JH 34 - What Principles are Guiding LTD

Guiding Principle (Click image to enlarge)

We now continue with the strategic plan of LTD. They follow-up their values with guiding Principles. These are supposed to be used in conjunction with the Values I guess. It does not seem to have any connective language to explain why Values and Guiding Principles. I guess you had to be there to know why. Go figure.

In any event they still are part of the plan. The First Guiding Principle is Safety. Now I had to stop for a minute to stop laughing. "People may assume LTD is safe". Well you know when you assume you make an "ass" out of "u" and "me". Well thank you LTD for granting permission for us to assume something that you have no interest in at all. The AVS bus fumes were getting drivers sick and what did you do but fight the claims and tell the drivers they were making it up. What ever happened to the Safety Digest? I know that Dan Dreier worked hard on that and for once LTD profiled safe driving records. What about the fall training being canceled year before last. If LTD feels like it is following this principle then they are more clueless than I ever imagined.

Courtesy - Yeah I have heard plenty to disabuse me of this idea. I have seen Mark Johnson red in the face yelling at Josh Schmitt saying he was lucky to have a job at LTD. I have heard others talk about how pleasant Mark can be when he is red in the face. I had another employee tell me about how Hamm went riding in the AVS buses to see for himself. He was overheard talking to the front office staff about how the driver that he had (now a new supervisor) was just great and that all the other drivers are a bunch of whiners about the AVS bus. Gosh that is so courteous. Try honoring the absent in your communication guys and you might find a little step towards courtesy.

Efficiency - I am now rolling on the floor laughing my ass off. The winter bid had so many break in service I can't see how that was any where close to efficient. My favorite though has to be the BRT. You take the BRT to Springfield to catch the Thurston run to finish your ride. The transfer penalty will kill this trip. Seems to me that we are building a system designed for built in inefficiency. Oh and all that fancy software that replaced Gerry Morsello did not reduce a single planning position. Weird huh, cause I thought the computer systems would make planning more efficient. Right!

Image - Oh yeah this is important. We now have "branding". Since Hamm arrived we have had two slogans - "Your Partner for a livable Community" and now "At Your Service". Feel like a hotel bellhop yet? We have seen at least two different letterheads, a new logo, new uniforms and now we are going to repaint the buses. I think that we have an identity crisis at work at the top. Blue, green, teal or Duck green. Whatever shall we do. Why don't you try saving some money, realize that LTD won't get a single additional rider by the color of the bus, the slogan, the letterhead, the uniform or any other shallow cosmetic efforts. Frequency of headways is the best way to gain riders. Frequency where you already get high ridership will mean even more riders. It really is pretty simple, but then we are just a bunch of dumb ol' bus drivers.

Get real LTD. This is the biggest load of crap I have ever seen. Besides you can't even come close to living it. Your leadership is too flawed and in love with itself. These things take on an importance far above the workers who actually do the work. Until you have a value that support this notion you are on the road to disaster.

I suggest that LTD erase all these Guding Principles and replace them with Humor because these are a real joke.

Brothers and sisters we are caught in the weirdest spin zone ever.
In Solidarity,
Joe Hill
JH 34