Bus driver without change.

Stigy

giraffe69 wrote: »

Some bus companies have a no change policy. If it didn't and the driver indicated he was not going to permit you to travel because of his or his firms incompetence then I think I might let him summon the law and decline to move. I think you would then find he would likely swear under his breath, offer some meaningless threats about prosecution and move off to avoid offending 27 other passengers. Mind you I think I'd hope someone else wanted to get off at my stop if it were a request stop.

Not sure exactly how not having enough change amounts to incompetence....surely the very reason behind this is that certain ignorant customers paid him previously with banknotes, eating up what small change he had?

jsmith9156

The bus company I work for do not provide any change for drivers, The small float I carry with me is my own money. It only takes a few people buying £14 weekly tickets with £20 notes for most of it to be used up.

Our policy at work is either collect your change from our travel office in the town centre the next working day or wait for the next bus.

I've never had a job before where I've had to keep a load of my own money in constant limbo to do my job.... But it seems to be an industry wide thing.

Also it's somewhere deep in our conditions of carriage that it's down to the passenger to tender correct fare and change not always available, which you agree to every time you buy a ticket.

James

Tilt

I think most reasonably minded people who knew they were catching a bus in advance, would make sure they had sufficient change on them before boarding.

Common sense should tell you that a bus driver will only have access to a certain amount of change especially early in the morning.

stclair

In Manchester if the bus driver does not have change they will generally allow you to travel for free at there discretion.

giraffe69

Not sure exactly how not having enough change amounts to incompetence....surely the very reason behind this is that certain ignorant customers paid him previously with banknotes, eating up what small change he had?

It's incompetence because sensible alternatives are not provided. If you have smart cards and/or machines a bus stops or you can buy multi tickets in shops then there is a case for cutting costs by removing the facility of giving change but when these opportunities are not provided and there is just a blanket "we do not give change" that is both unreasonable and incompetent, the second because they could run a service which was better for customers and choose by their omission to make it harder for consumers. It is noticeable that this sort of poor service occurs most often when there are monopolies.
Overall government would be pleased if more people caught buses and fewer got into cars. These sort of fare policies are just one more nail in the coffin.

LadyCoupon

CKhalvashi wrote: »

IMO, if the company are spending £100k on a vehicle, they should at least be able to find £200 in change for their drivers, which again should be more than adequate.

CK

£100k? Yeah and the rest, buses cost a lot more than that.

Southend1

LadyCoupon wrote: »

£100k? Yeah and the rest, buses cost a lot more than that.

They do when they're new, but unless you're in Central London it's pretty rare to see a new bus. Most of the old bangers in service elsewhere can be bought for around £5k. Though to be fair, arriva have introduced some new buses round my way. I try to avoid them because their fares are higher than the bangers operated by the other firms.

custardy

Rosemary7391 wrote: »

Do they also post the fare so you can get the correct change? I've never seen those signs, but drivers always have change here.

In Edinburgh its exact fares only
has been for as long as I remember
there is no facility to give change on the buses

adouglasmhor wrote: »

I like the 3rd option as used in Amsterdam, If you are not paying exact fare (which is pricey compared to the others), or using a travel card, you have a little card for 10 journeys or 20 journeys etc. which got punched on each journey and had no time limit.

They do packs of tickets here too

Southend1 wrote: »

They do when they're new, but unless you're in Central London it's pretty rare to see a new bus. Most of the old bangers in service elsewhere can be bought for around £5k. Though to be fair, arriva have introduced some new buses round my way. I try to avoid them because their fares are higher than the bangers operated by the other firms.

really,only Central London has new buses?

Southend1

custardy wrote: »

really,only Central London has new buses?

Not quite what I said!

custardy

Southend1 wrote: »

They do when they're new, but unless you're in Central London it's pretty rare to see a new bus. Most of the old bangers in service elsewhere can be bought for around £5k. Though to be fair, arriva have introduced some new buses round my way. I try to avoid them because their fares are higher than the bangers operated by the other firms.

LadyCoupon wrote: »

£100k? Yeah and the rest, buses cost a lot more than that.

Southend1 wrote: »

Not quite what I said!

Isnt it?
I know I only live in the poor north.
However we seem to scrape a bit of cash for the odd new bus!