A bus arriving on time keeps promises its passengers made elsewhere.

A timetable is not really about the bus. It is about the shift that starts at eight, the appointment that cannot be rearranged, the child who has to be collected, the interview somebody prepared for all week. Every passenger has already committed to something on the assumption that this vehicle will do what it said. Punctuality here is other people’s reliability, held in trust.

That is worth remembering whenever you make a promise that other plans will be built on. Ask what will fall over if you are late. And when a service is reliable, say so to the people who run it, since only complaints usually travel upward.