The Taxi Council of the Northern Territory says it already enforces many of the new national standards for taxi drivers.

The nation's transport ministers have endorsed nine national standards for taxi driver training at a meeting in Sydney today.

It is expected all taxi drivers will have to pass competency tests, including an English and location exam from next year.

The council's executive officer, Col Newman, says the Northern Territory already has those benchmarks.

"If you can't speak and you can't read English, you wouldn't get past first base," he said.

"The location test is conducted whether you are a first time student up here or from interstate.

"You need to know where the hospital is, where the blood bank is, but at the same time these days with GPS the reliance on that has gone off quite a bit."