Monday, May 14, 2012

350 Acres And A Passenger Named Jack

In greater Taxi-land one always wonders if something, anything will get someones' attention.  Could sending a taxi driver to the second largest park (1.4 kilometers) in Seattle with no information other than his name is Jack do it?  Certainly you could blame the individual call taker but as I said last week the problem appears to be systemic and pointing fingers just isn't helpful.  Though it is kind of impossible to find someone under such circumstances I did, given that the Jack in question was walking toward the main entrance and I have nearly 25 years of experience in locating customers. 

When Jack called, he did mention that he was at the dog-park, perhaps the largest in the city.  All the information I had was that Jack was somewhere in Magnuson Park.  That was it.  No telephone number or more specific details concerning his location.  How did the call taker imagine a driver would find Jack?  That is the question that needs to be answered.  And why and how can this kind of dispatching continue?  It is neither effective nor efficient.  If this was a comedy routine I could see it as we could all die laughing.  But we are in a business to provide rides to those who need them.  That is why we need solutions, not dysfunctional repetition.  That at least is simple, isn't it?

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