Bus company responds to Snapper criticism

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NZ Bus chief executive Bruce Emson has sent me a detailed email response to my comments about the new Snapper smart card’s introductory problems coming under the Consumer Guarantees Act, and problems with the introduction of the card on Wellington buses. I am publishing it in full while I consider the implications. Comments are welcome.

Says Bruce Emson:

The implementation of a new ticketing system and introducing a new way for customers to pay for their busfare is a significant one for a business which transports 55,000 customers per day. Particularly one where a change in both driver and customer behaviour is required.

This is a significant change management process and it is to be expected that hiccups may occur from time to time as people become accustomed to the changes in behaviour required. You can be assured that we have processes in place to deal with these as and when they occur.

You speak of cards not reading. The most commons reasons for customer frustration such as you have experienced with cards not reading include;

Insufficient funds: A number of card holders do not have sufficient funds on their card to pay for the minimum fare on their route. We are introducing in the next week the ability for a remaining balance to be displayed on the reader as a visual reminder of fund levels. This will occur only if the value on the card is $12 or less.

Incorrect tagging on: The most common cause of an invalid read is where some customers use a swiping motion when they tag on, similar to how they might use an access card. This can provide you with a failed read. To successfully use tag on, you must hold your card up close to the reader and hold it still for around half a second until the green circle is displayed. The transaction takes around half a second to complete. International experience shows that customers quickly become accustomed to the change in behavior required, and this is reinforced by the feedback of our customers as they become increasingly familiar with how to use it. To assist people to tag on correctly there are brochures, the snapper ambassadors you spoke of are travelling the city on buses to coach people how to use snapper correctly and most latterly a small video has been produced which will be available on our web, able to be emailed to customers who have inquires and able to played on those buses fitted with televisions.

No value on the card: We have become aware of a number of customers who have purchased snapper cards but have failed to load value on them. If a card with no value is presented to the snapper reader on the bus, it fails to identify the card correctly and shows a please try again message. This is an unexpected circumstance and a two prong fix has been put in place to deal with this. We are updating our software on buses over the next weeks. This will ensure that a more appropriate message is put in place advising customers of the requirement to load fund onto their card before they use it for the first time. Snapper is working with their retailer network to ensure that customers understand that if they buy a card that it needs to be loaded with value before it can be used.

Faulty readers: We are putting a process in place whereby all readers are tested on each bus before they depart each morning. It is worth while pointing out that since April there have been 7 faulty readers in total. On these rare occasions, the drivers contact control via radio communication to advise them of the situation and receive support to resolve any issues. On such occasions where the reader is genuinely faulty, snapper card holders would be provided with a free ride.

As you can see many of the common issues our drivers and customers are experiencing relate to getting used to a new way of doing things. It is worth pointing out from our operational logs and subsequent investigations that the vast majority of the suspected faulty readers were in fact readers that were working normally but were being presented with cards that had not yet had value loaded onto them.

International studies show that as people (both customers and drivers) become more familiar with the new systems they will become increasingly confident using it.

Consumer Guarantees Act: It is important to point out that Snapper is not a bus ticket. It is a method of payment we accept on the bus to pay for a bus fare. It is Snapper Services who provide the Snapper system which is a payment system used for various types of transactions, including bus fares. Snapper Services is responsible for the performance of that payment system and any issues experienced with Snapper cards should be taken up with Snapper Services directly.

Go Wellington provides bus transport services for a fare and offers the use of the snapper card as a means of payment for the benefit of the customer. Just as when you pay for a product using eftpos- should your eftpos fail, you will be required to complete the transaction using another form of payment. If for some reason your card fails on the bus, the customer must pay the fare in another way, by cash or some other acceptable method.

If the reader on the bus were identified to be genuinely faulty, on that occasion and that occasion only, would we permit a customer to ride free of charge.

[GPS]:You have questions around GPS coordinates. The GPS inconsistencies you experienced appeared to be the result of a driver error where incorrect trip information has been loaded in at the start of the journey. The consequence of this is the system may not be able to identify where the stops for a given route are. These are the type of teething issues that you might expect as we manage change throughout the business.

Drivers have undertaken intensive training, but we must be cognizant of the fact that the new ticketing system represents a change in behavior and one in which it will take some time to become confident.

Additional training is being provided for those who are struggling to make the change. For those drivers who experience difficulties on the road, there is a dedicated resource available via radio communications should a driver have a technical issue with their ability to operate their system on bus.

Travelling with others: You are quite correct in that the new ticketing system has a multi person transaction capability. If you are travelling with others and wish to pay for the fares of more than one person using your snapper card, you can go to the driver and ask to conduct a multi-person transaction. Say for example you are an adult travelling with a senior and a child, the driver will record this on the console. You will be provided with the opportunity to tag on. You will get charged an adult fee 25% off the cash price of a single adult fare*.The senior will get charged at the senior cash fare minus 20% discount. The child will get charged at child cash fare minus 20% discount. You must remember to tag off as you exit to conclude your journey or all three persons will get charged a penalty fare.

It is only available to two or more persons travelling together going to the same destination .You are right however that this slows down the speed of boarding for other customers. We have deliberately not promoted this as a key feature at this time, because we want to give our drivers every opportunity to become fully familiar with the system and do not want to slow down the boarding process.

Microsoft Vista: I note one of your readers thought he had heard a Microsoft Vista startup sound .This is not the case. The system uses the Linux operating system.

Reading your bus journeys online: For most customers they will be able to see their bus travel details online usually within a 24 hour period. On occasion, this does not occur and can take 2-3 days to process due to the scheduling of various operational functions.

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Filed under Consumer issues, Transport, Wellington

Tags: Go Wellington, Snapper card