Speaking Of Road Rage...

We had a "detour" on our routes the other day.
Events downtown that caused the city to close roads and made RTD reroute the routes the buses take.

Of course there is always that rare passenger who's upset and trust me, I'm right there with you because when you count on a ride...it just sucks when who you were counting on "bailed" on you.

As the passenger is getting off he says to me, "I'm so [censored] fed up and disgusted with RTD right now. If I had ANY OTHER choice, I'd take it."

Dude! I felt like I'd been sucker punched.

I mean, I've been in Customer Service long enough to know that you are not going to please all of the people all of the time. Somebody is going to be having a bad day for one of a million reasons and quite possibly, several of those reasons all at the same time.
I knew that I wasn't going to make him happy at that moment, that I could not make him happy.
I apologized over and over as he left but I know that customers don't want to hear excuses, especially when they're upset.
"The city has blocked the roads. The city won't let us driver down there..."
They are just that, excuses to the customer/passenger.
I couldn't get him to where he needed to go so I'd personally failed him in my eyes and his.

And I can relate.
Y'all remember the Bolder Bouder?
It's this little run/race up in Boulder on Memorial Day, had something like 75,000 runners from all over the world and all of their families, friends, companions and visitors all gathered into the tiny little town of Boulder.
The city itself is only about 25sq miles and only about 94,000 strong.
So triple it's population for the day and then add all their vehicles and every bus in the RTD system!

I was driving one of what seemed like 200 of the "accordian" buses and it was a nightmare.
People paid huge money to race and they paid us to get them to the race and back to their cars.

But the traffic, which at times seemed to only consist of buses was so backed up that one loop around the city took me two hours. The passengers/runners were on their phones, talking about missed starting times, missed group runs, lost fees and opportunities and kids were crying.
People were hoping off the buses and attempting to run the miles to the race just to run some more!

RTD set up the Drivers for failure.
RTD could have planned the event, the routes and the road closures, could have coordinated this with the town of Boulder months and months in advance.
They could have had a loop around the city, half the lanes reserved for buses only that was like an express lane. We could have shuttled runners around the city in fifteen minutes.

What ended up happening was they left it all on the shoulders of the Drivers.

The Driver has been (pun intended) thrown under the bus and left to fend for themselves.
We are the front lines, and we have to look you, the passenger/customer in the eye and say, "I'm sorry."

It's an utter helpless feeling.
I can offer you a free ride in the name of good customer relations but when I get found out that I'm giving out free rides, RTD will write me up and eventually fire me.
And the passengers who see me giving out free rides to others, the passengers who paid huge money for their passes then see me giving free rides - they are going to feel slighted.
Now I just upset another passenger by trying to soothe an upset passenger.

I know y'all are upset.
I WANT to, I NEED to make it up to you.
I want y'all to get the best ride I can give you every day.
I can only control the ride we're on, the moment we're on it.
I can only make sure you come aboard a bus with a pleasant Driver, have a safe ride and arrive on time.

It kills me when y'all are unhappy and have bad experiences.
I want you to get off the bus every day and think, "Dang, I'm gonna miss those guys until Monday!"

And to the passenger who said to me that if he had any other choice, he'd take it...
You have no idea how sorry I am that you feel that way.
If I thought RTD would do it, I'd recommend they give you a year's pass to attempt to begin to mend the relationship.
Come back and let me try to make your feelings about RTD better?

Please?

As always, "Welcome aboard, find your seats - Let's Roll!"