mytaxi helps 435 drivers pass the taxi entrance test

Taxi app, mytaxi, helped 435 new drivers pass the NTA’s famously-difficult Small Public Service Vehicles (SPSV) entry test in 2018, with 247 of these now on the road. mytaxi will be expecting to more than double this number before the end of the year as they kick off their latest recruitment campaign in February.

The innovative learning platform was set up in 2017 as part of an ongoing recruitment campaign to encourage new entrants into the taxi industry to meet surging demand. The highly sought-after resource saw thousands of people access it in 2018, spending a total of 55,000 hours and answering over 7 million questions over the 12-month period, averaging out at 115,000 questions every week. The majority of drivers passed their SPSV test after just 6 weeks, studying for about an hour or two a day.

According to the NTA, between 2008 and 2017, the total number of SPSV licences, in particular taxis, declined by 24%, with statistics showing that the number of licensed taxi drivers in Ireland has gone from a peak of 47,222 in 2009 to only 26,012 at the end of 2017. Since then, and for the first time since 2012 there has been a noticeable increase, with 26,255 taxi drivers on the road in September 2018.

The platform, which was built by Synap, uses spaced repetition alongside technological components such as Google Street View and Google maps to provide a visual context for users which automatically helps focus them on questions where they are weak. Available to anyone free of charge, mytaxi also offers financial incentives to drivers once they pass the test to help them with any start-up costs they might have.

mytaxi’s General Manager for Ireland, Alan Fox, said: “The learning platform has revolutionised the taxi industry in Ireland and has made it more accessible and easier for people to kickstart their career. It’s easy to understand, flexible and offers learning that supports the development of driver’s independence when preparing for the exam.”

“Demand for mytaxi continues to grow rapidly, especially at peak times and we’re doing our best to make sure we have enough drivers on the road. As a new year begins, I would strongly urge people to consider the possibilities that a new career as a taxi driver can offer. We’re keen to support you by providing the financial and technical resources to make this happen.”

Throughout 2018 mytaxi recruited 2,135 additional drivers and carried over 16 million passengers across Ireland. The average waiting time now for a mytaxi is 3 minutes 43 seconds over 2018, a 10% improvement on 2017. The average waiting time for a mytaxi hail to be accepted in 2018 was 32 seconds, dropping from an average of 35 seconds in 2017.

More information about the learning platform is available here: https://drivers.mytaxi.ie/.