All for the sake of 9p

A teen boarded today and asked for his destination. The fare was £2.80. He gave me a load of coins and said "There you are, mate, it's all there."

I trust no one when they do this, so put it on my cash tray top and counted it out. The total was £2.71. He was 9p short.

If he'd boarded and said: "I'm really sorry but I've just counted my money and all I've got is £2.71 for a teen single to X, could you let me off?" I may well have done, and manually issued him a £2.71 ticket. I would not have given him a ticket for £2.80 though as I would then personally be responsible for the 9p and I am not employed to pay passengers' bus fares.

So, in my eyes, he was deliberately trying to board without the correct fare by making out the money was exact when it was nothing of the sort. I told him he couldn't travel unless he had £2.80. He then asked how far £2.71 would take him because - guess what - he had no more money on him. I told him which village he could travel to and he went for that. He even had 11p change as that fare was £2.60. Bargain.

Now, when we got to that village, do you think he rang the bell and alighted?

Did he bollocks.

I didn't shout out the village name, I left my cab and shot upstairs to get him. One day I'll possibly be stabbed for acting like this, but until then, I have behaviour on my bus the way I expect it to be. If you saw me face-to-face you also wouldn't argue with me, let's just put it that way. He was 'lead' off the bus exclaiming that it was cold outside. Though no sooner he he got off the bus he lit up a cigarette. "Dam!" I thought, "I should have charged him adult fare!"

Common Sense Solution: Always count money presented to you in this way. Mostly the amount is correct. Sometimes there's a little more. A bus driver should never be expected to foot the partial cost of a passenger's ticket in this way. The driver needs to know what the score is and many will allow a 9p discrepancy to go. Treating a bus driver like a mug or simply lying to him, will result in this way.