The Lying Teen

We bus drivers don't just drive buses. We have to uphold our company's rules and regulations. One of which is that passengers pay the requisite fare for the journey they make. Often a passenger will ask what the fare is before tendering the money - possibly because they may not have sufficient on them or that they have the option of a lift if they hang on a little longer.

A fat teen was waiting for my bus today and got on with a suitcase. To me it looked as if she was returning for the summer from university. She asked for a single fare to X. I told her this amount, a little over £3.50. She exclaimed at the cost of the fare and asked if it had increased recently.

"Yes, it went up 10p at the start of the month" I answered.

But she didn't want to hear this. 10p more was nothing compared to what this fat teen claimed I was asking of her.

Then she asked "How much is a child fare?"

Clearly the child fare would be cheaper than the standard, adult fare. On this route you can be up to 17 years old and still pay a child fare. I strongly believed she was in excess of this age and was just using it as a means to reduce the fare. I asked her how old she was.

"Errrr, seventeen" she stumbled. She even apologised and said she didn't know why it took her so long.

Well I knew why - because she was attempting to commit fraud. I could have asked for some ID I suppose, though that's not company policy. Instead I told her the new fare - £2.90, which was still significantly more than she had in her hand.

After much digging about she said "Well I can muster £2.60, soooooooo, there you are."

"But the fare's £2.90".

"Well that's all I've got!"

"Well you need to go to a cash point and catch the next bus in 15 minutes."

"I don't have any cash on my card."

"Well £2.90 is the fare and if you don't pay it the difference comes from my wages and I'm not prepared for that to happen."

In the past I've over-ridden the machine, but was deeply suspicious of this fat teen. She'd acted most oddly when offering up her age and had been travelling during term time - again, possibly a student returning home. I couldn't prove anything, but had my lack of discretion to countenance her likely bullshit.

Amazingly, the empty purse suddenly produced two 20p coins that weren't there before. She possibly felt that £2.60 was all she was prepared to pay for the journey. As she handed the newfound cash over, she said "There you are, now you don't have to be nasty to me anymore."

Nasty - you ain't seen nothing, love.

I gave her one of my favourite lectures about how she couldn't tell Tesco you weren't able to pay the cost of a pack of crisps as you didn't have enough on you. She waddled off to the back of the bus, thighs rubbing together.

Common Sense Solution: Many passengers lie. They somehow see a bus driver as a soft touch. The bus is going from X to Z anyway, so they'll just try and offer a token gesture to travel, whereas at Tesco they can't physically leave the store with their purchases unless they have the right money to pay. Yes, this is life and I have spent much of mine dealing with it. But bus drivers can fight back in ways detailed above. I could have asked for ID to really throw the cat amongst the pigeons. That would almost certainly prove she was not entitled to an adult fare and the higher fare be charged. Even with the additional cash 'suddenly' found, this wouldn't cover it, so she simply would not be eligible to travel. Why should she travel between X and Z for less that the person in front and behind her? I've used this line of argument before as it morally gets the passengers on your side. I've also over-ridden the ticket machine, too, as £2.60 is better than nothing. Admittedly it's not the quoted fare (£2.90) or even the correct fare (£3.50), but it was money when all said and done. And I'd've done this had it not been for her struggling with her age...