Can Arriva do this? 7 April 2021 at 10:38AM in Public transport & cycling 9 replies 282 views

Carlsdad

Today, my wife had to travel by bus and, as her bus-pass had expired tendered £2 for the £1.70 fare. To her surprise, she was issued with a ticket for the correct amount, but no change. The bus driver explained to my wife that change was no longer given, and this had been company policy for about a year now. Surely, even if this is legal, a receipt should be given for the amount paid, not the amount due?

jon81uk

Twenty years ago I was catching buses in Birmingham with exact fare only signage on the doors. Money into the cash chute and no option for change. 

daveyjp

Cardiff Bus is the same and has been for many years.  As long as you are informed you have a choice to pay or not.

Use a card if possible.

Billy_B_North

Not only can they, it sounds as though they already did.

martindow

She could probably have used a contactless card to pay the exact amount.  In London you cannot use cash at all.

[Deleted User]

 Been this way for a year to protect the drivers as much as possible from covid.
 Its been widely advertised. Next time get change in advance. 

Carlsdad

_shel said:

 Been this way for a year to protect the drivers as much as possible from covid.
 Its been widely advertised. Next time get change in advance. 

Didn't stop them taking the £2, though. Any excuse to help themselves to your hard-earned. We don't normally use the bus service, but today my car battery died on me, so it was a case of needs must...........  My main concern is handing over £2, and being given a receipt for £1.70. That bit doesn't sound right to me.

Andy_L

Carlsdad said:

_shel said:

 Been this way for a year to protect the drivers as much as possible from covid.
 Its been widely advertised. Next time get change in advance. 

Didn't stop them taking the £2, though. Any excuse to help themselves to your hard-earned. We don't normally use the bus service, but today my car battery died on me, so it was a case of needs must...........  My main concern is handing over £2, and being given a receipt for £1.70. That bit doesn't sound right to me.

Was it a receipt or was it a ticket?

martindow

I think no change is getting increasingly common partly to speed up boarding buses but also for the safety of drivers.  Cash drops into a vault where the driver has no access to it and so is not in danger of being attacked.  Most buses now accept contactless card payments and in time are likely to follow London in not taking cash at all.

pogofish

Buses here have done this for years, decades even. Ever since they sacked the clippies and went over to one man operation in the 1970s.

For larger amounts of change, drivers could issue a chit that you could reclaim from the kiosk at the main terminus in the city centre and later (Post-deregulation) from their city centre shop but for smaller amounts you just had to lump it. 

Country buses still do change though - probably due to larger/more complex fare structures but personally, I’ve used contactless since the moment they introduced it. Much less hassle!