Transforming the public’s view of the poor service delivered by Land Transport Authority officers is now the key focus of its management.

The move, which will involve its core managers, is part of the authority’s efforts to uplift its level of customer service.

“We have now set up a committee called the ‘Perception Committee’. It’s in line with what our Honourable Minister said that there are various perceptions that people hold against the LTA. The task given to this committee is to document and analyse people’s perception against LTA,” its chief executive officer, Naisa Tuinaceva, said.

This was an issue voiced by the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Pio Tikoduadua.

While addressing LTA management and staff two weeks ago Mr Tikoduadua said Government’s expectations of service delivery and customer service were high, and LTA was no exception.

Mr Tuinaceva now leads the way in finding solutions, identifying the critical issues, and complaints received from the public against the LTA.

“Perception is obviously people’s final judgements over LTA service. It’s really their opinion and views and it is based on their experience. We believe that most of these perceptions outweigh reality. What we want is to ascertain the fact of the matter,” he said.

Mr Tuinaceva said complaints on enforcement procedures needed to be solved.

“We do not want our customers to be a burden to us. We want them to know we are here for them. We want our customers to believe in us and trust us that we are reliable and capable of solving any problems they bring to us,” he said.

“That is the perception we want to change, we want to bring back customer confidence and we want our officers to be logical and apply common sense when necessary.”

Mr Tuinaceva admitted that issues like rude enforcement officers, howling and raising their voice to wrong motorists, the approach used, their code of conduct and code of practice were not followed.

“This tarnishes the image of the authority and it’s something we are trying to address within the organisation,” he said.

“That is why we have given the opportunity to the customers to take their grievances to the respective managers as soon as they have an issue.”

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