Short answer: the SPSV Manual is the NTA’s Official Manual for Operating in the SPSV Industry, Edition 8.1, September 2026. It is free, 222 pages long, with 11 chapters and three appendices, as a PDF or an audio version. It is the only textbook for the 54-question Industry Knowledge module of the SPSV Driver Entry Test. Below is what each chapter covers and where to practise it.
Getting the right copy
Download it from the NTA page on applying for an SPSV driver licence. The PDF there is Edition 8.1 (September 2026), and the audio files underneath are one per chapter plus the appendices. One trap: the NTA’s separate Driver Entry Test page still lists an older set of audio files from 2018, and one of them is labelled 5th edition. Use the set on the driver licence page. Printed copies and PDFs saved from other sites may be older editions too; the cover of the current one says Edition 8.1. A second trap is the name: the taxi app FreeNow calls its free online study platform “The Manual” as well, and it is a quiz bank, not this document. What the FreeNow manual is and what it leaves out is covered separately.
What the test takes from it
The test has two modules sat on the same day. Industry Knowledge is 54 multiple choice questions on the regulations and good practice set out in the Manual. Area Knowledge is 36 questions on the county you choose when booking, and the NTA says you learn that from maps, websites and getting around the county, not from the Manual. The pass mark is 75% in each. Fail one module and you resit only that one, within 12 months of the first test. The format and the booking are in the SPSV Driver Entry Test guide.
Chapter by chapter
| Chapter | Pages | What it covers | Practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The SPSV industry | 13-26 | The NTA, why the industry matters, licensing of vehicles, drivers and dispatch operators, the rules, getting an SPSV on the road, the national registers. | 28 questions |
| 2. SPSV driver licensing | 27-43 | Requirements for the driver licence, the application, renewal, your rights and responsibilities. | 38 questions |
| 3. Choosing a vehicle | 44-54 | Vehicle standards, roadworthiness, suitability, wheelchair accessible vehicles, limousines. | 31 questions |
| 4. Vehicle licensing | 55-79 | About the vehicle licence, applying, renewing, replacing an expired licence, changing the vehicle, transfer on death, changing category, surrender. | 53 questions |
| 5. Working as an SPSV operator | 80-104 | Vehicle requirements, driving a car owned by someone else, the driver link, rules of operation, ranks, bus lanes, roof sign, cashless payment, refusing a passenger, compliance, fixed payment offences. | 57 questions |
| 6. Finding your way around | 105-117 | Route planning, planning a trip, reading a map, using GPS. | 24 questions |
| 7. Fares | 118-127 | Taxi fares, hackney and limousine fares, getting paid, staying compliant. | 33 questions |
| 8. Delivering customer satisfaction | 128-153 | Customer rights and responsibilities, good service, assisting customers with disabilities, diversity and equality, complaints, difficult customers, lost property. | 40 questions |
| 9. Your SPSV business | 154-174 | Working in the industry, sole trader or company, a business plan, running the business, promoting it. | 27 questions |
| 10. Staying safe | 175-197 | The NTA and safety, your safety and your passengers’, personal security, collisions and emergencies, luggage and heavy items, regulations. | 37 questions |
| 11. The test, vehicle age rules, local area hackneys, dispatch operators | 198-222 | The test and how it is run, what each module needs, sample questions; Appendix A vehicle age rules, Appendix B local area hackneys, Appendix C dispatch operators. | 32 questions |
Page numbers are the Manual’s own. Chapter 1 is free in full on our site, so you can check the format before you pay anything.
Where the marks are
Chapters 4 and 5, on licensing and the daily rules, are full of exact numbers: fees, deadlines, fixed payment amounts, disc colours. Those are easy marks if you drill them and easy to lose if you only read. Our key numbers cheat sheet puts every figure from the Manual on one page. Chapter 7 is the fares chapter, with the National Maximum Taxi Fare from December 2024. Chapter 8 is the longest chapter and reads like common sense, but its section on assisting customers with disabilities (pages 138 to 145) is detailed and worth slow reading.
Chapter 11 prints eleven sample questions, six for Industry Knowledge and five for Area Knowledge. The Manual does not print the answers; we worked them out, with the Manual page for each, in the NTA sample questions, answered.
How to study it
Read a chapter, then answer questions on it the same evening while it is fresh. Reading the whole Manual twice feels productive but does not tell you whether you would get 41 out of 54. Our Industry Knowledge bank has 400 questions, each with the Manual section and page under the answer, so a wrong answer sends you straight back to the paragraph. When you are scoring 75% chapter by chapter, sit a full mock exam on the real 54-minute clock.