The Ticket Inspector

Well as I have said in the summer of 1982 I finally made it up to ticket inspector. In some parts of the UK that is not the starting point but in Cardiff that was and still is where you start out. I say just a ticket inspector but in fact you went to a lot of different things as I shall explain over this and other blogs.

Of course the main idea was to check the ticket that the passenger has paid for and make sure that they were not over riding,( travelling further than they had paid for) or perhaps young adults were paying the correct fare. They had a habit of paying half fare and saying they were 15 years old even if they were 16,17 or even 18 sometimes. The driver, (and these were nearly all one man buses by now) even if he suspected them did not have time to check.

The quick check that caught nearly all of them out was ' 'can I have your date of birth please'? The times that they messed that up and gave me a year that proved they were over 16 was huge! It was then either pay the correct fare or get off. There was a standard excess fare I could charge as well of about four times the maximum fare and I used that if I thought they were really at it.

The rule of the company was to check roughly 28 buses a day or about four an hour over the shift. That was not to difficult but if you were stuck out of Cardiff and missed the bus you had been aiming for that could ruin the check day. If perhaps I had been dealing with a passenger complaint and that took some time up then I could record that on a checking sheet as 'dealing with passenger' 15 minutes or whatever.

Of course that excuse could also be used when I stopped of for a cup of tea! I very often 'checked' my way up to Llanedeyrn the area of Cardiff that I live in and went home for a cuppa and then back out again.

You could have a laugh with the passengers as well as check tickets. As long as they had paid the correct fare they were not bothered about you being there and as I have said I have always got on with people and this was no different. I can remember one day running up the stairs to check the tickets and when I bobbed up the lady sitting on the top seat said 'Oh my God!' so I answered back ' No but you're close! Tickets please!'.

Another way they saved a little money was not paying for children and saying they were only four years old when they were over. I checked one young mum's ticket and as I get on with kids I was saying hello. Of course I said has the little one got a ticket and she said 'no she is only four'. Of course the little girl dropped her in it and piped up 'no I am not mum I am five'. I had to laugh as she tried the 'I forgot she was the older one' excuse. She of course got charged for her child as we both knew she was trying it on.

And of course there was the other side when things were not quite as pleasant. Young men trying to show off and thinking they were tough. I am a big man and even back then I was on the large side and although I have never used my size they do think twice about starting trouble.

I was checking tickets on one bus when the gang of boys decided either they had not paid enough or it was their stop and it was time to piss off the inspector. So they made a rush for the stairs to get off. One young man tried to push me over in the narrow isle. Now like I have said I am not small and I had on the thick great coat we used to wear for winter and it took one gentle nudge and he went flying over the seat in front! Of course I was 'Oh you seem to have tripped, are you OK?'. We both knew what had happened and he just looked at me and ran downstairs.

We also carried radios in case problems and could radio for assistance if necessary. They were made by Motorola and were their 'sometimes' brand. Sometime they worked and sometimes they did not! But in the case of trouble they were useful even If they did not work. In one case a guy had 'over ridden' and would not pay the excess fare and was intent of being a pain in the arse. So I picked up the radio that I knew would not work and called in for police assistance. Within minutes he had paid the fare.

More on the life of an Inspector in the next blog.