I am a Greyhound Bus Lines Agent. I happened on this story while surfing the web. I read it because I am a commissioned agent for Greyhound Lines, and I care about the concerns and problems associated with traveling by this mode. While I agree that our baggage handling processes are in dire need of improvement, I can tell you that we're doing everything possible in my terminal to ensure good customer service. The reasons for the over-bookings, however, do need explained.
The nature of the service we sell at Greyhound is the availability of walk-up service from one city/town to another. The reasons schedules cannot be guaranteed, and over-bookings cannot be avoided, is that the whole system is set up like dominoes. People want to be able to walk up to a ticket window anywhere in the country and buy a ticket to board the next bus. Since it's impossible to predict how many people will walk up to the windows in every little town and big city the schedule stops in, it's impossible to prevent over-bookings.
Also, the number of outside elements which affect road travel make it impossible to predict connection delays. If the bus that is supposed to leave St. Louis at 2:00 gets stuck in construction delays until 4:00, (or bad weather closes roads, or there is an accident ahead which causes delays, etc., etc.,), then that bus isn't IN St Louis to leave, that will put the next schedule behind. Also, there are limits to how many hours it is safe for a driver to work consecutively, if a driver is delayed on the road for hours, they can't pull the rest of the run they were scheduled for because it's illegal and unsafe for them to do so. The very nature of the service we provide means that delays can and will occur.
While I also agree with the writer that it is better to keep passengers informed of what is going on, I'm also aware that there are times when terminal employees don't know themselves what damage controls will be used until they are being implemented. The many factors that cause delays mean that the decisions as to what is the best way to solve the problems are made by the seat of our pants. We do try, as often as possible, to inconvenience the fewest people by the least amount of time delays.
If this passenger was consistently meeting with rudeness from customer service personnel, who are trained and hired for their ability to deal with impatient and understandably frustrated people, maybe she needs to take a look at how she approached the personnel. We do understand the frustration. That does not, however, mean that we'll put aside the needs of the cooperative many to quiet the few who think they are the only passengers who matter at Greyhound. I'm sorry she had a bad experience. I wonder if she's ever had a bad experience even on private transportation involving that many hours of travel.
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