OC Transpo: $4 Of Worthless Work: BENN
Simple problems should be addressed with simple solutions.
The New Way to Bus changes brought in a couple of months ago have extended the commute times for people in Barrhaven. Perhaps elsewhere as well, but in the case of the Barrhaven residents, what was once a 75 minute or so commute now extends well beyond 90 minutes. The 90-minute figure presents a problem. The Presto card tap to pay application allows transfers within a 90-minute window. If more than 90 minutes passes from the time of the first tap to a transfer, then the card is charged an extra $4. Automatically.
According to Knoxdale-Merivale Councillor Sean Devine, the New Way to Bus changes removed 75,000 hours of service. This means that there are fewer buses on fewer routes. Many of the routes affected are the ones between the main transit hub and the local community. This is the most likely element of the extended commute time.
The ‘solution’ that OC Transpo has implemented is for the over-charged commuter to contact OC Transpo and file a complaint. Each case will be individually adjudicated, with the process taking weeks. Many weeks. Over $4.
The simple solution has two parts.
First, address the fundamental recurring flaw and extend the lapsed time from 90 to 120 minutes. This should take but a dozen or so key strokes by a programmer who is familiar with the payment module. Unless the code was written by people who are not familiar with the best practices established a few decades ago. In which case, it might take a bit more time. We won’t know unless OC Transpo tries. The caveat to this is that it would require an acknowledgement by OC Transpo that their New Way to Bus has led to lower service levels. The damage to the recently departed general manager Rene Amilcar’s reputation is unlikely to affect her career prospects as she has already moved on to a different role that is not in Ottawa.
Second, we are talking about $4 per event. Why is OC Transpo devoting more than $4 of time to resolving this? Four dollars being less than 10 minutes for an entry level clerk. Just approve the refund as it is filed and get on with providing value-added service levels.
Allow me put this more bluntly. If anyone at OC Transpo thinks this is a good use of that entry level clerk’s time, then there are two or more jobs that should be cut. The entry level position that is clearly not performing a value-added service and the manager who has spent more time thinking about this than it takes to have a sip of coffee.
Ron Benn, a finance executive, has been a member of the Centrepointe Community Association for the better part of three decades.
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Where is the new acting GM in all of this? Shouldn’t this be an issue they could easily resolve and at the same time grab some credibility for themselves as well as the system?
Been There: the acting GM was part of the senior management team that created The New Way to Bus. He was likely also part of the senior management team that crafted the ineffective adjudication process. By implementing changes to the transfer time period and the adjudication process, per my suggestions above, he would be de facto acknowledging that The New Way to Bus is inadequate. Egos often get in the way of progress.
Why is it taking 90 minutes to get home from work on transit anyway? To and from work within the city boundaries taking 90 minutes or more is completely insane.
The system is broken even if it that’s fixed.
Technology is great when it works, however, technology for the sake of technology, i.e. implementing a solution because all other cities have deployed it and we feel a need to join the “lemming brigade”, is not good project management. Projects must be undertaken to benefit end-users, not to keep overpaid programmers busy in the workforce.