is it reasonable to expect a taxi/minicab driver to speak english?

any one living in the UK permanently should be fluent in English or GTFO TBH.

Please don't mistake me for a racist, I am not. But if I decided to move to France, I would learn French, if I moved to Italy, I would learn Italian.

There is a guy at my work who has lived in the UK for 8 years and his English is terrible.

"I putted it in the cupboard" - I mean FFS, when has he ever heard an English guys say 'Putted.'

The main problem is not speaking English at home, only speaking English for his 9-5 then going home and speaking native language with friends and family.

Does my tities.
 
semi-pro waster said:
Maybe you're different to most taxi drivers who decide to talk at me but generally if a taxi driver is talking while I'm in their cab it tends to feel like I'm almost an extraneous part of the situation; they'd just as happily pontificate their views on the World to an empty cab except they've got a captive audience at the moment and an audience that is paying them for the privilege no less.

I'm partially joking as it's not always that bad but it's happened a few times.
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you'd love me then ;) i'm a miserable git and wont speak unless spoken too beyond asking where your going, and depending on the answer if you have a preference for what route to go
 
simulatorman said:
They're as common as muck in some countries and not all comfortable.
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Yup, here in Switzerland every taxi I can remember being in has been a Mercedes, almost all petrol automatics too. You take a cab from the station and instead of being a mouldy old Mondeo diesel, it's an S430. At worst, it's an old W210 E320 wagon. They have all been amazingly comfortable. Far better than any UK taxis I've used (that weren't corporate hire).
 
Firenze said:
I think its completely reasonable for anyone working in any country to speak said country's national language.
I also think that foreign call centres should be populated with people who can speak understandably in the correct language, and actually taught what they're providing support for, rather than given a script.
/rant
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you want the cheap goods? to have to accept the low standards of support...
 
Foxtrot26 said:
To expand on my initial post would it be legal to not take someone on as a minivan/private hire driver solely on the basis of their poor language skills?
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The role involves (indeed requires) speaking to the public, so yes I'd think English language skills were a requirement.
 
Any job where your dealing with the public i would assume would require as a minimum decent language skills. As a taxi driver needs instruction from the customer obviously they would need to understand direction.
 
I dont really like taking taxis if the driver doesn't speak English. I flat out refuse if i call a local taxi company and they don't know the local area. I called a local one, literally 10 minutes walk from my house to take me a couple of villages away, he needed postcodes or turn-by-turn directions from me. I got out. There's plenty of drivers out there who can take me from town straight to my estate (about 10 miles away) with just the name, and then asking which route i'd like to take (bypass or through the village)
 
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