I think you've better take a ride to figure out how profitable 179
actually is.
A sizeable crowd takes 179 by adult fare. Simply because if one
were to live in Bedok, buying HCP is not worth it. If one resides
in Pasir Ris, the 179 ride is FREE OF CHARGE.
Before claiming concession each and every time, go check wat
damages DBTF has made to both revenues and even the viability of
concession pass for long dist travellers.
not exceeding 20% is just a figure. If all the LO3x and VO3x are
dispatched to the lower loading frame, all the losses by clustered
VO2x cannot recover the 20c losses. Your theory I think will let
bus company lose fares in light of DBTF 
. The best time to collect revenue you
tell ppl NAC bus windy.
Now w/ distance fare, feeders are actually facing even diluted
fares. If anything were to go by, a simple ride on 241 could get
SBS a mere 2c to 8c in the evening peak hours based from Pioneer
Station. So is 241 really tat profitable as 179? Pot calling the
kettle black.
Windy breezy? You try queueing for 179A in the morning, standing
at entrance door from BNL Int all the way to Nth Spine. Entire
journey 20 mins. 
The timekeepers at BNL really, these days even wait till some
150 ppl queueing to dispatch even if it's a VO2x.. Tell ppl to
squeeze. This morning's check saw 2 ppl standing on e upper
deck, suspect standee on staircase. Lower deck packed like
sardines.
I think if your 241 got ppl stand on upper deck and staircase,
you'll like before say to MP to this to that.
I will like to re-clarify that the most crowded time is only the
AM/PM peak hrs or the noon. For other day, they are just deploying
the DD in their loss. For other feeder svc like 181, 240, 241, 243,
they have constant loading thru-out the days.
I am still not sure of the payout to the bus company after the
Distance fares takes effect, more or less there are not so much
effect on the deployment.
For the deployment fact, I believe the starter had tried his
best to deploy as many buses requested for svc 179 and it had
took up a certain percentage of it (now start taking frm JIS svc).
Since there are so many spare VO2x, it is common sense to
use these buses since they only appear in the peak hrs. During the
PM peak, I always notice first 2 buses are crowded to the
stairs then the 3rd one is empty.
Recently, there are increasing complain for students taking
buses from clementi to SIM/Ngee Ann. I believe the overloading
problem there in the morning is comparable to the ones in NTU. Even
there are so many svc there, I heard more than half are unable to
board the bus.
For 241 case, there are many instances where I see people
standing on the steps in the early AM peak and between 7.50 -
8.15.
