The Broken Bus: a Public Service Allegory

Once upon a time a bus station in a big city had only one broken bus on an essential route into town where all the services were. It spouted toxic fumes into the cabin and had three loose wheels and a broken back door. Now and again, passengers would die in it because it would crash, they were overcome in the toxic atmosphere, or the back door jammed and they couldn’t get out and asphyxiated. The bus drivers had been saying for 10 years the vehicle would wear out if it continued to be thrashed every day. 

They repeatedly contacted their managers about the safety of continuing to drive in it with passengers at high speed. Their managers said they were just poor drivers who just needed to do fewer journeys (like they did in a town far away who liked to speak to the government). Staff often went off sick rather than drive it, and some left for jobs with Uber.

The drivers were fed up and decided to take the bus to an allegedly independent garage who said they would review it. Unfortunately, the garage didn't look at the vehicle - they just asked the managers who said it was fine. The drivers then asked the garage owner to look again properly, and he apologised and said he would do a proper mechanical inspection. Meanwhile, the managers bugged the drivers rest room and threatened disciplinary review of anyone suggesting the vehicle wasn't roadworthy. 

The managers finally offered to visit the drivers to understand their issues, despite them being very busy and important people. They explained that they have superior knowledge of driving buses and were very passenger-focused, but that they would make time to visit the bus station to show staff how much they care. The garage report on the vehicle could wait, they said: "We are all one big team that needs to respect each other, and actually fixing a bus is difficult". 

The drivers told the managers they would prefer not to meet until they had the garage report. “We believe it needs a new exhaust, a working back door and three new wheels. There is no point in meeting until it is safe to drive again. Then we can meet with you and discuss how we maintain the vehicle and expand the fleet to prevent this problem in the future.”

So the meeting was cancelled, the vehicle was fixed, and passengers arrived safely. The managers were given MBEs for services to transportation and lived happily ever after. The End.