Cabbies attend 'charm school' to stay competitive

TUKWILA, Wash. (KGO) -- Cabbies in Washington state have a new secret weapon to stay competitive against ridesharing services like Lyft and Uber -- charm school.

On Tuesday, taxi drivers with Yellow Cab, Orange Cab, and Farwest Taxi took part in a four-hour training course on customer service in Tukwila, a city just outside Seattle.

This comes after the Western Washington Taxicab Operators Association and Teamsters Local 117 asked South Seattle College's Hospitality Management Program for a curriculum.

ABC affiliate KOMO reports that about 170 taxicab operators paid $60 out of their pockets for the course that included topics on customer satisfaction and developing relationships with institutional clients.

A second training is offered Thursday and a third date has not yet been confirmed.

(ABC News contributed to this report)