Do you think bus drivers sometimes make up their fares?

If the driver gives you a ticket for the fare that you paid, that means that he has to balance his money at the end of the day. Your fare will get paid to his employer, he cannot make extra money for himself.
If his employer has told the drivers to charge higher charges than the correct ones, they would be liable to all kinds of prosecutions - and would expect that to happen. It makes it pretty unlikely.

Just to make you smile on this one.....I have to take my son to the Police station this morning as he has reported an assault by a bus driver who manhandled him off the bus on Wednesday.

His busfare, for a dayrider, is £3.50 and on Wednesday he had a pocketfull of change so he took £3.50 out with him and gave it to the driver, instead of counting it into a tray, he counted it straight into his cash box after giving my son his ticket, then when he had finished said it was 5p short, of course he couldn't prove it, nor could my son prove it wasn't so a brief heated discussion took place during which he left his cab (thought they weren't allowed to do that) and physically manhandled my son from the bus.

Now he made a few fundamental mistakes there and my son (having a bit of me in him) will ensure the police go speak to the bus company and the driver about this.

Wouldn't any sensible bus driver who had made such a stupid mistake as not being able to prove the amount, shrug his shoulders for the sake of 5p and just get on with his job?

BTW my son swears he had the correct money and as there's a whole load of change hanging around at home, had no reason not to.

The bus driver certainly made an error counting directly into his cash box. In that situation he should of understood that he had to accept that loss - if that is what it was - and learned not to ever do that again.
However, it does sound as though he received some abuse which was not necessary, which might have been the reason for wishing your son leave his bus. He is entitled to do that.

happywriter said:

The bus driver certainly made an error counting directly into his cash box. In that situation he should of understood that he had to accept that loss - if that is what it was - and learned not to ever do that again.
However, it does sound as though he received some abuse which was not necessary, which might have been the reason for wishing your son leave his bus. He is entitled to do that.

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Is he?

He has just taken, at his estimate, £3.45 from a child, then physically manhandled them off the bus? I don't think that is allowed at all. No matter how little or much abuse he receives.

He can ask him to leave the bus for not paying the fare, however I think given the fact that the driver did not check the fare, and that he physically removed the child from the bus and that the discrepancy was so small it was plainly obvious that the child was not attempting to fare dodge, I'd say the driver was on pretty thin ice and grabbing them to physically remove them from the bus makes it even thinner.

You could argue he has stolen £3.45 and then been aggressive towards a child, whose only possible crime was to be 5p short (although this is entirely questionable) on a £3.50 bus fare.

I agree. There is no reason for physical manhandling of anybody. Few people - thankfully - have that authority, bus drivers certainly do not. They do have the right to work without threats or abuse - as does everybody.
If they receive abuse they will try to defuse and calm the situation, and request that person to leave - as with any shop or public service establishment. Upon refusal, they will call the police to resolve the situation.

Just wondering if there has been any result to this event? Did the police or the bus company take any action on your behalf? I would love to know if there has been a satisfactory outcome? I hope so as I could do with some good news!!

It just seems so unfair that the bus driver thinks he has the right to push kids around. It seems that kids have fewer rights these days because they can always be accused of becoming aggressive/threatening etc. Who will the police believe? The bus driver or "some kid who was being mouthy and throwing his weight around" (that's how the bus driver will put it..)? If it was a pensioner then the bus driver will have acted entirely differently, but because it was a teenager the bus driver thinks he can throw him around. Since when has a teeneager had fewer rights than anyone else? It's a real shame.

Have to say we didn't think it was worth bothering with in the end, I know, I really should have followed it up but there's always something else wants doing. My 'to do' list is getting far too long these days.

With regards to the original post, they do around here. My wife doesn't drive and they pretty much make up the fare stages for her semi-regular journey into town. It's not that they pocket any difference, just that they charge different fare stages. Depends which driver you get.

I contacted their customer services on two occasions and got two different costs. Both insisted they were correct (I emailed each representative back when I got both "quotes") but neither wanted to say the other was wrong

I emailed the MD and the PA simply told me to get in touch with customer services, who could provide me with an "accurate" fare

I could have dug my heels in (as I usually do) but couldn't be bothered, my wife just walks now anyway. So they lost a customer.