This notice has appeared on the buses recently. Please note it was issued by Torbay Council and not the company.One of the problems with the concessionary tickets is the time it can take to issue a ticket with the correct destination on it when it doesn't greatly matter what destination it has on the ticket. I know the company would like all concessionary tickets to have the correct destination printed on it so they can keep and eye on how the free bus passes are being used, that is long trips or just a couple of stops but if there is a big queue and a paying passenger (rare these days) boards and asks for a single from Torquay to Brixham he/she will get the correct ticket, there is money involved after all. Now if the next passenger has a concessionary pass and asks for Paignton, which is closer than Brixham, the driver will be tempted to press the button to issue a concessionary pass without changing the destination. It saves time when they are rushed.
Now the passenger might look at the ticket and think that the company is making more money and therefore the council is being swindled. Not so, each journey nets the company exactly the same amount, a set fee, regardless of the length of the journey. And the set fee is negotiated along complicated, rocket science rules which mostly involve calculations done based on average single adult fares not on the average concessionary ticket. So someone boarding at Lowes Bridge on the main road and getting of at Lowes Bridge on the Newton Rd, a distance of 24.5 yards costs exactly the same as someone boarding an X46 in Paignton and going to Exeter, a distance of 24.5 miles.
Hope that has cleared that up.
5 comments:
On Stagecoach East Kent the driver doesn't have to ask your destination - you merely receive a ticket stating where your boarded. On a recent visit to Devon the driver of a bus going to Torquay surprised us by asking where we were going.
In London you just show your pass and the driver just presses a button his machine and no ticket is issued.
Why can't there be a nationwide consistent policy for tickets and bus company reimbursement?
Worried of Kent
In the Bedford operation, like East Kent, we need the destination although I am led to believe that Bedford Borough, for example, give a set amount per year. However, we also operate through other local authorities and they have their own rules and ways of accounting for things.
I agree with Worried of Kent that there should be some consistancy. It can not be beyond the wit of minds immeasurably superior to ours to come up with a formula that saves the hassle of issueing and accounting for free tickets to pass-holding passengers (over 60 or disabled).
It would be a good idea to use the systems I have seen in other parts where passengers get on and insert their own pass or off-bus ticket in a machine to register the journey. This should be a country-wide standard enforced by legislation. The bus companies make more than enough money to bear the costs of installation and the resultant cost savings would more than pay for it.
If anyone else has an opposing view or more information it could make an intersting debate.
Good blog Dave.
I think its bad for Stagecoach [Devon] that they get the same amount irerespective of the journey length. Some OAP,s [ not all] do simply abuse the system, and really strain the reasources - as the X45 ceasure and the X38 having Enviros on shows].
Most OAPs I'vespoken to were more than happy to pay half a fare, another goverment initiative gone wrong...
In my area, we could probably get away with just the boarding stage, but as the reimbursement rates are so ridiculously low, (this is where there needs to be consistency - scottish and welsh companies get twice what we do), we are forced to challenge the councils, (in some cases in court), and need to be able to prove "how much revenue has been foregone".
Charge card holders one pound per trip. no cost to the tax payer and the bus company's get real money on the day. No ticket need be issued saving a third of a roll per bus per day minimum, less wear and tear on the machine, faster flow of traffic (wobbly legs permitting) restrict to the retired and disabled, no exceptions.
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