TS,Tuesday 6 March 2012
SPAD chairman Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar recently disclosed that a tourist was charged RM450 in taxi fare from KL Sentral to KLCC and Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen has announced plans to engage 4,000 cabbies to be tourisms’ driving force.
Getting errant cabbies to change their ways is akin to roping in Mat Rempits and turning them into role models. Such attempts are likely to fail unless new and effective measures are introduced.
The standard of taxi service in any city or country reflects the level of society and the action of cabbies form a lasting impression on the passengers, especially foreigners.
As such, the Tourism Minister has announced plans to conduct one-day courses from March to churn out 4,000 tourism taxi ambassadors.
It will take at least 40 batches of 100 cabbies each to reach the targeted number. The response from the cabbies will depend on the compensation paid for the day’s loss of income.
Such courses should have been conducted earlier by the now defunct Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board that issued taxi permits and driver registration cards, or the Road Transport Department that renews driving and Public Service Vehicle licences of the cabbies.
During a half-day course for taxi drivers organised by the Tourism Ministry in 2006, I noticed that many other participants were not there voluntarily. They were asking each other where they were caught by enforcement.
After the course, I personally handed in a written report to the ministry on how such courses could be more effective.
One point was to have some of the courses in English and Chinese (Mandarin) so that it would have a deeper impact on those more conversant in these languages.
It can also help participants who wish to brush up their English or Mandarin as large numbers of foreign passengers speak these languages.
Such courses should begin on a right footing. Hammering in the need for cabbies to behave right from the start would be overzealous. It will be like water off a duck’s back.
Participants should be given the chance to air their grievances first and they will become more receptive after getting the load off their chest.
However, if every participant is allowed to do so, it may take up the whole day and be a waste of time as many issues will be repeated and some cabbies can be very vocal and long-winded.
This can be avoided if a comprehensive list is prepared in advance and presented to them before a briefing on the importance of tourism and their role.
Many offences are committed by errant cabbies but the good ones also break some rules. For example, they may have to refuse some passengers or risk being robbed, raped or injured.
The report “Ex-cop jailed and fined for accepting bribe from cabbie” (The Star, Mar 1) is another issue to be addressed. A constable solicited a RM300 bribe after finding a cabbie ferrying two illegal immigrants in his taxi.
Short of cash, the cabbie had to make several payments until the constable received the full sum. Most cabbies eke out a living or “Kais pagi makan pagi, kais petang makan petang”.
Is it an offence to have illegal immigrants in a taxi? How would cabbies know? Only police officers and immigration officers are empowered to ask people to show proof of identity.
Conducting courses offer good opportunities to engage with the cabbies. When invited, some are capable of providing solutions to many of the challenges faced by the industry.
This approach is far more effective than merely telling them what they should do through monologue lectures and briefings.
For courses that start at 9am or earlier, it is common to find half of the participants arriving late and the 15-minute tea break normally stretches to half an hour or more.
To encourage early arrivals, refreshments that are normally provided for the morning break should be made available during registration with only beverages served during the break.
Allowances should be split with the first payment made to those who arrived on time and second payment at the end of the course together with the attendance certificate.
It would be a fallacy that cabbies will make significant changes after attending a one-day briefing. Some may be inspired or motivated but such feelings will wane over time.
Knowledge alone does not translate into action. Many citizens can recite the Rukunegara by heart but the number of Malaysians embracing our national philosophy appears small.
Many people may “Believe in God” but their actions show that they are not God-fearing. The understanding of “Courtesy & Morality” is superficial as many people of all levels lack courtesy; not only to strangers but also to people they know, including family members.
It would be better to conduct several training workshops, limited to 25 participants a batch, before embarking on the seminars for 100 cabbies at a time.
Training is much more effective when participants are placed in a U-shape seating allowing them to engage with one another and the facilitator.
It is hard to stay awake, especially after a heavy lunch, when seated passively theatre-style listening to lectures.
Cabbies who can communicate well in Bahasa Malaysia (Malay), Chinese (Mandarin) and English are to be selected for the workshops and their input can later be shared with those attending the seminars.
This is better than any top down approach and will be better received as the recommendations were made by their peers. In addition, it takes a thief to catch another.
We ought to bear in mind that transformation of our taxi industry can only be achieved by setting short-, medium- and long-term plans and not through knee-jerk responses.
The initiative by the Tourism Ministry is timely. It will be successful if the various authorities co-operate to make concerted efforts to upgrade our taxi services.
Sadly, the work culture of many Malaysians leaves much to be desired. Those who are too proud of themselves tend to be discourteous and often do a lousy job.
Those who wish to declare “Proud to be Malaysian” should earn it by taking pride in their work and do an excellent job.
If we can do that, even foreigners would be proud of us. We can surpass the 36 million visitor arrivals targeted by 2020 by changing our mindset and behaviour.
YS Chan
Kuala Lumpur
No comments:
Post a Comment