A Transport Consultant, Magnus Quarshie has urged operators of the Quality Bus Service, popularly called, Aayololo bus to intensify their marketing strategies to increase patronage for the service.
This follows a report by Citi Business News which revealed low patronage of the buses, four months after it was commissioned. Checks by Citi Business News showed that commuters ditch the Aayalolo buses despite having free wifi, and air conditioned.
Some commuters who spoke to Citi Business News complained about difficulties in getting the electronic cards required to board the bus.
Others lamented about lack of information on reloading the cards, while some complained about the number of stops the bus makes before getting to its final destination.
But speaking to Citi Business News, Mr. Quarshie called for intensive marketing to create awareness among the general public.
“I would expect that there should be marketing strategies for deploying such a service which also gives information to people about the service, particularly the issue you mentioned concerning these ticketing and others”.
He was of the view that the operators must immediately develop innovative means to explain how it works, since the bus is expected to provide affordable, fast and comfortable public transport to Ghanaians.
Expressing optimism in the public patronizing the Aayalolo bus services, Mr. Quarshie stated that people will use the bus once the communication is improved.
“So if we have a service we must show people where they can buy tickets, how to use the tickets. These are very basic things the system ought to undertake. All of those will also contribute to improving the ridership of the service that is been run,” he said.
Prior to this, the Public Affairs Manager for the Quality Bus Service, Fred Chidi, who admitted to the lack of communications assured on the Citi Breakfast Show that the company will intensify public education to increase patronage.
“Creating the awareness and educating people has been a little lacked. You know communications is very expensive and this is a project we just started so it is a process that we are doing and it will grow with time. So you will admit that some media friendly stations will help carry the information out there,” he appealed.
“We are leveraging on our relationship with the friendly media to send out the education and creating this bus about it. But I agree with you that marketing this idea hasn’t been really top notch as I would have loved it to be,” he added.
By: Lawrence Segbefia/Jessica Ayorkor Aryee /citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
