How to defraud the JUTC and reduce your Bus Fare - Arson and Ticket Fraud means Switchover to the SmarterCard Cashless System before 2014 required

Looks like the saga regarding the JUTC (Jamaica Urban Transport Company) has taken another turn! First there was the fact that the two (2) bus fires occurred, apparently due to lack of maintenance and the fact that the Cashless System, dubbed Smarter Card, hasn’t being implemented despite a fare increase as stated in my blog article entitled “JUTC SmarterCard Cashless System to be implemented in the Fourth Quarter of 2013 - Upgrade buses to use LPG Fuel to reduce Maintenance costs”.

Now it has come to light directly from the JUTC on Saturday October 5^th 2013 that the Bus fires were deliberately set, based on a report from a motor vehicle fire expert as stated in the article “Arson!” published Saturday, October 05, 2013, The Jamaica Observer. Not only that, but it seems that the JUTC still has the problem of increasing losses due to uncollected Tickets and now Bust Ticket Fraud as reported in mainly involving:

1.      Concessionary Tickets for adult (ages 18 to 99) passengers

2.      Resale of old Tickets

3.      Sale of test Tickets

4.      Sale of blank Tickets

This isn’t surprising. With the fare hike to JA$100 which many adult travelers on the JUTC buses may not be able to afford, many are trying all manner of ways to avoid spending extra. Photocopying Tickets is the most obvious method.

JUTC Ticket Fraud – How to defraud the JUTC and reduce your Bus Fare

Just save your old Ticket and scan it into a *.bmp or *.jpeg file and then print it at the St. Andrew Parish Library where colour prints cost JA$15.00 and black and white prints cost JA$8.00. After you collect your single colour copy, you can then photocopy the Ticket over and over again for about JA$15.00 per photocopy at the very same Library for little or nothing!

The really skilled individuals can modify the Tickets using Photoshop or other free Photo editing software as noted in my blog article entitled “Animation After KingstOOn – Free Photo Editing Software and How to get a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS2 absolutely Free” an change the dates and times to reflect some time in the future and reuse them for Transfers from one bus to another.

This method has the obvious danger. The paper used for the Bust Tickers is Thermal paper, similar to the paper used in Cash Registers based on my experience working on the SHARP Account at ACCENT Marketing as noted in my blog article entitled “Competition in Mobile POS coming from Square as SHARP is rescued by Qualcomm - Move to Mobile Computing On the Road indicates SHARP's Playing for Keeps”.

Worse is the Ticket itself. It’s thermally printed, meaning that anyone with access to a thermal printer can re-treat the paper and reprint over the paper. Thereby the Ticket is a little more legitimate as it’s the correct paper but the incorrect information coming directly from a Ticket Machine either in the JUTC Bus or the JUTC Transport Center in Half Way Tree.

Using this and various other copying methods, some involving the very same JUTC Bus conductors stealing rolls of Thermal paper, members of the commuting public are able to defraud the JUTC and thus reduce their bus fare, sometimes travelling on the same fraudulent Ticket for the entire day via the JUTC Bus System.

JUTC Ticket Fraud – Switchover to the SmarterCard Cashless System before 2014 required

Since the JUTC Ticket are a lot like money, the unfortunate choice of having to put in place copy protection schemes similar to those use for money may be a possibility. But it’s not necessary. What’s needed to solve the problem of Fraudulent Tickets is the full implementation of the SmarteCard Cashless Bus Ticket System.

The JUTC needs to announce a switchover date and advertise it via various road shows and on Social Media, pamphleteering and Traditional Media such as Newspaper and Television Ads to get people geared up for a Switchover wholesale to the SmarterCard System.

A competition to give rewards to passengers of the JUTC who switchover before a certain date would also be a nice touch and great PR (Public Relations), as it means that passengers would feel the JUTC isn’t just taking money from them and it’s disappearing down a drain.

Not to mention making driving the JUTC buses safer, as many of the drivers are breaking the Road Traffic Act as they are in many cases driving distracted. This as by accepting money and driving, it’s creating a lax attitude to road safety among many JUTC Drivers who are involved in the practice of counting money despite their guidebook telling them not to do so, based on this covert Jamaica Gleaner Video

Thus they’d feel less inclined to defraud the company. It would also make the more confident in the JUTC Bus System and allay any fears of the Buses catching fire as it would generate much feel good feeling about the System being more efficient in their collection of Bus Fares.

Hopefully the JUTC will take this recommendation as well as the recommendation to go islandwide and revive the JRC (Jamaica Railway Corporation) as argued in my blog article entitled “JUTC SmarterCard Cashless System to be implemented in the Fourth Quarter of 2013 - Upgrade buses to use LPG Fuel to reduce Maintenance costs” in a Multimodal approach to solving Jamaica’s transportation problems!

As for the case of arson – that’s a whole different ball of wax for yet another blog article. That is, after the JUTC has investigated the matter and determined who and why would anyone set two (2) JUTC buses afire and why the No. 66 and No. 88.