More road familiarisation lessons for Doha’s cab drivers sought

Anyone who has ridden a taxi in Qatar may have experienced this at least once. You enter the car, give the driver your address, and the reply would always be ‘no problem’ or ‘maafi mushkil.’

But after about an hour of wandering around, the driver parks the car on the side of the road, turn around and apologetically say he doesn’t know the way.

If you thought you are the only one to have had this experience, then think again. A lot of commuters are now calling for more road familiarisation lessons for taxi drivers in the country.

A large number of cabbies, especially the newer ones, have poor knowledge of roads both within and outside Doha, reports the Gulf Times.  This causes much inconvenience to passengers.

While it is an established fact that availability of taxis have improved dramatically, thanks to more players in the field, the quality of knowledgeable drivers have not showed a substantial improvement.

Finding a foreign embassy in West Bay is another major hurdle taxi drivers face while taking on passengers. With a confusing layout, the cab drivers can sometimes feel flummoxed.

While some taxi franchisees have reportedly issued a ‘flag chart’ to its drivers for easy identification of embassies in the diplomatic area, it often ends up in passengers being delayed further.

Often, the passengers themselves will have no idea about the confusion as they are newcomers in Qatar.