“An older bus in the hands of a brilliant driver is worth more in terms of customer satisfaction than a new bus in the hands of a poor one.” – Leon Daniels, Commercial Director, First UK Bus, quoted in the current edition of CBW.
By “brilliant driver”, Mr Daniels is referring to customer care as well as actual driving skills.
Saturday, 22 September 2007
Quote of the Week
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6 comments:
And how right Leon Daniels is - the problem is that even the best drivers get stressed and thus fail to deliver on occasions. . .
This is why some smaller operators who have tended to use life-expired stock do so well, even competing against better buses and even sometimes a superior frequency. It’s all about the ‘human’ factor and smaller operators have tended to be better at that.
Frequency of buses not an issue. Fares less of an issue with free travel. Drivers are the one issue that passengers complain most consistently about. Even where drivers seem to be in a well trained environment, the perception is they are not.
I agree, drivers are definately unfairly stereotyped and blamed for events that are out of their control. They have to deal with stupid people complaining that they are late while dodging speeding taxis and members of the pulic who seem to have learnt the green cross code in reverse. No wonder some get stressed! But some get rid of it by ranting: like www.bloodbus.com.
WHat does this tell us? It tells us that bus companies should vlaue us drivers much much more. Just think what good the combination of a new bus and an excellenet driver could do. Above all, it's the driver that matters most, though.
(formerly generaladam)
I agree, the driver matters most.
A new bus and good driver- we have lost of fast ones in cambridgeshire-80 mph plaxton trident!
They also know how to hadle these buses so at 80 it feels like 40.
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