Dear Editor,
I recently travelled along the GT-Lethem road and was pleasantly surprised to discover that almost the entire stretch of road from Lethem to Linden is in excellent condition, with various sections having been recently upgraded. This makes for a comfortable drive.
However, there are other areas of service along the road that seem to need modification to ensure better customer service. This is most obvious with the number of police checkpoints that have to be passed between Lethem and Georgetown. At all of these checkpoints passengers in public transportation have to disembark to register their names. After the initial stop this requirement becomes monotonous and mostly inconvenient, especially as the time of the journey increases and fatigue starts stepping in.
An example of this is as follows:- An Intraserv Bus leaves Georgetown at 9.30 pm. As soon as the bus departs most passengers settle in to sleep. Approximately 2 hrs later the passenger is jarred from his slumber to report to the Linden Police Station. After much sleepy movement the passenger eventually enters the police station only for the desk officer to require name and seat number and then instructed to return to the bus. This same process will then repeat itself approximately 3 hrs later at Mabura Outpost, then another 3 hrs later at Kurupukari, then another 1½ hrs later at Corkwood and finally another 2 hours later at the Multi-Purpose Complex, Lethem.
When a passenger is travelling with kids this requirement becomes even more tedious and inconvenient. Often times kids have had to be left waiting in the bus so that the parent can go and give his name and seat number or a sleepy child awakens and finds that the parent has left the seat and proceeds to cry at the top of his voice.
A very frustrated parent/passenger often questions the need for such frequent disembarkation when only a name and seat number is required and this is repeated at every stop.
Why have an entire bus disembark for such basic information? Wouldn’t it have been easier if an officer simply entered the bus and checked the manifest? This also seems a much better way to actually verify the authenticity of a passenger (if that is the reason for the checks). That way the officer gets his information and the passengers are allowed to remain seated (and children continue sleeping).
In this day and age when customer service is of utmost importance, it seems excessive to have a bus of 45 passengers disembark when a much simpler and more effective method for checking exists. One agrees fully with the authority if there is a requirement to have persons recorded at every checkpoint. But at the same time this authority, in this case the police, should also try as much as possible to make these checks as simple and acceptable as possible.
As transport along the GT-Lethem road increases, one sincerely hopes that the agencies simplify their operation to minimise the discomfort to passengers travelling along the road.
Yours faithfully,
E Fredericks
