Friday, December 09, 2011

Just get on with it, will you.

Spurred on by Matthew's jibe and my response about positive discrimination, here is a little post about getting on with life. Passengers travelling on our coaches love the front kerbside seats. These seats are in high demand because you get the best view out of the coach. You do not get the back of anybody's head, including the driver, you have the prime seat. Unfortunately the nationwide company panders to the disabled and all it takes is a telephone call and they have a front seat reserved for them. All the passenger has to do is claim disability, they do not have to jump through hoops. Passengers have cottoned on to this and are abusing the help offered by the company. They are claiming disability and the telephone help centre is printing a notice on the driver's loading chart declaring the front kerbside seat is to be reserved for this passenger. Never do you get a driver's note requesting the front offside seat, always the front kerbside seat. This is because the passenger claiming disability wants the best view in the coach and not to see the back of someone's head, including the driver.

There are genuine disabled passengers who have severe mobility problems. That is what the telephone call centre and front seat reservation is for. It really annoys drivers that the situation is routinely abused. I am not aware of ANY disability that physically requires the front kerbside seat. The front kerbside seat only has the PRIME view and nothing else. Leg room is actually less in the front kerbside seat.

On the Caetano Levante the front kerbside seat is actually the COLDEST seat on the coach because the radiator does not stretch that far forward!

So the passenger claiming disability then grabs the front kerbside seat and quite often tells the driver so that other passengers can overhear, it is for their reduced mobility. Shortly after sitting down they are up like a two year old confidently walking all the way to the back of a moving coach to use the toilet. Ah! thinks the driver, so much for reduced mobility.

I like it in cold weather when that person moans about the lack of heat, which is pre-set and thermostatically controlled and I can tell them about the lack of radiator provision but THEY chose that seat!

Of course genuine disabled people get on with their lives in the same fashion as this piglet in China. Born July 2011 to the household of Ge Xinping, who lives in Mengcheng County, Anhui Province, China, this piglet came to this world with only two front legs. It now weights more than 30 kg, and is hailed by local villagers as "Piggy the Strong".
Comments:
Totally agree with you on this mr clynes. I always drive with the window open and the black blind hanging up so that the passengers behind me can't see a thing in front of them and feel freezing cold as they talk non stop into their mobile phone for over three hours!!!!
It's my way of getting back at them a little bit......
 
So that is why you wear so many layers of clothes. I thought you were in competition with Graham Davies and Peter Jones to see who could were the highest number of garments at one time! Paul Morris will NOT allow passengers to talk on mobile phones in any of the front row 4 seats.
 
I thought your entry would move onto discuss the issues when the loading chart shows 6 people for front seats!

I have the same opinion as you with regard to this positive discrimination. They additionally believe that the double seat is theirs, too.

On a number of occasions I've had more for the front seat than I have capacity for. I use both front seats, either side of the aisle on this occasions. If a kerbside seat is requested, I keep that for the specific passenger, if not, those boarding first get it, those joining latterly get the one where the view of my head is all that is offered.

I wasn't aware of the lack of heat on the Crapano Levante. A poor show, though as you say, a kind of just deserts.

There are occasions when people specifically request an aisle seat, if they have a gammy leg or knee and need to stretch it out. Dangerous and contraviening PCV regulations to obstruct the aisle, but this is agreed to.

And then there are the occasions when a passenger boards claiming a front seat and there is nothing on the chart... How I miss those days...
 
To the regiment: Did you know that the Caetano Levantes are 48 seaters because the back row only has 2 seats. There are nice gaps between the window and the window seat, the two seats themselves and another gap between the seat and the toilet. These 2 seats are GREAT for obese people. I wonder if National Express will catch on and reserve these 2 back seats for obese passengers?
 
Imagine the driver's note on the loading chart...

Mr Blobby is obese and requires the offside rear seat.
 
Surely: "Mr Smith has a problem with his glands and requires the rear seats to travel in more comfort". I've had a request for the back seats on a Plaxton Paragon for a double amputee, who wanted to remove both his legs and didn't want to offend anyone.
 
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