A week or two back the company decided to entice more people onto the buses. To do this they sent out vouchers that could be exchanged for Goldrider Tickets which entitle passengers to a week's travel on any Stagecoach Devon bus. They were sent to people who did not normally use the bus in the hope that they would see the advantages of travelling by bus in the future. If you are a car owner it can make sense if you live handy to the bus stops at each end and you have to pay for car parking while at work. A weeks travel with no car parking fees for £20.00. Leave the car at home and help save the planet and yourself a few quid as well.
A slight problem with any mail shot like this is that you can never be sure who will end up using the voucher. Some of the people who got their weekly ticket over a week ago are still trying to use them even though they are out of date. One trick is to hold the ticket so the thumb is over the date in the hope the driver will be too rushed to bother looking, fat chance of that. An other trick is the rip off the part of the ticket that has the date printed on it and claim that it came out of the machine like that and all the other drivers accept it, fat chance of that. A third trick is to change the date and hope the driver doesn't notice, fat chance of that. Forth trick is to wet a finger and smudge the date, that doesn't work either. Over the last few days I must have had ten Goldriders presented to me in any of the above ways. I don't think any got past me, but who can tell? The bastards who did, that's who. But I don't suppose any (if any) will tell, will they.
4 comments:
i wonder about the fact that these vouchers have been sent to bus drivers as well as pensioners who already have a free pass to travel!! so who takes the blame for costing the company thousands of pounds?
Any sign of increased usage of the bus? Would you notice someone who came in from the free offer and then became a regular (other than those who tried to keep using their ticket after it expired of course)?
A couple of comments above:-
First. One of my regular passengers who has a AOP free bus pass has been using a Goldrider for the past week. When he got on the bus on Friday and presented it I had to tell him it was out of date. "Oh dear," he said."I'll have to use this then." and produced his bus pass.
So for a week the company have not received the fixed payment they get when ever one of these passes is used.
Second. Passenger numbers on individual buses vary so much, from duty to duty and depending on the weather that it would be imposible for me to say if passenger numbers have risen. It would need some one in head office to go through the over all figures to say that. Also the plan is long term, to get people using the buses for a week and then continue using the buses. Passenger growth is the goal.
This is a tired old attempt at getting bums on seats. It only works on people who rely on buses normally. or if someone really wants to go out shopping etc and for once the nice bus company gives them a free ride. With most bus companies the non-regular passenger will be shocked at the state of vehicles/drivers/timekeeping etc and will realise why they don't use buses in the first place.
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