A bit of advice for anyone who hasn't used the long-stay car park at Stansted for a little while - as I hadn't. The lettered zones now appear to be grouped into different colours so, when you leave the airport, make sure that you get on a bus which is destined for the appropriate colour group - and not the first 'long-stay' bus that you see. This caught SWMBO and I and several other couples out on Friday when returning from holiday.
The bus driver, of course, treated the situation with all the customer-courtesy you'd expect from a bunch of folks selected on the basis of utter surliness!
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Thanks for the tip, Waino.
On the subject of surliness, are you sure the driver wasn't a moonlighting immigration officer? :-)
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On the subject of surliness are you sure the driver wasn't a moonlighting immigration officer?>> :-)
Could have been - but, at the speed he took the bends in his bendy-bus, he could just as easily have been a moonlighting Formula-One driver ;-) . He certainly didn't have Lewis Hamilton's charm!
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Reminds me of the time I was sitting on a bus and a lady got on and started to ask the driver several questions. They were semi-answered in a totally featureless and monosyllabic way. She finished with asking if he had been on a customer training course and as he nodded she shouted WELL YOU FAILED and stormed off.
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There are always two sides to a story.
A very good friend of mine drives airport buses at Stansted. He is a retired IBM executive who has a hobby interest in commercial vehicles, so he acquired an appropriate licence and will keep it up as long as the medics will allow. He is one of the most civil gents you might ever meet. His response to the thread is as follows:
"If the author of this note tried a ten-hour shift he'd soon discover that most passengers can give master classes in rudeness.
The problem is that, by definition, very few passengers using the car park shuttle normally travel by bus and so they don't understand the basic rules. They certainly don't grasp the concept of 'the greatest good for the greatest number', but are, for the most part entirely self-centred, Hence when they're on the bus it's 'why don't you leave immediately': if they're not on the bus it's 'why can't you wait for me?'.
The reason for dividing the zones into groups is very simple: it takes less time to go round a subset of the zones rather than all of them, so a single bus can fit in more trips and so clear the waiting passengers more quickly. To simplify this for weary travellers
- your car park ticket indicates the colour you need
- the bus stops are colour coded
- each bus displays the colours it's serving, and the zone letters
- there are people on the forecourt to explain the system to anyone in doubt.
Some passengers still believe that they can use any bus, and will be taken to their destinations. As long as they're going to the right car park (long- or mid-stay) we will indeed take them to the right zone. After all the driver is there for the entire shift and isn't going to get home any sooner. The only people who suffer are other passengers who - obviously - have to wait longer for that bus to return.
I could go on. Most of the drivers are friendly, happy souls (not just at Stansted but in general). But even they become a little less polite after the tenth unreasonable complaint of the day. Try being courteous to your driver: it works wonders.
. . . I will take the note to the customer service managers at Stansted next time I'm there to try to improve things from our end.
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I will try to avoid Stansted in future as it is quite inconvenient and uncomfortable. But the only time I used it I stayed a night at a nearby hotel and got free parking for ten days plus a taxi to and from the airport. The hotel wasn't exactly Claridges but it was clean, there was an Indian restaurant attached and a nice pub down the road, and of course it cost a bit less than Claridges too. And the taxi business worked perfectly. In effect we got a night in a hotel and two taxis on top of parking, for slightly less than the parking alone would have cost.
Edited by Lud on 23/10/2007 at 15:52
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I'll put my hand up to support the bus drivers... Arriving at Stansted late in the evening & in zomboid state, realised I was on the wrong bus as I was the only remaining passenger waiting for my zone (!) - driver v. helpfully drove me across to retrieve my car.
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>> we will indeed take them to the right zone. >>
Ah hah, so that's what you do for a living! ; - ))
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Dear Roger, thanks very much for bringing us the views of a shuttle-driver; they're pretty much as I'd expect. No point in entering into a war of critical words, so let's get straight to the nub of the problem.
Firstly, thank you for your explanation of the way the car park system now works - that's all perfectly reasonable. However, I think we just about inferred all that from the driver after we realised our error - the problem was that we weren't aware of the change when we boarded the bus. It is highly unlikely that any of us would repeat the mistake should we be unfortunate enough to have to use Stansted again
Some passengers still believe that they can use any bus and will be taken to
their destinations. >>
You say this as though the passengers (customers) are doing this out of bloody-mindedness, laziness etc. Has anyone ever thought to ask why the passengers were on the wrong bus? Has anyone ever considered if the change is being made clear enough - if at all? Have none of these retired ex-executive shuttle drivers ever wondered why all of these retired ex-executive (but bleary-eyed) travellers are getting it wrong?
As I say, there were at least 2 other couples who had been caught out - and I would suggest that there were more judging by the bewildered expressions on the faces of others who bailed out en-route.
. . . I will take the note to the customer service managers at Stansted
next time I'm there to try to improve things from our end.>>
Please do ....... yes, please do that ;-)
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 27/10/2007 at 20:19
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When all else fails,read the instructions!!!
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Been there done that. Bus driver clearly not happy did drive me and the other couple to our spaces after upsetting the other couple. Found it quite entertaining as he started to belittle us, other couple took exception to this (so did I but realised I needed a favour so kept quiet).
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Carl2, you don't happen to drive a black RX-8 do you?
If yes - 'Hi, again'
If no - then you represent another couple of couples who were caught out.
Of course, it could be that there is, like the Ford TDCi engine, no problem ...... it's just that disgruntled users are drawn magnetically to this forum in order to air their concerns.
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I will pass the further comment on to my friend. You can be assured that it will be taken seriously.
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P.S. It would of course make sense to report such problems direct to the airport management:
tinyurl.com/2umynr
tinyurl.com/2xypxd
Edited by Roger Jones on 24/10/2007 at 12:14
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