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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Transportation TriMet Crackdown!

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 2:46 PM

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Get your $2 (and spiteful nickle) ready: TriMet announced today that it will hire six new fare inspectors. And, says TriMet, their work will move away from a warning and education focus to issuing citations.

Citations for fare jumping on TriMet have spiraled downward for a couple years now, as this nifty graph Portland Afoot put together illustrates:

The six new jobs will bring the total number of fare inspectors on the system to only 13—that's still a drop from the 24 who were employed in 2010. And fare inspectors don't cover their own costs. Their salaries are $67,000, but check out Portland Afoot's research on how much they bring in:

TriMet collected only $179,000 in fiscal year 2010 from tickets and court fees, despite issuing 6,469 fare citations, according to spokeswoman Bekki Witt. If TriMet had collected $91.40 on each of those citations, its revenue from fare enforcement alone would have been $591,000.

A standard citation for fare jumping is $175, but in the past, inspectors have tended to issue warnings or exclusions much more frequently than citations.

 

Comments (16) RSS

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1
"And fare inspectors don't cover their own costs."

I think you're failing to take into account that a visible, reliable fare inspector presence probably acts to deter many of those who might otherwise risk getting on without buying a fare.
Posted by Commenty Colin on July 19, 2011 at 3:07 PM · Report
2
A fare inspector makes $67,000 per year??? I'm doing something wrong.
Posted by jim on July 19, 2011 at 3:17 PM · Report
3
$67,000 is complete insanity.
Posted by b on July 19, 2011 at 3:29 PM · Report
4
I guess I'm going to look into being a Fare Inspector.
Posted by Graham on July 19, 2011 at 3:45 PM · Report
5
"A fare inspector makes $67,000 per year??? I'm doing something wrong. "

Sounds like a lot, especially if your making 10 bucks an hour. But 67k after taxes and social security and union dues etc etc is not as great as it sounds.

Macfarlane makes $244k, as a matter of fact there are plenty of people who make much more than 67k.

Which ones are most valuable to the public interest?

http://www.box.net/shared/cvndf2i7hi
Posted by Al M on July 19, 2011 at 4:01 PM · Report
6
Al, as someone that makes less than $67,000 a year after taxes and so on, it really is as great as it sounds. Checking fares requires no education, or particularly special abilities. Why can't they find people who will do it for $10/hr?
Posted by Anony Mouse on July 19, 2011 at 4:19 PM · Report
7
I wonder if they'd be more likely to issue citations if they were $50 instead of $175.
Posted by Paul Cone on July 19, 2011 at 4:29 PM · Report
8
btw I agree that $67K is total insanity if that's the salary, and not Trimet's TOTAL cost per year for the employee, e.g. including all benefits, training costs, equipment etc.
Posted by Commenty Colin on July 19, 2011 at 4:29 PM · Report
9
Wow, our taxes are helping pay a fare inspector 67k? See if I ever vote pro-TriMet again.
Posted by Broseph Goebbels on July 19, 2011 at 6:59 PM · Report
10
Thanks for the shout, Sarah! For what it's worth, the $91.50 is based on the amount TriMet gets after splitting its $175 fine with the other agencies who have to push some of the paper in this situation. (County and state, I believe.)

Point is, TriMet really has few tools to force people to pay if they don't want to. It'll be interesting to see if they can find some.
Posted by Michael, Portland Afoot on July 19, 2011 at 8:15 PM · Report
11
It sounds like TriMet needs to renegotiate the pay for inspectors or start using non-union inspectors. As others have noted, that is a pretty excessive salary for an unskilled position (well, there's conflict management skills, but that's not so rare or hard to train someone in). Plenty of people would be willing and able to perform this job at $10-$20/hour, thus in this case the union is acting as a barrier to entry for other working adults.

The other issue is the low percentage of citations. Imagine if 75% of parking tickets were just warnings! The proper way to do this is to issue citations to everyone, with the knowledge that many people (especially those who can't really afford it) will not pay them. Most people will pay and the amount raised would be way more than TriMet is getting now. Just like with parking tickets, they can choose to be lenient on people who just have a couple outstanding fines, but aggressively go after those "scofflaws" with mounting numbers of tickets.

The other option is to just push the passes as much as possible and move to an honor system. Most people will still pay because it is the right thing to do. If fare enforcement is actually costing more than it is bringing in, it either needs to be reformed or done away with--otherwise what is the point?
Posted by zefwagner on July 19, 2011 at 8:58 PM · Report
12
It sounds like TriMet needs to renegotiate the pay for inspectors or start using non-union inspectors. As others have noted, that is a pretty excessive salary for an unskilled position (well, there's conflict management skills, but that's not so rare or hard to train someone in). Plenty of people would be willing and able to perform this job at $10-$20/hour, thus in this case the union is acting as a barrier to entry for other working adults.

The other issue is the low percentage of citations. Imagine if 75% of parking tickets were just warnings! The proper way to do this is to issue citations to everyone, with the knowledge that many people (especially those who can't really afford it) will not pay them. Most people will pay and the amount raised would be way more than TriMet is getting now. Just like with parking tickets, they can choose to be lenient on people who just have a couple outstanding fines, but aggressively go after those "scofflaws" with mounting numbers of tickets.

The other option is to just push the passes as much as possible and move to an honor system. Most people will still pay because it is the right thing to do. If fare enforcement is actually costing more than it is bringing in, it either needs to be reformed or done away with--otherwise what is the point?
Posted by zefwagner on July 19, 2011 at 9:02 PM · Report
13
What is the job situation for the security guards you see at, for example, the Green/Yellow terminus at PSU under? There's always personnel there, and they look trains over inside to make sure everyone got off and stuff. From what I can gather it doesn't seem they're TriMet supervisors but I could be mistaken. $400K a year is 6 guys at $67,000. If we paid $12/hr it would pay for more like 16 dedicated fare inspectors! Why the heck does a fare inspector need to know how to drive a bus or train?
Posted by Anony Mouse on July 19, 2011 at 9:36 PM · Report
14
WOW! $67k is a great salary for standing around, checking tickets, and going to court. An entry level Portland police officer only makes $43k and will take FOUR years to reach $67k salary level (PDF).

Comment #1 is correct, keeping troublemakers off the system is extremely important and maintains the value of transit. Also, don't you feel like an idiot paying to ride the MAX when there's no chance of fare enforcement?
Posted by Norm on July 20, 2011 at 8:01 AM · Report
15
The best thing I've ever heard a Tri-Met bus driver say was (just before some fare inspectors got on the bus): "Here come the spare infectors."
Posted by dmitrir on July 20, 2011 at 2:42 PM · Report
16
$175 is another tax on the poor who struggle to afford public transportation. Still, I wouldn't begrudge the people who have good paying public sector union jobs that are getting harder to find. Is everyone expected to be non-union and paid minimum wage these days? Where does the downward spiral end?
Posted by serendipity on July 20, 2011 at 9:27 PM · Report

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