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Friday, August 19, 2016

It's called a *map*. I suggest you use one

My regular Durham Transit bus driver is on vacation and in his absence, I've been treated to a different relief driver each day this week. This morning's driver was 10 minutes late. When I boarded, I politely informed her I had less than two minutes to catch my connecting bus to the 7:03 Oshawa GO train and her response was, "Sorry. This is not my regular route."

WELL NO SHIT LADY.

I asked her why she was late. She seemed incredulous that I would ask this. "As I said, this isn't my route," she told me and then proceeded to tell me what other options I had to get to the GO station (this made me seethe).

It was only her and I on the bus so I asked her to radio the driver of the 922 to see if he could manage waiting two minutes seeing as he appeared to be two minutes ahead of schedule, according to Durham Transit's bus tracker app. She said she couldn't do that. I told her she could. She told me she would not.

Exasperated, I sat down and steamed. When we arrived at the Oshawa Centre, I told her that if I could manage to make it to the bus stop on time, she could manage the same. Again, she mentioned that she was merely a relief driver but I would have none of it. "Every driver before you this week managed to be on time before you showed up, so please don't insult your profession further. You're an embarrassment to anyone who does your job," I said to her. I was on a roll and didn't care. My commute is long enough, having to detour off my route because of her laziness put me at the office a whole hour later. It's not cool.

She protested by telling me she was unfamiliar with the route and it happens to every bus driver. My god, what year is this?!

"HAVE YOU NOT HEARD OF A MAP?" I asked and walked off the bus.

Yes, I know there are worse things. This is right up there with finding a dead cockroach behind your oven. That's where this sits on my personal list of worse things.

9 comments:

G said...

You can see how obviously stupid this excuse is by putting it in other contexts:
Surgeons
Nurse: "Doctor, you just cut out the wrong kidney!"
Surgeon: "Hey, cut me some slack: it's my first time doing this surgery! This happens to everyone!"

Pilots
"Sorry for taking you to Havana instead of Miami, folks. I don't normally fly this route!"

Substitute teachers
"I have no idea what I should be teaching you today, class. Figure it out on your own!"

Food service industry
Customer: "I waited an hour for this meal and when it came it's all wrong and tastes terrible!"
Waiter: "What's the big deal? Our chef is new and is still learning the menu. Why are you complaining?"

Sigh.

C.J. Smith said...

^ THANK YOU!

(and yes I did hug and a puppy and immediately felt better)

Tal Hartsfeld said...

She apparently couldn't get access to the internet at the time and, as such, couldn't readily access the Rand McNally web site.

Nora1968 said...

I'm wondering how and why it seems to be that DRT would assign a driver to relieve a vacation or absence without providing that driver with the appropriate information (s)he would need - i.e., the actual ROUTE????

C.J. Smith said...

^ Exactly!

Unknown said...

I've seen the relief drivers with lists of stops (and streets) on a clipboard by the steering wheel. If they did it, why have they stopped or why didn't this driver grab a copy?

TT said...

Seriously, DRT is the worst transit system I've used (in Canada). I took the DRT to the Whitby GO, but broke down and bought a car after 2 years (540 trips) where the bus was on time only once (I define on-time as +/- 5 minutes). There's also the times when the bus didn't even show up.

I could never understand it, if your bus is always 5-10 minutes late, just change the schedule. Sounds simple right? Not for DRT.

Unknown said...

Wow, you're more forgiving of schedule problems than I am. I consider on time to be +/- 2min. Haven't found a city/town in southwestern Ontario that has transit which performs to my standard, so I ride my bike and get to my destination as fast or faster.

Of course, I realize this isn't an option for those who still insist on living 50-100km from their most common destinations.

C.J. Smith said...

So what am I to do, Jesse? my husband works in Oshawa. I work in downtown Toronto. where should we move to?