By Duncan Hare
Dubai cabbies have been ranked as some of the rudest in the world by British holidaymakers.
Only cabbies in Paris, Rome and San Antonio in Ibiza are ruder than Dubai drivers, according to a poll of Brits who have been abroad in the past 12 months.
Holidaymakers were asked to rate the overall friendliness of the taxi drivers in the places they had visited - with a score of one being ‘very rude’ and 10 being ‘very friendly’. Dubai cabbies scored an average of two.
Chris Clarkson, managing director at airporttransfers.co.uk, which organised the poll, said: “You could stumble upon the most helpful taxi driver in the world, who gives you a guided tour of the area you’re in on the way to your destination. Or you could have someone that just grunts in response to anything you say.”
A total of 2,162 holidaymakers were polled. Of the Brits questioned, 141 said they’d been to Dubai in the past year - with 89 per cent using taxi services while here.
The world’s friendliest taxi drivers, according to survey, are in Pefkos in Rhodes and Marmaris in Turkey. Cabbies there scored a perfect 10. But Dubai drivers refuted claims they were rude. One Bangladeshi cabbie, Hassan, said the majority of Dubai drivers were “pretty good and friendly”.
Especially, he added, when you take into account the gruelling amount of hours they work. Another driver, Imran, a Pakistani national, said Dubai’s cabbies were well trained. Asked what he thought of Brits he’d ferried about Dubai, the cabbie said he found them “friendly and funny”.
Asked about the difference between a friendly driver and a rude cabbie, pollsters said someone who was talkative and knew the local area, compared to someone who was just “unhelpful”.
Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority declined to comment on the findings.
