Review practice of retaining ez-link cards

last SG · 2007-05-24T04:07:28+00:00

Show your bus pass or pay the full fare Letter from Tammy Tan Director, Corporate Communications SBS Transit I REFER to the letter, "Student made to pay adu...

LazerLordz SG

Review practice of retaining ez-link cards

IT IS time SBS Transit and SMRT reviewed their system of retaining students' ez-link cards.

Recently, my son faced such a situation again, but unlike previous cases when there was a warning beep and alert message, there was no beep at all when he tapped his card.

The bus driver immediately retained his card. Luckily, I was with him and demanded that the driver return the card as legally he had no right to retain a student's ez-link card which is also a student identity card.

A check with SBS Transit later revealed that the problem was not that it was a stolen card but merely that the magnetic strip was damaged so the card reader was unable to read the card.

Can SBS Transit explain why we were treated in such a manner as to imply that the card had been stolen? I have the name of the bus driver but it is a change in the system that I would like to see. There is no point taking action against a driver when the fault lies in the practice adopted by the public transport companies.

Furthermore, I cannot understand why bus drivers do not simply inspect the photo on the card to verify whether it is that of the user. If it is, all the driver has to do is tell the user his card is damaged.

I cannot imagine how many students face this predicament every day.

A few months ago, I had to intervene on behalf of a young student in school uniform. There was no beep or alert message but the card was retained. The poor boy called his father to explain but his father did not believe him, thinking his son had done something wrong.

It is not unusual for parents not to believe the word of a young child against the action of a mature bus driver. The driver returned the boy's card only when I told him I would complain about his behaviour as 'unfair treatment' as he was not able to show me evidence to justify why he retained the card.

I would like to know how the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Transport intend to resolve this issue as the ez-link card also acts as a student identity card.

http://www.straitstimes.com/portal/site/STI/menuitem.c2aef3d65baca16abb31f610a06310a0/?vgnextoid=7532758920e39010VgnVCM1000000a35010aRCRD&vgnextfmt=vgnartid:41e3c7606f4b2110VgnVCM100000430a0a0aRCRD

BillyBong SG

And i was mentioning in a earlier thread that our people are downright paranoid - to assume an EZ-link card is 'stolen' from the off based on a electronic 'beep' is surely ridiculous.

There are a ton of reasons why an EZ-link card does not respond in the 'appropriate' manner, chief among them is a FAULTY card. During beta-testing, there were plenty of problems raised by the pool of beta-testers who survey-tested the card during its final phases, only to be glossed over and forgotten.

I can only imagine the number of under-reported cases of students and the public being held by overzealous drivers on the base assumption that the card was 'stolen' property.

And one would think that even with such marvellous profits, our transport development teams could not develop a more reliable package.

hloc SG

Blamed the Company lor…... they made the Bus Captain becomes Diver cum police cum cleaner….. etc. One person do so many job….. Of course the driver have no choice but to do as his company told him to do….. if not kena fired.

LazerLordz SG

That's why there needs to be radical changes in the whole public transport system here.

When you have profit as the sole objective of sustainability for a public transport model, the drivers will still be the ultimate destination of the policies that are overtly strict and angled towards the salvage of every single cent even when we know that attrition in operation cycles cannot be totally regained.

mistyblue SG

Transportation is a monopoly. The company do not have to take any feedback, they do not have to give any sh!t about poroblems, and they do not have to improve anything to ask for increases in fares so as to increase the top management salary 10 fold.

sbst275 SG

I can only say 1 thing...

The card in concern is a concession pass which has students personal details printed on the cards... What if it's really stolen?

LazerLordz SG

Actually, a simple verification of the person's face to the card is all that is enough to determine if the system gave a wrong beep.

Facial features cannot change much over 4 or 6 years, the typical lifespan of a concession pass for either primary or secondary. Are our bus drivers unable to see the difference? Or are they just looking for a one-size-fita-all solution.

If the faces match, and there is an error beep or lost remark, that can only mean that either the equipment is faulty, or that the student was following common norms of reporting his/her lost card, and subsequently found it, but wasn't sure on whether they can just use it again, and they only can realise that this card is deemed invalid when tapped against the reader.

ditzy SG

Hanor hanor, its a bus driver's occupational hazard. Laughing I think the workplace health and safety should be in charge of this. Lest more bus drivers get punched.

sbst275 SG

The prob is, many ppl dun even bother to show.. Laughing

LazerLordz SG

If they don't show, then they have little ammo for themselves if the bus driver goes rogue.

Y_Shun SG

ez-link is crap, please return us the old farecards!

ndmmxiaomayi SG

Checking the student's face on the ez-link cards... doable, but a tough task.

How many dare say that the photo printed on the ez-link card is your most recent photo? Or is it just another photo from your secondary or primary school?

Primary and secondary school students are especially vulnerable. All these cards are given to students when they are in primary or secondary. In secondary, it's worse. Those cards are automatically upgraded, which means, you will receive the blue card, with the same old primary school photo.

If for some reason the card is faulty, and the face doesn't match, it's just looking for trouble.

For polytechnics and universities, all students have to submit a recent photo, which more or less solves the face recognition problem.

I don't get why secondary schools can't get their students to submit a recent photo of themselves and submit to Transitlink for printing of cards before distributing, rather than automatically upgrading the cards to secondary school student status.

And students have a part to play. Learn to protect the cards, not damage it. I know some people love designs, but designs can damage a card. They are magnetic cards after all.

Y_Shun SG

Actually, designs will not really damage the card, unless you cut it into a starshape or whatever. Laughing

1 thing is to make sure that you do not place your cards together with other cards that are magnetic/have those electronic chips too.

For e.g, the X-ZONE card, it will lag your ez-link card. This is proven by my friend and myself.

ndmmxiaomayi SG

This is what I meant. I've seen some fancy designs, although some are lucky (the card still work), some didn't.

Got called up by bus driver and had the card confiscated.

LazerLordz SG

Designs are fine, but please note that the card runs on RF, therefore any layer will inhibit the transmission of the radio waves.

It's high time that a large educational campaign is launched to educate people on how the card works. Laughing

patdog112 SG

do they know bus companies lose how much of money of people using invaild ez link card every year?

if ur card is vaild even if the bus captain conficated it u can get it back from transit link

LazerLordz SG

If the EZ Link card is invalid, it cannot be used already. Pray tell how do these companies lose money if their consumers cannot even tap their cards upon entry. Rolling Eyes

The issue on confiscation is not the main point here, it is the education of users on what they can do. And furthermore, distinction has to made for school concession pass holders because their EZ-Link is their Student ID, unlike us adults.

There is a serious overhaul needed for this system. I've travelled on public transit in Australia, Japan, Malaysia, United States and I've not come across something so idiotic as our EZ-Link system. The Multirider system on Transperth has got to be one of the most idiot-proof multiple usage card system that I've personally used.

ndmmxiaomayi SG

LOL, what logic is that? You can't tap the card, they lose money? They earn actually.

Pay in cash is more than you pay with card. Also, there are rebates if using card.

They only lose money if the card reader itself is screwed up, that is, not showing the correct stages.

LazerLordz SG

Yup. Laughing

hiphop2009 SG

it is lame.

if concession period is over = adult fare.

if cannot tap = card faulty = not the card holder's problem wad

examples in previous post by forumers above (a pri sch kid's card got confiscated for nth, brings more trouble to the poor kid instead) shows that even bus drivers and the company itself are unaware when dey muz confiscate the ez-link card.

more readers shld write to ST forum regarding this issue.