When a fleet needs more drivers, the temptation is to accept anyone who turns up with their papers in order. The demand is there, passengers are waiting and every new driver looks like an immediate solution. But a driver who drives badly, treats passengers poorly or quits after two weeks solves nothing: they generate complaints, bad reviews and hours of work for the coordinator, and in a regional city, where everything gets around, one bad experience is retold many times.
The thesis of this article is that selecting drivers well costs less than correcting a bad selection. It doesn't need a long or complicated process: a few simple steps, always done, for everyone, are enough to get to know the person before they carry their first passenger. We'll look at what to check in the documents, how to run a short interview that's actually useful, how to organise a driving test, what references are for, how to use a probation period and which warning signs shouldn't be ignored.
Documents: the minimum floor, not the selection
Checking documents is the first step, and it's mandatory: a valid licence of the type your city requires, identification, vehicle documents, insurance and whatever permits the local authority requires for carrying passengers. Every city has its own rules, so it's worth having a written list of what's required and going through it with every new driver, without exceptions.
But having papers in order says nothing about how someone drives or how they treat people. Documents are the minimum floor for being able to work, not proof that someone will be a good driver. Many fleets stop here and that's why they get surprises. Real selection starts afterwards.
If the driver uses their own vehicle, the document check is also the time to look at the car calmly: that it's clean inside and out, that the tyres and lights are in good condition, that the seatbelts work in every seat and that it has no dents that look bad. A neglected car is almost always a sign of a neglected service.
A short interview that's actually useful
The interview doesn't have to last an hour. In fifteen or twenty minutes of conversation you can learn a lot about someone, as long as you ask the right questions. What matters isn't what the candidate says about themselves, but how they respond to concrete work situations. These are questions that tend to give good information:
- What do you do if a passenger asks you to take a route you don't know?
- How do you react if a passenger gets annoyed about the trip's price?
- What do you do if you reach the pickup point and the passenger doesn't show up?
- What hours and days can you work consistently?
- Have you worked as a driver before? Why did you leave that job?
- What do you do if a passenger leaves something in the car?
There are no perfect answers, but there are answers that say a lot. Someone who answers calmly and thinks about the passenger usually has the right attitude. Someone who gets defensive, always blames others or answers "that never happens to me" will probably struggle when it does. The question about hours is especially important: a driver who can only work a few hours a week, at low-demand times, may not be what your fleet needs right now.
The interview is also a chance for the candidate to get to know the fleet. Explain honestly how it works: how much a driver usually earns in the hours they can work, what commission or fee they pay, what the rules with passengers are and what happens if they get complaints. A driver who joins with false expectations leaves soon, and that departure costs as much as choosing them badly.
The driving test
Nothing replaces seeing someone drive. A fifteen-minute test around the city, with the coordinator or a trusted driver as passenger, shows things no interview reveals: whether they respect stop signs and speed limits, whether they brake smoothly, whether they use their phone while driving, whether they know the main streets and how they react to traffic. It's the most revealing part of the whole process.
The test should resemble a real trip: ask them to reach a known address, choose the route and drop the "passenger" at a specific spot. That way you also see how they use the navigation app, whether they find their way around the city and whether they look after whoever's in the back. If the vehicle is theirs, the test also shows the car's condition: cleanliness, rear seatbelts and air conditioning.
References and drivers who bring drivers
In a regional city, there's almost always someone who knows the candidate. Asking other drivers in the fleet, the taxi base where they worked before or a former employer can save a lot of trouble. A five-minute call to ask whether they were punctual and how they treated passengers gives information the candidate would hardly volunteer.
Drivers recommended by other drivers in the fleet are usually good candidates, because whoever recommends them puts their own reputation on the line. Even so, they should go through the same process as everyone else: the recommendation opens the door, but the interview and driving test decide.
When you ask for references, ask about concrete facts rather than general opinions. "Did they arrive on time?", "Did they get complaints from passengers?", "Why did they stop working with you?" and "Would you take them back?" give far more useful answers than "Are they a good person?". And if someone who knows them well prefers not to comment, that's information too.
We used to accept everyone who brought their papers, and every month we had to remove two or three because of complaints. Now we do a fifteen-minute driving test and ask at the base where they worked before. Fewer get in, but they stay longer and we hardly get complaints about the new ones.
The probation period
Even with a good process, some things only show over time. That's why it's worth new drivers going through a probation period, for example their first two to four weeks, during which the coordinator looks more closely at their trips, ratings and any complaints. It isn't about distrust, but about supporting them while they learn how the fleet works.
What matters is that the driver knows from the start that this period exists and what's expected of them. A conversation at the end of the first week, to discuss what's going well and what needs correcting, is usually enough to set most of them on the right track. And if complaints keep coming at the end of the period, the decision not to continue is much easier to make and to explain.
Warning signs not to ignore
There are signs that, during selection, should make you think twice: documents that don't match or that the candidate won't show, a rush to start without taking the driving test, aggressive answers about passengers, bad references from the previous base or a vehicle in poor condition that the candidate doesn't see as a problem. A single sign doesn't always rule someone out, but several together almost always foreshadow problems.
When the fleet is in a hurry to add drivers, it's easy to overlook these signs. But accepting someone you have doubts about rarely works out: the cost of a bad driver is paid by the passengers, by the other drivers, who share the fleet's reputation, and by the coordinator, who will have to sort out every problem. It's better to wait one more week for a good candidate than to regret it for months.
Choosing well from the start
Selecting drivers isn't a formality: it's one of the decisions that weighs most on the quality of the service. Carefully checked documents, an interview with concrete questions, a driving test, a reference call and a supported probation period make up a simple process any fleet can apply. It takes a little longer to add drivers, but those who get in stay longer and cause fewer problems.
If you want to start this week, write your document list, prepare the five or six interview questions and decide who will run the driving tests. With that you already have a process you can repeat with every candidate. And with Cabgo you can launch your own branded taxi app, so those well-chosen drivers represent your fleet on every trip.
