BusTalk

[andy47]

With privitazation of Nassau's bus network apparently going to happen next Jan. 1, I think back to the old days of private operation. The majority of the Nassau bus operators that I remember well - Schenck, Bee Line, Hempstead Bus, etc., collected fares using NCR registers that issued the passenger a paper receipt that was surrendered upon alighting. The driver had a large coin changer attached to the register. One question - once a passenger paid his/her fare, did the driver place the revenue in a separate container or in the coin changer? I always wondered about that, and never could get close enough to see exactly what was done.

[N4 Jamaica]

I'm not a bus driver, but I have been on many buses (New England Transportation, PSCT, Long Island buses) and one interurban trolley (Liberty Bell Ltd) with cash registers. However the operator worked it, he had to turn in at the end of his day the cash register total, simple as can be. Not positive, but I think WalMart nowadays has its cashiers lock up their own money ahead of time, so as not to mingle it.
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Not the expert on this.
Joe

[Mr. Linsky]

andy47,

N4J is correct; the drivers were responsible for whatever tally came up on the register and that included both the NCR's and traditional fare boxes.

On our audit envelopes, we had to show the opening and closing readings and the money bag that we turned in to the cashier had better have had either exactly or more than the difference in the readings (if it happened to be more, you eventually got a petty cash voucher to claim a refund).

I do remember taking a trip once to Newark from the Port Authority terminal in Manhattan on Public Service Coordinated's # 118 line and fares were collected by NCR machines which issued receipts.

Regards,

Mr. 'L'

[andy47]

Thank you all for your responses. Mr. L., as I am also familiar with the NJ bus operators (even though I've lived most of my life on LI), they also used the LI-type NCR registers on most routes because of the zone fare systems. Public Service, later TNJ and now NJT, Red and Tan, Inter City, Somerset, etc. - all used NCR registers with paper receipts. One exception was Public Service's Newark City Subway, which had a flat fare (I remember 15 cents in the early 1960s) that was collected using Johnson D type boxes. Operators could make change and also dispensed a whole collection of paid tear-off transfers to connecting bus routes.

[N4 Jamaica]

My collection of old transfers, etc., is small, but I just looked through it for an NCR receipt. None. I guess there are a few reasons why neither Dad nor I collected them: 1) On some routes, one had to return the receipt when leaving the bus; 2) Maybe the machines did not print the name of the company. As I recall, the printing was just a few codes on white paper: the number of the register, the date, the boarding zone, the "paid to" zone, the fare category (perhaps "child" in code), and the amount paid.
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In the past few years, when New Jersey Transit drivers issue on-board receipts, they are narrow strips of yellow paper already imprinted with an NJT logo (disco stripes?) to which is added ink-jet data: date, route, zones, fare category (now senior for me), and fare. When the crowd exits the bus at Port Authority, the drivers generally do not demand the receipt. I don't know the manufacturer of the machines. I don't recall whether each machine is integrated with a locked fare box. On some NJT bus routes, the driver will make change.
Joe

[R.N. Nelson]

Fare boxes that returned the coins to the Operator required a reading at the start of use and a reading at the end. The difference in the readings was what had to be turned in. Clerks at the Division would proof the readings by comparing the last end reading to the one you recorded as the start reading. The advantage of such a fare box was that the Operator always had an ample amount of change for the passengers. In addition, one would also start out with a fair amount of change in the coin changer, often called " a bank". That too was figured in the turn in.

Fare boxes that did not return the coins to the Operator but deposited them in a vault were a different matter. As a result, the Operator had to start out with a larger amount of change, not only in the changer, but extra rolls of coins in his grip as well. The turn in was straight forward since you turned in the amount of money that you started out with. The vaults containing the fare collected had to be changed by Division Clerks, sometimes as the transit vehicle passed the Division but for sure at the end of its assignment. They worked the same way that parking meter vault works today.

As "exact fare" was established, the need for fare boxes that returned the coins to the Operator vanished, as did the coin changer and the time allotted to turn in, which in its day, even with vault fare boxes, was 30-minutes.

Norman

[Robert Carroll]

My first job was with NCR in Hempstead.The big event then was the sale of the class 1900 bus machine to the Jerusalem Ave.bus company.All the buses using registers except one,used NCR's.Bee Line used Ohmer's,I believe made in Sweden. I did a little survey with drivers that had used both machines. While the NCR was the best in quality drivers claimed sliding the indictors on the Ohmer was easier and quicker....Buyer could have a custom made platen to imprint the companies name or any other message for imprinting on tickets, Ohmers were about half the size and 30% of the weight vs.NCR.The NCR issued tickets in the upper corner at the top,easily seen and grasped by the patron. Ohmers was in the back lower half,not easily noticed by the patron....