A crash course for cab drivers
For most visitors to Rome, the city gets high marks for its monuments, food, temperate climate and laidback lifestyle — the dolce vita. But Roman cabbies often get a failing grade. Social media is rife with cautionary tales of rip-offs and swindles, often involving scenic — but unsolicited — drives past Rome’s historic sights or taxi meters that spin faster than they probably should.
It hasn’t been the best calling card for the Italian capital, especially as cabbies are often the first locals tourists interact with.
Which is why, on a recent morning, a few dozen cabdrivers found themselves in a nondescript hotel room taking a crash course in “courtesy, hospitality, language and excellence.”
The six-week course aims to improve how taxi drivers deal with foreign customers, including how to dispense basic information in a variety of languages.
“Maybe it’s asking too much that they know art history in detail,” said Maria Cristina Selloni, the director of the municipal tourism department, which developed the curriculum. “But a few anecdotes would be welcome, as well as advice on what shows or exhibits visitors should see. Plus a smattering of conversation.”
Around 750 of Rome’s 6,000 taxi drivers have signed up to take the course, which also explores the complexities of cultural differences and the basics of common courtesy.
Selloni said the demand for hospitality training had become urgent in recent years with a significant increase in tourists from China and the Middle East. Hence the course offers an overview of social norms in various cultures, including national proxemics (the amount of expected personal space), non-verbal communication and potentially offensive hand gestures.
“Someone has to tell the poor taxi driver that you can’t be the first to offer your hand to an Arab woman or touch a Chinese person’s luggage unless they say so,” said Selloni, who noted that the European Union had designated 2018 the “E.U.-China Tourism Year,” and that many Asian visitors to Rome were expected.
About half of the course is devoted to languages, mostly English — but also Arabic and Mandarin.
“Franco Rossi, a taxi driver and aspiring Chinese speaker, said he appreciated the training. “It’s a pleasure when a tourist finds someone who speaks their language,” he said. “It’s a form of respect.”
Rome is visited by around 14 million tourists each year, and the feedback they share online has a considerable effect on tourism, as Guendalina Iafrate, a tourism expert and program docent, emphasized to the class. “No one returns to a place where they’ve been treated badly, nor will they tell others to go,” she said.
“We must start thinking of tourists as guests, someone we give hospitality to,” Iafrate said, gently addressing complaints logged against cabdrivers. “No one likes the feeling of being ripped off, but there is a notion among some people that tourists are like geese that lay golden eggs,” she said. “You are creators of experience,” she told the class. Selloni, the tourism director, said another important objective was to make taxi drivers feel more a part of the city whose streets they know so well.
“They are the key to the city.”