# An Open Letter To Uber Miami: We Have A Language Problem



## Montgomery (Jan 7, 2015)

http://www.moxieandmeanderings.com/uber-miami-language-problem/

*An Open Letter To Uber Miami: We Have A Language Problem*
by: Liana Lozada

Let me start by prefacing that these are 100% first world problems. And that my gripe for these issues may not bother everyone, but they particularly chafe me because I am a stickler for functionality, efficiency, and common sense. My irritability soars when things don't run smoothly: This personality trait is in constant collision-mode with my attempts to be more Zen.

But Uber Miami has especially tested my Zen as of late. Uber Miami, I dread you as of late.

Let's start with what I am sure many locals have experienced: Drivers not speaking English.

Now, I am very aware that Miami is a dual language city-whether we like to admit or not. However, when it comes to providing a service to a mass audience, including international tourists, Uber drivers should have basic English comprehension. This "letter" is not a gripe about people seeking work, or speaking Spanish in a place where it is widely accepted and profited from-This gripe is about safety.

Let me add that I _do_ speak Spanish, and I _can_ communicate directions quite clearly to these Uber drivers, but I choose not to. Why? Because I've been keeping track of just how many of them barely speak any English and the problems it causes. The tally: 9 out of 10 drivers struggle to communicate. My untapped Spanish has also given me the opportunity to eavesdrop, which I will get into shortly.

Now back to safety.

When a rider cannot communicate to a driver how to safely and efficiently get somewhere, we have a problem. The language barrier builds upon another problem: No one seems to know where the hell there are going these days. The drivers are too reliant on that terrible GPS Uber provides them. The GPS dependency and the language gap have lead to some very concerning situations.

I have been in multiple cars where the driver thinks that turning their body_ completely around _to try and understand what someone is saying is a good idea, despite operating a moving vehicle. KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD, PLEASE!

Another scary scenario: I was in a car heading east from the 112 to I-195 back to Midtown. The driver's GPS told them to exit on North Miami Avenue. However, anyone who lives in, or commutes by, the Midtown area _knows_ (or can at least read the sign says "don't exit here from the 112") that crossing five lanes of traffic in a few hundred feet is a death trap. But our Spanish-only driver tried it anyway because the GPS said so. When I realized he could easily get us killed, I yelled in Spanish to continue to the next exit. He pointed to the GPS, and I assured him that Biscayne Boulevard's exit would get us there just fine.

Yesterday, I was in a situation where arguments with poolers ensued because the GPS says one thing, but the riders insist there is a better way.

This morning, I was in the situation where the driver scolded the rider about where he pinned himself on the phone while the rider struggled to speak Spanish to the driver. Once they hung up, the driver was cursing under his breath in Spanish like I wasn't even there. Once we found him, the rider entered the car apologizing to me. The poor kid was in a full suit with a briefcase in hand like he just left an interview. I told him he had no reason to apologize.

This evening, when my ****** boyfriend informed the driver he was going the wrong way, the driver pointed to the GPS. My boyfriend asked the driver to go straight, adding "that's taking you out of your way." So the driver made a U-turn in the _middle of the intersection_ while the straight light was RED. To make matters worse, we couldn't get my boyfriend's seat belt to work. As we fiddled with his seat belt for almost five minutes, the driver said nothing. So when I got out, I informed the driver that the back seat belt was broken. And his response was, "I know; someone broke it."

The Puerto Rican in me came out at that point. Zen went. Because seriously, WTF?!

The entertaining moments are when drivers don't realize I speak Spanish and then complain to other poolers about how badly Uber pays them, how people don't tip, and how no one knows what they are doing. Did I mention these individuals had tip jars or tip signs out? I know riders _can_ tip, but soliciting tips is a bit of an anti-Uber experience.

















These aren't all lower class drivers, either. I've been in BMWs, Audis, and hoopty's with men and women, and the scenario replays itself.

Uber Miami, you've got some serious issues mounting on already prominent Miami problems. People here already lack common courtesy but bubble with entitlement. They already think it is okay to stop their car in the middle of traffic so someone can cross the road illegally to get to them. They already believe it is okay not to use their turn signal, make illegal turns, or cut off anyone in their way.

Uber Miami needs to understand that people are relying on them to get somewhere in one piece, so the channel of communication needs to be wide open. And the solution is so simple it is almost annoying.

Uber Miami should have language selections. I hear this exists in other cities, and why it hasn't made its way to Miami is beyond me. Once a language option finally emerges, a quality assessment would be wise. These days, it feels like anyone with a license and an engine is allowed to transport total strangers. Uber Miami's romance has died, and their service has fallen into that "only in Miami" and "we can't get anything right" category we can't seem to escape. What was meant to be a transportation solution has now become a regular headache.

http://www.moxieandmeanderings.com/uber-miami-language-problem/


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

Montgomery said:


> http://www.moxieandmeanderings.com/uber-miami-language-problem/
> 
> *An Open Letter To Uber Miami: We Have A Language Problem*
> by: Liana Lozada
> ...


UBER : Bringing the third world home for YOU.


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

Exactly. Not all drivers are bad. I find it hard to believe that all drivers are as bad as this pax say they are. I don't have a problem with the post except for the fact he/she is trying to act like all drivers are this way.


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## Montgomery (Jan 7, 2015)

uberdriverfornow said:


> Exactly. Not all drivers are bad. I find it hard to believe that all drivers are as bad as this pax say they are. I don't have a problem with the post except for the fact he/she is trying to act like all drivers are this way.


What gets to me is that she clearly uses UberPool on a regular basis. She is going as cheap as a pax can possibly go and then she complains about the service.


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

Montgomery said:


> What gets to me is that she clearly uses UberPool on a regular basis. She is going as cheap as a pax can possibly go and then she complains about the service.


Exactly. I don't even like doing pool myself and I'm a fairly social person. I just want to get somewhere and I'm not trying to save a whole dollar by doing pool.

If pool is an issue then how about stop doing pool ? You get what you pay for.


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## Montgomery (Jan 7, 2015)

uberdriverfornow said:


> Exactly. I don't even like doing pool myself and I'm a fairly social person. I just want to get somewhere and I'm not trying to save a whole dollar by doing pool.
> 
> If pool is an issue then how about stop doing pool ? You get what you pay for.


That's one aspect of it but also she claims to be "Zen". If she really is "Zen" what happened to empathy? She clearly cannot put herself in the shoes of the drivers. She can not see that she is endorsing the rock bottom prices that equate to starving wages for most drivers. She is all about "Zen" as long as her "me" "me" "me" and her pocket comes first.


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## LA Cabbie (Nov 4, 2014)

I heard Tim Conway Jr say something very smart on KFI today when he was filling in for Jon and Ken. His father the original Tim Conway told him if you get jealous of the rich getting treated (for the better) differently than you. Then you need to work hard and get rich too. Opposite of that, if you take a service meant for people to poor for the bus, then what do you expect? Think Uber is bad now? Wait until Hillary gets into office along with all the "refugees". Just letting you know when you come back crawling to taxi I no longer will start my engine unless I have $20 in hand. Uber on.


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

LA Cabbie said:


> when you come back crawling to taxi


Every day, on Uber Taxi, I get at least one frustrated TNC user who recently learned about Uber Taxi. All of them are positively delighted with the service. If they have any complaint, it is that they can not get an Uber Taxi in some parts of the City at certain times of day.

Years, back, Washington cab drivers had quite the horrid reputation. We, the legitimate drivers kept telling the Authorities that the problem was not us, it was the illegals. They were aware of the illegals' presence, but did little about it. Here, the illegals were mostly drivers who had no hack licence but were driving legitimate taxicabs. Every once in a while, the Authorities would do a crackdown, but, the illegals simply waited until it blew over, then they were back. It became particullarly bad under Our Former Dear Revered Leader Kim il-Fenty.

When Uber first showed up here, it was Uber Black, only. Still, some of the illegals who could get hold of a Town Car, or similar, or, the financing for it, figured "Why risk it? I can do this, instead, and not worry about a licence". As the Commonwealth of Virginia requires no special licence for a limousine driver, and, these illegals had friends who lived there, they simply used the friend's address if they did not live in Virginia. Uber Taxi was the next Uber to show up, here. When UberX showed up, almost all of the remaining illegals went for it. There are plenty of "Buy here/Pay here" places in this area with lots full of five to eight year old Camrys. They will finance anyone who can frost a mirror. As did their colleagues before them, they thought "Why risk it? I can do this, instead and I do not n eed a special licence". The result has been that D.C. hackers have earned back some of their good reputation. (They still balk at the plastic, though. Every time that they do that, they play directly into the hand of the TNCs about which they caterwaul.)
We now tell the Authorities that we had told them so.

One of the complaints about D.C. cab drivers was the very thing about which the author of this article laments: they could not speak English. In the case of the illegals, it was often true.


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## rembrandt (Jul 3, 2016)

Greedy consumers ! You get what you pay for even though you are already getting a subsidized service run by poor drivers.


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## SEAL Team 5 (Dec 19, 2015)

Montgomery said:


> http://www.moxieandmeanderings.com/uber-miami-language-problem/
> 
> *An Open Letter To Uber Miami: We Have A Language Problem*
> by: Liana Lozada
> ...


Montgomery,

Thank fir reechin out. Uber us weee tri hard to bee intelijent. Plees see me werk hard to bee smart. Talk driver in American speak Inglish. We drive u to house and we drive u to werk. Werk me at 7/11 tonite. Werk me Uber today.


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## TravisNJ (Apr 7, 2015)

In this thread: cheap ******bag uses POOL and gets bad service.

In this thread: cheap ******bag is upset that drivers have tip jars because it detracts from her exploiting 'uber experience'.

Eff off, you deserve your crappy experience. I wish we could respond to these open letters publicly.


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## wk1102 (Dec 25, 2015)

Wow, I hate this 

Can't be that bad, she's still alive and using Uber. 

What did she do before Uber, its only been in Miami a few years.


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## ChortlingCrison (Mar 30, 2016)

So Uber isn't the language of love?


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## Dontmakemepullauonyou (Oct 13, 2015)

tohunt4me said:


> UBER : Bringing the third world home for YOU.


At third world prices!


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## Montgomery (Jan 7, 2015)

TravisNJ said:


> In this thread: cheap ******bag uses POOL and gets bad service.
> 
> In this thread: cheap ******bag is upset that drivers have tip jars because it detracts from her exploiting 'uber experience'.
> 
> Eff off, you deserve your crappy experience. I wish we could respond to these open letters publicly.


Yeah she doesn't have a comment section on her postings, I wonder why.


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## wk1102 (Dec 25, 2015)

But, her name is at the top of the page and she has twitter...


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## Adieu (Feb 21, 2016)

LA Cabbie said:


> I heard Tim Conway Jr say something very smart on KFI today when he was filling in for Jon and Ken. His father the original Tim Conway told him if you get jealous of the rich getting treated (for the better) differently than you. Then you need to work hard and get rich too. Opposite of that, if you take a service meant for people to poor for the bus, then what do you expect? Think Uber is bad now? Wait until Hillary gets into office along with all the "refugees". Just letting you know when you come back crawling to taxi I no longer will start my engine unless I have $20 in hand. Uber on.


ALREADY on that plan.

UberSelect and Lyft hourlies.

Unfortunately Lyft hourly pax don't always seem to realize I'm NOT working for their 5 bus, but some seem to be figuring it out


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## Serge Que (May 29, 2015)

First,,, I agree with this letter 200%!!!! As an Uber driver for well over a year the number one thing I hear from PAX is "oh MY GOD!!!! You actually speak English!!!!" Second thing "wow thats a clean car"... At first I thought they where just bullshitting and then I noticed every time I or my family took an Uber not once has the person spoke English. Not once!!! And I order only Lux. So if most Lux drivers dont speak a word what do you expect from Joe,, uh, Jose?! I actually complained about this to an Uber manager during a meeting, to which they said "we love our bilingual drivers". With all due respect,, 21year old "just graduated and hired and brainwashed by Uber" manager, bilingual means TWO languages!!! Not " Hahahahaha Cuba, no English" The bottom line is while the illegal Cuban slaves are driving for that 80c a mile, we will have no choice but to put up with low pay as drivers and shit service as riders! And that the way Uber likes it! Because if tomorrow they had to give English tests to drivers,,, they would have to fire 85% of their workforce! And they would have no choice but to raise prices! Thanks Uber for ****ing us everywhichway!


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## sellkatsell44 (Oct 25, 2015)

I think it's very interesting that her open letter has this kind of backlash but I'm not surprised. It's not a well written, thought out, or researched one. Looking at her LinkedIn profile I'm not as impressed (as I think she'd want us to be).

I assume she sees a problem with uber based on her on personal experiences but instead of outlining what could be done or suggest what could be done at the very least (I have a pet peeve about folks complaining without trying on the other shoe to see if there's a solution feasible) she didn't look as to _why _there are so many drivers on the road (is uber doing something to flood the market with drivers at a rate that isn't favorable e.g. You get a lot of drivers "passing" the background check) or what uber lacks in the ability to assist their non-English drivers to be able to work the area better (training, the gps system <- is this an issue they're aware of and is it part of why they're developing their own and would that help the drivers better the ride) etc?

She didn't care to do anything other then report her experience and a five year old can do that. What meat has she brought into the article? Why is this even something we would care about? Most folks would glance through it and yawn. I know I did. But I'm replying here because of the replies it has garnered. Truly puzzled.


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## LA Cabbie (Nov 4, 2014)

Serge Que said:


> First,,, I agree with this letter 200%!!!! As an Uber driver for well over a year the number one thing I hear from PAX is "oh MY GOD!!!! You actually speak English!!!!" Second thing "wow thats a clean car"... At first I thought they where just bullshitting and then I noticed every time I or my family took an Uber not once has the person spoke English. Not once!!! And I order only Lux. So if most Lux drivers dont speak a word what do you expect from Joe,, uh, Jose?! I actually complained about this to an Uber manager during a meeting, to which they said "we love our bilingual drivers". With all due respect,, 21year old "just graduated and hired and brainwashed by Uber" manager, bilingual means TWO languages!!! Not " Hahahahaha Cuba, no English" The bottom line is while the illegal Cuban slaves are driving for that 80c a mile, we will have no choice but to put up with low pay as drivers and shit service as riders! And that the way Uber likes it! Because if tomorrow they had to give English tests to drivers,,, they would have to fire 85% of their workforce! And they would have no choice but to raise prices! Thanks Uber for &%[email protected]!*ing us everywhichway!


I guess news takes a while to travel from the west coast to the east. Uber's mission is to bring the 3rd world to our shores.


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## OC Lady Uber Driver (Jun 26, 2016)

I understand if you drive for UberEspanol, your ability to communicate in Spanish has to be at a IRL grade 3 or above (professional level) and you are tested for that.

If there's no minimum functional literacy for non-native English speakers, I can see how that can create problems, even dangerous and life-threatening ones as montgomery described, before and during a ride.

How can Uber expect drivers to provide even a minimum level of customer service when communication issues exist like that? Shouldn't a driver's ability to communicate in english at a certain competency level in the U.S. be required for them to understand and uphold Uber's TOS, reputation and the rider's safety?

I smell a lawsuit coming on this one.

P.S.: Just this past weekend, a native spanish speaker orders uber and gets me, someone who can barely speak spanish, but we figured it out. I took 4 years of it in high school, but hardly remember it. He got scared when he thought I was driving him not to is destination, but somewhere else when he didn't recognize the way home. I could see the panic in his eyes. Upon arrival, I somehow remembered 'Estas aqui' and he was OK after that and exited the vehicle. I know it's not the 'you have arrived' message WAZE states, but it got the message across.


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## Flarpy (Apr 17, 2016)

rembrandt said:


> Greedy consumers ! You get what you pay for even though you are already getting a subsidized service run by poor drivers.


 yep yet another instance of passengers wanting professional level taxi service and not wanting to pay for it. Uber drivers are random amateur shmucks with no specific driver training. and they're paid commensurate with that experience.


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## FaaaUber (Feb 18, 2016)

You can't expect to be driven by a professional driver for this rates. Even new emigrants are not happy with uber's rates. You get what you pay fore, that's economics. Tell uber to increase their rate and bee more selective with drivers and you'll see a better service. But and again that's not what uber wants.


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## JimS (Aug 18, 2015)

Take a freakin' bus. Think of it as UberSuperPool in a $500,000 ride for less than the cost of a Starbucks.

The City of Miami thanks you.


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## uber fool (Feb 3, 2016)

disculpa, no hablo inglés


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## limepro (Mar 7, 2015)

I took a couple rides on Tuesday as I had jury duty and didn't feel like driving myself downtown even though it is only 10 minutes away. I took a Lyft in the morning as the Uber app wouldn't log in. The car was decent enough just a basic newer corolla, the driver didn't know much English but it was early so I just wanted to get there. Once I got out I went outside of the courthouse and purposefully put the pin on the side I was on across the street so there was no confusion. He goes to the opposite side of the courthouse and calls me, didn't speak a word of English so I cancelled and used Uber to avoid getting the same driver. This time he pulled up and I was waiting on the side of the street he was coming from to make life easier. He didn't speak much English but you could tell he was trying to learn it. It seems in Miami the corolla is popular, both my rides were in them.


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## LA Cabbie (Nov 4, 2014)

Corolla is popular with Hispanics.


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## LA Cabbie (Nov 4, 2014)

Got her name Liana Lozada.

A Miami newspaper picked up on it:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/d...e-english-or-spanish-speaking-drivers-8680964

This gal sounds like a self hating Latina who has nothing going on of any worth in her life if all she does is worry about a taxi service that she pays less for than a Starbucks.

I would not be surprised if she wants her 15 minutes of fame so her social media followers can grow. Sad.


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## tee hee (Nov 24, 2015)

?" I know riders _can_ tip, but soliciting tips is a bit of an anti-Uber experience.:

NO NO NO NO NO! Drivers can solicit tips all they want!


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