathedrals
Football	Anfield on Anfield Road; Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock, Regent Road
Hotels and places to stay	Work through the council's list street by street

Learning by category helps because questions often ask for the address of a type of place. Once you know where the hospitals are as a group, each new one fits into a pattern.

Learn the frame first

Before individual addresses, learn the roads that hold the city together: Queens Drive (A5058), the ring road through the suburbs; Speke Boulevard (A561) to the airport; and the two Mersey tunnels. Most shortest-journey questions start by getting you onto, or across, one of these.

Know where Liverpool stops

The test covers Liverpool "and the region", so know which well-known places are in neighbouring boroughs. Bootle and Aintree Racecourse are in Sefton, Huyton is in Knowsley and Birkenhead is in the Wirral, across the river. Questions that mix up these boundaries catch people who learned only the city centre.

Build stamina

Practise full 110-question mocks, not only short sets. The last 30 questions of a long test are where concentration slips and easy marks go. Use Liverpool local area practice for daily drills and a full mock once a week.

Liverpool rules you should know

Reporting deadlines (private hire conditions)

Event	Deadline
Under investigation, on police bail or facing court	24 hours
Fixed penalty, penalty points, conviction or caution	5 working days in writing
Change of address	7 days
Change of operator	72 hours
Insurance certificate not in the car when asked	Show it to the council within 72 hours
Lost or stolen plate	Tell the council immediately; stolen plates also to Merseyside Police
Medical condition or medicine that may affect driving	Stop driving and contact the council at once

Conduct

• Never ply for hire or tout in a private hire vehicle, and don't take advance bookings yourself.
• No sexual conversation with passengers, even if they start it or call it banter.
• No child who appears to be under 10 in the front seat, and no extra person in the car without the hirer's consent.
• Take the shortest practicable route. Loud music that annoys anyone inside or outside the vehicle is banned.
• Private hire plates: the interior plate top left of the windscreen, the rear plate fixed securely, and door signs on both sides when available or hired.
• Cherry-picking, when a hackney driver waits with the TAXI light off to pick passengers paying more than the meter, is not tolerated. Keep the light on when you are available.

Practise these in Liverpool local policy and the national law in Liverpool law practice.

Hackney carriage byelaws

Plates go on the front and rear outside, with an illuminated number inside. Wear your badge and display the duplicate inside. Carry a fire extinguisher. Take payment only at the end of the journey, and use a working card terminal if the passenger asks. No e-cigarettes in the cab at any time. After each hiring, search for lost property; try to return it within 48 hours and tell the council within 72 hours. Valuables go to a Merseyside Police enquiry office.

Liverpool hackney fares and a worked example

Liverpool's table of fares (from 31 March 2025) has four rates:

• D (Day): £3.40 for the first 300 yards, then 20p for each 165 yards.
• N (Night): £4.25 for the first 300 yards, then 25p for each unit.
• P (Peak): Friday 7pm to Saturday 7am, Saturday 7pm to Sunday 8am, and bank holidays.
• E: Christmas and New Year.

Only tolls and soiling (£40 inside, £10 outside) may be added, and there is no charge for paying by card. For journeys ending 4 miles or more beyond the city boundary, you do not have to accept the hire; if you do, agree the fare first or use the meter.

Worked example. A one-mile journey (1,760 yards) on the D rate:

1. The first 300 yards are covered by the £3.40 start: 1,760 − 300 = 1,460 yards left.
2. 1,460 ÷ 165 = 8.85 units. Part units count, so that is 9 units.
3. 9 × 20p = £1.80.
4. Fare: £3.40 + £1.80 = £5.20.

The step that catches people is rounding: a part unit counts as a whole one. Practise more in Liverpool fares and numeracy.

The licence after the test

Item	Detail
Licence length and fee	3 years for £180 if under 65; 1 year for £75 if 65 or over
If refused	£60 kept as an admin fee if there is no appeal
DBS	Enhanced, through TaxiPlus, dated within 6 weeks
Spent convictions	None are treated as spent for taxi licensing, so disclose everything
Medicals	Group 2 at 45, 50, 55 and 60, then every year from 65
Appeals	To the court within 21 days of written notice

The Highway Code, safeguarding and equality also appear in Liverpool's test, as in every council's. They get less weight here than local knowledge, but they are easy marks if you revise them. Read the Highway Code itself, and the taxi duties in Part 12 of the Equality Act 2010: you must carry assistance dogs and wheelchair users at no extra charge unless you hold and display a medical exemption. See also our Highway Code for taxi drivers guide and the shared core in our council taxi knowledge test hub. For safeguarding, report signs of child exploitation to the police and call 999 if a child is in danger.

About "Liverpool taxi knowledge test questions PDF"

Liverpool City Council does not publish its question bank, and the questions you will see are not available anywhere online. The most useful official document is the list of addresses and routes the council emails after you book. Our free Liverpool worksheet is a printable page of our own practice questions with an answer key; save it as a PDF from your browser. For how other councils' questions compare, see taxi knowledge test questions and answers.

How our Liverpool practice works

Our Liverpool route has 2,259 questions: about 2,000 shared council questions on the Highway Code, signs, law, safeguarding and equality, plus questions written for Liverpool's conditions, byelaws, fares and area. Each 110-question mock is weighted towards the local area and local policy, as the real test is. The free Liverpool note summarises the rules on this page for revision. Our questions support your study of the council's list; they don't replace it.

Pro unlocks mocks 2 to 10 and section practice for £6.99 a week, £11.99 a month or £22.99 for three months; see pricing. There is no pass guarantee.

Your study plan

1. Today: take the free Liverpool diagnostic and book your Liverpool Standard Part 1 training.
2. Weeks 1 and 2: learn the frame (Queens Drive, Speke Boulevard, the tunnels) and one category of places every two days.
3. Weeks 3 and 4: once you have booked and received the council's list, work through it category by category. Learn the reporting deadlines and the fare rules.
4. Before your first attempt: sit the free Liverpool mock 1 in one sitting, all 110 questions.
5. Then: aim for 85% on three full mocks in a row before you use your first attempt. If you are still deciding between licences, read our private hire vs hackney carriage guide or how to become a taxi driver.