Brandon Policicchio: Taking cash off the buses

In December's Transit Voices podcast, Masabi co-founder Ben Whitaker talks to Brandon Policicchio, Chief Customer and Business Development Officer at Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority.

Here's what you'll hear in this episode: The two talk about removing all cash from buses and the benefits that it has brought them. "Being a medium-sized agency, we're able to be a little bit more nimble," Brandon explains. "But I think, for us, at the end of the day, it was about how we viewed accepting cash as being able to deliver less equitable services. While some see cash and taking it away as an equity issue, particularly in the transit sphere, I learned through research that cash was really creating an inequity, when you look at it from the standpoint of account-based payments and fare capping."

Not only did removing cash allow for more riders to benefit from the best fares, but Ben comments on how removing phisical payments on board gives more reliable services too. 

"In the United Kingdom, Preston buses ran a time trial where they analyzed how many customers they could get onto the vehicle with them paying in cash as they boarded, and how many people they could get on the bus in a given time if they were either using cards or mobile phones or paper tickets or anything else," he explains. "And they found it was an average of two seconds a person to board with a pre-purchased ticket of pretty much any sort, and about 15 seconds to board people on average who are chatting to the driver and paying with cash. So there was a ten-to-fifteen second speed up per passenger in getting them to not pay in cash."

Beyond ticketing, Brandon explains how GDRTA's electric buses have full coverage of the service area. "We just replaced that entire fleet of 45 vehicles, and we operate several lines over 120 miles of overhead trolley, electric infrastructure," he explains."  That's a pretty cool, unique aspect here of Dayton, but getting our assets in a state of good repair, while it was a challenge, I believe we're successful at it, which puts us in a great position now."

You'll also find out why Brandon's boondoggle is autonomous vehicles, while he thinks the industry's underdog remains account-based ticketing.

Have a listen to this 40-minute discussion to understand how agencies in the USA can now take heart that removing cash is possible, and can improve equity and get people away from the more expensive single fares.