Responsibility For Fares and the Consequences

Our Ref : 1004687006

Date : 01.09.2009

K Hancox

[FOI #17488 email]

Dear Not given Hancox

Thank you for your request for information dated 29/08/09 which was
received by Transport for London on 01/09/09. This request will be dealt
with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We will aim to deal with your request promptly and provide you with a
response by 29/09/09.

If you are unhappy with the response you receive, you may wish to use our
complaints procedure by writing to Beverley Hall, Head of Customer
Services & Consultation, at the address above, stating your concerns.

In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your
request, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to contact us.

Yours sincerely

Hayley James

Correspondence Support Manager (Policy)

LondonBuses Customer Services

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Our Ref: 1004687006gc

Date: 23.09.2009

Mr K Hancox

[FOI #17488 email]

Dear Mr Hancox

Thank you for your email received by Transport for London (TfL) on 29th
August regarding the above. Your request has been considered under the
requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and I have addressed
your questions on a point by point basis below:

a) Information about the number of code red calls made regarding the
non payment of fares for London Buses

For the financial year 2008/09 there were 22,403 driver incident reports
recorded under the category forgery and fraud.

Driver Incident Reports (DIRs), as code reds are more commonly known, are
not reported crimes on buses. These reports can be made by bus drivers for
a variety of reasons including; to report incidents of congestion,
mechanical problems or anti-social behaviour. The type of incidents
within a DIR also vary; for example, forgery/fraud calls can range from a
minor fare dispute to a refusal to pay.

Surveys are undertaken every quarter, in February, May, August and
November to investigate the levels of fare evasion on the London bus
network. A representative sample of One Person Operated (OPO) routes is
surveyed plus all of the articulated routes to enable a comprehensive
coverage of London.

As per our published crime bulletin please see Table 1 below which shows
results from the London Buses fare evasion survey, conducted February
2008.

+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Bus Network | Q4 2006/07 | Q4 2007/08 |
| | | |
| | (Feb Survey) | (Feb Survey) |
| | | |
| | Fare Evasion Rate | Fare Evasion Rate |
| | | |
| |Rolling 12 month average|Rolling 12 month average|
| | | |
| | | |
|-------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
|One Person Operated|3.0% |2.6% |
|-------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
|Articulated buses |10.0% |9.1% |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+

Table 1.

b) The number of serious assaults and other assaults made to drivers
while carrying out their duty to collect the revenue for TfL as agents on
your behalf?

All drivers are employed to drive and collect fares. Therefore total
driver assaults figures would have been whilst they were carrying out this
function.

Bus Driver Assault Injuries severity
2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09
Major 146 118 122 70
Minor 851 906 1020 881
No injuries 441 526 500 511
Total 1438 1550 1642 1462

Bus driver assault injuries severity per million kilometre operated
Major 0.32 0.26 0.26 0.15
Minor 1.87 1.98 2.19 1.83
No injuries 0.97 1.15 1.07 1.06
Total 3.17 3.38 3.52 3.04

Note:
The figures supplied for injuries include all types of incidents such
as shock, bumps and bruises, cuts (Minor Injuries) and more serious
injuries (Major injuries) where a driver might be taken to hospital
for treatment.

c) What action is liable against a driver if a passenger refuses to pay
a fare and that driver allows him/her to travel without a valid
ticket/pass

Revenue Protection Inspectors report drivers who fail to follow correct
procedures. Where the reports involve a loss of revenue to TfL, such as
allowing an individual to travel without a valid ticket/pass then, there
is an agreed formula in the contract with bus operators which in some
cases allows TfL to impose a fine on the bus operator for calculated
revenue loss.

The formula for working out the fine for each detected incident is in the
contract between TfL and bus operators. On average TfL invoice bus
operators for roughly 100 incidents every period.

d) How do TfL assure assaults don’t happen to drivers and bus company
staff and how far does TfL’s liability extend (i.e. if a driver is
assaulted while collecting revenue as an agent, does TfL hold a liability
to that agent if his employer refuses him financial restitution because of
the assault)

TfL is committed to ensuring the safety of its passengers, including our
staff.

In 2002 we set up the MPS TOCU to fight crime on buses, tackle illegal
taxi touts; and assist with the control of traffic congestion. There are
now more than 1,000 uniformed officers in the unit, which is funded by
Transport for London (TfL) at a cost of around £65.5 million a year.

An additional 440 MPS police and community support officers were deployed
last year in London’s 21 outer boroughs in Safer Transport Teams and
will resource 32 new policing teams at key transport hubs being rolled out
since January 2009. These extra officers are funded jointly by Transport
for London and the Metropolitan Police Service. We have also installed
CCTV on every London bus. There are now between 55-60,000 cameras on the
fleet of 8,000.

When an incident does take place involving a passenger or bus driver or
bus staff, London Buses actively encourages drivers to report all
incidents, no matter how seemingly insignificant through the Driver
Incident Report system. CentreComm, the London Buses control room, use
the system to understand what real-time assistance is required and pass
this onto the MPS (MetroComm) if an emergency response is required.

In 2008 TfL in partnership with the Metropolitan Police Service set up a
Workplace Violence Unit dedicated to the investigating of assaults on
frontline bus staff. The unit provides support to staff who have been a
victim of assault, from investigation through to prosecution.

In relation to your question on compensation, TfL do not operate a policy
of compensating employees in the event of an assault. Rather TfL provides
all necessary support in ensuring the relevant employee receives
appropriate medical care to ensure a quick recovery. The support will
include but not limited to paid sick leave, counselling (where required)
and continuing support on return to work.

If you have any queries or would like to discuss your request, please do
not hesitate to contact me.

If you are not satisfied with this response, please read the help-sheet
below entitled ‘Your Right to Appeal’

Any copyright in the material provided with this response is owned by TfL
or one of its subsidiary companies unless otherwise stated. The disclosure
of information does not give the person or organisation who receives it an
automatic right to re-use it in a way that would infringe copyright (for
example, by making multiple copies, publishing and issuing copies to the
public). Brief extracts of the material may be reproduced under the fair
dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998
(sections 29 and 30) for the purposes of research for non-commercial
purposes, private study, criticism, review and news reporting.

Yours sincerely

Patricia Mitchell

Head of Customer Services

Your Right to Appeal

Internal Review

If you are dissatisfied with the way TfL has handled your information
request, you can ask us to conduct an internal review of our decision.

The internal review will be conducted by someone other than the person who
made the original decision, in accordance with the complaints procedure
published on our website at [1]www.tfl.gov.uk/foi.

Requests for internal review should be addressed to:

Head of Information Access and Compliance

6^th Floor Windsor House

42 – 50

Victoria Street

London

SW1H 0TL

Complaints to the Information Commissioner

If, following the internal review, you remain dissatisfied with the way
TfL has handled your request, then you can take your complaint to:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

A complaint form is available on the Information Commissioner’s Office
website

[2]www.ico.gov.uk

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Thank you for your email.  We can now confirm that this has been
received. 

 

For further information about the Surface Transport Complaints and
Feedback Policy including timescales, please see
[1]http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tf...

 

Problems with roadworks or other street faults? In support of the
Mayor’s Streetworks Code of Conduct to help cut congestion, please
report these issues by visiting
[2]http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/reportas...

 

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tf...
2. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/reportas...

Our Ref: 1004687006gc

Date: 13.10.2009

Mr K Hancox

[FOI #17488 email]

Dear Mr Hancox

Thank you for your further e-mail.

I can confirm that Transport for London (TfL) are not involved in the
actual payment of bus drivers’ sick pay. This is paid directly by their
employing operating company, who would be wholly responsible for
determining the rates of payments made.

Thanks again for taking the time to write to us. If I can be of any
further help, please let me know.

Yours sincerely

Gavin Clark

Customer Services

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Original Text

From: [FOI #17488 email]
To: [email address]
<[email address]>
CC:
Sent: 23.09.09 12:26:13
Subject: Re: Freedom of Information request - Responsibility For Fares and
the Consequences

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for your response, it is very full in it's reply.

However, i have one further question i would like answered in
regards to your response.

You say that "In relation to your question on compensation, TfL do
not operate a policy of compensating employees in the event of an
assault. Rather TfL provides all necessary support in ensuring the
relevant employee receives appropriate medical care to ensure a
quick recovery. Thesupport will include but not limited to paid
sick leave, counselling (where required) and continuing support on
return to work."

My question is, regarding the sick pay, if a driver is indeed
assualted, is the sick pay paid through the company from you at
what would be deemed rostered earnings, or would it be paid as sick
pay in keeping with the contract, and who actually pays it..???

Yours faithfully,

Kevin Hancox

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Thank you for your email.  We can now confirm that this has been
received. 

 

For further information about the Surface Transport Complaints and
Feedback Policy including timescales, please see
[1]http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tf...

 

Problems with roadworks or other street faults? In support of the
Mayor’s Streetworks Code of Conduct to help cut congestion, please
report these issues by visiting
[2]http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/reportas...

 

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tf...
2. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/reportas...