More than 10,000 drivers will offer high-quality service during the Beijing Olympics, a senior official from the Beijing Olympic organizing committee (BOCOG) said yesterday.
About 3,000 professional drivers together with 8,000 volunteers and 7,000 vehicles will serve the event, Yu Chunquan, director of the BOCOG Transport Department, said.
"About 20 percent of those selected drivers are able to communicate in English fluently and most of them can speak simple English," said Yu, whose department is in charge of offering transportation services for all the accredited groups of the Beijing Games, including athletes, media, officials and sponsors.
"A multi-languages services system will also be fixed in all the control centers of the transportation and at all the picking up and getting off areas there will be volunteers to facilitate the services of all the drivers," he added.
To ensure basic English communication capability, volunteers were recruited from various sources in the city, such as government departments, foreign companies and education organizations, Yu said.
"The volunteers should pass the evaluations of driving skills, clean driving records and the test of language capabilities," Yu said.
"All of them have received general training and are now undergoing training for specific positions."
Among the 7,000 vehicles are 1,660 coaches, 3,200 mini-buses and 2,000 others ordered by sponsors. Only professional drivers will drive coaches.
Including drivers, almost 20,000 people will meet Olympic transportation needs. Six temporary control centers will be set up in the capital and special Olympic lanes will be designated during the Games.
