NEC Point of Sale Roll Out on NEC (not) imminent

[Bob Dylan]

Headline on story about Future OIG Report:

Amtrak OIG Report: Cash Machine Thefts in Sunnyside, Hialeah and Chicago Yards Results in Big Losses/Congress to Hold Hearings!!

 

[neroden]

Cash is king. Attempts to go cashless range from the stupid to the extremely stupid. The closest they could come without ticking people off a lot would be to sell the "prepaid debit cards" for *any amount* (not currently available) *on board* (impractical) in unlimited quantities.

A good point-of-sale system can automate the accounting sufficiently that it renders a lot of the standard cash pilfering methods nearly impossible or very quickly identifiable, removing most of the reasons for Amtrak to want to go "cashless". Just implement a normal point of sale system and don't try to prevent people from using cash. That just makes people *mad*.

"Amtrak's immediate priority is to deploy, as expeditiously as possible, a system that efficiently supports the current business model."

They should stick to this.

 

[Train2104]

Cash is king. Attempts to go cashless range from the stupid to the extremely stupid. The closest they could come without ticking people off a lot would be to sell the "prepaid debit cards" for *any amount* (not currently available) *on board* (impractical) in unlimited quantities.

A good point-of-sale system can automate the accounting sufficiently that it renders a lot of the standard cash pilfering methods nearly impossible or very quickly identifiable, removing most of the reasons for Amtrak to want to go "cashless". Just implement a normal point of sale system and don't try to prevent people from using cash. That just makes people *mad*.

One of the OIG's recommendations in the food service losses report was to go cashless, and most if not all the major airlines are already cashless.

 

[Triley]

Cash is king. Attempts to go cashless range from the stupid to the extremely stupid. The closest they could come without ticking people off a lot would be to sell the "prepaid debit cards" for *any amount* (not currently available) *on board* (impractical) in unlimited quantities.

A good point-of-sale system can automate the accounting sufficiently that it renders a lot of the standard cash pilfering methods nearly impossible or very quickly identifiable, removing most of the reasons for Amtrak to want to go "cashless". Just implement a normal point of sale system and don't try to prevent people from using cash. That just makes people *mad*.

One of the OIG's recommendations in the food service losses report was to go cashless, and most if not all the major airlines are already cashless.

What I was told, the company tested it before on select trains (as matter of fact, when we set up the credit card card machines at the beginning of each trip, it asks us if we're working a cashless train), and it went over like a lead balloon.

 

[jis]

I think there is a difference in clientele and their expectations between Amtrak and the airlines. This makes cashless easier to operate on a plane than on an Amtrak train. The extent of transactions that require money to change hands is relatively low on planes, specially if one is not consuming alcohol, and that is something that one can do without for a few hours in case one does not have a credit card. OTOH, on a train, it is a different matter.

As an aside woe be to the poor bloke who bought a plane ticket with cash.... so most likely each group of passenger probably has at least one credit card among them. Not necessarily so on Amtrak. Too bad that this in effect increases the cost of providing services on Amtrak.

 

[neroden]

It doesn't, of course. It's cheaper for Amtrak to provide services for cash than it is to provide services for credit cards -- just like every other merchant in the world, they avoid the merchant fees on cash transactions.

If Amtrak is somehow managing to lose large amounts of money on cash handling it's only because Amtrak Is Doing It Wrong; they can just stop doing it wrong and fix that.

 

[me_little_me]

As an aside woe be to the poor bloke who bought a plane ticket with cash.... so most likely each group of passenger probably has at least one credit card among them. Not necessarily so on Amtrak. Too bad that this in effect increases the cost of providing services on Amtrak.

The poor bloke who bought an airline ticket with cash is still at the airport trying to explain to the TSA that he is not a terrorist so he doesn't have to worry about using cash on board as he never made it to the plane.