A series of bizarrely aggressive incidents involving bus
drivers has led Metro Transit to step up its customer relations and
diversity training.
The wave of bad behaviour began Friday, February 27, when a courier
illegally parked his van in a bus stop on Barrington, angering a Metro
Transit driver. According to a Herald article citing an unnamed
witness, the bus driver got in a verbal altercation with the courier
and repeatedly rammed the bus into the van.
But the bus drivers’ union claims the alleged incident may not have
happened at all.
“There’s never been a claim into Metro Transit,” says Dan MacDonald,
president of Local 508 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which
represents Metro Transit employees. “The police didn’t lay any
charges.”
Regardless, the Herald article brought a cascade of comments
from bus riders, each with a tale of bad driver behaviour, and reporter
Chris Lambie embarked on a series of reports highlighting
customer-driver conflicts, some related to race.
Then, last week, a woman wearing an Islamic veil that partially
covered her face was initially denied entrance to a bus.
“I was behind her, next to get on the bus,” explains Sarah Wilbur.
“And the driver just started yelling at her, ‘you can’t get on the
bus!’ in her face. The driver was yelling at her and her husband, and
they just wanted to get on the bus.”
Wilbur, who happens to work for the YMCA’s Centre for Immigrant
Programs, defended the woman’s right to board. The driver contacted
Metro Transit and after about 20 minutes was instructed to allow the
woman passage and carry on with his route.
“We’ve had a series of violent assaults,” explains MacDonald. “With
young people running around with bandanas and [balaclavas], it created
quite a bit of problem. And we were given some literature saying that
riders couldn’t cover their faces.
“The operator in question thought he was following instructions, but
obviously was in the wrong. He’s very apologetic, knows what he did was
wrong. I dare say an incident like that will never happen again. It
will become part of our training, put right in the book.”
Interviewed last Friday, MacDonald took exception at what he
considers unfair attention given to bus drivers.
“These articles in the Herald—I don’t know if [Lambie] has
an axe to grind with us or not,” says MacDonald. “You ask people to
write in with all the horror stories you can find about bus drivers, of
course everybody would have one at some point in time if you’re a
regular bus user.”
But just a day later, a driver apparently freaked out when passing a
demonstration against the seal hunt held along Spring Garden. According
to CBC accounts, the driver stopped the bus, jumped out and attacked a
stuffed seal that was used by demonstrators as a prop, repeatedly
whacking it with a stick. Police intervened, rescuing the seal, and the
driver got back on the bus and carried on with his route.
Reader comments on CBC’s website are overwhelmingly in favour of the
driver, but Metro Transit management is embarrassed.
“This behaviour is unacceptable,” says Pat Soanes, manager at Metro
Transit in a terse press statement issued Monday. “We deeply regret
that some of our patrons have experienced embarrassment or
distress.”
MacDonald has not returned phone calls since the last incident.
Lambie, for his part, says the allegation that he has an axe to grind
with the drivers is ridiculous. “Yeah, I created the problem,” jokes
Lambie. “I was the guy with the baton hitting the seal, I was the guy
yelling at the Muslim woman, I was the lady that wouldn’t let the black
kid on the bus, I was the one that bumped the bus…”
The problematic drivers may be an indication of growing pains for
Metro Transit, which has increased service by 60 percent in just four
years. About 140 drivers, or 30 percent of the workforce, have been on
the road for less than two years and, arguably, haven’t developed the
customer service skills of more seasoned drivers. (Although, the driver
in conflict with the Muslim woman is just two years away from
retirement.)
Soanes says Metro Transit is developing “refresher” training courses
on diversity and customer relations. “We clearly have more work to do.”
This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2009.
If I saw a bus driver coming after the seal with a club, I would have kicked his ass.
This same bus driver is probably the same one who insulted the Muslim woman.
And we gotta pay more to ride the bus with these loony drivers???
Bus drivers are human… Although it has been an interesting few weeks for MT, I, like everyone else, find the seal clubbing indecent inconsequential; but the face covering issue a little more dire.
I want to thank the rest of the bus drivers – the ones who get us where we’re going every day, while being polite and professional. I believe they are the majority, which can’t be easy, considering the crap they have to deal with sometimes, with no supervisor in the next office to help out. Heck, sometimes they’re even friendly and cheerful! Let’s not paint them all with the same brush. Tomorrow morning, thank your driver!
“…a demonstration against the seal hunt held along Spring Garden.”
I had no idea that our beloved downtown seals were in danger. The panhandlers are bad enough. Now we have seal hunters. It’s all going to hell in a handbasket.
I find that we get talked about a lot on the bus, but I have yet to have a passenger ask me about any of these events. It has been an interesting time to be a bus driver, but like all things, if you can’t take it in stride, you’ll never get through it.
It is interesting to quote that 30% of the workforce (myself included) has under 2 years with the company. In each of the incidents, the drivers had over 2 years with the company. It is a requirement now that drivers have 3 years customer service experience so the drivers coming in at some point have dealt with people (I’d been in the field, either retail or call centre management for nearly 10 years when I came aboard at the start of 2008).
Chris Lambie is right, he did not bump vans, reject muslims, or club the ground next to a fake seal (video on Global Maritimes site, look for 3/16 newscast). What he did that made Mr. MacDonald question his motives (and myself in a printed letter to the editor) was solicit stories of bus rage, then put them to print and call it a story. No followup about our positives was ever done (though I do have to give CBC Radio’s Blair Sanderson a shoutout for putting the positive piece on Information Morning last Wednesday).
The seal incident happened on Saturday, yet transit has been in the news every day since as the media cycle runs its course by referring to talking heads and attempting to get info on complaints. I can’t say I wasn’t aware of the bad press my profession would get when I took this job, but I can say that the daily media is taking this a bit far. There are 400+ drivers at transit, and so far the actions of 4 of them (1%) are giving the public an impression of the rest of us that is worse than it already is. It stinks being stuck behind a bus, to get cut off by anything, etc… but noone notices the mundane act of driving properly. There are 40 hours in our week we have to keep our buses in one piece, I think we do an alright job of that considering the circumstances.
Have they been secretly checking the LTWWB board? If not, they’re in for a shocker.
It is true that we’re more likely to see a driver having an “off” day if we’re on the bus on a regular basis, but the fact is that it’s not just some man or woman not greeting you with a smile or caring whether you talk their ear off or not. The point being made is that, for some reason, there are certain drivers who are over stepping their boundaries as bus drivers. Of course customer service jobs can be hectic and annoying but those are the negative parts of any job.
Last summer my friend and I went on the bus and asked for a transfer. He reluctantly gave us one – We thought he was jokingly saying he wouldn’t give us the transfers. When we dinged the bell for our stop he slowed down, saw that we were getting off and continued driving! We asked him to stop the bus several times but he refused, saying ” There aren’t any other buses you can get from this stop.” – Which is not true, but also we were stopping at my house first to pick up some clothes before catching the next bus. Eventually my friend said ” LET US OFF THE F’ING BUS” (of course with more profanity than that). He then slammed on the brakes and opened the doors. We called metro transit and complained right away. It was insane.
I have no sympathy for anyone who will refuse a person’s rights. It’s your job- do it efficiently like those bus drivers who DO do their job properly and even with a smile.
I agree with Plastic Diver Guy, I have been using the Transit system here for over 7 years, and I have never had an altercation with a driver. Once I was on the 20 Herring Cove (sure that one isn’t any fun, running through Sprytown and all) and the driver was driving normally the entire route and near the end some asshole passenger yelled stuff at the driver and spat on him, the driver kept his cool and just shook his head. I have never forgotten that, as the ratio of a$$hole passengers to a$$hole drivers is probably 10,000 to 1. I say give the drivers credit, they put up with a lot of crap.
But just a day later, a driver apparently freaked out when passing a demonstration against the seal hunt held along Spring Garden. According to CBC accounts, the driver stopped the bus, jumped out and attacked a stuffed seal that was used by demonstrators as a prop, repeatedly whacking it with a stick. Police intervened, rescuing the seal, and the driver got back on the bus and carried on with his route
This is typical of the “journalism” practiced at the Coast.If Tim Bosquet had have taken 30 seconds to look at the video, he would have seen that nothing of the sort happened.
The driver runs across the street, whacks the pavement beside the ‘seal” a couple of times, then runs back across the street, gets in the bus and drives away.He never touched the seal, far less “repeatedly whacking it with a stick”
The police did not “intervene”, or “rescue” the seal.
Hey, but why let the facts interfer with a good story, huh, Timmy…….
But just a day later, a driver apparently freaked out when passing a demonstration against the seal hunt held along Spring Garden. According to CBC accounts, the driver stopped the bus, jumped out and attacked a stuffed seal that was used by demonstrators as a prop, repeatedly whacking it with a stick. Police intervened, rescuing the seal, and the driver got back on the bus and carried on with his route
This is typical of the “journalism” practiced at the Coast.If Tim Bosquet had have taken 30 seconds to look at the video, he would have seen that nothing of the sort happened.
The driver runs across the street, whacks the pavement beside the ‘seal” a couple of times, then runs back across the street, gets in the bus and drives away.He never touched the seal, far less “repeatedly whacking it with a stick”
The police did not “intervene”, or “rescue” the seal.
Hey, but why let the facts interfer with a good story, huh, Timmy…….
But just a day later, a driver apparently freaked out when passing a demonstration against the seal hunt held along Spring Garden. According to CBC accounts, the driver stopped the bus, jumped out and attacked a stuffed seal that was used by demonstrators as a prop, repeatedly whacking it with a stick. Police intervened, rescuing the seal, and the driver got back on the bus and carried on with his route
This is typical of the “journalism” practiced at the Coast.If Tim Bosquet had have taken 30 seconds to look at the video, he would have seen that nothing of the sort happened.
The driver runs across the street, whacks the pavement beside the ‘seal” a couple of times, then runs back across the street, gets in the bus and drives away.He never touched the seal, far less “repeatedly whacking it with a stick”
The police did not “intervene”, or “rescue” the seal.
Hey, but why let the facts interfer with a good story, huh, Timmy…….
There is odd logic at work here.
Here is how the recent conversation between the public/media and Metro Transit has transpired:
Public: “you have bad drivers”
MT: “But our good drivers are GOOD!”
Public: “Yes. The good ones are good. This is not about the good ones. This is about the bad ones. How many of them are there? Is this an individual driver problem or is it systematic? Can you share your incident data so the public can have better context of the frequency of the same complaints? Can you share how you responded to complaints? What steps you took to investigate or root out any real or perceived prejudices that affect the quality of customer service?”
MT: “Look, we have (x) million of people-trips each year. The number of these incidents pales in comparison to the number of non-incidents.”
Public: “Yes. We’ve already established that this is not about what incidents you DON’T have. Getting people from A to B without incident is the sole purpose of the existence of Metro Transit. You don’t get brownie points for doing that.”
MT: “Just forget about it, OK? We have a system to investigate complaints and it works well. This is just a flash in the pan and does not happen often enough to warrant concerns about latent racism and prejudices within the organization”
Public: “Hmm. Ok. I’m willing to believe you. But just so we know for the future, how do you respond to complaints about racism, prejudice behavior, and road rage?”
MT: “We don’t”
Public: “Excuse me?”
MT: “Well, not unless the person complaining wants us to do something about it”.
Public: “So you’re saying that your organization does not have a system that naturally addresses complaints and takes steps to rectify them. Isn’t that the opposite of what you just claimed?”
MT: “No comment.”
Public: “How many complaints did you receive last year alone?”
MT: “Close to 4000”
Public: “4000! What did you do about them?”
MT: “Look. We can go around in circles if you want. But if it makes you happy, we’ll throw together a 2-day workshop for our drivers”
Public: “That’s nice. Would you have done that if we didn’t throw a fuss about it?”
MT: (mumbles)
Public: “Besides, talking to bad drivers is a reactionary measure at best and addresses a symptom, not the root cause. What are you going to do to your complaint-response system so as to prevent a situation like this from happening in the future?”
MT: “None of your business.”
Public: “Excuse me? You’re a publicly funded service. Ofcourse it’s my business!”
MT: “Oh.”
…..
I don’t think the questions the public is asking are unreasonable. And I certainly don’t see how these concerns about the true extent of the problem should in anyway be conceived as criticism against “good drivers”. So I’m not sure why some good drivers are taking exception to the public’s inquisition.
You make a few good points there issamat, but unfortunately, your logic is flawed. First, you’re claiming there has been racist, prejudiced behaviours and road rage. None of those things have happened in the past month. The incident of the driver and the courier was unfounded and no police report was filed, meaning it was a lie. The incident of the driver with the face covering is an issue with MT’s policies, not an issue of a racist driver. The fucking driver apologised, and if he was a racist, he wouldn’t have. If the public wants to complain and make changes to MT, it’s not MT’s responsibility to take it from the public. That’s your respective councilor’s problem funnel your anger through them, that’s what you get paid to do. Simple as that.
I think we need sensitivity training for immigrants, something like a class after the language training.
Teach people how to be laid back, go with the flow, leave the Middle Ages behind, pretend you are blind and can’t see skin colour, explore other views, treat people as equals, disagree but don’t be disagreeable, love thy neighbour even when the stereo is too loud or the dog barks, just smile when the Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses knock at your door and say ‘Not today, thank you’, gay is OK, not gay is OK too, it’s OK if your kid wants to marry someone who has a different religion or no religion, it’s OK if…………. etc.
“with all the horror stories you can find about bus drivers, of course everybody would have one at some point in time if you’re a regular bus user”
Umm… why “of course”? Shouldn’t regular bus users expect nothing but professionalism and courtesy from the city’s civil servants? Sounds like MacDonald KNOWS and actually EXPECTS that there are horror stories out there!
To Plastic Driver Guy: perhaps you should be concerned that there ARE “stories of rage” to BE solicited from the public in the first place! If drivers didn’t act like such assholes perhaps there would be no stories of rage to share!
I can’t even imagine the amount of miserable crap each HRM bus driver has to go through each month. Thanks for doing your best in a bat shit crazy city.
I was there that day. I myself was about to break their stupid posters in half. That was a lame and disgusting public display. I think that they diserved It and I laughed so hard. I was thrilled for him. He should not have been punished for that. They should be able to take what they’re given…What a F* joke for Halifax. You people need to put your energy into something useful, instead of invading other’s space with your crap!! Grow up.
Today there are new signs inside Metro Transit buses warning passengers and reminding them of which behaviors will not be tolerated while on the bus, and what to expect in terms of punishment for those behaviors.
Seems like MT is still taking the ‘blame the victim’ approach on this one. That, combined with their very defensive public letter on their website, is a text book case of what NOT to do in a bad public relations situation such as this one.
Bad PR/Customer Service:
– dismissing concerns as ‘alleged’.
– Getting into tit-n-tat with customers about who is right and who is wrong, in an effort to say to the customer “you are not satisfied because of something incorrect that you (customer) are doing or expecting, not something incorrect that we (MT) are doing”
Good PR/Customer Service:
– Acknowledging the concerns,
– Outlining efforts that will be taken to address the concerns,
– Noting how these new efforts will lead to the outcome that the customer is looking for in order to be satisfied with the service.
What do you want them to do issmat? Create a Customer Service desk? They’re doing the right thing in posting what is policy.
I think we need sensitivity training for joeblow, teach him how to leave the 1950s behind, that this is a complex multicultural society, that immigrants don’t fit his preconceived notions of backwardness, that his racist ideals of cultural assimilation and his intolerance of difference is no longer acceptable, that difference is OK, that change is OK, that diversity is OK, etc.
Plastic Driver Guy: “It stinks being stuck behind a bus, to get cut off by anything, etc…”
Hear, hear. I must say, coming from Montreal, I am absolutely appalled by the lack of respect Metro bus drivers receive from other motorists. People make jokes about dangerous big city traffic in Montreal, but I will say this: motorists in Montreal make way for buses!
As far as I know, it’s the law. Buses have right of way. I was once on a number 20 on Summer, where there is a pull-in lane for the bus stop. I sat on the bus, saw the driver turn on his indicator, and then wait… and wait… and wait… until the light turned red and the traffic stopped coming, and only then could he pull out and continue the route. I wanted to tell the driver: just step on it. Cars had better stop if they know what’s good for them.
Motorists: you don’t want to hit a bus. It’s very bad for your car, very bad for your wallet, and very bad for your license.
Intolerant and unprofessional behaviour by bus drivers is unacceptable and should be reprimanded, and bad apples should be fired. But on the other hand, bus drivers have a tough job driving a big, unwieldy vehicle, with typically 20 to 40 times more people with important jobs to do, compared to you, lone motorist in your car.
Give the drivers some respect — we’re all in the traffic together.
Dr. Fever: “What do you want them to do issmat? Create a Customer Service desk? They’re doing the right thing in posting what is policy.”
You are an idiot.
Wait, they DON’T HAVE a Customer Service desk? You’re a genius! Yes, definitely they should create one!
Seriously, issmat said all the right things. In a PR fiasco, you don’t fan the fire by playing blame games and upping the ante. You behave like the poor bus driver described by hrmboy: you take your knocks, and act professionally. That builds respect.
Acting petulant builds nothing but resentment.
On the topic of the seal hunt: unprofessional journalism aside, I have seen absolutely ZERO comments supportive of the bus driver that had any basis in rational thought (here or in the CBC article). The best anyone says is that the seal hunt supports local workers. Well, tough. That’s an irrelevant aside. We live in a free country, and people are free to hold public demonstrations to voice their opinions in their free time. The bus driver was ON THE JOB, driving a bus. Whether he whacked a stuffed seal, or the sidewalk next to a stuffed seal doesn’t matter — it was unprofessional in the extreme. Un-Canadian even. I can’t imagine that seeing some protesters advocating a viewpoint he disagreed with could have been worse than being verbally abused and spat on… so why couldn’t he just shake his head and drive on? If he wants to stage a pro-seal hunt demonstration on his own time, all the power to him.
And yes, it is despicable that the coast is reporting what anonymous online comments on a CBC article are saying, and reporting it as news. HRM MAYOR PETER KELLY HAS SYPHILIS! Let’s see if the CBC picks up on that as their next Maritimes story. (Sorry, Peter, you’re a public figure…)
I was a Metro Transit driver in the Halifax-Dartmouth area for four years,from 1983 to 1987. It was a no-holds-barred,free-for-all the whole time. The riff-raff the drivers had to deal with then was unbearable. The company didn’t give a damn about the drivers then,and apparently nothing’s changed in that regard. Management cowtows to the public and even when the driver is right,management takes the opposite view. I know this to be a fact because I still have contacts that keep me updated. The seal-bashing driver that so tragically died this weekend was just one in a long lineup of drivers past and present who had been fired for no other reason than Management showing the employees that they’d better tow the line. Way back in the day,when I was a driver there,I had occasion one night to be attacked by two drunken Navy types,who were out to cause trouble. All I’d done to cause this was to question their not paying a fare………….they both jumped me (I was sitting in the seat,and they suckered me !),and we went at it right there on the bus. The result was,I laid out the both of them. One required hospital treatment,and the other had a few bumps and bruises. The thing was,they mis-judged who they were dealing with. here it is,26 years later,and I’d still kick their asses. The next day,I was fired ! I sheet thee not ! In the end,these two bozos had me charged with assult causing bodily harm,which I beat with the help of a great lawyer (now a judge),and the company was forced to rehire me,and pay for my lawyer. But,that’s how Transit Management works in Halifax. Drivers : GOOD LUCK !
I’m sick and tired of getting on the 320 on weekdays at 640 when it’s suppose to leave and the bus a the bus and don’t come for like 20 minutes this is loud I’m a late for work as it is and him taking that long is making my job worse how in the hell do I talk to a boss or something needs to be done. I’m not over exaggerating its been hapening once I started my job in January ittle crazy don’t thing! It’s not just the Barrington duke street he takes forever at but even we get to dartmouth he still gets off and smokes? Just hurry the fuck up I need to get paid
Meant to say he gets to the stop at 640 and then he gets off and doesn’t come back for like 20 minutes that’s not okay. He only cares about himself.