Friday, August 1, 2008

'Clockwatching' by employees, and how it can adversely affect passengers.

There have been problems with some drivers on UTA routes being so intent on 'making it on time', that they have neglected good customer service in how they handle things on their routes regarding people and their needs to catch buses.

An incident about 2pm Monday on 45th South and 9th East in Salt Lake Valley is illustrative.

I had purchased a bottle of water because of the heat and had drank it and was disposing of the bottle when it missed the can (had an apron around the opening), and fell behind the can. I went to pick it up, it was right in front of the stop marker. That is when the driver flew right by, and didn't even slow down to see if I wanted his bus.

There was nothing to indicate there were traffic problems, in fact when I got on a later bus, I found no problems save for some construction-related traffic for the condos next to the TRAX station at Murray North Station on Fireclay Avenue.

This points to a practice known as 'clockwatching' by employees. Some do it to work no more than is required, some do it to as noted try to 'stay on schedule' to the extreme, others do it out of spite for their employers. That last one is almost never an issue with UTA employees, by and large they are usually very good about their employer, being UTA, they keep the issues they have largely to themselves.

An example of clockwatching: I heard about some orchestra members for a recording session leaving because the session lasted too long, it affected how the record came out soundwise when it came out.

It's that example of the orchestra members that is the most similar to the 45th South matter, the driver was worried enough about meeting his schedule that he was possibly just simply inattentive to what his real duty was, and that was to help the rider, his customer, get to where he/she was going in a timely fashion. Sure this route had buses running every 15 minutes, but in some cases 15 minutes does count for something, that is why the upset here about the possibility of clockwatching.

Those that engage in clockwatching do it to the detriment of their employee, and also in this case with UTA, make the company look bad and also affect the image of being certified by ISO. While none of this is in the standard, the standard implies that the best of customer service will be maintained as far as it is possible.

Sure things will go wrong, and complaints have to sometimes be made, but that is why they have to be made, to help everyone, myself included as a rider, do a better job, and make all public statements made about quality seem more honest and believable, including the ISO accreditation that UTA has.

Stop change notification issue, industry best practices ignored

I have had a couple of incidents, including tonight, where UTA has made a needed stop change, but did not leave anything at the old stop after the sign was moved to the new location, to inform all riders that the stop has been moved, sometimes as much as nearly a block over.

The first incident happened in April, prior to a change day when they had built the MAX shelter at 56th West and 35th South eastbound. There was a stop just west of the 7-Eleven to the west of 56th West, and to add to the confusion the privately-owned bench company had little notice (in fact the bench is still there but no stop).

No one was told that the stop would move, at least some notice before and after notification would have helped.

The second incident happened tonight, August 1, at 630pm. At Sandhill Road and the middle entrance to Wal-Mart (not the one by the light) there had been a stop southbound as recently as four days ago. Due to some issues involving the shoulder, and by request of alot of people including the disabled, me included, they had moved it to just south of the Wal-Mart light.

But again, nothing left behind to tell passengers to go and wait. There was little time to move to the new stop, the previous stop in the order north of there was across University Parkway at the UVU stop.

That failure to notice a discontinued stop location does not follow transit industry best practices. Almost all agencies of which I am aware put something at the stop to say where to go to catch the bus. UTA used to, but now fail to follow this national standard, and it is part of ISO to keep the customer informed, and ensure passengers who may not know of the change as sudden as it may have to be at some times (often due to construction), then I do not see them really caring about the customer.

The best practices for this are to.

1. If able to, about two weeks before a stop is to be moved, place a notice (paper or plastic) on the UTA-owned sign pole indicating when the stop will be moved and to where.

2. If unable to due to sudden matters like construction, remove the actual flag sign, and then place a notice to direct passengers to where the new stop will be, or if temporary, where that will be and for how long if known (even that is not always possible but understood if not).

3. After a permanent stop move has been made effective, remove the stop marker flags, but leave the pole with the notice up for two weeks after the change, that is considered satisfactory to virtually all riders. Then after the two weeks, remove all equipment related to the stop that UTA owns.

This will ensure a better relationship between the rider and company, reduce incident calls where customers have complaints, and save time and costs for UTA to handle complants, supervisors to talk to drivers, etc. It will also make ISO 9001 look more attractive, and preserve the image of being accredited by ISO as a quality endorsed system.