Page One

The city’s cab drivers, as a result of the new Taxi Ordinance, which went into effect on Jan. 1, are now required to take a course in sensitivity at their own expense. 

Bill Hancock, former San Francisco cab driver who now owns Flag-A-Cab Taxi School, addressed about 25 skeptical cab drivers, most who did not speak fluent English, and asked them to define a word. 

“What does sensitivity mean?” he asked of each of the drivers. 

“Being patient,” one said. “Listening carefully,” another said. “Not getting mad when an old lady hits you with her cane,” yet another said. 

Hancock said all of responses were elements of sensitivity.  

“But the key is being a good listener,” he said. “Cab drivers and bartenders are the unpaid psychologists of the world.” 

The drivers had taken the afternoon off and paid $25 to participate in a two-hour sensitivity training course now required by the city’s new Taxi Ordinance. The ordinance requires all drivers for the 44 cab companies that serve Berkeley to take the course. 

The training session, which was held on the sixth floor of the Civic Center, gave the drivers tips about appropriate behavior with customers who use wheelchairs, walkers, hearing aids and seeing-eye dogs. The course also covered appropriate terminology for a variety of disabilities. 

The City Council approved the new ordinance, which was recommended by the Commission on Aging, in September after hearing from numerous senior citizens who told stories of bad treatment by cab drivers. Seniors spoke of missing doctor appointments because of cabs that never showed up, others told of waiting for hours in front of super markets with bags of groceries, and others said they avoided using cabs simply because the drivers were rude. 

The primary problem, both riders and drivers agreed, was that the city’s $220,000 Taxi Scrip Program, which provides taxi vouchers to the disabled and residents who are 70 or older, was not fully reimbursing cab drivers for their time. 

“Before the ordinance was approved, the city was deducting 10 percent of the top of the fare when the drivers exchanged the scrip,” Commissioner on Aging Maris Arnold said. “In addition to that, the cab company owners were taking a cut.” 

Arnold said the drivers, who rely on their daily fares and tips for expenses, would have to wait up to a month to receive the devalued fare. 

Since the ordinance went into effect, drivers now receive full fare for the taxi vouchers, which they can redeem each week at the City of Berkeley Finance Customer Service Center. In addition, the drivers are paid a minimum of $5 for each scrip rider they transport. 

And some scrip riders are saying the service has increased with the pay scale. 

“We’ve heard that the drivers have gotten better,” Aronld said. “We’re not hearing those terrible stories any longer.” 

But despite reports of better service, drivers are still required to take the sensitivity training at their own expense and some were not too happy about it.  

“I agree that a lot of the cab drivers need polishing but it’s not going to happen here,” said cab driver Toni Guglielmi, a 20-year veteran. “I think this is just the city covering its butt.” 

Hancock, who primarily conducts training courses in San Francisco where drivers are required to take a four-day course, said drivers aren’t always happy about the training at first but most end up saying that it was valuable.  

“90 percent of cab drivers in the industry today are from another country,” he said. “And it’s not fair to them or the public they serve to just give them a cab and let them loose on a city without any training.” 

Arnold agreed. “I know the cab drivers often feel like their getting a raw deal but I don’t think a little sensitivity training is going to hurt them,” she said. 

But Guglielmi, who said she has never turned down a senior or disabled customer, remained skeptical about the training.  

“Maybe we should have a sensitivity training for customers,” she said. “As drivers we’re sensitive, too. We’re sensitive to being paid with bad credit cards, we’re sensitive to customers running off without paying and we’re sensitive to being robbed.”