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Does anyone pay TransLink fines?

Question: How effective has Translink been in collecting the fines for tickets issued for fare evaders?

Answer: Amazing how much traction this topic has gotten in recent weeks. The world’s in a recession, Europe is in a tailspin, and we’re facing debt and deficits in the billions of dollars at the provincial and national level, but people are passionately concerned that someone has skipped out on their $2.50 bus fare.

But I digress and I’ll bite on this one. First off, TransLink hasn’t been effective at all — mostly because TransLink doesn’t collect them, ICBC does. However, it does track the results.

I looked back at previous TransLink reports to see if there was anything there. (As I always tell my students, check the documents first. At least if they don’t give you answers, you might have more intelligent questions to ask.)

In 2002, a report by then finance vp Ian Jarvis (now CEO!) estimated that about 11 per cent of people fined actually paid their fines. (And it was estimated that about four per cent of riders did not pay fares.) He noted that it was hard to get more compliance because there is no real penalty for people who don’t pay, the way there is with parking tickets or speeding tickets. He said then that the province collected only about $220,000 in fines from $2 million worth of tickets handed out.

A PriceWaterhouseCoopers audit in 2007 estimated the fine-payment level at eight per cent of all of the 30,000 people ticketed in 2006. It noted there is a one per cent chance a rider will be ticketed and a 0.1 per cent chance that someone will pay a fine.

I asked for updated numbers from new TransLink spokesperson Erin Dermer, who dug around for a few days and found this: Between 2006 and 2010, about 15 to 20 per cent of people paid their fines. I asked why those numbers didn’t jive with the PWC audit. She didn’t know, but apparently the numbers come straight from ICBC, which is the agency that collects the fines.

She said that the first three months of 2011, the rate had risen to 30 per cent. That’s because ICBC has started sending out letters sooner to warn people to pay.

In 2010, the agency collected $500,000 in fines. She wasn’t able to find out if ICBC has ever had anyone arrested for non-payment of fines, which I seem to recall reading somewhere is a final option.

Interesting fact, by the way. TransLink does not get the fine money. The province does. There is still not a great mechanism for forcing people to pay fines. People who have car insurance will be required to pay any outstanding TransLink fines before they can get their insurance. But that doesn’t work for the many people fined who don’t have car insurance.

There you go. Enjoy your free ride. See you in court — not!!

Read All Questions
  • Bobbie Bees

    There’s one little tiny flaw with Translink using ICBC to collect fines.
    Prior to the formation of the Transit Police, the Skytrain attendants couldn’t demand identification.
    So when they issued a ticket, if the person being given the ticket didn’t provide identification, a little box would be checked saying “ID NOT Produced”. Then a second ticket would be given, which wasn’t a ticket , but a statement from a second attendant stating that a ticket was written for someone claiming to be such and such.

    A fine scam on the part of both Translink and ICBC, especially when both my ICBC file and my VPD / CPIC file both indicate that I was mugged in 1995 and that my identification was stolen.

    What is even better than this is ICBC’s Anti-Fraud impersonation investigators wanted me to tell them who impersonated me.

    It all worked out in the end, but it was damn silly, issuing tickets when they didn’t even have the legal authority to demand identification. I gotta wonder just how many people paid ICBC just to get the fine off so they could renew their insurance.

    Oh, and one other thing. ICBC won’t tell you the fine is actually on your account. Nor will they stop you from renewing your insurance year after year after year. It’s only after six years of not paying the ticket that it will actually go to a collection agency. Then, you find out that you’ve had a translink ticket sitting on your account for all that time.

    I really hope they have changed things since my experience with them in April of 2006 for a ticket that was on my account since Jan 1st, 2000. I bought and registered three motorcycles, renewed my license once, and bought yearly insurance and the first I heard of the ticket was from some collection agency.

  • Jim

    I hadn’t realized simply not paying was an option. Following this handy guide from UVic http://thelawcentre.ca/defending I thought the usual method was to write a letter and wait for a court date. “Frequently the peace officer does not attend court and therefore it is often worth disputing a ticket.”

    I’ve also usually assumed the ticketing is theatre, pour encourager les autres.

  • Ken Hardie

    A clarification on fines collection: ICBC does not withhold vehicle registration/insurance or drivers’ licenses for non-payment of transit violation tickets — it does not have the authority to do this.

  • Frances Bula

    @Ken.Thanks for the clarification on that.

  • Ian

    This reminds me of an enquiry I made to ICBC about why they seemed to be lenient with people who don’t properly display licence plates (e.g., missing front plate, plate on dash, licence plate covers, etc.) This was after photo radar was cancelled so improperly displayed plates are pretty much an admission of downright dangerous driving (e.g., red light running), not just a fear of getting a ticket for driving a little too quickly. The ICBC rep I spoke with indicated that because ICBC competes with other insurance providers for optional insurance, they don’t want to alienate their customers if that means they’ll defect to the competition. One is left to wonder if the same thought process could be at play here. It certainly points to an inherent conflict when the same organization is supposed to be a regulator and a competitive business at the same time.

  • Harley

    There is no mechanism or legislation in place at this time which allows any Provincial Agency to collect fines for Fail to produce Proof of Fare Payment Sec 4(2) Transit Conduct and Safety Regs. So, most people don’t bother to pay; why should they when nothing will happen to them, and there is no recourse. Until there is Legislation passed with an “Enforcement Clause”, Translink will lose literally Millions of Dollars in unpaid fines for tickets that Police Issue.

  • Birddog

    I’m compelled to correct Bobbie Bees. SkyTrain Attendants have never had the authority to write violation tickets. I have done fare enforcement on SkyTrain for 17 years now, first as a Special Constable and now with the Transit Police, and I can say with certainty that the double-ticketing notion has no basis in fact.

  • E

    I once asked the @TransLink tweeters why they were broadcasting when and at which SkyTrain station staff were checking for fares. Didn’t TransLink want to catch would-be fare evaders? Wouldn’t catching these people teach them a greater lesson? TransLink’s response: fines revenue from transit violation tickets go to the province.