Connor Dill passed the famous Knowledge test five months ago.
But he wasn’t allowed to take a fare until his 21st birthday, on January 29.
Now, he’s the youngest black cab driver in the nation – and he says it’s all he’s ever wanted to do.
Connor has been “obsessed” with the famous vehicles since he was four years old, after his grandad rented one for the day and drove his family around.
He said: “From then on, it’s always been in my head that that’s what I want to do. When I got the Knowledge done, it was such a huge sense of achievement.
“When I picked my cab up, it only set in once I sat behind the steering wheel. I said to myself ‘I am a black cab driver now’.”
Connor started training to learn the Knowledge as an 18-year-old in 2023 – just one week after passing his driving test.
The challenging qualification requires taxi drivers to prove they can remember thousands of streets and landmarks located within six miles of Charing Cross – the notional centre of London.
Despite passing the test in September last year, it wasn’t until his 21st birthday that he was finally given his taxi driver’s licence – and could pick up his first passenger the same day in his LEVC TX vehicle.
During the agonising wait, Connor undertook an apprenticeship where he learned how to be a lift engineer.
He said: “Even during the Knowledge I worked full time as a lift engineer, I will still doing my NVQ Level 3, so that kept me busy for the five months, I was still working and being paid.
“I finished that in mid-March, and I’ll leave once I’ve got my ticket – then my black cab will become my full-time job, on March 17.
“I’ve just got to write up two jobs for my portfolio and then I can leave.”
For the 21-year-old, the job’s flexibility is a big appeal.
He said: “I decide my own hours. I have to earn money, but if I don’t want to go to work I don’t have to work.
“I had a job early this morning, and then I had to come back and help my nan, and then I can go back to work later.
“It’s unlimited overtime, it’s a fantastic job. It’s whenever you want to go to work.
“It’s whatever you decide you want to do, and whatever works for you.”
Unlike the stereotypes, the native south Londoner says he loves going south of the River Thames – and he doesn’t mind London’s traffic.
He said: “If you’re a cab driver and you say you don’t like traffic, it’s like being a roofer who’s afraid of heights, it just don’t make sense.”
However, changes are coming to the capital’s booming taxi and minicab industry.
US robotaxi company Waymo, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, says it plans to offer self-driven rides in London by the end of the year.
The company’s Jaguar iPace cars, which are kitted out with cameras and lidar laser sensors, are already being test-driven by human drivers on the capital’s streets.
But the young cabbie says he’s not worried.
Connor said: “I saw one of them on Regent Street on my second night.
“For me, personally, I don’t think it’ll affect my job – it’s going to more affect the private hire industry.
“I think black cabs are a staple in London, we’re government-backed because we’re part of London’s history.
“We’ve been here for 300 years and the Knowledge has been about for 160 – I don’t see it affecting my job.
“If you fell asleep anything could happen, you put your life in your hands of a robot, it scares me a little bit, to be honest.”
Reporting by SWNS.
