Talkin-Typewrita.
- Critique Talk
Oh, Bus Captains!
Thursday, October 16, 2008, 01:15
Alright, before I start elaborating more on what I have to say about bus captains, just a question to ask. How do you guys feel about the bus drivers in singapore? Be it their attitude or their service standards. Well, I do have "not so good" comments for them despite I have to depend on them to drive me to school everyday. =) I am not here to discriminate them or have any grudges against them, just want to talk about how I feel about them.That day I was coming back from the Singapore Zoo, and I took this bus that takes me back to Ang Mo Kio interchange. There was this family(I think they were not locals) who wanted to board the bus and asked the bus captain some questions(I did not really catch what they were asking). BUT I could hear the bus captain shouting at them, asking them to hurry up and don't waste her(bus captain) time. I could tell that the family was kinda shocked and embarassed when the bus captain shouted at them. But they did not say anything much and just went to sit down.
Now, my point is, Singapore Zoo is a place where there will be and there are alot alot of tourists. How would they think of Singapore when they hear bus drivers scolding passengers or even worse, when they are the ones being scolded? I think this is going to "throw our own face" in the eyes of tourists. Ok, I may be exaggerating, but put ourselves in the family's shoe. "I came to Singapore to spend money but I ended up getting scolded by someone." Is not because of this one incident that makes me think that bus captains have no good service standards and they are(not all but some) "attitude". Just think about very morning when you are feeling soo tired and boring to go to school, and when you are trying to squeeze up the bus, the bus is just so crowded at the front(but there are some spaces behind) that you can't even board. Did the bus captain say anything? (I think they are suppose to ask the people to shift to the back ya?). But surprisingly, some bus captians just kept quiet, do nothing, but wait for people to shift to the back themselves. Some even straight away closed the door and "FORCE" people to squeeze up somehow. When you did not flag the bus early (because you really can't see), the first thing you receive when you got up the bus was a stare by the bus captain, followed by a greeting, "NEXT TIME MUST FLAG EARLY!!!"
There was no smile, no other nice greetings, nothing.
Of course there are good and nice bus captians(with service standards) somewhere out there, but so far alot of the bus captains I met were the no greetings, no smile kind. I really wonder how the bus companies train their bus captians. Do they know that passengers were being scolded for nothing? Do they know that we are running late for work/class but the bus captains are not helping us to quickly get on the bus? I don't know if I remembered wrongly, if i don't, I think Singapore is trying to achieve quailty service standards ya? If this is the case, then we need to really look into how the bus captains "interact" with passengers and if necessary, teach them "communications skills".
Labels: Jocelyn