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The Almighty Buck Transportation United Kingdom

London Insists on English Requirement For Private Hire Drivers (reuters.com) 196

Posted by msmash from the lost-in-translation dept.
An anonymous reader shares a Reuters report: London's transport bosses said on Monday that all drivers of private hire vehicles must speak, listen to, read and write English to a set level, intensifying a battle with taxi app Uber which says the expected standard is too high. Earlier this year, the capital's transport authority said it would introduce the measure as part of a series of stricter rules on apps such as Uber and private hire firms like Addison Lee whilst supporting the city's iconic black cabs. The move prompted San Francisco-based Uber, which allows users to book journeys on their smartphone, to take legal action arguing that the written component was too demanding. But on Monday, regulator Transport for London (TfL) said drivers will have to take either an English proficiency test or provide proof, such as a British school qualification, that they can meet the required level.
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London Insists on English Requirement For Private Hire Drivers More

London Insists on English Requirement For Private Hire Drivers

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  • We don't need to communicate with our customers, their app already told us where they want to go AND the way, so pay up and shut up.

    Uber spokesperson
    • In fact, the app has taken care of the payment as well. So this requirement is like requiring a course in underwater fire prevention

      • Re:Fuck that! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Gaxx ( 76064 ) on Monday October 17, 2016 @10:59AM (#53090839)

        I think there might be reasonable concerns, frankly. Not all traffic instructions are in picture format and there might be rather important instructions a passenger feels necessary to give even after having indicated where they initially wanted to go... things like "Oh crap, I've forgotten my heart medication. I need to go back home and get it"

        For there to be some reasonable standards regarding a driver being able to understand both the customer and the road signage would seem to make perfect sense.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Luthair ( 847766 )
          Well if you're being dropped off at the airport you might need to tell them what airline / terminal

          • Somehow I've managed to travel all over the world on business, not speaking a lick of whatever language the cab drivers are speaking and have managed to get to my flight every time. I'm not taking a side here - it seems that a reasonable expectation to have a cab driver in England speak English... but let's not overstate the very basic communication needed here.

        • For there to be some reasonable standards regarding a driver being able to understand both the customer and the road signage would seem to make perfect sense.

          And...quite often the app doesn't always give the BEST or most optimum route to the destination.

          Quite often I've had to tell the driver to go a different way to avoid X traffic problem I know of, or that the app is just telling them plain wrong the shortest route.

          And hell, the other night on the way home myself and guests riding to my house, rememb

          • The driver understood you great, and everything was cool. Did she have to talk fluently, or do anything other than follow your directions? Whenever I had a passenger, I just did whatever they wanted. Yeah, I enjoy chatting if they're the type, but otherwise, if they asked me to take a certain route, I just listened and did what they wanted. Didn't need to say much that would require any special language capabilities on my part (which I incidentally have, so wouldn't be an issue)

        • It's important to understand that the UK 'taxi' market already exists in two forms; the black cab which can be hailed or booked, and 'private hire vehicles', which can only be accessed via an office to which a phone call could be made. This bifurcation is probably 50 years old. When the only phone is a landline, this is very restrictive. When phones become mobile, it's less so, but you are still dependent a vehicle being near you. Now Uber offers automated, easy access - and reduces the bifurcation to very

          • But what stops other private hire companies from developing apps that are as easy as Uber's? IT expenses? They could easily try partnering w/ the Googles or Apples or Microsoft's of the world - Apple in fact is already partnering w/ Uber rivals in various places of the world

    • We don't need to communicate with our customers, their app already told us where they want to go AND the way, so pay up and shut up. Uber spokesperson

      The problem isn't obvious now. But when it is an issue, then what you said wouldn't hold. An easy case is that the dependency software that Uber is relying on isn't up to date (e.g. map app); thus, it will tell the driver to go to a wrong way. Got it?

      • My post was sarcastic. People working with a public should be able to speak the lingo passably. They require binmen in dover to have a french gcse...but that might not be true, I read it somewhere.

    • We don't need to communicate with our customers, their app already told us where they want to go AND the way, so pay up and shut up. Uber spokesperson

      With this kind of mentality, don't even bother acting surprised when Uber announces they're getting rid of human drivers altogether.

      • They are likely to, especially in cases like during the recent NY/NJ terror attacks, when nobody wanted to drive into the city due to the alarms, but everyone wanted to drive out. Driverless cars are perfectly suited in such scenarios

        • Driverless cars are perfectly suited in such scenarios

          Until they gain sentience and decide to get the hell out of there ASAP, not stopping to pick up extra people.

          • Until they gain sentience and decide to get the hell out of there ASAP, not stopping to pick up extra people.

            Doesnt require sentience of the vehicle at all.

            If you owned a driverless car and normally it cruised around NYC making you money day in and day out, and then you see on the news one of the tallest structures every built come down, damaging or destroying everything near it, and right next to that is a twin of that structure and its suffering from the same thing that brought the first one down, I am pretty sure you would be pulling it out of NYC as fast as you could.

            And no you wouldnt jack up the price f

      • JohnnyCab v1.0
    • You just encapsulated in a single sentence the reason why I'd never, ever use Uber, Lyft, or any other conveyance service like it, and would rather just get myself from point to point instead in my own vehicle -- one that I operate myself.

      • GP seems to be in England, while you - by your mention of Lyft - seem to be in the US. No experience w/ Uber, but Lyft is another story.

        When I signed up w/ Lyft in Atlanta a year ago, I was assigned a 'mentor' who met me the very evening that I signed up, did a walkthrough of my car, took a test drive and completed the formalities. While on the drive, she told me that Lyft's clientele are more upscale than Uber, and also that I could be expected to accept passengers in the front seat if they wanted, and

  • Seems reasonable (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 17, 2016 @10:47AM (#53090737)

    Give me some bad points for this?

    The article reads like it's a bad thing but then doesn't have any negative points. Seems more like another clueless millennial ranting than news.

  • Imagine that (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JustNiz ( 692889 ) on Monday October 17, 2016 @11:12AM (#53090963)

    People conducting business that involves the public and their safety are required to know the national language. Imagine that. ....But I can just imagine the rabid leftie PeeCee do-gooders will be all over this.

    • I love how when reality doesn't match your fantasy, you just plough ahead anyway with it.

      I'm one of those people you have "accused" of being a PC liberal do holder, and yet I think this is a good idea.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by JustNiz ( 692889 )

        > I'm one of those people you have "accused" of being a PC liberal do holder, and yet I think this is a good idea.

        Good, You're clearly growing as a person :-)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      There was always a requirement to speak a certain level of English. The level has been raised though, mostly to try to keep eastern European Uber drivers from competing with natives working for cab companies.

      In London it's quite hard for anyone to become a cab driver. You have to have something called "The Knowledge", which is basically committing the London map to memory and being able to plan optimal routes in your head. It was essential but is now less and less useful as satellite navigation with live tr

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by JustNiz ( 692889 )

        > The level has been raised though, mostly to try to keep eastern European Uber drivers from competing with natives working for cab companies.

        Can you cite any references to this or is this just your supposition?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          It's not just one rule, it's various ones. From outside the EU a person has to pass an English test to get a visa in most cases. From within the EU that's not the case, but practically it is extremely difficult to get a job and somewhere to live without basic English skills. Uber also has minimum language requirements.

          Don't get me wrong, I do think a minimum level of English should be a requirement, I'm just saying that isn't the primary goal here. The goal is to make cab companies more competitive against

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by JustNiz ( 692889 )

            I'm happy to believe that there may be an ulterior motive, but it seems like the objective/end result is a good one regardless.

  • Stepping into a car where the driver does not understand you is not going to go well.

  • The app takes care of destination and cost. And if an especially sketchy Uber driver decides to have his way with a passenger who can't defend herself...well, it's not like he was going to ask for consent anyway.

  • They want to act like taxis, let them meet the same standards. Speaking the majority language should be mandatory. How else are you going to communicate in a timely manner with police and emergency services if needed? Or with the passenger when they're trying to tell you to stop because they're about to throw up? Or when the map is wrong? Or that they've just got a phone call or text and need to change their destination or pick up something/someone on the way?

    Same thing as in Quebec - if you can't speak Fr

    • How many people speak actual french in Quebec? They all speak whatever their local creole is called. I bet an actual french speaker would fail the test.

      • Try again. There are some colloquialisms, and some "franglais" (but no more than the "STOP" signs in Paris). A lot of the dubbing of English films into French is done in Quebec. If it's good enough for France, it's certainly not a "local creole."

  • Seems like common courtesy to me (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Monday October 17, 2016 @11:47AM (#53091371) Journal
    If I were to move to, say, France, I'd feel obliged to learn French, preferably before I actually moved there, but as soon as possible upon arriving there otherwise.
    Same would go for any other country I might find myself living in. It's rude and absurd for someone moving to another country to expect everyone else to learn your language, you should learn their language, especially if you have a job where you interact with the public-at-large all day long.

    • The country in question is the uk. Brits seldom bother to learn foreign languages, after all, even in another country the foreigners are everybody else.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        This is unfortunately true. Many Brits retire to Spain, for example, and live in English ghettos where they can buy English fish and chips and have English shops and get English satellite TV and basically do everything they can to avoid integrating.

      • Brits seldom bother to learn foreign languages, after all, even in another country the foreigners are everybody else.

        The problem isn't restricted to the UK. I don't think that the USA is much better at educating people in foreign languages (does Spanish count as foreign?).

        The "problem" is that English is spoken as a first or second language in such a large part of the world that few English speakers need to be able to communicate in other languages.

  • Maybe I missed it, but the article doesn't appear to state whether or not the existing cab drivers also have this requirement. If they do, then this is just a matter of forcing Uber to meet minimum standards.

    However, if the regular cabbies *arn't* also required to meet these same minimum language requirements, then it would be reasonable to cry foul over these regulations.

  • I mean what a cheek, expecting people who work in the UK to actually speak the language. Political correctness gone mad!

  • Will the uber drivers have to pass that?

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