Pricing
Pricing
(14 Sep 2019, 1:03 pm)AdrianRemember when the Get Around ID cards were scrapped, as to make it simpler to travel?.. so much for that.
I don't have a huge issue with ID for benefits or discounts. Its fairly common practice. The range of ID (what really should be considered 'alternatives') that are valid, gives you a variety of options to still access the discounts. But this shouldn't be the primary form of ID to access discounted tickets.
Both Stagecoach and Arriva in the North East offer Under 19s a free ID card on application. Stagecoach allow a variety of ID including Student ID cards, and Arriva will accept either their Teen Card or a Student ID card, but Go North East specifically state they won't accept student ID cards in their FAQs, which is a bit surprising given that their research concluded that "young people want to carry one single ID for travelling and socialising." You're already forcing them to carry at least two now, and its created an issue with consistency across the regions buses.
It all stinks of being a very rushed project to me. BusinessAdapts were still calling out for volunteers to help in their research early/mid-July, and only held the sessions with young people and staff on the 22nd, as can be seen in this tweet and this tweet. Out of interest, I wonder how many young people contributed to the research, as there doesn't appear to be many present at that session? Again, if it was timed better, you could have went directly to them in schools and colleges.
I went along to the BusinessAdapts focus group, and there were only I think 7 there. And it was brought up several times that they should bring back the Get Around ID. Someone in the group specifically called out that she didn't like having to carry her passport around with her as ID, and it seems like that is exactly what they are forcing now.
I got the feeling that they weren't interested in what we actually thought, and as someone who also works in Market Research, it seemed like Luke didn't know what he was doing!
To be honest, very little of the new 5to25 scheme is what was brought up in the focus group, so I assume they did other research as well, although it doesn't look like it!
Half of it was centred around Uber and an ArrivaClick like service, but with questions set in such a way that the only answer was to say that a bus was better!
(14 Sep 2019, 1:03 pm)AdrianRemember when the Get Around ID cards were scrapped, as to make it simpler to travel?.. so much for that.
I don't have a huge issue with ID for benefits or discounts. Its fairly common practice. The range of ID (what really should be considered 'alternatives') that are valid, gives you a variety of options to still access the discounts. But this shouldn't be the primary form of ID to access discounted tickets.
Both Stagecoach and Arriva in the North East offer Under 19s a free ID card on application. Stagecoach allow a variety of ID including Student ID cards, and Arriva will accept either their Teen Card or a Student ID card, but Go North East specifically state they won't accept student ID cards in their FAQs, which is a bit surprising given that their research concluded that "young people want to carry one single ID for travelling and socialising." You're already forcing them to carry at least two now, and its created an issue with consistency across the regions buses.
It all stinks of being a very rushed project to me. BusinessAdapts were still calling out for volunteers to help in their research early/mid-July, and only held the sessions with young people and staff on the 22nd, as can be seen in this tweet and this tweet. Out of interest, I wonder how many young people contributed to the research, as there doesn't appear to be many present at that session? Again, if it was timed better, you could have went directly to them in schools and colleges.
I went along to the BusinessAdapts focus group, and there were only I think 7 there. And it was brought up several times that they should bring back the Get Around ID. Someone in the group specifically called out that she didn't like having to carry her passport around with her as ID, and it seems like that is exactly what they are forcing now.
I got the feeling that they weren't interested in what we actually thought, and as someone who also works in Market Research, it seemed like Luke didn't know what he was doing!
To be honest, very little of the new 5to25 scheme is what was brought up in the focus group, so I assume they did other research as well, although it doesn't look like it!
Half of it was centred around Uber and an ArrivaClick like service, but with questions set in such a way that the only answer was to say that a bus was better!
