Stress, Schedules and Customer Service: Smile for the Camera
by Mark FossThe driver pulled into the bus stop at a busy intersection and got out of the seat to leave the bus. He needed to use the only restroom — euphemistically called a “comfort station†by the company. The hour-long trip was made longer by the number of people picked up. The schedule was impossible unless the bus was empty. People were impatient. They considered it his fault. There was no time to explain. Stress was high.
The trip consisted of two interlined routes passing through the center of the city. Once the shoppers came out around 9:00 a.m., he was chronically late. Every Sunday was a 10-hour day filled mind numbing work. The schedule showed seven minutes recovery time on one end and ten minutes on the other end. Maybe the schedule would recover — he wouldn’t.
He checked his watch. There were four minutes left before he was scheduled to leave the next terminal. Schedules lie, he thought. The terminal was in a residential neighborhood six blocks from the contract-paid location offering a restroom. There was no time to walk back, no time to get coffee and no time to decompress.
Three people were still on the bus when he got ready to get off. One of them swore at him, asking why he was leaving the bus. One more bit of stress. A less patient driver would have told the rude passenger where to get off. The driver simply shrugged and went into the restaurant to use the toilet. This happened years before YouTube existed.
Recently Mass Transit magazine ran a blog discussing the impact on transit companies of videos and photos posted to the internet. One of the links caught my eye. It was about a Toronto driver taking a mid-route break — caught on video.  I have driven public transit buses. For many years now I have supervised drivers. I have enforced the rules and written negative performance reports when drivers stopped where they shouldn’t. The trouble with judging a situation from a video is that it fails the test of consideration of context.
The sleeping worker in the booth (assuming he wasn’t sick) was clearly wrong, and in my judgment, he should be disciplined.  On the other hand, the driver stopping for coffee might have been within policy guidelines. It’s hard to judge without a context. The driver in my story above was following policy — and he was entitled at least to use the restroom, if not get a cup of coffee. The schedule delay was the company’s fault — i.e. bad schedule and poor placement of a terminal to begin with.
Across the country transit budgets are under enormous pressure. Cuts in the hours are being proposed. Changes to schedules to squeeze out more “revenue hours†are being made. King County, Washington, completed a performance audit of public transit not long ago. Among other things, the audit discusses “building more cost-efficient schedulesâ€. The report goes on to say: “Currently, the time Transit’s buses are waiting at the end of routes is higher than at other transit agencies in some cases, the amount of time allotted exceeds what is needed for operations.†(Technical Report B Service Development, p.4)
My concern is that real customer service will suffer in the name of budget gains. It is easy to consider service in terms of the number of revenue hours, the number of trips run or the number of rides per year. But how do you define quality? Customer service consists not only in facilities, vehicles and schedules. It also consists in how clean the transit vehicles are, how safe the public feels and how the service is delivered. I have seen transit driver’s begin their career happy, motivated and healthy. Five years later they appear hard, bitter and drained. Stress in the transit business huge health hazard. I contend that it is also a customer service hazard as well. Service suffers when transit operators drive without breaks. I have yet to see an audit that assesses the effect of tighter schedules on the quality of service delivered — let alone the health costs to the company.
When managers, planners and schedulers consider how to deliver more service for less, they should consider the quality of that service. The placement of terminals, location of restroom facilities and layover time at terminals has an impact on that quality. If the people delivering that service are unable legitimately to eat, drink, use a “comfort station†or decompress, they will do it anyway. The difference between the story above and now is that they may be on camera.
Mark Foss has more than 24 years experience working for King County Metro Transit. His experience includes work as a bus operator, special ridership coordinator in accessible services and 1st line transit supervisor. Currently, he works as a communications coordinator in the transit control center (TCC).
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:26 pm
When I was a scheduler I got used to the common theme of “just five more minutes, that’s all I need.” Maybe it’s five maybe it’s ten. The fact is, we need to constantly monitor and adjust for safe operations and good customer service. We also need to provide reasonable accomodations for drivers. We can’t rely on the kindness of the the local convenience store for a driver’s bathroom break. We shouldn’t plan layovers and the closest rest facility to be more than a few hundred feet away from each other. Every minute counts and sometimes it will cost us extra to assure the quality performance our customers deserve and have come to expect. That includes our internal customers as well. Planners know that the most important things about fixed route operations is how to turn the bus around and where is the closest restroom. If you can’t answer these questions, don’t build the route.