Lessons in courtesy, geography and English - Dublin taxi drivers should follow the Massachusetts model, writes Ian Kilroy
Massachusetts drivers are known in New England as "massholes". They're rude and aggressive and like to display their middle finger to uncertain drivers on the chaotic streets of Boston. Visitors to the city are well advised to leave the driving to others. But if you're expecting consideration and courtesy from the city's cabbies, you've got another thing coming.
With up to 35,000 visitors due to descend on Boston next summer for the Democratic National Convention (to choose the Democratic party's challenger to George W. Bush), the city has decided to take action. With the support of the city's business community and the organisers of next year's convention, etiquette lessons are on the way for Boston's scowling band of cabbies.
It's an initiative Dublin could learn from. The last time I took a taxi in Dublin I was taken the longest possible route to my destination by a grunting heap of a driver. The time before that I had to endure the kind of racist theory that went out with the Third Reich - the driver only shut up when I told him my wife was black; not true, but it did give him the shock he deserved.
Karen Grant, spokesperson for "Boston 2004", says she "wants to make sure that a wonderful welcome is extended to all visitors coming to Boston next summer". Part of the whole package is courtesy, she says.
As Grant and the other organisers of Boston 2004 well know, it is the first impression that counts when visiting any city. Often that first impression comes from the inside of a taxicab, on its way from the airport into the city centre. Boston, like Dublin, is full of dug-up gaping holes at the moment, part of the massive "big dig" construction project that's been going on for more than a decade now. And when a city isn't looking its best it's even more important that local cabbies come across well.
Central to the courteous cabbies project in Boston is a training video that will be circulated among the city's estimated 5,500 taxi drivers. In it, drivers will be instructed on how to make customers feel welcome, how best to present themselves, and how best to observe safety on the roads. Breaking red lights, driving wearing only Y-fronts, assaulting customers, drinking beer at the wheel and stinking up the cab by eating curry chips will all be discouraged.
Since last summer, all Boston taxi drivers have had to submit fingerprints to the police and undergo a security check before being issued a licence. Regular car inspections and the upgrading of taxi vehicles have also been brought in to ensure a quality fleet. Stephen Sullivan, general manager of Metro Cabs, Boston's biggest cab company, says most taxi drivers are happy with the changes.
"In the long run it will help the whole industry," he says. "It will enhance our reputation".
The only thing Sullivan worries about is that improvements to the taxi service will increase costs.
"Business still hasn't recovered from 9/11," he says. "As a business person you hope you won't have to put more money into these improvements than you have to."
David Sandberg, who is a native Bostonian and has been driving a cab for 15 years, sees training and checks for drivers as a good thing.
"They're scrutinising us more and more now since 9/11," he says. "We have background checks; we go through a licensing exam and classroom training. It's an opportunity for us to erase any bad notion that there might be out there of taxi drivers."
The fact that a few Boston taxi drivers were linked to al-Qa'eda and the September 11th attacks has done nothing to improve the perception of taxi drivers. Sandberg agrees that Boston's cabbies do have a bad reputation, but not because of 9/11.
"Some people see us as crazy drivers," he says. "You see, we're independent contractors, out here trying to make a living - no health insurance and no benefits. Some guys drive fast and cut corners to enhance their earnings."
Chris, a businessman who declined to give his surname, thought courtesy training for taxi drivers was a great idea, "but they also need people who speak better English, as well as people that know the city better".
Training in the English language could also be of help to some less-than articulate Dublin cabbies. As for a knowledge of city geography, well, any training that teaches that the quickest way from O'Connell Street to the airport isn't through Kildare would be welcome.
On this one, Boston's got the right idea. Dublin City Council, take note.