I have reams and reams of Trimet material and it always seems that the biggest lies always have Roberta's name attached to them. We all remember the biggest lie that was ever spun by Trimet. That lie focused on Altstadt where she claimed she was 'scared' of
LANE JENSEN . The lie gave the Trimet oligarchs the excuse they needed to move forward with the prosecution of Lane and get him out of the Trimet board meetings forever. More recently Altstadt has been spinning lies in the DAN MARTIN story.
Now today she lies about the fact that Trimet drivers are NOT trained on new routes. Here is her claim on a story by JOE ROSE in which he describes Trimet bus drivers getting lost when a new sign up begins:
"For some, it is the opportunity to drive something different, or the ability to work out of a different garage," said Roberta Altstadt, a TriMet spokeswoman. "They also may prefer the starting or ending time of a run that operates on a route that is different than the one they currently drive."
Yes, the operators are trained on their new routes, Altstadt said. Occasionally, however, "an operator may ask a regular passenger for help rather than miss a critical turn," she said.
That's a bold faced lie. Operators are not trained on new routes. Operators are completely on their own when a new sign up starts. I used to go out on my own time and learn the route the fear of going into unknown territory with a 40 foot bus was so terrifying to me. But Trimet does not offer any training when an operator takes a new route.
STOP LYING TO US TRIMET!!!
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addendum
Alstadt corrected her 'story'
So I guess its not a conspiracy after all, she just didn't know what she was talking about?
Or she (they) just got caught in a bold faced lie?
However, operators are not trained on their new routes, Altstadt said. The agency tells operators that if they're not familiar with a new route or haven't driven a specific route in some time, they should learn it on their own, she said.
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addendum
Alstadt corrected her 'story'
So I guess its not a conspiracy after all, she just didn't know what she was talking about?
Or she (they) just got caught in a bold faced lie?
However, operators are not trained on their new routes, Altstadt said. The agency tells operators that if they're not familiar with a new route or haven't driven a specific route in some time, they should learn it on their own, she said.
When a driver is first hired the trainers do try to make sure that when they take the new hire on the road that they cover as many routes as possible. Before a new hire has finished their training time the last week or two they are put on a line with a line trainer. It is usually the line that the new hire will be driving right after training. That is the only line training that I am aware of that TriMet offers. We are told that if we have any concerns about our line that we are able to contact training. Training tends to be very busy and it is difficult to get assistance with a line. Usually we are told to follow our route description and we will be fine.
ReplyDeleteAt the start of a new sign up periods the road supervisors are usually out in full force hanging out in areas know as trouble spots to try and help keep the operators on track. So the first week does tend to be off track while the drivers get use to their new run.
The bottom line here is that when operators switch sign ups and end up with new routes there is no training provided for them.
ReplyDeleteLots of drivers take the time to drive the route in their cars on their own time.
If Trimet were genuinely interested in customer service they would pay drivers to go out an learn the routes before they began driving them.
The facts are that Trimet 'customer service' is the same as 'lip service'