English Speaking Taxi Drivers

[Gromit]

Taxi Drivers in Southampton have been displaying a sign to the effect that the cab driver is English speaking.

http://www.dailymail....English-speaking.html

They have been branded racists, are they?

[redcrx]

I dont think its racist. There would be nothing worse than trying to explain to a driver where you wanted to go only to find that they couldnt understand you.

Are taxi companies who advertise female drivers being sexist or just giving customers a choice?

[youngmafbog]

No they are not.

[Jan1957]

I don't think so. We have the same problem in the town where I live. I am fed up with trying to explain where I want to go to taxi drivers who cannot understand me. I do think it is the employers' responsibility to make sure that their drivers have a decent standard of spoken english.

[Booldawg]

Not really, any taxi driver with a good command of the English language could also display a similar sign, regardless of what race they are.

Being as every taxi driver has to be registered with their local council, CRB checked, full medical and in some districts pass an NVQ level 2 and a BTEC specifically aimed at Road Passenger Vehicle Transport, I dont see how its easy to be a taxi driver and NOT have good English speaking skills.

[cazzz1975]

I dont think private hire vehicles have to go through the same stringent tests booldawg, I think they only apply to hackney carriage vehicles

[Booldawg]

Legislation changes depending on where you live. I recently started driving weekends for a private hire company (no rank work) and have to complete all the exams in 12 months else I dont get re-badged.

Not sure what is required in Southampton but I should imagine there's still a fair amount of red tape. How do they CRB check someone who's not be resident in the UK long? I guess they can do as lots of woman from Zimbabwe work in local nursing homes and I should imagine they'd have to be checked.

[kinell]

surely it is sensible and in the passengers best interest.....

so that instructions can be given and understood that the driver has a good command of english

that the driver has been resident in uk for at least a year and that an international and uk criminal record check has been carried out

that way at least a recently arrived in uk driver should be relatively safe and have reasonable experience of driving on the left

i would not consider it correct for me - with my lack of spanish language skills and my inexperience of driving on the right and my invisibility to the spanish police - to consider commencing an occupation as a madrid cab driver

when you book a cab ask for 'a fluent english speaking driver who has held a dvla licence and a hackney carriage or private hire licence for at least one year, please'

it isnt discriminatory it is diligently looking after yourself

you dont get a discount for anything less

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

Well you tell us are they racist?

You have a cheek always criticising me for posting links from the Daily Mail, are you finding your popularity on AB waning?

Couldn't you find a link to this story in the Telegraph or the Guardian even?

But as I have always proven, leave it up to the Dail Mail to report what is really going off.

[Gromit]

AOG,

You're just smarting because I posted it before you and deprived you from your usual rant on the lines of, "they should go back to their own country if they don't like it", "it's PC gone mad" and a few other banal Daily Mail stock phrases.

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

/// banal Daily Mail stock phrases.///

Don't criticise while still using their materiel.

But then why did you use that link, when you still haven't given your slant on things.

I could understand you using the Daily Mail report, if you then had some wry comment to make on their sloppy reporting for instance.

[trt]

I don't think its racists at all, a passenger/customer shouldn't have to tell the taxi driver which way to his/her destination, its the drivers job to know.

The council shouldn't give them a licence unless they can speak proper English.

And how do they get a CRB check if they have only been in the UK for 6 months, they could have a criminal record in the country they came from.

[Snafu03]

This was on local news TV (as I live in Hampshire) They interviewed a taxi driver who originates from Morroco and has lived here 18 years. He had a slight accent but was easy to understand. He was saying that its not fair. There's nothing stopping him displaying the sign himself as an English speaker.

[keyplus90]

I would be more worried if they say "Cab driver is French speaking"

[Booldawg]

Quite often I see job adverts whereby having a second language is either desirable or compulsory; no doubt if you need to deal with staff in offices throughout the world. This is not deemed as racist or discriminate.

To me the above is sensible and justified. Having good communication as either a passenger or driver in a cab is important. Why shouldn't cab drivers advertise that this is the case in their taxi? Arent they simply advertising themselves as a good service?

Wherever the St Georges flag is raised, controversy is sure to follow!

[sp1814]

It's not racist to display the sticker, but it IS rather redundant. It's virtually meaningless. Let's say you get into a cab, driven by a chap from Somalia, who speaks very poor broken English...well, he could still put up a sign saying 'English spoken here', couldn't he?

The sign doesn't say 'Excellent English spoken here', so the intent is lost.

Personally, I'd be happier with a sign which read 'No English, or any other language spoken here'. Can't stand talkative cab drivers. I'd pay extra for silence.

[modeller]

I wish some doctors also had a sign saying they spoke and understood English.

[fredpuli47]

Not racist. A person is entitled to expect that the driver understood directions in English.If the driver didn't, but had a sign suggesting he did, could he be prosecuted for a misleading trade description ?

[alavahalf]

It just goes to show that the English in Southampton are becoming a minority...slowy but surely.

[trt]

Only in the UK would this be allowed to happen with foreign workers.
If you were British in Europe you wouldn't stand a chance.

Oh how us Brits have gone down the plug hole.

[Booldawg]

To quote SP1814; 'Personally, I'd be happier with a sign which read 'No English, or any other language spoken here'. Can't stand talkative cab drivers. I'd pay extra for silence.'

Its a taxi drivers duty to offer social commentary with often a right wing slant usually aimed at how Britian is going down the plug hole. I reckon anotheoldgit doubles up as a cabbie!