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Little did I know when I went on to Facebook Live last Sunday evening, that the resulting 1:51 post would go viral.
The subject matter was the chaotic launch of the new drop off and pick up zones at Manchester Airport’s Terminal 3 and the subsequent pandemonium in the multi-story car park adjacent to the terminal.
Perhaps equally important, the whole philosophy of the charge itself – enforcing a blatantly money-grabbing exercise on defenceless passengers and commercial drivers.
As a business traveller, I appreciate that this practice is now widespread in UK airports (and still a disgrace) but at least most of them have created a smooth entry and exit system.
Not so Manchester Airport, whose traffic management has been crippled by the new system, resulting in tail-backs, confusion, stressed out drivers, bewildered passengers and irritated cabbies.
One comment on my thread also pointed out the security and safety risks should anything go wrong.
Thursday morning in Dublin and you can see from the screenshot that I’ve had 129k views and it has been shared by around 3k people.
What you can’t see is that I’ve been receiving private messages from many people (mostly cab divers), thanking me for bringing this situation to the attention of the public.
The Manchester Evening News are posting the story on their web site and it has been repurposed on a number of other forums.
It’s a pity I didn’t mention our charity bike ride!
In the heat (actual and metaphoric) of the moment, I didn’t get my facts 100% correct in the broadcast about the actual charges and penalties but the spirit of the message remains true.
This is capitalism and the free-market economy at it’s ugliest – fleecing customers just because you can, with absolutely no desire to provide a service of use. Rushing through an untested and inadequate system, just so that you can start filling your pockets in time for the summer season.
On another note – here we see the power of Dunbar’s number in operation – a message that is REACHING a huge audience – because it can.
As I keep on saying – your story can travel far and fast nowadays – the only control you have is over what the story is.
A patient testimonial might not travel as far as this post has (and neither does all that stuff I write about the business of dentistry) – but it all adds up – and Google notices that.
You can view the post here.