Transit Part 9: Potential Transit Service Provider Objections

Potential objections some service providers may raise and possible responses are:

The time and cost of a new routing system will be tremendous.


We will be working with you every step of the way.  One of the points we made earlier was that we desire to respect the cost of research, development and startup costs.  Through grants and special funding authorizations, our goal is to provide all the extra funds that your current operating budgets won’t handle.

You’re telling our employees that they should expect to get paid better.  How do you expect us to keep “YOUR PROMISE”?

We’re not promising your employees a pay raise.  We’re only telling them that this program has the very real possibility of helping to reduce your operating costs.  On that basis, and as a way of encouraging your employees to help you improve customer satisfaction levels and your profits at the same time, it only makes sense to offer to share some of your increased profits with your employees in the form of better pay and benefits.

Let’s pretend that your after-tax profits per passenger increase by an average of $1.00 per passenger.  If you budget 50 cents of that for increased pay and benefits, you’ll be able to offer your employees something they’ve been wanting and still have a better net profit than you’re getting under the current system.  Remember, just as with things you buy out of the store, you get what you pay for.  (This potential response was written with the understanding the “for profit” companies are often involved in providing public transportation services as “sub-contractors” of the main mass transit taxing authority.)

We don’t know anything about operating Hubs or routing buses according to your program.

In addition to providing funding to help with startup costs, as part of getting my program into operation, we’ll be providing training, testing and guidance in every aspect of getting my program up and running in your area.  This includes helping to define local area boundaries as well as getting hubs set up and ready to operate.  All of this is so your employees will know what to do under the new program.

We haven’t been very successful and getting our customers to work with us on other changes we’ve needed to make, why should we expect things to be any different with your program?

Part of our plan for putting this program into operation is to talk with your customers about the benefits of my program before we start putting it into place.  My program is based on showing your customers a very high level of respect.  Most any retail business that is successful against its competition regularly collects customer input and suggestions.  We’re going to do the same for your customers.  This won’t be a case of telling your customers that another new program is being started.  We’re going to talk with them, explain the program to them, and show them (and their care providers) the respect of asking them to work with us as we develop the program in your area.  We even have plans to get them involved in the development of the program as far as fine-tuning some of the local operational details.  Remember, by giving respect to your customers first, you’ll find yourself receiving cooperation and respect in return.

Thank you for taking time to read my program.  Obviously, if I didn't believe in my own program, I would not have published it for others to read and ponder on.

An Opinion Article by Dave Kemper
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It has been said that: "One definition of insanity is to do the same thing, the same way, over and over and over again, each time expecting to achieve a different result."
Therefore, we must either CHANGE the way we live, or we bind our future to our past as if with CHAINS.
"I do not consider myself to be better than anyone else.  But I do believe in exercising my right to not stay stupid."

David W. Kemper, Author
© Copyright 2014 by David William Kemper.  All right reserved
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