Zug,25.09.2017

Chuggers at city station

So-called chuggers, mainly young people who approach the public on the open street to ask if they might like to donate to a particular charity, have been evident at Zug station of late, not to the approval of all travellers.
 
One day they might be collecting for Amnesty International or Health for People in Africa, while on another it might be for Pro Natura or Solidarmed, though it is actually only on two days a week that these chuggers are allowed to approach people about their charity.
 
One person regularly approached by chuggers at the station does not approve of the practice and wrote to the Zuger Zeitung newspaper to say so, preferring not to mention his name. He makes it quite clear to those collecting signatures or money that he is not interested, but this, it appears, is not enough, some of the chuggers acting in a charmingly forceful way in the hope people will change their mind, even when the man in question explained that he already donated to two charities of his choice.
 
Other members of the public do their best to avoid the chuggers, but this is not so easy the way the station here in Zug is laid out. Others do not mind them so much, but even these have noticed the chuggers never seem to understand when told, “no thank you”. “What you have to do is make sure you do not stop, otherwise you could be detained for some time,” said one other traveller, who went on to say he did not like to donate money in this way because he was not sure about how much of it actually reached the people who needed it.
 
When asked about this matter, SBB spokeswoman Daniele Pallecchi explained that, since September, areas at the station had been fully booked for people hoping to secure a donation or signature from members of the public. She explained that there were very clear rules for these chuggers, such as, for example, that if a person replies “no” they mean “no” and that they should not persist. Another rule is that, in general, the chuggers should not go beyond three metres from any stand they may have set out. Indeed, to ensure these regulations are adhered to, spot checks are carried out by station staff, though according to the journalist who wrote this article, this maximum distance was clearly not being adhered to when he was there one recent Monday afternoon. One problem is that this distance depends on the layout of the individual station, so there is no clear ruling.
 
When Bernhard Bircher-Suits, the head of communication of the Corris company which organises information campaigns for such charities, was asked about the behaviour of the some of the fundraisers, he said that both the SBB and the organisations concerned laid great importance on the politeness of the individual fundraisers and that, in the event of any complaints, they were retrained or given a written warning. As to some failing to adhere to the three-metre ruling, he said the required distance was always able to be checked by their using the i-pads they had with them. He also mentioned that Zug station was a relatively expensive location for chuggers to operate, hence it was only seldom booked by them, perhaps on two days a month only. He also mentioned that his company made spot checks on those involved, but so far no official complaints had been made about chuggers’ behaviour at Zug station.