TranStink's Free Ride Lotto!
The benefits of paying in pennies are:
- You are elegable for the free ride lottery!
- You no longer have to worry about that unused stash of pennies sitting in a jar at home!
- Pennies are legal tender therefore they should not be sitting idle!
The downside of using pennies:
- It's possible you may hear these words from the driver: "That's enough! The box is full!" or you may hear "Just put 'em in... I trust you."
Why there are downsides is simple: pennies will cost TranStink a fortune to process. When the box is full of pennies, as compared to toonies, the same physical space will hold a couple hundred dollars worth of pennies as opposed to $2500 worth of toonies. You may encounter some problems such as when you are carefully counting the pennies, and putting them in one by one, your stop may come up and you may have no choice but to offer the driver your address so that TranStink may bill you for the unused portion of your fare. Be honest now, and make sure that you do put in the pennies carefully, counting them one at a time and even ask the driver's assistance in witnessing this. Just remember: pennies are legal tender and if the machine disagrees with you then give it a tip... add some more pennies!
Now you may ask, how does this lead to winning the free ride lottery? According to our research, if just every fourth person pays in pennies then, at the end of approximately four hours, the boxes will be full of pennies and, when getting on the bus, you will be surprised to hear "Don't put any money in the machine! The box is full." Because the box is full, you will still get your transfer. Now this of course means that the transit system may slow down considerably as boxes will have to be emptied more frequently and drivers may have to sit and wait until you finish counting the pennies before moving. We believe that Translink may, when faced with this new expense, opt for cheaper fares so please do your part and give Translink your pennies.