>CHEATING on bus fares is a form of petty theft with an under-stated social impact. If the calibrated payment system for public transport travel leaves room for wilful dishonesty, penalties are in order. Fines for fare-dodging that go into effect on July 1 are therefore overdue. SBS Transit says it detects 10,000 cases a month. SMRT, the smaller of the two operators, sees 1,470 cases. These are modest numbers compared with TransitLink's astounding estimate of 42,000 daily instances it gave in 2005, when Parliament approved penalty fees to deter an egregious case of mass thieving. Both bus operators recorded lower operating profit in 2005. Cheats cost them $9 million that year. SBS Transit made $50.7 million, down from $60.2 million in 2004. SMRT's profit slipped to $10.8 million, from $13.9 million the previous year. The $9 million lost to under-paying of fares would have made up for most of the $12.6 million in missed profits.
Commuters who pay the correct fares are even bigger losers. They have a valid question: To what extent did such revenue leakage contribute to fare increases since 2005, and probably even earlier? Bus operating profits again went down last year, to $33.1 million ($27.5 million for SBS Transit and $5.6 million for SMRT). Fare evasion losses - likely more than $9 million by then, given the increased ridership - thus ate up at least a fifth of notional total profits. If this had not happened, the pressure to raise fares might have diminished by that much. A question arises: Are operators too blase about factoring in revenue foregone through fare-paring as a standard business cost? It is a loss they need to contain with proactive action, along with rising staff, diesel, depreciation and maintenance costs. Any request for fare increase should include an accounting by the operators on how diligently they have acted to minimise cheating.
Buses have long operated without conductors to save labour costs. That places the onus on the driver to ensure that passengers swipe their farecards. How well is the system working? Drivers have been assaulted in the odd case for stopping individuals who walked right in without paying. What has been the inspection routine? With fines to be imposed soon, the frequency of surprise checks will determine if the deterrent can bite. Fare evasion also has a non-financial cost. Tolerating fare jumpers is not only penalising the honest. Ultimately, society must pay a price in lowered ethical standards. People - including the young - would conclude that it is not only clever to get away with under-paying but that they would lose out if they did not try.
