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Pittsburgh hopes to get a lift from taxi driversCity recruits cabbies as ambassadors for tourists
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- It seems an unlikely place to make a good first impression -- a taxi, stereotypically smelling of smoke or artificial air freshener, with sticky floors and Plexiglas partitions and manned by rude and reckless drivers. But what about a stoplight serenade or sitting in sultanate luxury with cushions, a Persian rug and flowers? In Darryl Cann's cab, passengers may forget where they are -- or not mind so much -- as he riffs on his clarinet idling away time in traffic or waiting out a red light. "I'm the only one in the fleet who does that. It pays to be on top of your job, you never know who you're with," says Cann, 43. Banking that Pittsburgh has more cabbies like Cann, Pittsburgh tourism officials have recruited drivers hoping they can use a short ride to persuade people to make a return trip or stay for the long haul in Pittsburgh. "Whether you want to enlist them or not, cab drivers are the first people you meet. You step off of an airplane and you step into a cab," says Joyce Lee, director of tourism for the Greater Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau, which is running the program. "You can go on vacation and do 10 wonderful things, but if one of them is a disaster it's the one thing you are going to remember." Lee adds that there are few people who can't remember their worst cab ride. Last year, tourism officials trained about 280 taxi drivers to be ambassadors of sorts with courses in behavior and psychology, conversation skills and Steel City attractions and trivia. The program is called Pittsburgh Relies on Cabbies, or PROCabbies. Program faring wellMost major cities have or had similar taxi driver training programs, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia and San Francisco, says Alfred LaGasse, executive vice president of the national Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association. Programs range from a few hours to two weeks and can include map reading and English classes, LaGasse says. After training, Pittsburgh cab drivers were given a binder full of information on restaurants, hotels and attractions, a sticker and business cards with the program's logo and comment cards so passengers can rate their ride. Businesses, hotels and restaurants in town figured it was such a good idea they gave tourism officials a free ride, picking up the $65,000 tab for the program's first year. For their trouble, cab drivers have a shot to get free hotel stays and meals if they get the best reviews on comment cards. And passengers who fill out the cards have a shot to win two plane tickets, which tourism officials hope they'll use to return to Pittsburgh. The program appears to be faring well. "In my cab, they want a return trip. They never hesitate to call me back," Cann says as he drives back from Pittsburgh International Airport. "Take this trip. I brought them in this morning and brought them back this afternoon." He's won two free nights in hotels for comments in his car, some raving about his clarinet skills, including a card from former Illinois Senator Paul Simon, who said his ride was "excellent." Sandie Akerman, president of Akerman Consulting & Training, which ran the training programs, says it has changed her cab rides for the better. "I travel a lot so I've been in cabs a lot ... Atlanta, Chicago, New York. I have my horror stories and an idea about good drivers," Akerman says. "Everyone I have ridden with (in Pittsburgh) has gotten more than my standard tip." And tourism officials say most of the 1,574 cards they've received have been positive. Among the responses: • An English woman said her cab ride "made me feel very welcome on my first trip to the U.S.A." and an Australian said cold water and a television one cabbie supplied made it the "best cab ride in the world." • A woman from New York ranked her driver 5 on a scale of 5 and said he made a "great ambassador for the city." • Another New Yorker said his driver was "very rude and aggressive to other drivers. Tailgater. Almost gave me whiplash." A couple from Washington, Georgia, was less than pleased with their trip. The driver "never greeted us. My husband opened the trunk and put (our) bags in. We tipped, but he did not deserve it." Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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