Strange practice from IDOBUS, sea transportation company

IDO originally an Istanbul Municipality company has been operating sea transportation services along/across Bosphorus and Marmara Sea, for many years.

The company with the biggest fleet of vessels in the world was acquired by TASS, a consortium of AKFEN, TEPE and 2 other companies a short while ago

Akfen and Tepe groups are known for their investments in transportation sector as well as construction and several others.

On this occasion and with new management in office it was announced by Sir Brian Souter – partner of IDO and the person who conceptualized IDOBUS – that IDO would now launch its Istanbul-Izmir route on March 22 to connect land and sea transportation.

Mr. Souter expressed that IDOBUS was a new concept, a unique vehicle in the maritime transportation sector that would further be developed in the future.

Mr. Souter also said that IDOBUS would function like a railway between the cities and that the number of destinations would be increased to the extent of its success as a transportation system. Souter added, “This is a historic event. Our vision is very large as the Marmara Sea is of great importance, and we use this neglected area as an inter-city railway.” According to Souter, transportation with IDOBUS will not only save passengers time, but also contribute to the prevention of traffic congestion and air pollution.

Based on the concept IDOBUS carries passengers from Kabataş (Istanbul) to the port of Bursa via ferries within 90 minutes where passengers are transferred to buses ready and waiting for a further land journey to Balıkesir, Manisa and Izmir. This operation provides the opportunity of shortening the journey from Istanbul to Izmir by 1,5 hours minimum

So far so good.. In fact it is a genious concept.. Our sincerest congratulations to Sir Souter.

However when we decided to try this service and buy tickets we were really badly surprised (or even shocked). The reason being it is practically not possible to know in prior what seat number you will have when you get on the bus after getting of the ferry. In other words you may have to end up in the first row right behind the driver (which I personally never do) or in a seat at the rear end of the bus which some people might hate to do as they are not very comfortable travelling at the back (throw out and all).

Now the question is “WHY IN THE HELL” would people be dictated to do such a thing – have to take a seat given by the system/computer when they pay the money and reserve/buy their tickets in due time (seats are still available).

How dare a company “with customer orientation/satisfaction targets” impose seat number on its customers?

Dear Sir Souter obviously being British and having enjoyed the opportunity of living in a modern and democratic country with consumer awareness all this time would definitely interpret and appreciate this “AWKWARD” situation, we are sure.

In fact he might ask for a report about this inferior handling (of the consumer).

We have already put an article about this in Turkish on our internet site and sent many tweets to IDO as well. Obviously people there are not very much interested (or have not seen our messages yet).

We wonder how capable TASS is of getting back to its customers to bring solutions to their inquiries for customer satisfaction purposes.

Mustafa HUNCA
Editor

18.06.2012