Taxi Driver Online

I notice little or no mention throughout this thread of the most important element of the trade bar none:

The customer.

Where do taxi drivers get their money from? - The customer.

Who are taxi drivers in work to serve in order to get that money? - The customer.

Who makes the most complaints about the quality of the trade? - The customer.

Who can go elsewhere if the service is not up to standard? - The customer.

Who should the NVQ benefit the most? - The customer.

Who has everybody making a contribution to this thread had in the forefront of their minds in their posts? - It ain't the f*cking customer with the tone of most of the contributions!!!

I think if the trade was to become professional the customer service would be second nature. Customer service is the basis of the NVQ course and that's what they are all complaining about. They seem to think they are already experts in customer service and without doubt some are. It is also important that the candidates feel they have achieved something from the course which is why I think it is important to have the trades opinion about the structure of the course

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

But how does the customer benefit by being taken from A to B by a NVQ driver, over that of a driver without a NVQ?

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IDFIMH

Because the structure of the NVQ provides for an assessment of customer service skills. Skills, which on the evidence of this thread, are woefully misunderstood.

Why do you think they are woefully misunderstood. I understand customer service it's been part of my life since I've been working

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

You'll have to explain a little better.

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

When you passed your driving test I bet you never crossed you hands on the steering wheel, I bet you like most of us now do that all the time.

My point is that the plus points of these courses going forward are in my mind very few.

That said I do like the idea of combining all the pre-entry criteria i.e. knowledge, DSA, literacy, etc into a BTEC.

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IDFIMH

What I have been waiting for is this!......... Why nobody has said if Cardiff Council thinks that there can be a legal challenge on this issue then it must be the same for us!!!!!!!

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

3.3 Clearly many licensed drivers provide an excellent service to passengers and exercise good customer care skills and it would therefore be difficult to prove that an existing licence holder was not a fit and proper person without undertaking the training. It is likely that existing drivers could successfully challenge a requirement for them to undertake the training. However, it is hoped that future developments will encourage existing licence holders to take the training on a voluntary basis.

I highlighted it in bold.

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

This gem is also in there;

Premier Cars a licensed private hire company have established a training arm of the company to try and improve the customer care skills of the drivers on their system. Eighty three individuals have successfully obtained the qualification on a purely voluntary basis. Dragon another licensed operator have also recently been accredited to provide the training.

It would appear the HC trade will have to pay PH to do the BTEC.....thus creating a potential monopoly?

It seems obvious your council have not looked into training at all.....the NVQ route as labourious as it is......is the only one that can offer funding.

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

The question was, how does the customer benefit? For instance, let us compare Sussex, who I assume has no NVQ and you, who I assume does have an NVQ or something similar? How would the customer benefit by travelling with you rather than Sussex?

Regards

JD

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Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

Thats a good point.....is there any proof the customer benefits after the driver has taken the course?

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

The answer to that in my case is NO my customer skills pre NVQ were impeccable and still are i just found the course to be a complete waste of my time and taxpayers money my instructor had only ben in the trade 5
minutes and ended up teaching him stuff

Good for you. Maybe your assessor will take that information back with him and it'll help others

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

Is that the same learning and skills council who recently have demolished a bunc h of college buildings and now run out of money to rebuild new ones