Is taxi Driving a skilled profession???

Screwthe unions

Hey guys..new to boards,so if this thread is not in the right place,mods please move freely.

Guys..I was a part-time taxi driver up untill my the birth of my son,so now my taxi is rented out. I log onto a taxi drivers chat forum pretty often just to chat to lads involved in the taxi business...anyway one evening I mentioned that in my opinion Taxi driving was an unskilled job that probably doesnt deserve incomes above €40K...a purley personal opinion.

But the backlash I got was unreal...it even got to a point where one group of posters sent me and two other guys a PM with a link to a so called funny picture...when we opened the link it contained a tracking cookie which some of the other posters had put there...the result was one poster who held views similar to mine had his IP address traced to his place of work(he was also a part-timer)....along with certain veiled threats to import our IP address to certain unsavoury websites more or less forced this poster from using the forum now.

But this brings me back to my original question...I think I should really have put this to a more neutral group of people...but is Taxi driving a askilled profession??...I feel it isint.

cormie

I'd say any job that has you out on the roads dealing with Irish drivers is a skilled profession. I drive a van but I also like to make fine carvings with wood and play poker and do many other things which involve skill. They all have different skill requirements but are extremely different classes of skill, but skill none the less.

mikemac

What, it's the most highly skilled job in the country! Sure some drivers can manage the Irish soccer team, the Immigration Bureau (now, I'm not a racist but..) and Minister for Transport.
That's one person doing all these jobs :eek:

Ah no, I'd called it unskilled.

Now if Irish Drivers did something like The Knowledge like they do in London, I'd called it semi-skilled.
The Knowledge is a pretty cool accomplishment but no Irish taxi driver can claim to have somthing like that. In fact, all they do is pass a PSV test, it's not as if an apprenticeship is needed

So unskilled imo

Edit: I'd a quick look at www.taxi.ie.
Jaysus, it's like stormfront over there

Victor

I would say it is semi-skilled at best. You do need to know how to drive and you need to know your way around.

But to be honest, many construction labourers and service workers have similar skill levels.

RuggieBear

unskilled

Terrontress

You need a driving license, which requires a test, so I suppose that is a skill of sorts but I think it is as skilled as every other job.

You need to be able to count to serve behind the counter in McDonalds.
You need better driving skills than a taxi driver to be a binman.

Taxi drivers tend to be rather slovenly in general. I have seen in Japan they all wear uniforms and white gloves etc.

LegacyUser

micmclo wrote:

What, it's the most highly skilled job in the country! Sure some drivers can manage the Irish soccer team, the Immigration Bureau (now, I'm not a racist but..) and Minister for Transport.
That's one person doing all these jobs :eek:

Ah no, I'd called it unskilled.

Now if Irish Drivers did something like The Knowledge like they do in London, I'd called it semi-skilled.
The Knowledge is a pretty cool accomplishment but no Irish taxi driver can claim to have somthing like that. In fact, all they do is pass a PSV test, it's not as if an apprenticeship is needed

So unskilled imo

Edit: I'd a quick look at www.taxi.ie.
Jaysus, it's like stormfront over there

Got that right....

antoinolachtnai

The tomtom is really knocking whatever skill there was out of it.

There are certainly some professional drivers out there who take their job as a taxi driver very seriously and they probably do deserve to earn 40k+ a year, in the same way that there are waiters who deserve to earn far more than the average waiter. My own feeling is that drivers in that category are not the norm, but it really is a joy when you come across one.

It is hard to see how anyone who would threaten a fellow driver in the way you described could be called a 'professional'. Whoever it is has proven what he was trying to deny.

Screwthe unions

Antoin..thats what happened...I was lucky..all the fellas got from me was that my ISP is NTL..they were tracking websites that I was viewing,but thats about it..but the other part-timer who posted there had his IP address right to where he worked and some htreats along the lines of getting a heap of taxi drivers to knock on his office door,logging our IP address on sites that are criminal,giving our information to certain paramilitary groups( I happened to mention that the mob who murdered the 2 sas soldiers in 1988 were bloodthirsty) etc...etc...really nasty stuff...

I complained to the site owner but he seems to be missing at the moment...so I e-mailed the data protection commisioner who seems to be treating the incident pretty seriously...

yes kaiser and micmclo it is Taxi.ie . Its a shame the same rules that posters follow here arent adopted there.

jimmycrackcorm

I'd say it's as skilled as working in Mcdonalds.

Doctor DooM

How do you define skill? its not a job anyone can do, so I guess it requires a skill.

I used to think it was very funny the way retail was considered unskilled. Try it for a few months and tell me if anyone can manage it.

Work in IT now and I consider it an easier job (although I did have to train harder for it. )

patrickc

anyone who can drive and read a map/satnav can be a taxi driver

antoinolachtnai

If you received a threat of this nature I think you should inform the gardai, even if you decide not to push it. That's just too much.

Vmaxer

Screwthe unions wrote:

Antoin..thats what happened...I was lucky..all the fellas got from me was that my ISP is NTL..they were tracking websites that I was viewing,but thats about it..but the other part-timer who posted there had his IP address right to where he worked and some htreats along the lines of getting a heap of taxi drivers to knock on his office door,logging our IP address on sites that are criminal,giving our information to certain paramilitary groups( I happened to mention that the mob who murdered the 2 sas soldiers in 1988 were bloodthirsty) etc...etc...really nasty stuff...

I complained to the site owner but he seems to be missing at the moment...so I e-mailed the data protection commisioner who seems to be treating the incident pretty seriously...

yes kaiser and micmclo it is Taxi.ie . Its a shame the same rules that posters follow here arent adopted there.

Sounds to Me that the Unskilled Taxi Drivers seem to have Skills in I.T, I doubt that any everyday Taxi Driver would have the knowlege or the time to Log Your IP ETC... Sell Your plate move on get a Skilled Job...

Screwthe unions

IMHO a skilled person is a person trained in a recognised area...someone holding a recognised qualifacation( for example I have a higher cert in Electro-mech.enginering).

Like I said before a sparkie is a sparkie no mater where in the world he goes...same with a nurse...same with a carpenter...same with a chef....same with a baker....same with an accountant.

This is a link to where the threats on the site kinda started.

http://http://z11.invisionfree.com/TAXIDOTIE/index.php?showtopic=1375

Duiske

RuggieBear wrote:

unskilled

Agreed.
I worked driving in Dublin for 5yrs. 3 as a courier, then 2 as a drive tester for a comms company. The courier job required no skills.
Guess I would call the drive testing semi-skilled, as I had to spend some time in France learning how to use the equipment.

Noelie

There's no way it's a skilled job, 90% of the taxi's I get I have to give directions on how to get to my destination, how is that skilled.

BendiBus

Unskilled

Sangre

If being a taxi driver is skilled so is being a pizza delivery boy.

Jip

cormie wrote:

I'd say any job that has you out on the roads dealing with Irish drivers is a skilled profession.

The worse drivers anyone has to deal with on Irish roads are Taxi Drivers. Biggest pack of chancers on the road ever, can't stand the majority of them. They think that double yellow lines, no right or left turn signs, filter lights, solid white lines, left and right turn only lanes, queues etc etc apply to them. No skill required at all. Arseh0les.

mickoneill30

I'd say the good ones are skilled. But there are plenty of idiots just doing the bare minimum. Just like any job.

Pineapple stu

Driving is a skill but ripping people off is a skill taxi drivers have to a T.

Hotblack Desiato

cymro wrote:

Driving is a skill but ripping people off is a skill taxi drivers have to a T. an art.

Fixed your post

mickoneill30

If it's not a skilled job and they get paid so much why don't we all do it?

Terrontress

mickoneill30 wrote:

If it's not a skilled job and they get paid so much why don't we all do it?

Because many people prefer to work 9-5.

Taxi driving definitely takes a certain sort of a perosn. But again that is not a skill.

I reckon the best thing ever, as a taxi user, is the black lads who have started it. They are alot more friendly than the Irish guys and don't seem to be as keen on the rip-offs. I definitely trust them more.

LegacyUser

Iv been thinking about this one.I believe that all taxi drivers will need to do some sort of skills enhancement course in near future,so maybe the powers that be know that the current state of affairs isint whats expected from the public.

My opinion is that taxi driving probably isint very skilled.

heres a link to a story.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=474254&in_page_id=1770

Ham'nd'egger

kaiser1 wrote:

Iv been thinking about this one.I believe that all taxi drivers will need to do some sort of skills enhancement course in near future,so maybe the powers that be know that the current state of affairs isint whats expected from the public.

My opinion is that taxi driving probably isint very skilled.

heres a link to a story.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=474254&in_page_id=1770

As a Taxi driver, I would never, ever, ever, ever call it a skilled industry. A lot of tricks in the trade to be learnt, granted, but no great skills as such.

These "skills enhancement" courses are not teaching driver skills, instead they will be teaching drivers such fine arts as guiding the blind to their car, how to fold up wheelchairs etc. Worthy things we will all agree on but then these are things that drivers ought to be up to spec with from the word go.

jhegarty

If you can pick an average person from the street and have them trained to do the job in a few hours its not skilled...

Pineapple stu

ninja900 wrote:

Fixed your post

Thanks, can you paint my gate too.:D

dRNk SAnTA

micmclo wrote:

What, it's the most highly skilled job in the country! Sure some drivers can manage the Irish soccer team, the Immigration Bureau (now, I'm not a racist but..) and Minister for Transport.
That's one person doing all these jobs :eek:

Ah no, I'd called it unskilled.

Now if Irish Drivers did something like The Knowledge like they do in London, I'd called it semi-skilled.
The Knowledge is a pretty cool accomplishment but no Irish taxi driver can claim to have somthing like that. In fact, all they do is pass a PSV test, it's not as if an apprenticeship is needed

So unskilled imo

Edit: I'd a quick look at www.taxi.ie.
Jaysus, it's like stormfront over there

Sorry to be OT but I just had a look at the forum in question and the amount of racism on that board is absolutely sickening. Talk about unskilled, some of the guys on there look like they could use another stint in junior school.

Davidth88

Oh my god , that forum makes me feel sick !

Taxi driving is not a skilled job. However many taxi drivers are skilled at their job , which is slightly different