Sheffield bus fare change vouchers

[Beligerence 10]

Are people really moaning about having to put their own ticket in the plastic wallet thing?

Deary me. Anything to speed boarding up is a plus, surely?

[Guest busdriver1]

Are people really moaning about having to put their own ticket in the plastic wallet thing?

Deary me. Anything to speed boarding up is a plus, surely?

 

I suspect its nothing to do with putting the ticket in the wallet and more to do with the favourite game of some Sheffielders called "lets moan about the buses".

 

---------- Post added 23-01-2017 at 20:35 ----------

 

Where are we supposed to collect this huge pile of coins from?

 

---------- Post added 23-01-2017 at 17:03 ----------

 

 

It also involves paying for cash with things and then collecting the change and saving it for the one day you have to use the bus.

Guess how much change I've collected today... None. So if I need the bus tomorrow, what do you recommend, drive to the shops to get some change make it easier for First I suppose.

 

---------- Post added 23-01-2017 at 17:05 ----------

 

 

You want it on a plate. Would you prefer it if the passengers would drive the bus as well, or is that part of doing your job acceptable?

 

Since its not my job, I hope somebody drives it.

[sulzer 10]

My son got a voucher for 20p the other day after getting an 80p fare from a £1 coin! Now that is taking the **** you can't tell me the bus driver (first bus) didn't have 20p in the middle of the afternoon? If he had got on with a £5/£10/£20 note I agree as I've no sympathy as people take the **** themselves with notes

[Jeffrey Shaw 90]

My son got a voucher for 20p the other day after getting an 80p fare from a £1 coin! Now that is taking the **** you can't tell me the bus driver (first bus) didn't have 20p in the middle of the afternoon? If he had got on with a £5/£10/£20 note I agree as I've no sympathy as people take the **** themselves with notes

Expecting change from a £5 note for a fare of over £2 is not unreasonable.

[Chez2 10]

Where are we supposed to collect this huge pile of coins from?[COLOR="Silver"]

 

---------- Post added 23-01-2017 at 17:03 ----------

 

[/color]

 

It also involves paying for cash with things and then collecting the change and saving it for the one day you have to use the bus.

Guess how much change I've collected today... None. So if I need the bus tomorrow, what do you recommend, drive to the shops to get some change make it easier for First I suppose.

 

---------- Post added 23-01-2017 at 17:05 ----------

 

 

You want it on a plate. Would you prefer it if the passengers would drive the bus as well, or is that part of doing your job acceptable?

 

You can get bags of coins from a bank if you need change. I/we used to have to do that for car parking. We don't use cash at all and our business is cashless so I would periodically get bags of change from the bank. I think we only use cash for the window cleaner and the odd small transaction which is extremely rare.

[Guest busdriver1]

My son got a voucher for 20p the other day after getting an 80p fare from a £1 coin! Now that is taking the **** you can't tell me the bus driver (first bus) didn't have 20p in the middle of the afternoon? If he had got on with a £5/£10/£20 note I agree as I've no sympathy as people take the **** themselves with notes

 

Firstly, drivers dont work office hours they can start at any time up to 17.00 ish. First drivers get a £5 float and believe me that can disappear in an instant. All you need is a couple of people like cyclone and its gone.

[Guest]

Firstly, drivers dont work office hours they can start at any time up to 17.00 ish. First drivers get a £5 float and believe me that can disappear in an instant. All you need is a couple of people like cyclone and its gone.

 

Seriously, what's the point of a £5 float?

[Guest busdriver1]

Seriously, what's the point of a £5 float?

 

Many carry more from their own pocket but thats what the company give them on First. I believe Stagecoach have even less or certainly used to.

 

---------- Post added 27-01-2017 at 10:56 ----------

 

Expecting change from a £5 note for a fare of over £2 is not unreasonable.

 

One company I worked for decided they would not give change for anything over double the value of the fare, another refused to accept £20 notes and actually set the note counters at the depot to refuse them and you know what? People accepted it and got on with life, taking responsibility and so on, but there again that wasn't Sheffield and they didn't play the game of making life difficult for others.

Edited January 27, 2017 by busdriver1

[sgtkate 10]

Many carry more from their own pocket but thats what the company give them on First. I believe Stagecoach have even less or certainly used to.

 

---------- Post added 27-01-2017 at 10:56 ----------

 

 

One company I worked for decided they would not give change for anything over double the value of the fare, another refused to accept £20 notes and actually set the note counters at the depot to refuse them and you know what? People accepted it and got on with life, taking responsibility and so on, but there again that wasn't Sheffield and they didn't play the game of making life difficult for others.

 

You know that businesses should adapt to the needs of their customers right? So as you've got quite a few people on here alone telling you that this is a ridiculous policy then perhaps it should be changed. People aren't expecting the bus drivers to change that policy so it's not people having a go at you (this time at least ) but me and others like me find it strange that you don't understand the issue or why so many of us think it's a farce not being able to get change in cash from a £5 note for a £3 fare.

How buses haven't gone for contactless payments yet is utterly beyond me! Even my local card shop has gone contactless and they still put price stickers on each card individually!

 

If you don't want to give change because it's impractical to do so then go the whole hog and make people put their fares into a plastic chute and have no ability to give any change or change vouchers at all. That'll soon stop the £20 note fare people and then everyone will understand the rules. It's the total inconsistency that annoys me.

[Guest busdriver1]

You know that businesses should adapt to the needs of their customers right? So as you've got quite a few people on here alone telling you that this is a ridiculous policy then perhaps it should be changed. People aren't expecting the bus drivers to change that policy so it's not people having a go at you (this time at least ) but me and others like me find it strange that you don't understand the issue or why so many of us think it's a farce not being able to get change in cash from a £5 note for a £3 fare.

How buses haven't gone for contactless payments yet is utterly beyond me! Even my local card shop has gone contactless and they still put price stickers on each card individually!

 

If you don't want to give change because it's impractical to do so then go the whole hog and make people put their fares into a plastic chute and have no ability to give any change or change vouchers at all. That'll soon stop the £20 note fare people and then everyone will understand the rules. It's the total inconsistency that annoys me.

 

So it is a ridiculous policy to expect people to make an effort?

 

I have worked all over the UK and have never come across this issue until I moved to South Yorkshire. The last time I drove buses in service was in Rotherham where this attitude does not exist.

I no longer drive buses, my enjoyment of the job was wiped out by the good people of Sheffield and their Me, Me, Me, attitude and if you look at the buses with their full length adverts trying to get people to drive them I am not the only one.

Good luck to you all catching your buses, your attitude towards the staff is a deciding factor in many people leaving the job so it looks like you will be getting the service you deserve.

Next time a bus terminates short or just doesnt turn up, just remember all the times you moaned at a driver or demanded change for a £20 note when making a £1.50 trip despite standing outside a shop whilst waiting for it. Karma.

[sgtkate 10]

So it is a ridiculous policy to expect people to make an effort?

 

Erm, yes. It's of course a ridiculous policy to make people go out of their way to obtain change so they can pay for a service being offered by your employer whose sole reason for operating the service is to make money from taking it from people looking to use the service.

 

This isn't an attitude problem with the customer, it's an attitude problem with Stagecoach and First. Rather than finding a solution that works for the CUSTOMER (you know the ones who make profit for them) they instead decide to refuse to adapt and as a result are losing customers. I will now get a taxi rather than use the bus on short routes as it's only just more expensive and I can carry not a penny of cash on my yet still get to where I want to go. Magic modern technology isn't it?

 

Seriously, get your employers to wake up to customer service and demands and then perhaps your passengers will be less mardy.

[Obelix 11]

I suspect its nothing to do with putting the ticket in the wallet and more to do with the favourite game of some Sheffielders called "lets moan about the buses.

 

Theres plenty to moan about lets be fair, but this isn't one of them....

 

---------- Post added 27-01-2017 at 14:19 ----------

 

Erm, yes. It's of course a ridiculous policy to make people go out of their way to obtain change so they can pay for a service being offered by your employer whose sole reason for operating the service is to make money from taking it from people looking to use the service..

 

There's never been a legal right to be given change you know... if you have a debt to be settled then I don't have to give you change if you proffer over the odds.

 

Now a prepayment system like a bus is different of course in that you can decide not to give them the business, but I've never understood why people always expect an automatic right to change, especially for something like a bus route with a fixed fare that you can easily sort in advance...

 

---------- Post added 27-01-2017 at 14:22 ----------

 

Expecting change from a £5 note for a fare of over £2 is not unreasonable.

 

So lets say everyone does it in a day and waves a fiver... for a bus that has maybe a hundred passnegers on it each full run of the route and perhaps six such passes in a shift, that's £1200+ in change.

 

For a company of just ten buses that's £10k a day in cash to be handled.

 

That's A) heavy B) a security risk.

 

Change in a high volume fixed price situation is unreasonable. It costs a lot of money to handle cash.