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SACRAMENTO –

The City of Sacramento is requiring all of its taxi cab drivers to take a taxi code and English proficiency test.

The problem is, it’s a test some are failing.

Driver Mohammad Ahsan is one of them.

“They ask simple questions but they are very confusing [sic] questions,” said Ahsan.

So far, 28 out of 500 taxi drivers across the city have taken the exam.

“They’re coming and complaining but they haven’t taken the test,” says Brad Wasson, the City’s Revenue Manager. He says the numbers tell another story.
He says most of those drivers who have taken the test have passed.

The multiple choice questions deal with taxi regulations.

Drivers also have to answers questions about customer service and money transactions. That portion of the test is on a computer.

“We don’t know anything about a computer,” said Ahsan.

Wasson says the complaints are fear driven.

He wants more drivers to take the test so the city can decide if it needs to revise it.

As far as the computer portion, that cannot be changed.

Wasson agree parts of the exam can be challenging for people who struggle with the English language.

But, he says some questions are simple, and some taxi drivers agree the answer is crystal clear.

“The last portion was very easy. It’s a video you watch. It’s very clear. [They show] a clean cab, a dirty cab, which one is clean? If you need the city to show you which one is clean, honestly the problem is not with the city, it’s with you,” said taxi driver Ahmad Mahmoud.