Bus driver never has change for a note - is this my fault?

Question

I live in London. The other day it started pouring with rain, so I decided to get the bus. It's £2 or 90p with an oyster, so I handed over a fiver. He said I needed exact change. I asked him where the sign was that said that. He switched the bus off, and said they're not moving until I get off. I said, if you don't have sufficient change, you have to let me on for free, I have more than enough to pay for the fare

He called the ploice while I sat on the bus, other passengers moaning at me to get off, but I stood my ground. Police eventually escorted me off ....

BUT who was in the right? Surely he should have change, or else let me on for free>?

Answer 1

this is TFL's company policy. There doesn't need to be a sign. You should have asked him to let you ask passengers for the change.

ps if i were on that bus I would have physically kicked you outta the door

Answer 2

Both right and both wrong.

Whilst it was wrong for him to turn off the bus and sit there, you were *more* in the wrong for expecting him to have change and assuming that he should then let you travel for free.  The Police were in the right in escorting you off the bus but you should have had manners and got off the bus yourself rather than delaying everyone else.

Get yourself an Oystercard, load it with a tenner and then this won't happen to you in the future.

I'm fairly certain that there is a sign on the bus requesting exact change where possible - many people use Oystercards these days so drivers do not have as much change as before.

*EDIT*

Ok, so sitting on a bus that *you* have caused to be switched off, delaying everyone else, showing them no thought and concideration that they may have to be somewhere at a set time and you say you have manners?!

You would expect a little newsagent to have change as people pay in cash (although I wouldn't attempt to purchase a newspaper with a fiver) but the majority of people on buses have Oystercards which are cashless, therefore buses do not carry that much change anymore.

Answer 3

You were in the wrong.

For years people have been paying with the exact change for a bus.

The bus isn't a bank account.

You wasted police time and held passengers up.

- 1) You can be arrested.

- 2) The police could be dealing with a CRIME rather than a petty person!

Answer 4

As a general rule, you need to always give exact change to the bus driver.  It's the same in most places in the world.

Answer 5

1. You were in the wrong by standing your ground.

2. There are two ways to handle most situations, either you go and get change somewhere or the driver could take your name and address and the company would chase you up if you didn't subsequently pay.

Answer 6

i think the law is if they haven't got change they have to let you on for free. it might have changed now though

Answer 7

I think it was unfair to kick you off, He should have had change

Answer 8

I'm not sure who was legally right or wrong here, but if the moaning passengers had thought about it, I'm sure that they could have found change for you! I expect the driver could have found £3 in his till too! Whatever happened to human kindness?

Answer 9

I don't know about England, but here in the US every bus system I know requires exact change.  If you don't have it, you have to pay with what you have and you lose the difference.   This is because they don't want the driver to have access to the money for safety reasons.

I think he was in the right.  If you really wanted to ride that badly, you would have paid 5 pounds for it, or gone somewhere else and bought something to get change.

Or you could have asked the other passengers if they had change.  I'm sure at least one person should have had some.

Answer 10

Heres a balanced argument :

Without any sign or early warning, the bus driver should have not made you use exact change as some, myself included have never any coins on me when i need them. Someone on the bus should have swapped your £5 note up to £1 coins for you, thats what normally happens to me.

On the other side, you are a public disturbance by slowing the bus up and making people late which can be rather annoying.

I can understand why you were annoyed but you were also wasting police time which you can be arrested for.

Most people use Oyster cards, i would recommend one, it certainly helped me out.

Answer 11

Stricktly speaking the driver is not obliged to give change you pofferd a £5 he could again strickly speaking have taken that in full and final settlelment. They actually only have a small float so if he had just come on duty he genuinely wouild not have had change. until the introduction of various pay befoe you go tickets most drivers would have held on to your fiver until they got change and honour would have been satisfied on both sides. I have noticed tha the nearer London you get the more stroppy the public transport workers.

Sorry but he was within his rights

Answer 12

All your fault you should plan to ride with right change

if you plan to eat you make it happen and make time for it.

So the same goes for the ride to work to make the money to

continue to ride to work. stop at a bank and get the change you need and mae it a habit and your problems fixed and you did it not rely on others to do it for you. if its to be its up to me. live it and live by it all through life. if its to be its up to me.

Dont leave important things to the will of others they will disappoint you for ever for sure and you will be the only to suffer. cheers

Answer 13

If it is not signed on bus stops and on buses he should carry change, did no one on the bus have change?

Sounds like you both dug your heels in over something that could have been easily sorted.

Answer 14

It is up to you to have change, and unreasonable to tender something like a £20 note for a 90p fare. If EVERY passenger did this, the driver would need to come out with hundreds of pounds of HIS OWN MONEY (I have worked for a bus company, and drivers supply their own floats)

Think yourself lucky you don't live in Dublin. If you fail to tender the exact fare, the driver gives no change, and you must take your ticket to the head office of the bus company to get your change!

Legally (English law applying) you are offering the fare, and the driver is free to choose to reject your offer. Most buses have a sign in them requesting you tender the exact fare.

Answer 15

The Driver was RIGHT.  If the Driver let you on for FREE he would have to the same for every passenger.

In the office if it is found that the amount of cash the Driver hands in at the end of his/shift is lower than the number of tickets that he/she sold it is deducted from his/her wages.

Answer 16

the bus drive is soo lazy these days that happend to me and then sumone else got on and gave him 2 1 dolaar coins and i game him a five it was a 2 dollar ride to where i wanted to go and he was so lazy hed rather call police than give me one 2 dollar coan and a 1 dollar coin so **** busses

Answer 17

I feel you were perfectly right in asking for a change. But the days have changed. You need to adjust and adapt to lessen trouble.

Answer 18

You were in the wrong. Who are you to hold everyone else up ?

Why on earth should he let you on for free becasue you didnt have the right change ? There is no logic to that at all.

As for your analogy in a news agent. If he didn't have change, i'd walk away, i certainly wouldn't stand there until he felt he had to call the police.

You stood your ground and asked him to show you where it said "exact change"

Yeah, i can picture the scene. You think you know your rights and "sod everyone else, I'm going to make them all late"

I think you need to look at yourself a bit, take some responsiblity for your actions and stop being so confrontational.

If you had been in anyway polite perhaps you could have asked other passengers if they had changed ?

Why bother eh ? Its much easier just to cause a scene and moan about it like some spolit drama queen, eh ?

Anyone selling something, such as a bus fare, has the right to reject any sale provided it does not break discrimination laws.

If we use your logic, we should all make sure we have a large denomination note in our pockets just so we can get loads of stuff for free.

You embarassed yourself, and are now looking for people to tell you that you were right. Well, look at all the answers. Its clear you were wrong.

Answer 19

Well if you got escorted off by the police,obviously the bus driver was in the right,otherwise you would have made your journey,wouldn't you.

I have to say typical tightarse Londoners on that bus,I bet anyone could have split your fiver.

Answer 20

Transit bus drivers DON'T MAKE CHANGE.  Not anywhere in the civilized world that I know of.   I've ridden transit all over the U.S. and Canada.

Buses have a farebox.  It's one way -- money goes in, doesn't come out.  That's to prevent both robbery and employee pilferage. It's just not practical to do anything else on an urban transit system.  They can't make change.  This is so common that it doesn't need a sign.  (do you really want to live in a world where there are signs for EVERYTHING? Come to California, lol!)  

You were completely in the wrong.  You "just" didn't understand how things work, but then you decided to be "all principled" about it and take a stand.  That's the difference between "newbie" and "noob".  The newbie just doesn't know but is willing to go with the flow while he learns, and the "noob" arrogantly refuses to learn.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbie#Alte...

Just as you put everyone on the bus in a bad situation (delaying them against their will), they could have put you in a worse one.  Imagine if one of them walked up and paid your fare and told the driver "Now let's go."  Now you're up a tree. If you're a good person, you should feel bad about that, and apologize to that guy and find a way to pay him.  But if you're a hateful, evil person, you just succeeded at holding a busload of people hostage over a BUS FARE.   Either way, I wouldn't want to be you.

I'm sorry your circumstances unfolded like that, but the bottom line is you didn't prepare, and you got caught out. You can be the noob who blames it on others or you can be the newbie who learns and adapts and succeeds next time. Your call.

Answer 21

Bus Drivers can be little Hitlers.. I've been bamboozled by a few..

Answer 22

This is exactly why it is worth getting an Oyster card, driver was probably right and I seem to recall that most buses in london are exact fare only.

Answer 23

Either you are bonkers - or you are going through the 'change'.

We all know the score - or a fiver in your case.

However, had I been the bus driver, I would have let you aboard and then I would have tossed you off at the next stop.

Next time, try dressing as an alien. You know the kiddy joke.

An alien with three eyes, no arms and one leg was waiting at the bus stop. When the bus arrived, the driver looked at the alien and said, "Aye, aye, aye. Looks 'armless. Hop on."

Couldn't have been as weird as you. To be pedantic, as you well know, there are by-laws covering the situation of buses, exact change, etc.

At least the police 'escorted' you and did not toss you off. Unlike the alien, you did not have a leg to stand on.

Answer 24

The Board uses a fare box system and as such the drivers are not equipped with change.

If a driver were to keep change or money on the bus, imagine how many busses would be getting robbed..

I would take it up with the bus terminal, that they need to display  a sign,correct change only..

good luck..

Answer 25

Majority of bus users use Oyster cards, therefore less change is needed then before,

If a person presents a £5 note, it is seen as too large amount of money,  Say he had taken your £5 note and charged you the £2 fare, he'd be £3 quid down in change...

Most people know that when you ride the bus you need change, I live in London and know its happened to me.. I got of the bus and I always carry change in my pocket for bus journeys even when I have my Oyster

On the side note about people should of given you change, yes in an ideal world,

But ending on a positive, one day my oyster card wasn't working, and I swore to the driver there was money on it, he took my word and let me go on.. So some can be forgiving,