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 p ...

s manually (without the aid of an automated machine). "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 to ...

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obsolete Obsolescence is the process of becoming antiquated, out of date, old-fashioned, no longer in general use, or no longer useful, or the condition of being in such a state. When used in a biological sense, it means imperfect or rudimentary when comp ...

with the introduction of

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s such as the

Transport for London Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom. TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...

Oyster card The Oyster card is a Payment#Types_and_methods_of_payment, payment method for public transport in London and some surrounding areas. A standard Oyster card is a blue ISO/IEC 7810, credit-card-sized Stored-value card, stored-value contactless ...

'. 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

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

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, and

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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. In

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, some rural

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Classic Rail routes, such as the once-daily slow train between Jiagedaqi and Gulian (west of Mohe) in the north end of the country, use manual fare collection onboard the train, since many stops along the line do not have ticket offices or gates. Tickets for trips at these small stops are not sold on 12306.cn, China Railway's official website. Instead, passengers present their

ID cards An identity document (abbreviated as ID) is a document proving a person's identity. If the identity document is a plastic card it is called an ''identity card'' (abbreviated as ''IC'' or ''ID card''). When the identity document incorporates a ...

on the train to the conductor and pay in cash or by WeChat Pay or

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, and the conductor will issue an e-ticket onboard the train.

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

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

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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 constructi ...

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