A passenger complains: the five minutes that decide
10. 9. 2026
In senior transport people complain less than they should. So when somebody does ring, it usually means it happened more than once, or that it upset them enough to pick up the phone. All the more reason to do those five minutes properly.
Listen first, investigate second
The commonest mistake is to start explaining. "That must have been the delay on the previous ride" may well be true, but what the passenger hears is you defending yourself.
The order that works: let them finish → summarise what you understood → only then check. The sentence "so you waited twenty minutes and nobody rang you, have I got that right?" does half the work.
Look at the record, not at memories
Before ringing the driver, open the ride. You will see when it was created, when the driver confirmed it, when the passenger was picked up and when it finished. Most disputes dissolve in thirty seconds — either the delay is there in black and white, or it is clear the car arrived on time and waited.
The second happens more often than you would think, and it needs handling gently. A seventy-year-old who got the hour wrong does not need to hear that they got it wrong. They need to hear that you will ring in advance next time.
Ask the driver without accusing
The driver is the other half of the same story and gets things wrong without meaning to. "Can you tell me how Thursday went with Mrs Novák?" gets closer to the truth than "why on earth did you…".
If it turns out the fault was yours, say so straight. One honest sentence beats three explanations.
An apology is not an admission
Even if everything was done correctly, the passenger spent an unpleasant half hour. Apologising for how it felt costs nothing and concedes nothing: "I'm sorry you were left waiting and didn't know what was happening. I'll make sure the driver rings you next time."
Change something, however small
A complaint that changes nothing comes back. Usually a detail is enough, and it belongs in the customer's notes: "ring before setting off", "needs longer to board", "waits at the back entrance".
If the same complaint turns up from three different passengers, it is not about the passengers — look at the shift pattern, or at how much slack there is between rides.
And the council
Where the council funds the service, it will hear about a complaint sooner or later anyway. It is incomparably better coming from you: "this happened, this is what we are doing about it". A funder does not expect a service without faults; it wants to know that faults get dealt with.
Each ride shows its whole course — when it was created, who confirmed it, when the passenger was picked up and when it ended.
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