How to Complain About SAC-RT Drivers

Riding Sacramento Regional Transit buses and light rail can be an infuriating, even frightening, experience. Little guidance exists to resolve issues unless you understand how "the system" works.

In Case of Emergency
Know the difference between a complaint and an emergency. If you are riding Regional Transit and feel that lives are in danger, you must notify the appropriate law enforcement officials. Do NOT call the Customer Satisfaction Unit or 321-BUSS as this will only delay the response of public officials. Contact law enforcement immediately in any way that you can. Trained public-safety officers protect every inch of the public transportation system. You cannot expect the customer service operators to handle a life-or-limb-threatening emergency.

Advocacy
That being said, it is highly likely that you will someday wish to lodge a complaint against the Sacramento Regional Transit level of service. If you follow a few guidelines the complaint process can result in change. However, do not expect that you can file a complaint against a driver and have them removed from the line. It is NOT going to happen. The union is a formidable advocate for the rights and continued employment of each driver. No complaint will escalate to disciplinary level without satisfying the criteria for causing suspension or dismissal as established by the union. Your advocate is any employee of the Regional Transit Customer Satisfaction Unit.

No Immediacy
You must also know that you will not be permitted to lodge a complaint while you are still riding the bus or the light rail. Customer Satisfaction Unit employees are instructed to discontinue your call until you have disembarked. This precaution is necessary so that an altercation between driver and passengers cannot arise and for various other reasons. In any case, there is no immediate remedy available to resolve your complaint. No supervisor can or will be dispatched to stop your bus en-route to discipline the driver. It WILL NOT happen. No radio contact can be made with the driver from the Customer Satisfaction Unit. There are no exceptions. Customer Satisfaction Unit employees do not represent the drivers nor do they talk to the drivers neither do they reprimand the drivers. They may only present your case to the driver's supervisor in a manner that is approved for communicating complaints. That manner is in writing. Without a life-threatening emergency, there is no immediate resolution forthcoming for any complaint.

Don't Ask for A Supervisor
Driver Supervisors do not come to the front office to speak with passengers. Driver Supervisors will not take your phone call and will not drive out to address you in person. There are many, many myths about people who think they can call the Customer Satisfaction Unit and have a supervisor personally address their complaint on the spot. It will not happen. Don't even ask.

Identify the Vehicle.
Before getting on the phone and dialing the complaint department, it would be helpful to have the necessary information ready. The necessary information for filing a complaint in published periodically in the bus-book. It includes providing the route number of your bus or which light rail line you are upset about. What is the date and time of day, your direction of travel, and the location of the beginning of your trip? You may be asked to give a physical description of the driver. Then you will be asked to provide a dialogue of the situation. Complaining in the heat of the moment might cause you to forget details that will either make or break your complaint.

Identify the Driver:
RT Supervisors dismiss many more complaints for lack of accurate identifying information than the number of complaints that result in any type of action. For instance, identifying a driver as a Hispanic male when he is a Native American male will cause a dismissal. If you don't know it as a fact, don't share it. For some routes in the RT system, it is vital to provide a description of the driver. There are so many Route 23 buses, for instance, that seldom run on schedule. If a #23 driver "catches up" to the bus running ahead of it and passes it, the first driver to arrive at Arden Mall will not be the first scheduled driver. You could easily cause the wrong driver to be reprimanded if you don't provide a physical description. The Hispanic male could be more accurately defined as male, caramel colored skin, brown eyes, cropped dark hair with sunglasses and an RT baseball cap.

Just the Facts
Once you've provided the facts of who, when, and where it is time to share the "what" and the "how" of the situation. Do not presume the "why". Just state what happened. Don't guess that the driver passed you at your stop because he was talking to another passenger. Don't suppose that the driver jerked the bus so he could knock you off your feet because you took too much time getting on the bus. State the fact and only the fact. "The bus jerked and I fell on the floor before I could take a seat". Don't suppose to explain why a driver did anything. Your complaint can be dismissed if your guess is wrong and chances are, even if your guess is correct, the driver will have an alternate story. Facts cannot be disputed. Suppositions can. Do not suppose anything.

Satisfaction is NOT guaranteed
If you expect to know the outcome of your complaint it is absolutely vital that you request a response in writing. Do not file a complaint and leave out the punch line. "I want a call from the supervisor". State your desired outcome in simple language and your request will be addressed by the driver's supervisor. If you ask for a phone call, provide your phone number. This is not to say that the supervisor will grant you your request. It only assures you that they will reply.

ADA
If your complaint involves an ADA issue, a process and timeline is published online and in the bus book. There are stringent laws in place to protect the rights of the disabled. Please refer to the latest publications from Sacramento Regional Transit for understanding your rights in the complaint process.

Signature Required
Debate continues about the union requirement for signatures on passenger reports. According to union rules, without a signature, the complaint cannot become a part of the driver's permanent record. If you send an email complaint and expect it to escalate to disciplinary action or to become a part of the record, you must follow up by signing and mailing a physical copy.

Don't Hold Back
In any case, this article could not possibly address all the various situations encountered on the Sacramento Regional Transit System that a passenger would wish to report. The majority of the passenger service reports filed each month are for driver behavior so this article focuses on reporting situations of that nature. Do not expect the driver to be removed from his job without sufficient cause. One complaint does not satisfy the criteria to establish sufficient cause. Multiple complaints by various riders must be received and substantiated. It may distress the readers and passengers to know that some of the most egregious complaints are dismissed on minor insufficiencies in the complaint process. More reports will net better results. If more than one passenger reports a driver's surly or nasty behavior, the reports become more credible and substantial.