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Taxi training program for Commonwealth Games

To prepare for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, Melbourne’s taxi drivers will be trained as tourism ambassadors and be linked to a high tech online tourism information update service.

“The Melbourne Taxi Tourism Ambassador program will take Melbourne’s cabbies out of the transport industry,” Lord Mayor, John So, said.

The training provided through the program will help drivers improve their customer service skills and become mobile tourist information services.

Lord Mayor So said a taxi is the first experience most visitors have of our state and so it is a natural point to make people feel welcome and assist them to get the most out of their stay.

“This program will integrate taxis with our existing tourist facilities,” he said. “Drivers will be trained to communicate with their customers and learn to listen to their needs not just take them where they want to go.”

The program will compliment from the City of Melbourne highly successful Tourism Ambassadors program that has volunteers roaming Melbourne offering assistance and advice to travellers.

The program will cover:

• customer service skills such as better communication, building a rapport with passengers and grooming
• up to date knowledge of cultural and sporting events
• detailed knowledge of shops, restaurants and theatres
• knowledge of other tourism services.

The program aims to involve more than 3,000 drivers before the 2006 games. These drivers will then act as role models and help to encourage other drivers to take up the training. There are currently around 3,500 taxis and about 10,000 taxi drivers working in metropolitan Melbourne. All cabs will have access to the tourism information updates.

The City of Melbourne is running the program in conjunction with the Victorian Taxi Association. The relationship will allow updated tourist information to be sent directly to the cabs on board terminals. Drivers will also carry brochures and other material provided by the City of Melbourne’s Visitor Centre at Federation Square.

Councillor Irene Goonan, Chair of the Council’s Marketing, Business Development and Major Events Committee, said the program would consolidate driver’s existing skills and generally raise standards across the industry.

“Of course some drivers have been practising these skills for years making Melbourne cabs among the best in the country,” she said. “Over time, the training program will standardise these skills across the taxi industry. Tourists bring more than $10 billion to Victoria each year. It is up to everyone to make them feel as though their money was well spent in Victoria. It does not cost a cent to smile or be helpful and yet we have so much to gain.”

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