Trimess

Sunday, January 6, 2013

THE NEW DISPATCH SYSTEM IS SERIOUSLY FLAWED

I had a conversation with an 'insider' at Trimet that is very familiar with dispatch procedures and equipment.

This is a recap of the conversation I had.

The term used to describe the system is "disaster"
"They use 2 headsets, one on the left ear and one on the right ear!"
"They have 3 keyboards, 2 phone lines, 2 foot pedal systems"

At this point I was laughing hysterically at the thought of such a bizarre situation, especially since we are supposed to be so advanced technologically speaking.

They continued: "the system times out after two minutes and most operators are unaware of this. This system sucks"

"If they don't wear the two headsets they have to unplug from one system and plug into the other system. And if you don't plug in at the right time you lose everything!"

"the dispatchers are being driven insane and fighting with each other"
"Tactically they have not even been trained on it"
"they have been handed a bunch of papers and told to 'read that when you can'"!
"when you are out there on the road and call in with an emergency the dispatcher has to go through all these little clips to figure out how to talk to you"
"the crap doesn't even work, operators are on the line thinking that dispatchers have hung up on them"
"on the old system the dispatcher can over ride the operator and tell them to calm down whatever, but on the new system they can't do that".

I asked who the hell would purchase a system like that: "Dennis Van Dyke"

"when they purchased this equipment they didnt bother to take a dispatcher with them"

"the arrogance of these people is remarkable, its like the Woodlawn situation, Trimet could change the location of the bus layover there. Lets say there was a flood or something, Trimet would change the location of the layover in an instant. So all the stuff they tell the Woodlawn residents is bullshit!"

I'd like to add that I also had a conversation with a dispatcher I know this evening and he told me his physician has encouraged him to mark off work as his back is being injured by the configuration that he is forced to sit with.

No comments: