London Cabbies diss satellite navigation systems

LONDON CABBIES have dismissed satellite navigation systems as a poor back up to the tough training they have to go through to get their licence.

Satellite tracking machines were allowed in cabs for the first time this year, but few cabbies could be bothered with them.

That is because Oliver Cromwell ordered all London cabbies to memorise every street and landmark within a six mile radius of Charing Cross near Trafalgar Square before they could get their licence.

Cabbie 25326
Prescott

That was not difficult in the 17th Century but in modern London that means they have to learn 320 standard routes and it takes about 34 months of memory work. According to Reuters, the cabbies not only found the machines less accurate, but having to look at them all the time interrupted their vital social role of briefing passengers on the latest philosophical and political issues.

It was even worse if the voice function was switched on, because it interrupted the swift Cockney patter and repartee that the genial and friendly cabbies present to their passengers.

The only cabbies who install them tend to be those who have to go the other side of river a lot. Everyone knows that is very few indeed.

"I had that Eva Glass in the back of my cab once, Nick," the cab drivers are wont to say. And there's more 'ere. "Strike a light! No you can't smoke in the back of the cab, mate." µ