Taxi drivers can be tour guides

TOURISM and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz's proposal to train taxi drivers as tour guides is more feasible than most people think.
I was a limousine taxi driver cum tourist guide from 1973 to 1975.
After observing an experienced tourist guide for a day, I started to do the same. I must have handled my first group well, as the tour leader complimented me.
Towards the end of 1973, I attended an evening course. When licensing of guides was introduced in 1975, I was issued a licence.
I stayed with the same company for 19 years, moving up to tours coordinator, maintenance manager, car rental manager and eventually fleet operations manager.
In recent years, I have been a certified trainer and conducted training for several agencies.
I have often written that the better taxi drivers could easily be trained to become tourist drivers, while the unscrupulous ones should be tested for mental health and undergo rehabilitation if necessary.
While it is true that few taxi drivers have the time or interest to undergo a four to six months part-time course to sit for the exams, many would be interested to join a short course based on National Competency Standards (NCS) for tourist driver.
Unlike other short courses for taxi drivers which were not effective as they were merely briefings, the NCS is a real training programme under the Department of Skills Development.
It would benefit taxi drivers, tourists and our tourism industry if a few hundred cabbies are trained as tourist drivers and offer guiding services using taxis.
YS Chan
Kuala Lumpur