Taxi Driver Online

Cabbies criticised over language skills

WOULD-BE taxi and private hire drivers who struggle to speak English are still being given pass marks by Birmingham licensing officials, it was revealed today. Two councillors today called for verbal English language tests to be tightened up after presiding over "bizarre" licence appeal hearings.

The cases both featured drivers who had sailed through the spoken test - but appeared before the councillors with an interpreter because they were unable to speak English. "We were horrified that a man who needed an interpreter to speak to us because he could barely speak English had somehow managed to pass the city's verbal test," complained Coun Nigel Dawkins.

"It is essential that a city like Birmingham which welcomes visitors from all over the world should have taxi drivers who can speak good English and be in a position to help foreign visitors. "It is simply not good enough that we could have the bizarre situation that foreign visitors to the city can speak better English than our own taxi drivers."

The licensing committee vice-chairman, Coun Bruce Lines, told of another case in which a driver who had passed the verbal test appeared with an interpreter. "I know our English test is pretty basic, but clearly something is going badly wrong," he said. "We are getting more and more hearings to do with cabbies and private hire drivers who require an interpreter. Our test obviously needs toughening up if it is producing drivers who can't even speak the language."

Hundreds of people applying to drive private hire vehicles in Birmingham were initially turned away after failing a "child's play" test of their ability to communicate in English with a passenger. The biggest hurdle was a section offering logical replies to questions. Rather than choosing "yes, of course" in a response to a question about whether guide dogs were allowed in the cab, some picked the answer "in the boot".

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IDFIMH

Think thats whats going to happen here in Liverpool

Personally I don't think it's asking too much for drivers to understand most customers.

Customers aren't really that tolerant of drivers at the best of times, so not being able to understand them could be, and often is, a recipe for trouble.

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IDFIMH

I'll resisit the temptation to reply to this thread.

now theres a first

"In the boot" for you ma boy, along with your dug.

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"