From Saving Water to Wasting Energy

Anybody service their car from Robert Lane? Robert Lane use to have a nice deal where they wash and polish your car and clean the interior out at "no extra cost". It's part of their service committment, but undoubtly you do pay for it. They still clean the interiors, but due to water restrictions, they give out free vouchers to use at those auto car washes at Shell. So they go from saving water, to wasting energy. If only companies could think more holistically...

Melbourne needs unique trams

Melbourne needs unique looking trams, yes, but the W class trams aren't the solution. As a world class city, trams are one of our cities unique selling points. However, with more and more cities world wide adopting them, can they continue to be a differentiator in the future? A unique design language for our trams need to be adopted.

I propose unique front and rear ends, specified specifically for our city. It has to be something designed by us, and not corporate. Sorry Yarra trams, screw you!! Let's get Melbourne's best industrial designers together and come up with something good. Could it be based on the much loved W-class? Maybe...

Myki - why it's needed

Forget the incompetence of Kosky, DOT and KAMCO. Myki when it's finally working as proposed should be a good system. Like every other Melburnian I have my 2 cents on this issue. I think the system is needed, the old metcard although functional, won't be able to deliver a system that's repsonsive to Melbourne's needs into the future.

The main thing going for myki, and the whole point of it is tracking. The reason why they want us to sign in and sign off, is so they can find out where we're going, how many of us are using it, and where to put resources.

The system also paves the way for new innovate fare structures and a possiblity of direct refunds if there is consistant underperformance on the network (no more filling out useless forms!).

So let's get on with it. Test it live, and fix the problems as we go. That's the only way.

Metro's first priority should be customer services

I would rate Metro's first month in Melbourne a fail. Sure they have a nice website, but it's what patrons see and hear everyday that counts. So far, it appears metro's priority is branding rather than customer service, and that's a huge blunder.

One wonders why they bother with brand promotion at such an early stage, when service levels are still poor. It just reinforces a negative brand perception. Do we really need to be reminded at each stop that "Metro" is arriving at? Who authorized such a stupid branding procedure, and why are our tax dollars being used to pay for it? Surely a common sense "Does this add value?" approach should be used. Does changing the arrival annoucement add any value? NO!

So what does add value? Thinking about how customers use trains. Can we add powerpoints for people to charge their mobiles and laptops? Can we offer a free wifi service at stations? Can we offer customers are chance to design their own timetables and vote for them?

There many, many more important things than branding at this moment. Hopefully metro gets a clue and starts thinking about them.