City bus commuters in Mangaluru, who often find no way to pour out their grievances following substandard quality of service, now have a system in place to air their grievances and suggestions.

Dakshina Kannada Bus Operators Association, the umbrella organisation of city bus owners here, has come out with a WhatsApp helpline to assist passengers. Young and dynamic operator Dilraj Alva, who himself has been adopting good practices in the industry, has initiated the move as the president of the association.

“By Wednesday, we should be able to complete the task of displaying the helpline number — 7996999977 — in all city buses operating in Mangaluru.

The exercise started on October 10 and buses are being covered in a phased manner sector-wise,” Mr. Alva told The Hindu.

Phone-in programme

At least five complaints pertained to city buses during the weekly phone-in programme initiated by the then City Police Commissioner M. Chandra Sekar and continued by his successor T.R. Suresh. While Canara Bus Operators Association president K. Rajavarma Ballal used to attend these programmes earlier, Mr. Alva, after his election, began attending the event. “I realised that people complained to police since we do not have any mechanism to address their grievances. Hence, the association thought of a helpline to improve the quality of service. We want fewer number of complaints in the subsequent phone-in programmes and equally fewer embarrassments to operators,” he said.

Complaints ranged from non-issue of tickets to rude behaviour by the crew; from shrill horns to skipping trips, particularly last ones and from rash driving to not facilitating designated seats to senior citizen commuters. Route No 15 plying between Mangaladevi and Surathkal and surrounding places has attained notoriety as the crew appeared not answerable to anyone.

Involving owners

Though passengers were complaining, not many owners appeared to be aware of them because of lack of communication. Now, the association has tasked one of the three staff at its office to handle the helpline number and complaints/suggestions are forwarded to bus owners concerned.

They too are responding positively, Mr. Alva said, hoping their participation would increase in enhancing service quality in the city. Many commuters have even sent videos of substandard service and that helps operators to address them effectively, he noted.

An average of 15 to 25 complaints/suggestions are received a day, Mr. Alva added.