Is my objection to these two lift drivers racist, bigoted against the disabled, or hypocritical?

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@Sunny_Daze

You are correct. You need to be able to communicate with your driver. I believe that is a reasonable request.

I would follow up with a review on each, to include the communication difficulty.

In future, if the app allows it, ask the driver to call you prior to pick up so that you can speak with them directly. You can communicate your status (and how they can recognize you) and assess their abilities to communicate as well.

I almost always ask the driver to call me before pick up. The only reason I did not in these two cases was that I was not alone, soCtR was obviously going to be available to say “Hey, there is the Kia we are expecting.”

[Serenata67]

@steronz

You can send messages via the app, right? Why call when you can text them your specific requirements.

One of the selling points of ridesharing apps is that you don’t need to involve yourself with any human interaction. The app knows where you are, and you tell it where you want to go. It handles payment, communication, and ratings. All you really need to do is get in the car when they show up and get out of the car when you’ve arrived where you want to go.

But what good is texting a comment if the driver doesn’t understand the language to read it? This would be a good solution for the hard of hearing driver, but “leaving comments” in English doesn’t mean the driver will understand the comments.

[puddleglum]

Just because they can only serve the 98% of the public who can see is no reason to try to get them fired. If they are unable to communicate with you just cancel the ride and try to get another one.

[steronz]

@Serenata67

But what good is texting a comment if the driver doesn’t understand the language to read it? This would be a good solution for the hard of hearing driver, but “leaving comments” in English doesn’t mean the driver will understand the comments.

The driver might have an easier time reading English than hearing/speaking it, or they might leverage translation software.

Certainly a driver’s communication skills could be so poor that there’s no saving the interaction, and it seems like there was probably a little bit of that going on. I don’t want to speak for Skald, but he may not have had a problem if the driver acknowledged his lack of English proficiency and bent over backwards to make up for it. Personality goes a long way. But I wouldn’t say that poor English skills are an automatic disqualifier for a job that’s 99% negotiated through an app.

[madmonk28]

You should rate the drivers and explain what the issue was. If you rate the driver at 2 stars or below, s/he will never be assigned to you again.

[Sunny_Daze]

@Skald_the_Rhymer

I almost always ask the driver to call me before pick up. The only reason I did not in these two cases was that I was not alone, soCtR was obviously going to be available to say “Hey, there is the Kia we are expecting.”

So in these two cases, because you had a companion, you were fine. In future, if you are alone, the phone call will reveal the issue and you can request a different driver from the app, I believe. To answer your question, you do not have unreasonable expectations. It also appears that you should be able to manage your situation, unless I misunderstand something.

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@steronz

The driver might have an easier time reading English than hearing/speaking it, or they might leverage translation software.

Certainly a driver’s communication skills could be so poor that there’s no saving the interaction, and it seems like there was probably a little bit of that going on. I don’t want to speak for Skald, but he may not have had a problem if the driver acknowledged his lack of English proficiency and bent over backwards to make up for it. Personality goes a long way. But I wouldn’t say that poor English skills are an automatic disqualifier for a job that’s 99% negotiated through an app.

The driver did say “no English, no English” repeatedly to my stepdaughter, but otherwise there was no oral communication, as there could not be. We ended up having to walk considerably further than we wanted to because, as I said, we needed to get to a specific door and the driver was not capable of understanding Cinderella’s instructions. And she tried hard.