Saturday 18 December 2010

By popular vote...

Among the many phone calls received today from customers enquiring about the buses, one of our regulars phoned just after 0830 to ask about the A between Swaythling and West End.

I explained that the 0915 from Eastleigh would be operating normally and she asked who would be driving.

At that stage none of the drivers were on their normal duties because they were all happy to do whatever was required of them in the conditions.

So I told her that I didn't know who would be driving as there were three possibilities and we hadn't actually decided yet. She asked who they were, assuring me that she knew all our drivers by name, so I told her who they were. Then - as it was a good-humoured conversation anyway - I suggested we could try some X-Factor style voting and invited her to vote for the driver she wanted!

She chose Nick, who was duly allocated to the trip.

My reward arrived about half an hour ago, when Nick arrived back in the bus station after his second round trip. He handed me a jar of alcoholic jam, which she had asked to be passed on to me in thanks for granting her wish!

So now I'm wondering if we should do all our allocations in this way, allowing passengers to choose their own drivers, in the same way that we picked teams for football at school! I wonder if we could make that work.....?

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