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Buses has been making an extra £530 a day from people who don’t have the correct change for their fare.
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CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
"Lothian Buses make £194k from keeping spare change"
(59 posts)-
Posted 11 years ago #
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It must be more than £530 from people who overpay on the basis that there must be plenty of people who underpay every day.
To overpay on a single with coins would involve paying £1.51, £1.60 or £2.00 (any others?). There were greater overpayment options in the past.
Posted 11 years ago # -
"any others?"
I know someone who only had a fiver when they wanted a day ticket!
Posted 11 years ago # -
One of them was me last week when I had to pay £2. :-( The alternative is to buy something I didn't want to get the change which works out even more expensive.
Annoying that I didn't get to pay just £1 next time!
Posted 11 years ago # -
Min, the next 10 times you take the bus pay with 29 5p coins. You will definitely get away with it and you will have broken even.
Posted 11 years ago # -
And one was me on Saturday (although I object to calling it "incorrect change" - overcharged more like!)
I'd put £3.50 in for a Dayticket. The driver didn't believe that the variety of coins made up the right amount, and was pretty unpleasant about it despite me pointing out the coins in the box. Eventually to avoid any more embarrassment in front of a packed bus I flung another couple of quid in and skulked off upstairs muttering to myself.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Think that is worth an email to LB.m
(It'll all be on CCTV.)
Posted 11 years ago # -
In other bus news, where did they come up with the name from?
Posted 11 years ago # -
I've had occasion to use the bus quite a few times in the past three weeks. No.1 son had fractured pinkie so could not ride his bike nor stoke a tandem (doctor's orders) and hence quite a bit of bussing around.
True to the stereotype of the parsimonious Scot. generally I either had the exact change or underpaid by 1p, 2p, or even as much as 5p!
So they've not made any (excess) profit from me.
Posted 11 years ago # -
In other bus news, where did they come up with the name from?
Transport for the Lothians might be closer to the mark.
Posted 11 years ago # -
"Transport for the Lothians might be closer to the mark."
Or "buses for some parts of the Lothians (but not too far west)".
And "plus the odd tram".
And "if you're not careful we'll be put in charge of cycling in Edinburgh too".
Posted 11 years ago # -
I was given a 2 Croatian Kuna coin in some change, which is exactly the same size, thickness and colour as our 10p. It does have a tuna on one side though, but Lothian buses have it now, regardless.
Posted 11 years ago # -
The old tuna-on-the-side-the-driver-can't-see trick.
Posted 11 years ago # -
TfE should be PTfE as they only cover Public Transportation (less the trains, I suppose).
@chdot - has there been a suggestion that they might become more TfL-like and responsible for all road transportation (inc trams)?
Robert
Posted 11 years ago # -
Presumably all the fares would be higher without the over-payments.
Posted 11 years ago # -
That's a slug of income that LB will lose if they ever get round to proper smart ticketing.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Just out of interest, could one of the resident lawyers here explain how they can get away with not giving change?
Presumably the bus ticket contract give you the right to board the bus on payment of £1.50. But is there any wording in the terms and conditions that gives them the right to keep overpayments?
If I boarded the bus and put in a £2 coin, asked for change and when told it wasn't given then asked for my £2 back would they be obliged to give it back?
In the grand scheme of things it's not a big issue to me but my experience on Saturday has made me a bit annoyed. Would any other business get away with this? £200k is a reasonable amount of money.....
Posted 11 years ago # -
The terms and conditions state
"Most of our services do NOT give change. It is the passenger’s responsibility to ensure that the correct fare is paid. If a passenger is obliged to pay more than the required fare, an overpayment slip will be issued if requested. Such overpayments can be reclaimed at the Company’s Hanover Street Travelshop after 5 working days."
I'm tempted to put an extra 1p in the box and ask for an overpayment slip every time I take the bus.
/* thrawn */
Posted 11 years ago # -
It's mentioned on the timetable/ticket price notices that 'our buses cannot give change' or words to that effect. I've no idea what it means from a legal perspective. Also seen it mentioned that the drivers have no access to the money box so if you really wanted your hypothetical £2 back you would I imagine have to write to them with details of the time/place you boarded etc. I'd be interested to know what the outcome of that would be but I imagine even if it was successful it wouldn't be worth it over £2, which is probably exactly how they're getting away with it.
(usual disclaimer about me being about as far from a resident lawyer as you can get)
Posted 11 years ago # -
I don't mind the correct-change-only approach. It's for the greater good as it speeds up boarding considerably, and this leads to signficant journey time savings on a busy service. Smart ticketing should make it even quicker.
Posted 11 years ago # -
From a contract point of view I would have thought that you putting money in the slot is the offer, them issuing the ticket is the acceptance so you don't have a contract with them until they issue the ticket.
But IANAL.Posted 11 years ago # -
cb - the asked ticket price is the original offer? If you pay more - with the expectation of change - then that surely can't qualify as a counter-offer.
I think you'd get your money back if you wrote in. I did once. Didn't bother the other week when I squeezed a fiver in to the
Posted 11 years ago # -
I think the asked ticket price is an invitation to treat, and you handing over the money is the offer.
That's how shopping works anyway and is why if you see a £500 item wrongly labelled as £5 it doesn't mean you get to buy at that price.
But I could be wrong!
Posted 11 years ago # -
You used to be able to get overpayment slips - when we were organising a treasure hunt for freshers' week, that, along with a Waverley to Haymarket train ticket, were two of the least obtained treasures.
One team did persuade a traffic warden to go to Grindlay Street, and another managed to talk a pub into lending them a condom machine, but overpayment slips were trickier.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I have been minded to offer to pay with a tenner, and when declined to count out my 1.50 in small change, certainly not quicker...
If they could get the payment app to work, then it will definitely be an improvement.
Posted 11 years ago # -
"if they ever get round to proper smart ticketing"
They're presumably closely monitoring their current pre-paid-credit app thing to see how much they make from expired unused credit...
Posted 11 years ago # -
Lothian and it's predecessors LRT and ECT have been using the exact-change only policy on all their buses for about 40 years. Has the chipwrapper just caught on to this "scandal"
Posted 11 years ago # -
When I was a student in Dublin you'd always be given a change slip on the bus. You could go to the bus station and cash them in. There were often charity buckets on campus collecting them.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Has the chipwrapper just caught on to this "scandal"
Investigative journalism at its finest!
Posted 11 years ago # -
£1.50 to go from Edinburgh to Pencaitland is very good value.
Back in the olden days you could buy a 70p ticket for a few stops and try to stay on longer
Dublin buses still had conductors possibly into the 1990s?
Love it when someone waits until they get on the bus to fish around in bag for wallet then faff around getting the money right. It should be in your hand as you get on the bus. :-)
I tried an emoticon there and my story of a RAOK from me to an Italian prof trying to pay a boorish driver with a tenner was deleted. I shan't go into the details but one day I am sure I will be paid back. (£1.20 was fare from town to heriot watt, heck I wasn't even getting on the dude's bus the driver was just being somewhat unfriendly, bordering on xenophobia I thought, but I won't bore you with the minutiae
Posted 11 years ago #
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