Taxi Driver Online

Why do the PCO keep giving permit's to drivers who can't even speak english?. I get 2-3 drivers every week coming into my office asking for job's and they can't even speak english!!!!. Funny how the drivers that get agg with the customers are alway's the one's who can't speak english.

Racist comment? Just telling you how it is.

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stressed controller!!!

Presumably if there's no requirement to speak English then the PCO can only issue the permits unless there's another reason to refuse them?

Indeed I'm sure GBC has at least alluded to this issue once or twice

But some LAs in the country are doing something about it, and you may have seen the recent story elsewhere on the forum, pasted below.

But you're correct, of course, since a major problem is probably that some of the more politically correct deem an English language requirement to be racist.



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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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Maybe that's part of the problem, the PCO, or their staff, are s*** scared of being accused of being racists. Thus a blind eye is often turned when it comes to verbal communications.

But well done to you for insisting on drivers that can talk to your customers and understand them. Shame that many of your collegues don't.

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IDFIMH

How about being able to take an interpreter who is a licenced driver in the area, into the test with you!
It's obvious it's the interpreter who actually taking the test on the applicants behalf.

Shouldn't be a problem in my opinion.

Except, of course, that the driver must have the interpreter with him when he's carrying fare-paying passengers.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

I'll bet they can say 'taxee boss' ? though.

Allluudde to that Dusty.

The PCO is now controlled by Transport for London, and who controlls Transport for London? Our great mayor Red Ken!!!!

Nuff said?

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stressed controller!!!

Should I bother............If TAXI cab drivers didn’t oppose the licensing of mini cabs for so many years in London we may not have the problem we have now...... guys like you who can't tell the difference between a licensed minicab driver and a blagger who stands on the street and says TAXI BOSS!!!!!

Still a friend

I hate to burst your bubble Solly, but the MAJORITY of those that stand and say 'Taxee Boss' ARE licensed Minicab drivers.

The latest trick is for them to wear their PCO identity cards around their necks to reassure their victims what they are doing is legit.

And why not? If they're caught once every year, they receive a £200 fine and a slap on the wrist from the PCO Private Hire dept.

That will have them shaking in their shoes.

And, as I've said on many, many, occassions, London is a free and open place, anyone doubting the above, pop into London, stand around any central London street or Taxi rank and I will guarantee you will be touted at least a dozen times in half an hour, irrespective of how many free Taxis there are in the vicinity.

The police should fine the passengers who use the tout's, that might act as a deterrent.

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stressed controller!!!

Wot?

GBC has always denied this.

Or downplayed it, at least.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Oh, so an anonymous poster on an internet site says so?

Must be true then.

have i said somthing to upset you?

He isn't having a pop at you, but he is having a pop at someone.

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IDFIMH

So you mean that since greenbadgecabby presumably isn't your real name you've been pulling our legs on this issue all along

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk