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Yes, they get 5% plus 2p per scan which raises to 10% if they pass a set amount of ticket sales (rarely happens so no better than the 6% flat the rest of the company get)
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Yes, they get 5% plus 2p per scan which raises to 10% if they pass a set amount of ticket sales (rarely happens so no better than the 6% flat the rest of the company get)
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Already have been.
Company wide increase of nearly 30% scans on average versus previous months.
I believe that the old rate of 5% (for below £200 a week) and 10% (for above £200 a week) only applies for any Bletchley / Northampton / Watford guards who were employed before 11/02/2026. Any newly employed Bletchley / Northampton / Watford guards get the new 6% rate if they were employed after 11/02/2026.
I believe that the old rate of 5% (for below £200 a week) and 10% (for above £200 a week) only applies for any Bletchley / Northampton / Watford guards who were employed before 11/02/2026. Any newly employed Bletchley / Northampton / Watford guards get the new 6% rate if they were employed after 11/02/2026.
They might for electronic tickets, but I think it is having the reverse effect for CCST. Guards seem to be very conscientious in scanning etickets, but when I hold up my CCST (most of my journeys involve cross-London) it usually gets barely a glance. No money in it for them to check it, let alone go to the effort of "clipping" it (doodling on it, or whatever).
I still use CCST a lot and have noticed this too - due to the journeys I make I often make use of open returns too which in the past guards would have been desperate to clip / scribble on for obvious reasons but I can’t actually remember the last time I had such happen!
(Although I’m surprised CCST don’t print a code on them similar to a eTicket that could be scanned?)
They are in the old BR/Central Trains Assistant Ticket Examiner grade. Easiest way to think of it is like a conductor without the safety duties - they inspect and sell tickets though they can be used on stations as well as on train. They aren't penalty fares collectors.
They are based in Nottingham and work some busier morning peak services by rotation on a few routes giving an extra hand to the conductors.
There used to be quite large numbers of them but it was a Stagecoach era innovation to be rid of most of the remaining ones, London Midland having done the same, in favour of ticket vending machines.
There was a brief period a few years back when they did, just before the orange receipt paper ones came out. The qr codes were so small I wonder how accurate the printing was
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There was a brief period a few years back when they did, just before the orange receipt paper ones came out. The qr codes were so small I wonder how accurate the printing was
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There was a period from around 2016 to 2020 when those Gatwick Express red ticket stock CCST tickets also had the barcodes printed on them.
I never really understood the point as most staff did not have barcode readers and most ticket barriers were not fitted with barcode readers back then.
There are new ticket machines being installed in the booking office at my local station in September and I'm led to believe they will be these toilet roll style tickets. If so will they have bar codes?
There are new ticket machines being installed in the booking office at my local station in September and I'm led to believe they will be these toilet roll style tickets. If so will they have bar codes?
Do you know what commission that the Conductors and Train Managers at GWR currently get? Is it still 1% (below £1,000 in that month) and 5% (above £1,000 in that month) or has it increased to a flat 5% for all ticket sales to match what the Ticket Examiners get?
From what I witness on a daily basis, not many GA conductors hide. Im quite shocked when travelling with other operators across the UK at how poor they are in comparison.
That's due to the team being increased from ~10 to ~40 in the last 18 months. They work that area hard now, and Conductors have been told to simply stand aside and let them work trains (ticketing) as a priority.
Crewe based conductors often scan northbound out of Euston, but having checked between Stafford and Rugby, often they move to the rear cab after MKC so they are in the mandated position for arriving into Euston. Using that 25 minutes as a chance to sit down mostly, as the 730s are quite hard on the legs when constantly on your feet.
I travel mainly on the EMR and London Northwestern Stoke services for work. I have a physical EMR smartcard with physical photo card.
Why do some onboard staff never go through the train to check tickets? Often, when they do check tickets, they glance at my smartcard and photocard but don't scan it. Then, sometimes they scan the smartcard.
Out of 10 journeys a week, I might have my smartcard scanned 5 times at the most. Why are there variances with this and is it a common occurrence elsewhere?
They might for electronic tickets, but I think it is having the reverse effect for CCST. Guards seem to be very conscientious in scanning etickets, but when I hold up my CCST (most of my journeys involve cross-London) it usually gets barely a glance. No money in it for them to check it, let alone go to the effort of "clipping" it (doodling on it, or whatever).
Presumably a QR code could be added to paper/plastic railcards too. Though the max validity is 3 years so if one was added to all of them today, there'd be a 3 year "tail" on the rollout.
I travel mainly on the EMR and London Northwestern Stoke services for work. I have a physical EMR smartcard with physical photo card.
Why do some onboard staff never go through the train to check tickets? Often, when they do check tickets, they glance at my smartcard and photocard but don't scan it. Then, sometimes they scan the smartcard.
Out of 10 journeys a week, I might have my smartcard scanned 5 times at the most. Why are there variances with this and is it a common occurrence elsewhere?
As far as LNR goes - it's the quietest service. Very few scans and almost no sales so it's often seen as not worth it (average 40-50 scans per trip Vs 150 Liverpool or 350 Euston).
As for smartcard, depends what equipment the staff prefer using. For instance, the revenue phone will easily scan your card but I only use that for sales. I use my work phone for scans as it's setup how I prefer it and it's about 4x as quick to process each scan, the drawback being the NFC very rarely picks up smartcards. I've also only come across 1 dud smartcard in 7 years of checking them so probably seen as pretty safe to just glance at.
I travel mainly on the EMR and London Northwestern Stoke services for work. I have a physical EMR smartcard with physical photo card.
Why do some onboard staff never go through the train to check tickets? Often, when they do check tickets, they glance at my smartcard and photocard but don't scan it. Then, sometimes they scan the smartcard.
Out of 10 journeys a week, I might have my smartcard scanned 5 times at the most. Why are there variances with this and is it a common occurrence elsewhere?
Until this week EMR had action short of a strike in the form of a ticket scanning ban, and this may have involved smartcards, but I'm not completely sure.
I travel mainly on the EMR and London Northwestern Stoke services for work. I have a physical EMR smartcard with physical photo card.
Why do some onboard staff never go through the train to check tickets? Often, when they do check tickets, they glance at my smartcard and photocard but don't scan it. Then, sometimes they scan the smartcard.
Out of 10 journeys a week, I might have my smartcard scanned 5 times at the most. Why are there variances with this and is it a common occurrence elsewhere?
Scanning a smart card requires coming out of the Ticket Scanning part of the app, back to the Home screen.
It then needs the passenger to place their smart card in the exact correct spot on the back of the device, to trigger the NFC to read the card (assuming the machine can read the card and isn't broken). This is after taking the card out of its holding wallet as the scanners are notoriously difficult.
Also, a lot of passengers don't like you physically touching their cards, so it's a bit of a dance.
In the same time for this to happen, I could have scanned nigh on ten other tickets. This is preferable, for me, as I'm judged, and disciplined, on the number of scans I carry out.
Revenue protection staff seem to get no commission anywhere as it would incentivise issuing penalty fares over unpaid fare notices or MG11s. Is there anywhere where revenue staff get commission like conductors?
Depends what you consider "revenue staff" but Assistant Ticket Examiners for GWR who come under the revenue protection department get commission on ticket sales, but not PFs.
An interesting further question would be, as far as people know, which TOCs actively audit ticket scans and expect guards to be scanning a certain number of tickets, and which don't really pick guards up on it?
Why would any company pay per scan? I sort of get the percentage per ticket sale but surely checking tickets is part of the job description for TMs/guards/conductors. Another railway anachronism that needs to looked at in a wider industry context? What next 10p per per customer helped if you are a driver? Of course not it is part of the job!
Why would any company pay per scan? I sort of get the percentage per ticket sale but surely checking tickets is part of the job description for TMs/guards/conductors. Another railway anachronism that needs to looked at in a wider industry context? What next 10p per per customer helped if you are a driver? Of course not it is part of the job!
Checking tickets may be part of the job but typically the use of new technologies isn’t part of the job.
We also reflect that historically guards used to sell many thousands of pounds worth of tickets on trains - especially on more rural routes - and earned a commission on those sales. The upsurge of the use of apps (such as Trainline, Trip, etc) to buy e-tickets has seen an end to the levels of commission being earned.
I’m sure every driver would welcome 10p per customer the speak to - I’m sure they look forward to your support of the motion.
Depends what you consider "revenue staff" but Assistant Ticket Examiners for GWR who come under the revenue protection department get commission on ticket sales, but not PFs.
Did the payment for ticket scans come in as soon as people started having them on phones etc or was it maybe something to do with getting TMs back out checking after sitting in back cabs for so long during the pandemic and the months after when the public were allowed back on the network but they were advised to not do checks?
Why would any company pay per scan? I sort of get the percentage per ticket sale but surely checking tickets is part of the job description for TMs/guards/conductors. Another railway anachronism that needs to looked at in a wider industry context? What next 10p per per customer helped if you are a driver? Of course not it is part of the job!
An interesting further question would be, as far as people know, which TOCs actively audit ticket scans and expect guards to be scanning a certain number of tickets, and which don't really pick guards up on it?
Certainly Blackpool North Conductor managers (CTM) are known to go as far as questioning why cheap day tickets have been sold (policy is SDS only).
Also CTMs at ScotRail do look at the data and let their conductors know where they are in the depot ranking......
Did the payment for ticket scans come in as soon as people started having them on phones etc or was it maybe something to do with getting TMs back out checking after sitting in back cabs for so long during the pandemic and the months after when the public were allowed back on the network but they were advised to not do checks?
Why would any company pay per scan? I sort of get the percentage per ticket sale but surely checking tickets is part of the job description for TMs/guards/conductors. Another railway anachronism that needs to looked at in a wider industry context? What next 10p per per customer helped if you are a driver? Of course not it is part of the job!
How does train companies obtain the huge amount of ticket history data or it's passengers? A mixture of booking sites and onboard scans. Onboard scans which prove which tickets were used on which trains and what date and time etc. highly accurate data that has lead to hundreds of cases each month, vast majority of them paying large sums back.
The scans pay for themselves before you look at the huge change in buying habits and the 90% drop in average commission at many depots.
I guess the question is, if you were receiving commission and your company completely changed how it sold tickets, wouldn't you be annoyed and want part of that lost income back?
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There was less (reliable) data for managing performance, not that unions allowed active management that way at our TOC.
I had this very conversation last year with a manager.
Why are you less productive than others at the depot?
So I asked what data they had to support that idea given if always scored 100% in SQR (mystery shoppers).
Number of ticket sales, value of sales and lack of scan data was their response.
Ticket sales and value of sales are the most unreliable data to use, same train day to day or week to week can be vastly different.
We were in dispute for 12 months regarding pay per scan and I, amongst others refused to scan.
None of that made me any less productive. I was seen in the train constantly, I checked tickets no less than others. The only way to prove someone isn't being productive or is stuck in the cab is through visual assessments by managers, be that planned or on the spot.
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Good to see them out and about. They are also doing regular full revenue blocks at MKC 
