Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Anchorage Transportation Commission is looking for customers who are dissatisfied with quality of dispatch staff

Anchorage Transportation Commission are looking for customers who are dissatisfied with the quality of service the dispatch staff at Alaska Yellow Cab has provided.  Recently, they raised their dispatch stand rent effective March 1, 2012 to $1000 for taxi.  Since they will not repair the equipment after hours in order to do their shift.  The systems manager refuses to clear his voice mail to allow people to leave a message making him not available.  The taxi are only not going to receive $1000 a month service they are only receiving $350 a month.  When a customer makes a complaint on a driver.  It is not acted on in an timely manner.  They also do not handle complaints in a timely manner.  They have been know to use foul language when a customer gets mad at them instead of attempting to calm the customer down.  When a customer ask when they will they get their cab they say as soon as we can instead of giving an estimate time of arrival.  I guess when the highest management such as Regina Doyle and Ron Lane also used foul language when talking to customers.  Complaints have gotten ignore or have not been addressed by the dispatch staff and manager.  Cab drivers have complained for over 8 years they have had a hard time reaching dispatch unless I was behind the desk.  Drivers for the last couple of years have complained that unless they are at a geographic center they either have to hit the meter on and off to get another trip since they could not void the trip because of not being at geographical center of the trip.  They also have a 30 minute unjust rapid meter penalty to the next trip.  Unless a dispatcher looks at each trip and determine should hit the rapid meter override before the driver calls for the dispatcher to do it.  I always automatically hit the rapid meter override if location is a strip mall, trailer park and a apartment complex and W Dimond Blvd and E Tudor Rd due to not being at geographic center.  This 30 minute rapid meter penalty should destroyed because it is an injustice to driver. Dispatcher should work with the drivers not against them or play god over them.  Remember without drivers you have no cab company.  If you have had a hard time dealing with the dispatch staff you can call Eric Musser at the Anchorage Transportation Inspection office at (907) 786-8525.  If they gets enough complaints then they can perform a quality of service investigation at Alaska Yellow Cab.  You can e-mail them at wwti@muni.org state your complaint to them.  This will give Anchorage better quality of service and make Alaska Yellow Cab accountable