Back To School For Taxi Drivers
August 24 2009
Minibus taxi drivers could soon start treating their customers better and improving the industry's dented image, if a new university course has the desired effect.
"We ill-treat our customers and think they are doing us a favour by using our taxis," chairman of the Gauteng National Taxi Association Sicelo Mabaso said in Johannesburg on Monday.
"We go on strike because we lack understanding of marketing and customer care, then get surprised when our customers use alternative transport."
He was speaking at the launch of a business management training programme for taxi operators at the University of Johannesburg in Soweto.
The course, which would be offered by the institution's small business development department, was aimed at teaching taxi operators financial and marketing management.
The programme was introduced in conjunction with the Gauteng transport department and SA Transport Solutions.
Director at UJ's Centre for Small Business Development Thami Mazwai urged taxi operators to grab the opportunity.
A researcher in his department was already developing a program that would test if operators were implementing what they had learnt 12 months after completing the course, he said. - Sapa
Source; Int.Iol.co.za