The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox |
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Table of Contents
What is the difference between an electronic validating farebox and a typical electronic registering farebox?Validating fareboxes and typical registering fareboxes both register (i.e., count) money and tokens inserted for payment of fares. A validating farebox, however, uses modern electronic methods to verify that the coins and bills inserted are valid, and to accurately determine the value and denomination of the coins and bills. Validating fareboxes are capable of rejecting invalid coins and bills, and of distinguishing between $1, $5, $10, and $20 bills. A standard non-validating registering farebox uses only simple mechanical methods to identify coins and bills, and makes no attempt to identify or reject invalid or counterfeit currency. For coins, only the diameter is measured to determine value. For bills, registering fareboxes measure the length and count every bill within 10% of the length of a dollar as a $1 bill. Bill denominations are not distinguished. Validating fareboxes provide increased security and accuracy over traditional electro-mechanical non-validating fareboxes. Back to TopWhat advantages does the The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox offer over traditional fareboxes?Several key points differentiate The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox from products which have traditionally been used for on-board fare collection.
Back to TopIt seems that replacing all of the cashboxes and moving them to the money room for individual counting would be a labor intensive and time consuming process--wouldn’t using The Smart Box™ System raise my cost of operation?No. Actual handling time and costs are reduced by The Smart Box™ System in several ways:
The cashboxes themselves are automatically managed using The Smart Box™ Cashbox Inventory Management System, delivered by Agent System as part of every validating farebox contract. The Cashbox Inventory Management System tracks every cashbox, from the money room to the farebox, and back, using the information collected automatically at the farebox and during cashbox counting. No special data entry or additional management time is required. Automatic alarms are issued when a cashbox is missing or unprocessed within the required interval. Most importantly, the direct and complete audit trail created from the farebox to the money room by The Smart Box™ System allows transit companies to immediately and automatically identify any theft of funds--to the exact bus, route, and shift. Back to TopHow does the increased accuracy of a validating farebox benefit a transit property? Aren’t traditional non-validating fareboxes “accurate enough?”The average transit company operating a fare collection system based on non-validating registering fareboxes has a 4% difference between revenue counted in the money room and revenue reported by the farebox. For many companies the difference between reported revenue and actual deposits averages over 10% daily. There are several probable sources for this discrepancy: Mis-registers are common for non-validating fareboxes since the mechanical identification of coins and bills is easy to defeat. Non-validating fareboxes also require constant preventive and remedial maintenance to maintain any reasonable level of accuracy. Since mis-registers for non-validating fareboxes are common, it is difficult for transit companies to determine whether theft is occurring, and what portion of the revenue discrepancy to attribute to theft. The fundamental and essential requirement of any automated fare collection system is accuracy in counting and reporting cash payments. Without confidence that the reported revenue from the farebox is correct, a controlled and secure fare collection system cannot be maintained. Electronic validating fareboxes provide the accuracy necessary for a secure fare collection system. Non-validating fareboxes cannot. Back to TopHow will The Smart Box™ System impact money room operations?The Smart Box™ System has been designed to both reduce costs in the money room, and to increase the security and integrity of the revenue audit trail. The Smart Box™ System is delivered with a Money Room System designed specifically for the efficient counting and processing of cashboxes. The Money Room System consists of a money room computer that connects to one or more cash counting stations. A cash counting station is made up of an industry standard coin counter/sorter and an industry standard bill counter/validator. The cash counting station connects to the money room computer so that cashbox revenue count information is immediately and automatically collected, and sent to the Central Host Computer for comparison to reported revenue information from the farebox. The coin and bill counting equipment in the cash counting station can be provided by Agent Systems as part of a farebox system procurement, or The Smart Box™ System can connect to coin and bill processing equipment separately purchased. Additionally, since The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox stacks and faces all bills in the cashbox, the hand stacking and facing of bills that is required for traditional, non-validating fareboxes has been eliminated by The Smart Box™ System. For many properties, the hand stacking and facing of bills prior to counting accounts for 2/3 of the labor costs within the money room. Expensive, specialized large scale custom money sorting and handling equipment is not needed. The work flow in the money room consists of handling individual cashboxes, placing their contents into counter/verifiers, and placing them back on a cashbox cart (or a through wall system) for return to revenue service. Back to TopWouldn’t the cost of buying and maintaining two or more cashboxes for each farebox be prohibitively expensive?No. In fact, our system is actually less expensive to both buy and to operate for most transit companies. This is true for several reasons:
As cash collections decline with increased used of non-cash instruments, mass transit authorities must find a way to proportionately decrease the cost of handling cash. The two areas where this can be accomplished are the point of revenue servicing and in the money room. The Smart BoxTM System provides significant labor savings in both these areas through the use of revenue service thresholds and the complete integration of the innovative stacking cashbox with money room counting equipment. Back to TopThe idea of allowing the driver to unjam the farebox is a good one, but doesn’t this allow the driver access to money?No. During the “secure unjam” process only the bill and coin validator transport paths of The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox are made accessible to the driver. The cashbox and the cashbox contents are never visible or accessible. A high level of security is maintained during the secure unjam process in a number of ways:
For many transit companies, farebox jams and malfunctions are the single biggest source of bus “road calls.” The “secure unjam” feature allows transit companies to reduce these expensive out-of-service conditions with little or no decrease in security. Back to TopWhat about smart cards, magnetic tickets and passes, and transfers?There is no question that fare collection in the future will make more use of non-cash payment. Agent Systems was a pioneer in non-cash payment systems and today our mass transit networking systems are regarded as the best in the industry. We provide an essential coin and bill handling component which can be interfaced to and interoperate with ticket and pass handling systems provided by others. The Smart BoxTM Validating Farebox can be integrated with equipment from any of the many manufacturers who provide mass transit-proven magnetic ticket and smart card systems on the international market. Strict adherence to international standards and the open availability of The Smart BoxTM Validating Farebox interface and communications documentation facilitate the integration process. Back to TopMany bus operators in our area use brand x or brand y fareboxes. We want to be able to accept and properly process stored value cards issued by other operators and properly account for their use. Can this be done with The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox?Yes. Provided an acceptable level of interagency cooperation, a ticket processing system attached to The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox can deduct value from and revalue a stored value instrument issued by another agency. The important factors to be considered include disclosure of encoding standards and messages under a routine legal working relationship. The several standards-making efforts now underway, including VEI and TCIP, all share the common goal of making possible the interoperability of fare collection media and the sharing of data between different agencies. We support the work of the standards developing organizations. Back to TopWe will be installing GPS systems, data radios, passenger counters and new headsigns in the next few years. Can The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox communicate with these devices or share a common driver control unit?Yes. The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox is a fully open device--meaning that all messaging and data into and out of it is fully available to the user for integration purposes. All such interfaces are based on industry standards, and are fully documented. We will work with other vendors to allow for data exchange and control of The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox from other systems and the control of such devices as card readers. All communications and data exchange is compliant with the published Vending Equipment Interface (VEI) specification. In addition, SAE J1708 interoperability is built into The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox, with the addition of an industry standard interface card. Back to TopWe only operate a few buses--does The Smart Box™ System make sense for our operation?Yes, because large scale, heavy cash vaults with their attendant needs for handling equipment and specially designed coin sorting and counting systems are not needed. A complete system can be assembled much more economically than traditional non-validating fareboxes. All that is needed are low cost, off-the-shelf coin sorters/counters and bill counter/verifiers which are available from a number of sources. Back to TopWe operate hundreds of buses--wouldn’t the labor involved in swapping all of those cashboxes be prohibitively expensive and time consuming?No. Time and labor costs in the garage and in the money room are actually reduced with The Smart Box™ System, since:
Actually, the larger the bus fleet, the larger the potential savings over present revenue service practices in the garage and in the money room. Labor and bus dwell times are reduced in the garage, and counting time in the money room is reduced by eliminating the hand facing and stacking of banknotes required by traditional farebox systems prior to bill counting. Using The Smart Box™ Money Room System, a single employee at a cash counting station can process and count over 400 cashboxes in one 8 hour shift. In addition, the importance of correct data collection and a clear and secure audit trail is even greater for larger transit systems than for small systems. With The Smart Box™ System each bus is balanced each day for each route. Imbalances can be easily and immediately tracked down to the cashbox, bus, driver, handler, etc. Back to TopOur fleet of handicapped and demand responsive vans is growing much faster than our fleet of fixed route buses. Can The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox be installed on the types of vehicles typically used for these services?Yes. The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox is much smaller than earlier generation non-validating fareboxes now used in the mass transit industry. The overall dimensions of the entire unit are 10.25" x 10.5" wide, by 20.5" high--including the cashbox. The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox can be mounted in many different ways, including: 1) attached to pole or railings, 2) on a single 4" x 4" pedestal, and 3) on a traditional "column" as used currently by non-validating fareboxes. The transmission hump can even be used as a mounting point for small van-type vehicles. Additionally, the Operator Control Unit can be separately mounted to make the most of the space available on a small vehicle. Back to TopI am concerned about using such “complicated” equipment on a transit bus--wouldn’t the shock, vibrations, and temperature extremes cause trouble with the bill validating and bill stacking mechanisms?All components used are rated individually for storage and operational temperatures in excess of typical specification requirements and actual operational conditions on the North American continent. In addition, The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox will be independently tested to validate the shock resistant construction. Back to TopWe have never had accurate bus revenue and ridership information in the past from our registering fareboxes. How will The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox be different?The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox is designed from the start as a data collection device as well as a coin and banknote verifying system. Highly accurate electronic validation virtually guarantees that the money counted in the money room will balance to the farebox data. The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox does far more than simply measure the size of coins and bills. Metallurgical signatures are measured for coins and sophisticated optical and magnetic verification techniques are used for bills. In addition to accurately and securely counting the money, The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox permits the bus driver/operator to easily enter in ridership "tally" information, and to match this ridership data more accurately to the inserted funds. Further, highly flexible data customization features allow transit managers to gain new insights using the accurate information generated by The Smart Box™ System. Back to TopWhy a new farebox? Won’t all fare collection in the future be done with smart cards?No. Despite claims to the contrary, coins and bills will be with us into the foreseeable future. Ours is a society which values independence and continual technical innovation. Unless we can universally mandate a particular non-cash medium and freeze the technology at one point, there is very little chance of a universally accepted (and universally held) non-cash future in fare collection. Agent Systems has worked with numerous smart card manufacturers for over ten years. In the next year we will be seeing important progress made in the moving of smart cards into the mainstream of mass transit fare collection. The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox was designed from the start to easily integrate with any type of electronic stored value instrument chosen for use in the mass transit industry. The reality is that today we are faced with accepting on-board fares which consist increasingly of banknotes and sometimes large numbers of coins to reach today’s base fares of between $1 and $2. We are asking far too much of a driver to visually verify up to twenty coins in a dimly lit inspection plate. Slugs, foreign coins and counterfeit bills are finding their way increasingly into mass transit and cause additional problems all along the process of collecting, counting and banking monies. Several years ago, we were told that we were headed for a “paperless” society--all transactions and communications would be handled in a purely electronic environment. As we all know, the development of computers and electronics has enabled the generation of even more paper. We will always have enough exception transactions such as first time or infrequent riders, tourists, and those who have lost or forgotten their passes or tickets or smart cards that the need for cash payment will never go away. The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox is a component which will co-exist with other fare collection components, data radios, passenger counters, GPS systems, head signs, audible stop announcement systems, and possible electronic entertainment and advertising systems to be developed in the coming years. Back to TopThere is no inspection plate on The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox--why not? What about coins that are good that somehow are not accepted by the farebox? What about good bills that are not accepted?By design, The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox does not include an inspection plate for coins or bills. Validating technology has enabled electronic recognition of bills and coins to be performed much faster and more accurately than is possible with a visual inspection from a driver. The proliferation of new coinage from new nations in Eastern Europe, especially, and the development of high quality laser printers will lead to tremendously increased use of invalid and counterfeit monies in the next few years. Only with the use of highly accurate and tunable electronic validation tools can transit operators maintain the acceptance of bad bills, slugs and foreign monies at acceptably low or non-existent levels. However, it is possible for a passenger to present a bill to the farebox that, though valid, is mutilated to the point that it cannot be electronically validated. The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox allows bus operators to easily and quickly manually value such bills and force their acceptance by the farebox. Such operator-valued transactions are distinguished from electronically validated payments, so that they can be examined later should cash count discrepancies appear when the cashbox contents are counted in the money room. In regard to coins, our testing has shown that there not a practical need for operator-valued coin acceptance. The Smart Box™ System can be configured to limit or eliminate manually valued bill acceptance at any time. Back to TopAgent Systems has been known as a leader in fare collection software, but do they have the experience to produce complete hardware systems?The Smart Box™ System is a unique combination of standard off-the-shelf hardware components and farebox-specific software which enables the hardware to perform at high levels in the transit environment. The hardware components are produced by and sourced through multiple vendors located throughout the U.S. Included in our suppliers are a significant number of highly qualified disadvantaged business enterprise vendors. The engineering staff responsible for the development of The Smart Box™ System has many years of experience in the development and manufacturing of mobile and vending products. Back to TopWhat level of support can we expect from Agent Systems if we buy The Smart Box™ System?The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox is inherently a very simple device and it can be maintained by transit property personnel with the training provided by Agent Systems. All manuals, drawings and all software needed for routine as well as major maintenance and repair work are provided along with the Smart Box™ System. All software is produced and managed by in-house software development engineers. We can provide you as much or as little support as you need including full training to allow your personnel to assume virtually all maintenance of software and development of custom reports. Back to TopHow do we need to adjust our purchasing specifications to allow the purchase of The Smart Box™ System by our transit property?In the next few years many innovations in technology will improve bus operations efficiency. The innovations we are introducing will require alteration of fare collection specifications to take advantage of secure electronic coin and bill validation as well as cash handling efficiencies. Agent Systems has available, upon request, a "Scope of Work" document describing a fare collection system based upon a validating farebox. This document provides all specifications and technical details necessary for inclusion in farebox procurement specifications. Back to TopThe cashbox seems small--can it hold all the money from a busy route? And if we change fare structures would this cause trouble if proportionately more or less bills or coins are used by our passengers?There are major differences between the cashbox used by The Smart Box™ Validating Farebox and those used by earlier generation non-validating fareboxes:
The maximum coin capacity of the cashbox is dependent upon how much space is configured in the cashbox for bill storage:
When a change from one fare structure to another causes a change in the volumetric proportion of bills to coins, the cashbox can be reconfigured to adapt to the new fare structure by expanding or reducing the space dedicated to banknote storage. An increase in banknote storage will reduce the coin storage space and vice versa. The capacity of The Smart Box™ cashbox is more than ample for any bus route in North America. However, if larger capacities are needed, a farebox accommodating a larger cashbox is available. Back to TopReturn to Agent Systems Product Page Request
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