Conductors in some city buses do not feel burdened anymore. They don’t carry the tray with bundles of different ticket denominations and instead carry a Ticket Issuing Machine (TIM), which spews out ticket as soon as the destination is punched into it.
The decades-old cumbersome practice of issuing tickets manually is being dispensed with in the city buses on an experimental basis. The RTC has now begun using the TIMs in about 100 city buses in the State capital in different depots.
A massive fleet of 3,600 city buses criss-cross the capital in which nearly 30 lakh tickets are issued every day. The automation of ticket issuing is being welcomed by the conductors as it has obviated the need to carry the bulky tray on which bundles of tickets of different denominations are to be carried. In addition to this, the onerous duty of recording the sale of tickets for every stage in the Statistical ticket Accountable and Record (STAR) document is also dispensed with now.
The job of a conductor is not just collecting the fare and issuing the tickets. He has to report at least 30 minutes before his duty time to collect the tickets which are given in blocks of 100 tickets. Normally, a conductor carries 13 different ticket denominations. When the tray is accepted, he has to check the ticket numbers entered in the computer.
While on the move, the conductor has to enter details of tickets sold in the STAR document and on completing the trips, he has to submit it at the respective depot along with the charges collected. The verification of the unsold tickets and tallying the numbers would take much time.
However, with the TIMs being used now, a conductor is spared of all these burdensome duties. TIM facilitates issue of a single ticket for a group of six passengers and the ticket would have details of the stage where the passenger boarded and the destination too. The rigmarole of filling up of STAR is dispensed with and the TIM once connected to the computer would transfer all the data, says A. Koteswara Rao, ED of RTC greater Hyderabad zone.
Saving money
The corporation would also be saving money as it has to spend Rs.15 to print 1,000 tickets. The biggest advantage, however, can be checking the malpractices if any. Sometimes, a few conductors collect the issued tickets and give them to other passengers again.
“This can be controlled totally as TIM issued tickets have date, time, stage, depot name and other details,” says Mr. Rao.
The stage-wise data can also help the corporation analyse the passenger flow and occupancy ratio, which could enable the RTC to rationalise the services and plan schedules.
“Earlier it used to be tough to issue tickets and update the ticket sales at every stage in STAR document. TIM make things very easy,” says A. Prasad, a conductor in Pushpak service.
Welcoming the move, RTC Employees Union general secretary, K. Padmakar suggested that the RTC ensure quality printing paper in TIMS and also for facilities to charge the TIMs in buses.
