From now on, De Lijn collects all the missing items in one place. Subcontractors also bring in items they find there. Objects are photographed and placed on an online platform. Travelers who identify their belongings there can claim them. They pay €12.25 – an administration cost of €5 and €7.25 for the postal parcel – and then the lost item is delivered to their home via post.
Recovering a lost item was free at De Lijn. But the traveler had to go himself to the – sometimes distant – meeting point. “The procedure so far has been very cumbersome, can take a long time and has not been standardized,” says De Lin spokesman Marco Demerling. For example, collection points had different opening hours and De Lijn subcontractors had their own way of dealing with lost items.
The public transport company sees the new way of working as a “unified, safe and efficient solution”, as passengers no longer have to go to the meeting point and customer service feels comfortable. The administrative cost is intended to cover the costs of collecting and processing lost items.
About 40,000 items are found at De Lijn every year (not including subcontractors). So far, about 20 to 25 percent have been returned to the owner, but De Lin hopes to increase this percentage with the new working method. Lost items are kept in De Lijn for 6 months.
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