captain cab wrote:
Wayne’s World
By
Wayne Casey
I notice that Transport for London (TfL) appear to have upset that damn app company by having the audacity to suggest licensed drivers should speak English, have a call centre in the Capital and requiring that vehicles should be insured with ‘hire and reward’ insurance during the entire time the vehicle is licensed.
I would suspect and possibly hope the majority of you reading this are perhaps asking yourselves with a degree of bewilderment ‘what’s the problem with those conditions?’ – if you did ask yourselves that, congratulations, because I was thinking the same thing myself, and I am a genius, which puts you all right up there.
Naturally, expecting a licensed driver to be able to communicate in English, in England, isn’t really the stuff of genius – it’s called commonsense. What should perhaps surprise us, no not surprise, the word ‘horrify’ seems more appropriate. What should ‘horrify’ us is the type of thinking that believes not being able to communicate in English isn’t a problem in this industry.
Can you think of any other part of the service industry where this type of commonsense would be ignored and where a company would place someone who cannot communicate in English and deals with the public as a matter of course, effectively on the front desk?
What type of person believes English speaking shouldn’t be a prerequisite? I will tell you – a complete and utter imbecile.
Indeed, whilst writing this article I discovered I’d ran out of cigarettes. I decided to go to my local Spar shop.
I jumped into the car and put the radio on – ‘hey presto’ the radio was tuned into BBC Radio 4 where unsurprisingly John Humphrys was speaking to the audience in English. I suppose this was a job requirement.
Upon getting to the Spar, I decided to ask for my fags using English, where surprise, surprise the transaction went through without hiccup. I did think about trying to converse in Spanish - ‘Hola señorita puedo comprar unos cigarrillos por favor’ – but thought better of it.
Furthermore, we all know what passengers are like, so can you imagine the result of a passenger changing their mind about the destination or deciding they want to stop on route, like many do, if the driver wasn’t able to properly understand what the passenger is saying?
I think it’s also fair to presume, if a driver cannot speak in English, the chances are they cannot write in English either. This gives rise to key questions, for example, how did they manage to get a license, presuming all authorities still insist on application forms, or are these considered ‘bureaucratic’ new rules as well?
Another of the damn apps sources of complaint are the insurance requirements. TfL will apparently require all licensees to have full time ‘Hire & Reward’ (H&R) insurance; the damn app company cite ‘even part time drivers are required to have this insurance’.
I certainly came as a surprise to me that people could get ‘on off’ H&R insurance – I mean how on earth would an insurance company know the vehicle was being used for social, domestic and pleasure use, or being worked as a minicab at the time of any accident, and would it matter?
Indeed, this may come as a bitter blow to the damn app company, but no licensing authority in the UK issues a license to either a hackney carriage or private hire driver on the basis of the hours the driver chooses to work. A driver is either ‘fit and proper’ or isn’t.
This isn’t a major diversion by pointing out that It is interesting to note that the provinces managed to dodge a major bullet in the deregulation act when the government withdrew a potential requirement that would allow non licensed persons to drive licensed vehicles when the vehicle was ‘off duty’.
The obvious inference from this article is that London has no similar requirement in the London PH Act, this is something I would urge the trade associations and indeed TfL to address via legislative change.
Naturally, in answer to the damn apps groaning regarding “part-time drivers to have costly full-time commercial insurance even when they're not driving’, oh dear, welcome to my world. Perhaps a billion dollar company could set up their own insurance scheme for the drivers they take on? I mean they appear to do the same with motor finance, so why not cheap commercial insurance?
The answer wouldn’t be something to do with the word ‘risk’ would it? Employing people barely able to speak English who can barely drive may be a bit of a risk in this litigious world eh?
The above aside, the final thing they’re upset with is the condition of an operating centre within the area of license.
At this point i really need to utter the letters ‘Oh FFS’ – I utter these for two reasons, firstly my chairman doesn’t like me swearing in this column and secondly, even if he did, Donna would edit it out!
In fairness to the damn app company a transaction with them is like any booking online, and as with any online booking, everything is great until something goes wrong.
When things go wrong, at a certain point you need human to human contact.
I booked a hotel tonight for the August bank holiday weekend, but due to British Telecom being the world’s worst internet provider, my internet connection became disconnected at the point of booking – it did this 3 times – the fourth time went great – except for the fact I’d booked the hotel for the wrong date.
I needed another human from Expedia to sort this mess out – and a quick call to India sorted it.
In the case of the licensed industry it is sadly, due to some of the reprobates licensed, a commonsense requirement that a licensing officer or rozzer should be able to walk into a building and obtain booking records, indeed, someone needs to be brought to account for the vehicles they control.
So whilst this type of human interaction maybe seen as unnecessary, bureaucratic red tape – when a company has a track record of taking on drivers who have subsequently been jailed for murder, attempted murder, rape and so on – then the world of the internet must surely be thrown out of the window and human interaction has to ensue.
To me, that is commonsense.
Till next month
One of yer best Son pointing out in yer caustic but humorous style the nonsense that goes on in this industry and how as usual London under a Labour Mayor [yeh i know hes a tozzer] leads the way 2 hour written English tests
and Taking the TopTest of the Proprietors is coming will reduce London's ph fleet by 40000
~BUT and its a big BUT wheres your tactics plans to deal with these issues [weve done it in London Unions and a Labour Mayor] whats your plans when are ever gonna put the ball in the net ??????????///
Score 8out 10 for pointing out the stupid current situation 0 out 10 for promoting campaigning for an organised solution ............in other words a gerat pice WHINING IT AINT FAIR
PATHETIC BUT TYPICAL
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