Appreciating our transport providers

Our transport providers want to raise their fares. They say that they have to, as their tills are depleting and their costs are going up. The commuters are up in arms as their salaries have yet to rise. While the final decision is being debated, here is a short take on how our beloved, efficient and cannot-do-without bus and train service providers will and do provide excellent customer service to the man in the street (or bus, or train?) :

a) provide an efficient way to collect fares accurately - the ezlink card do just that; the provider will never get short-changed as previously commuters could get away by paying lower fares. Well, this state-of-the-art system could have some inherent errors and the passengers do get over-charged at times. After all, all systems have some system bugs and, anyway, the errors are way below 1%.

b) use the satellite system to track movement of buses along roads and automatically update the fare stages. Wow! Again, there may be times when the system may have a hard time telling apart 2 buses at the same bus-stop. A little error here and a little error there, so what? No big deal!

c) provide a hassle-free way to refund over-charged and annoyed commuters. Nevermind, if this process takes at least five days, requires the passenger to fill forms, requires the passenger to prove he or she was over-charged. Nevermind, if the total administrative costs of refunding the sum is way high than the refunded amount (usually less than a dollar). Nevermind, if the commuter always have to check his tickets everyday if he was correctly charged. Nevermind, if we have a high technology satellite system to track buses but not one to provide refunds promptly on the spot. Nevermind, if the elderly and poor and illiterate have difficulties coping with the refund process. After all, at the end of the day, those overcharged do get their money back.

d) make it easy to replace ezlink card - but only after the elderly commuter has made a police report, filled some forms (we need filled forms to run our business), etc etc

Now this is what I call customer service at its peak.