20 January 2012

The Friday Joke - Better services for less money

Barnet Council has supposedly modelled themselves on a low cost airline forgetting that as well as only providing the most basic service that you also have to be ruthlessly efficient with zero wasted effort so the comparison really doesn't stand up top scrutiny.

The comparison falls further apart when you look at the CPZ parking permits, for the first car up from £40 to £100 with no difference in the service. So that is the same service for more money.

Users of day centres are paying a lot more, they aren't getting a better service, just the same one.
Readers will have numerous examples of their own.

The low cost airlines are badly named anyway. They are only low cost if you book early. Mr Mustard is going off motorcycling in Spain in the spring. He knows the dates and so he will book 8 weeks beforehand which is the optimum time to do it. 

If the day before he flies he gets an offer of a huge ledger to collect he might decide to change his plans and not go and won't get a refund from most "low-cost" airlines. These instances of "buying not flying" subsidise the fares for other passengers. 

Equally if he leaves his booking until the last week perhaps because he is shaking off an illness of some sort then he will pay several times as much an early booker has paid. Overall the plane costs more or less the same to fly the same journey as a plane from a regular airline. The difference is that a regular airline has a flatter price structure and the "low cost" airline has a much greater range of fares.  Although a small number of flyers are indeed getting "the same service for less money" they are counter-balanced by others getting "the same service for a lot more money".
One of Mr Mustard's motorcycling mates sent him the following You Tube video which relates to the question of charges:


This video ( Fascinating Aida - not seen them perform in ages ) caused Mr Mustard to think of Barnet Council's misleadingly named Revenue Income Optimisation which basically means that costs rise.

Strangely better councillors for less money doesn't seem to have caught on.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

2 comments:

  1. LEAKGATE: Barnet isn't happy.

    'Barnet Eye' reports: "The link to SCRIBD detailing this document has been removed following a letter received at 19.10 from Barnet Council Legal Department. The Barnet Eye will be taking legal advice on Monday to ascertain any further action."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Of course, other people may have received the same document in the first place, and some people may have copied it.

    ReplyDelete

I now moderate comments in the light of the Delfi case. Due to the current high incidence of spam I have had to turn word verification on.