Ticket Inspectors onboard buses.

[dvboy]

I've seen drivers letting on people for free when no change or out off date concession passes

Seen it happen here when the card machine is broken too.

There was a man on my bus the other day arguing over a child ticket he had purchased with his card. He was told by the inspector its his fault as he agreed to purchase it and would have seen what it said on the scanner.

In my mind that is partly on the driver for agreeing to sell the child ticket and pressing the relevant button on the machine before the card was presented, unless the person looked like they could potentially be under 16.

 

[Mwanesh]

Seen it happen here when the card machine is broken too.


In my mind that is partly on the driver for agreeing to sell the child ticket and pressing the relevant button on the machine before the card was presented, unless the person looked like they could potentially be under 16.

When they ask for a child day ticket I issue them one. I don't ask for ID that's for inspectors. It happens very often adults ask for a child day ticket. Nothing to do with the driver the prices are displayed right on the reader.

 

[Typhoon]

National Express West Midlands certainly had them when I lived in Birmingham 2000-2015. The north-bound stops at 6 Ways Erdington were frequently used as a location for on-board inspections, and I'm pretty sure a drug sniffer dog would occassionally embark on a quick tour of both decks ......

It was really a combination of revenue protection and a high-visibility response to anti-social behaviour.

Similar era. Unlike other inspections I have come across (eg London, Stagecoach South East), the bus stopped, someone (Inspector, Police Office) would go upstairs and ask passengers to have their tickets and passes ready. There would be at least two Inspectors, but usually more, checking tickets and others - usually police - waiting for anyone trying to do a runner. It was a serious operation. I was stopped just because I happened to be getting off - my pass had already been checked (6 ways going south).

They tended to check at places where several routes pass. I can remember Acocks Green, Bearwood and Witton Cemetery. There might be buses behind waiting to be checked.

It was a minor inconvenience but judging by the numbers of passengers I used to see disembarking and lining up, it got results.

Maybe i can kind of understand on TFL buses which have rear doors where people might sneak on without the driver seeing. Also the drivers on TFL buses rarely seem to be properly paying attention to any ticket you show them.

Some sneak on when those with prams or pushchairs get on via the middle doors. I try and avoid the LT class but I understood the rear doors were not used any more (thanks, Boris). Otherwise most tickets and passes are surely checked by the 'Beep machine' (whatever it is called), only interlopers like me from outside the Capital need to be checked. If people think their ticket will be checked, more will buy them. Not far away there are three consecutive stations, schools at the two end ones, journey time 7 minutes. Some journeys are pretty packed (and not just with pupils), none have gates, staffing is nil or part time, travelers tend to exit via side entrances, not the booking hall. I reckon there are quite a few who haven't paid. Little incentive to do so.

 

[Statto]

I haven't seen any inspectors in my area Wirral for at least well over a decade.

One scam some are trying is mobile data not working, & have no cash or contactless bankcard so they can't pay for a ticket, so try & get a free ride that way.

 

[Ianigsy]

First Aberdeen's ticketer machines show an amber LED when a student ticket is scanned and the drivers - almost without exception in my experience - demand to see a student ID card.

Although how difficult it is to produce a fake student ID card is another matter.

Somebody I worked with about 20 years ago had a boyfriend who worked for one of the student unions in Leeds, who used to run her one off every year.

Had my first encounter with a couple of these inspectors the week before last - one person was sent to the driver to buy a new weekly ticket, but the inspectors didn’t seem to have any equipment to check that bank cards had been tapped in, or to scan my mobile ticket.

 

[WAB]

Some sneak on when those with prams or pushchairs get on via the middle doors. I try and avoid the LT class but I understood the rear doors were not used any more (thanks, Boris). Otherwise most tickets and passes are surely checked by the 'Beep machine' (whatever it is called), only interlopers like me from outside the Capital need to be checked. If people think their ticket will be checked, more will buy them.

There are plenty of high value passes (Zip young person photocards, 60+, jobseekers and freedom passes) which get stolen or loaned and used by the wrong person. Drivers are often afraid to challenge fare dodgers who may be carrying knives etc. The dodgers don't tend to be so bold when faced with half a dozen inspectors with a couple of PCs looming nearby.

 

[blueberry11]

Apparently Norfolk and Suffolk are introducing their own from 17 June 2024. I generally do not reply to old threads but given the update, I am making an exception.

Our Revenue Protection Officers

From Monday 17th June 2024, our Revenue Protection Officers have been on board our buses in Norfolk and Suffolk.

www.firstbus.co.uk

From Monday 17th June 2024, we'll be introducing Revenue Protection Officers on board our buses in Norfolk and Suffolk.

Edit: Essex too, also from the 17th.

Our Revenue Protection Officers

From Monday 17th June 2024, we'll be introducing Revenue Protection Officers on board our buses in Essex.

www.firstbus.co.uk

 

[Volvodart]

One of the on loan E300s at First Aberdeen has notices about the revenue protection team and encouraging passengers to pay the correct fare, but there is nothing about them yet on the First Glasgow website and the link on the notice is dead.

 

[Teds]

The photocopying of tickets can be a significant problem and is the reason that tickets - particularly weeklies - can only be bought on apps. National Express Coaches used to (and may still) have a small team of inspectors whose role was definitely to check on drivers rather than customers.

 

[philthetube]

Many years ago I was route instructing on a national express service, an inspector boarded and asked to see my authorisation for doing this, I was not even aware that such existed, he insisted that I bought a ticket, I declined and told him that I would leave the service, pointing out that the driver did not know the route, he got off and did not even check the rest of the coach.

 

[Towers]

Many years ago I was route instructing on a national express service, an inspector boarded and asked to see my authorisation for doing this, I was not even aware that such existed, he insisted that I bought a ticket, I declined and told him that I would leave the service, pointing out that the driver did not know the route, he got off and did not even check the rest of the coach.

Brilliant!

 

[Ianigsy]

A little update - I think I’ve been checked three or four times in the last month or so on the Otley Road route out of Leeds, but my main gripe is that the bus remains stationary throughout the check so that a bus which is 5 minutes late suddenly becomes 10 minutes late (or in one case last week, 15 minutes turns into 20).

I’m also interested to see how inspectors deal with singles bought through the app which expire after 30 minutes, considering that if I’d boarded at my usual service’s origin point this morning I would already have been travelling for 55 minutes at the point at which we were inspected!

But still, I’m surprised at how much fare evasion there can be in a flat fare system. I suspect a large part of the issue in Leeds is probably student and child tickets being bought by people who shouldn’t.

 

[Wolfie]

Oldest dodge of the lot is not to issue the ticket, and accept the money. I've seen it done, even comparatively recently.

Interestingly twice recently in the Midlands the driver (a different individual on each occasion) took my fare but claimed, due to an absence of a ticket roll, to be unable to issue a ticket.

 

[Taunton]

Going back many years ticket inspectors were very common, notably in the original subject city, Bristol. Always in traditional garb, belted raincoat and flat hat. When all buses had conductors, and all fares were paid with coins, the principal checking of the tickets was apparently reviewing performance of the conductor rather than the passengers.

 

[WAB]

A little update - I think I’ve been checked three or four times in the last month or so on the Otley Road route out of Leeds, but my main gripe is that the bus remains stationary throughout the check so that a bus which is 5 minutes late suddenly becomes 10 minutes late (or in one case last week, 15 minutes turns into 20).

I’m also interested to see how inspectors deal with singles bought through the app which expire after 30 minutes, considering that if I’d boarded at my usual service’s origin point this morning I would already have been travelling for 55 minutes at the point at which we were inspected!

But still, I’m surprised at how much fare evasion there can be in a flat fare system. I suspect a large part of the issue in Leeds is probably student and child tickets being bought by people who shouldn’t.

Since inspectors were announced, drivers along the Otley Road have become a lot more keen on people taking their tickets and checking student IDs.

 

[Roger1973]

Going back many years ticket inspectors were very common, notably in the original subject city, Bristol. Always in traditional garb, belted raincoat and flat hat. When all buses had conductors, and all fares were paid with coins, the principal checking of the tickets was apparently reviewing performance of the conductor rather than the passengers.

Yes.

Some operators used 'plain clothes' inspectors (who travelled as fare paying passengers) to observe conductors.

At London Transport, a 'plain clothes official' was a specific role (the people doing this would obviously work outside their home area / area where they had previously worked as drivers or conductors) - they were generally known as 'spots' by road staff.

At least some National Bus Company operators (and the practice went back before NBC, at least on the British Electric Traction side of the NBC) had an arrangement where one or two inspectors from company A would occasionally spend a week travelling around as fare paying passengers in company B's area, as apart from on the largest operators, any inspector would be known by their own road staff, even if they were in plain clothes. I don't know how 'random' their checks were, I expect most companies had a list of conductors / OPO drivers that were under suspicion who would be targetted.