The Restructuring Of Greyhound Lines From A Greyhound Employee Perspective
Nov 30 '00
Scrolling through the epinions here on Greyhound Lines. One can only come to the final conclusion that Greyhound is not a better choice for travel. So I thought I might add my views to this section. I work for Greyhound Lines, Inc. in the IT department, for those of you who don't know, IT means Information Technology, which is the computer area. I take care of repairing the computer hardware, and software application problems for there computers. I've been with them for almost five years now, and have the title of Senior Hardware Analyst. I'll attempt to give you a larger picture overall, and let you form your own conclusions. I'm not trying to sell you a Greyhound ticket, just giving you some more information to go by is all. Quality comments and questions, are always welcome.
RECONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS:
Over the years, and still happening in leaps and bounds, they are moving the old buildings out with shiny new clean buildings. I have personally had to relocate many computers to new buildings nationwide that were being relocated. If they aren't moving them out of the old buildings, then they are restoring the building. To relocate an entire site entirely or even partially is very, very expensive. So obviously this is going to happen over the years. But many throughout the nation have already been placed into a new buildings, and it's an ongoing operation.
UPGRADING BUSES:
The new Greyhound Buses have nicer seats, and taller backs. Select buses also include a Lift for the handicapped now (in the past no GLI bus had lifts.)
RESEARCHING THE CULTURE TO BETTER SERVE THE CUSTOMER:
I've read here where some were extremely unhappy with the service, and attitude of the Greyhound Employee who served them in some way. If you follow business articles, you may have seen where a cultural review is being done on Greyhound Lines. This will determine how to better the overall work, and views, of the Greyhound Employee. We all know there's nothing worse than a person in a customer service with a bad attitude. Again, this is something that will also take time to change and evolve.
UPGRADING TO THE COMPUTER AGE:
This section will be the largest since this is my area of work. Some of you may have noticed that not all locations sell you a ticket on a computer. Meaning, they have to thumb through a large book, adding up miles to come to a price for the ticket. This takes time, and we all wait in lines enough in life. This is changing rapidly, locations that use to be manual are getting upgraded to high speed computer connections. Now what use to take maybe fifteen minutes, now takes seconds to quote you a price for a trip. I've worked for many companies in the computer field. And I can say that Greyhound's IT department has grown immensely to meet the customers expectations.
Some may have noticed that in the food areas of the terminals they are now connected to a computer also. This was never the case in the past, where it would be manually calculated for the food. Also, they now have large monitors in the terminals, that show the arrival and departure times of the buses like an airport. All these little conviences that speed things up, cost tens of thousands of dollars. So it also takes time to install at every location.
Overall, Greyhound has an extremely large IT group. It has more WAN's and LANS running on many different platforms, more than some computer companies do. This is all to serve the customer faster and more accurately.
WORKING FOR GREYHOUND AS AN EMPLOYEE:
Some of you out there may think that if you work for Greyhound Lines, you must not be very smart, or lack the motivation to find something better. This is far from true, and is expected when some people generalize about the company. I know this because when I tell people that I work for Greyhound, many conclude that I must be a bus driver. From my view as an employee working for Greyhound Lines in the IT group. I know they don't pay top dollar for my services. I could problably toss my resume out there, and make more money. But I do know they believe in treating people like people, and not just robots that must complete a task without questions. Most of Greyhound's employees that I met from directors down to baggage handlers, are very dedicated, and have been with Greyhound for many years. And believe me, Greyhound is extremely active when it comes to the computer field. Most just don't realize this because it all takes place in the background. All the customer really see's from IT is the ticket, and a bus ride. But in the background, bus schedules, ticket printing, employees, complaints, baggage, every customer who buys a ticket, and much more. All this information must be structured, accounted and handled on a nationwide spectrum in Dallas, TX. They also offer some pretty good benefits, and company perks for IT people.
MY CONCLUSION:
Nobody buys a Greyhound Ticket because they feel it will be a high class luxury ride. People ride Greyhound because it cost less than air fair, or in some locations (like New York) more convinent. However, that shouldn't mean a miserable experience either. Restructuring and reconstruction at Greyhound Lines locations are happening daily, to better meet the customers expectations. Greyhound's reconstruction is going on someplace as you read this, and will continue for years to come. And for the IT person, it's a very good company to work for. Those are my views, and mispelling of words anyways ;-)
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Epinions.com ID:
jimyster
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Location: Carrollton, TX
Reviews written: 33
Trusted by: 3 members
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