A man almost missed his flight to New Brunswick recently after an “untrained” newly licensed cabbie drove him to Pearson airport, says a taxi industry spokesperson.

“The guy’s luggage and golf clubs are in the trunk of the car and the cab driver can’t open it to get it,” said Rita Smith, executive director of the Toronto Taxi Alliance.

The passenger gave the cabbie his business card and said “ship it to me” before bolting inside the terminal, Smith said. He made his flight and the taxi brokerage paid the shipping costs.

But the incident highlights the problem of the “stampede” of “untrained, untested (and) in many instances extremely unqualified,” people with taxi driver licences leasing cabs, Smith explained.

She was at city hall Wednesday holding a news conference to announce a new taxi driver training program at Centennial College. “This has to be fixed,” she said.

In May, city council passed a new Vehicle-for-Hire bylaw that attempted to level the playing field for traditional licensed cabbies and their UberX competitors, regular drivers who use their own cars to pick up passengers using an app.

Included in the changes was the elimination of the 17-day city-run taxi school that all drivers were required to take before getting behind the wheel of a cab.

Since then, the city has seen an increase in applicants and has issued approximately 3,500 new vehicle-for-hire licences, Tracey Cook, executive director of municipal licensing and standards, wrote in an email. Toronto now has about 12,500 people licensed to operate a taxi or limousine.

Cook played down concerns about driver qualifications. Each must have a driver’s licence and all are screened for any criminal and driving history. Still, “the city is pleased that . . . the taxicab industry has stepped up to put together training for its participants,” she wrote.

But the city’s major taxi companies have been inundated with new licence holders who have no business driving a cab, including one man who had his driver’s licence for a day and applicants “who speak no English who had to communicate by pointing,” Smith said.

It is why the taxi industry is resurrecting mandatory driver training through Centennial College for every cabbie licensed since May 4. The courses are expected to begin this fall.

Experienced taxi drivers subject to repeated complaints will also be required to enrol in the course, which will include training on road knowledge, gender and cultural sensitivity, and customer service. In addition, there will be six hours of defensive driving instruction.

Veteran taxi driver Joel Barr won’t be heading back to taxi school. But he thinks taxi driver training is necessary.

“The city is so huge now, road knowledge is such an important thing. The streets are so crammed with cars . . . the big landmarks places they have to be known,” he said.

“If you get in a car and say ‘take me to Casa Loma’ and the driver doesn’t know where Casa Loma is, you got to look at the guy and say, ‘what the hell, how can you be a cab driver?”

Barry O’Brien, dean of Centennial’s School of Business, said the program will feature 18 hours in total training and student drivers must pass an English language assessment to get in. They can take an English language course at Centennial if they don’t pass the initial screening.

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The course will cost between $600 and $700, similar to what the city charged.

The Toronto Taxi Alliance — which represents the city’s major taxi companies including Beck, Co-op and City — also announced a central email, TOtaxifeedback@gmail.com , for passengers to compliment or criticize driver behaviour. Riders are encouraged to include a photo of the cab number on the doors, back bumper or inside the car.

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