ISB1101: Lost and Found

TLDR: If you suspect you lost something on the NUS internal shuttle bus, email ocaenquiry@nus.edu.sg or call +6565161717 (Office of Campus Amenities) during office hours.

Recently, someone I know left a matric card on the shuttle bus. Don’t laugh, we’ve all been there before (I mean misplacing our matric cards, not always on the bus).

Since I had a free day, I headed to the origin of the bus route and did some really unorthodox things (okay, I just talked to the drivers on break) to figure out and track down where the card was. But over the course of the day, I learned all about the process of dealing with lost and found items on ISBs.

According to the staff and bus drivers I spoke to, there is actually a systematic way of handling these lost and found items. It’s just not what you might think it is, and students ought to know it.

Do the drivers check the bus?

The first step in the process involves the bus driver going through his bus at the end of a trip. By right, our bus drivers are supposed to clean up their bus and go through it for lost belongings before they tap their card to start a new trip.

Of course, they don’t always spot it. If we ourselves dropped our item into a hard-to-see spot, it would be hard to see for them as well. Nevertheless, they try their best to look out for anything left behind, and then deal with it according to protocol.

If you yourself spot a lost item in the bus, hand it to the driver or place it on the shelf area behind him while letting him know of the item. He will deal with it according to protocol.

What is the protocol?

Now if a bus driver has lost and found belongings in the bus, his protocol is to hand it to the bus company office at Prince George’s Park as soon as he can. That’s the office of his boss, whom he reports to. Regardless of where the terminal of the route is, the protocol is to send the item to PGP.

The office is located right behind the bus stop bench. At this office, the bus company staff will either hold on to the belongings, or if they are deemed to be valuables (eg. wallet full of money), they will be handed to the Office of Campus Security nearby for them to alert students on their own. If this happens, it is likely they will contact you before you can even contact anyone else.

So I left my stuff in the bus. How?

The standard procedure is for students who have lost belongings to contact the Office of Campus Amenities, either at 65161717 or ocaenquiry@u.nus.edu.

The staff will ask you a few questions about your lost item to verify that you are the true owner. Knowing the route you were on, the time you rode and the bus plate number certainly helps in this case. Of course, if it is your matric card, you can quote your matric number. OCA will contact you once the item has been found.