Buses — you get what you measure!

There is a bus terminal right in front of where I live. Like many bus routes in Bangkok, there are a few “different kinds” of buses serving the route.

The #1 route has 2 operators:

1) Public operator. Drivers are paid monthly fixed salary. Their buses are pretty “normal” — they go along the route fairly consistently (some might even say boringly!) and stop at the bus stops for a few seconds — just enough time to pick up passengers — then off they go to the next bus stop. Boring …and consistent!?!?!

2) Private operator. Drivers are paid based on the # of passengers picked up. The drivers’ behaviors are ….different.

• At the start of the route (pretty much where I live) the buses cruise along very slowly, sometimes stopping — and remaining at the bus stop for a few minutes — to wait for more passengers. These stoppages are sometimes a few minutes long, and may even involve the driver/bus handler popping out to buy food, drinks etc.
• The drivers sometimes speed up to get to the next bus stop (where there are passengers waiting) to aggressively overtake their “competitor” — typically the publicly operated buses — so it can get to the bus stop first.
• Once the bus is full, the driver changes gear and pretty much prioritize speeding to the end of the route so they can begin the next round (and pick up more passengers) as quickly as possible. Getting on/off during this stage can be quite challenging as the priority is in getting to the end of the route rather than picking up or dropping off.

How can the same service being operated by 2 entities be so different? What if we wanted them one to change — or “transform” — into the other? What would be the best way to go about doing that? Do we train them all in “customer centricity”, “agile way of working”, “design thinking” etc? Hopefully, they will “care more” about us passengers?

Or can we “simply” change the way the drivers are paid and incentivized?

Of course, most changes/transformation are not so “simple” but I thought it was an interesting parallel in looking through the bus operating lens!