Manual fare collection is the practice of collecting

fare A fare is the fee paid by a passenger for use of a public transport system: rail, bus, taxi, etc. In the case of air transport, the term airfare is often used. Fare structure is the system set up to determine how much is to be paid by various pa ...

s manually (without the aid of an

automated machine An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and More ...

). "Fare collection" generally refers to the collection of fares in the transport industry in return for a

ticket Ticket or tickets may refer to: Slips of paper * Lottery ticket * Parking ticket, a ticket confirming that the parking fee was paid (and the time of the parking start) * Toll ticket, a slip of paper used to indicate where vehicles entered a tol ...

or passes to travel. Commonly used on buses and train transport systems (in the UK; in

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, for example, buying and validating the tickets by machine is the passenger's task; the passengers enter the bus through any of the doors and buying a ticket from the driver is an option where there is no automatic selling machine or if somebody forgets to buy a ticket before), manual fare collection is increasingly becoming obsolete with the introduction of smart cards such as the Transport for London '

Oyster card The Oyster card is a payment method for public transport in London (and certain areas around it) in England, United Kingdom. A standard Oyster card is a blue credit-card-sized stored-value contactless smart card. It is promoted by Transport ...

'. However, in the face of this trend, some companies have opted to retain more traditional methods of manual fare collection to both save money (automatic equipment is expensive) and ensure reliability. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, examples of this can be seen on the Transport for London Heritage lines and the

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, and Swansea where bus conductors (dubbed 'customer hosts') have returned to work. The other reason(with lowering prices of electronics, and in most cases need to buy it once) may be for Heritage routes - tradition "look", for other routes(because of quite high monthly labor cost in UK) agreements and strong unions with the tries from politics to lower the unemployment rate by making overworking in public service.

Equipment

A range of fare collection equipment has been developed over the last century in the United Kingdom.

Cash bag

A conductor may carry a cash bag in which cash is kept, thus making it easier while issuing tickets.

Coin dispenser

Perhaps the biggest development in manual fare collection is the coin dispenser, distributed by Jacques L. Galef. Mounted either in a driver's cab or on the

belt Belt may refer to: Apparel * Belt (clothing), a leather or fabric band worn around the waist * Championship belt, a type of trophy used primarily in combat sports * Colored belts, such as a black belt or red belt, worn by martial arts practit ...

of a conductor, the coin dispenser usually takes the form of a number of

tubes Tube or tubes may refer to: * ''Tube'' (2003 film), a 2003 Korean film * ''The Tube'' (TV series), a music related TV series by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom * "Tubes" (Peter Dale), performer on the Soccer AM television show * Tube (band), a ...

fitted in a line together. Each tube holds a different denomination and tends to have some sort of

trigger Trigger may refer to: Notable animals and people ;Mononym * Trigger (horse), owned by cowboy star Roy Rogers ;Nickname * Trigger Alpert (1916–2013), American jazz bassist * "Trigger Mike" Coppola (1900–1966), American gangster ;Surname * Bru ...

which will release the coin from the bottom. In Britain, the Quick-Change and Pendamatic units, for example, has labelled plastic

funnel A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening. Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its construct ...

s at the top, which filter the coins into the tube. A trigger on the front of the machine then releases the coin by pushing a kicker, which holds the coin, forward in a pivotal motion. Other models in Britain, the Cambist and Metro Coin Dispensers, works on a similar principle but also have the option to be attached to the fare collection table allowing the operator (usually the bus driver) to simply slide the coins into the respective tubes. Generally, coin dispensers in the UK are configured with the £1 coin to the left (as the machine faces you), then the 50 p, 20p, 10p, 5p, 2p, 1p. However, some operators have customised their dispensers to better suit their individual needs.

Tender tray

Other fare collecting equipment includes tender

tray A tray is a shallow platform designed for the carrying of items. It can be fashioned from numerous materials, including silver, brass, sheet iron, paperboard, wood, melamine, and molded pulp. Trays range in cost from inexpensive molded pulp tray ...

s which can be fitted to bus driver doors to allow the customer to put the fare down. These are common on most buses in the United Kingdom now, since they facilitate quick payment and also allow for the driver to have a screen protecting his cab, yet still securely collect change (the tray is placed with a small gap above it to allow room for the drivers hand to pass through).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manual Fare Collection Fare collection systems Payment systems Bus terminology

Equipment

Cash bag

Coin dispenser

Tender tray

See also

References