Only a few days left before the entry into force of the transport bonus 2022 and local public transport companies ask to correct the measure at the last minute in order to avoid disruptions and extra costs for companies in the sector.
The 2022 transport bonus: how it works
The provision provides for a bonus of up to 60 euros for the purchase of monthly or annual season tickets for the public, local, regional or railway transport service. The bonus is aimed at citizens with an income not exceeding 35 euros. Requests to access the contribution can be sent starting from 1 September via the dedicated platform. Once the voucher has been obtained, it should be expendable directly at the ticket offices and for a single pass.
The doubts of Agens, Anav and Asstra
The associations Agents, Anav and Asstra, which represent local public transport companies and a qualified component of the entire passenger road transport sector, express strong perplexity in relation to the procedure for managing the transport bonuses.
“The measure, despite having appreciable social purposes, risks bringing strong disservices for citizen users e higher costs for companies merchants due to the application methods chosen", write the three associations in a note, in which they express perplexity about the choice to "also include short-term passes such as monthly passes in the benefit". A decision which, according to them, "in addition to generating inevitably damage to the season ticket campaigns of the operators, does not trigger particular positive effects on the containment of the use of private cars”.
From a logistic-operational point of view, at least in an initial phase, the bonus will only be usable at physical ticket offices, which will cause "inevitable and undesirable gatherings due on the one hand to the time needed to issue the season ticket and check the validity of the bonus carried out by the ticket office operator and on the other hand in some cases to the reduced number of physical ticket offices, an inevitable consequence of the acceleration of digitization processes and dematerialisation of travel documents which took place during the pandemic emergency. This situation, in which the dedicated information systems are still under construction, therefore runs the risk of actually generate disservices”, argue Agenas Agens, Anav and Asstra, who finally speak of indefinite repayment terms of "vouchers" to transport companies.
Companies: “Limit it to annual subscriptions”
"In the absence of certainty on the timing and methods of repayment, the companies of the bonus"accepted this situation would in fact end up affect the collection of a financial flow estimated at 180 million, precisely in the third quarter of the year traditionally supported by flows of mainly annual subscriptions”, they report.
For these reasons, the Associations, which recognize and share the intent of the measure, propose to limit the use of the "bonus" to the purchase of the "annual subscription only, when present in the range of tariffs on offer, and subordinate to multi-monthly and monthly” and advise the provision of a mechanism by which the user, after purchasing the season ticket, receives a direct refund from the State. "In the alternative, where the intermediary subject is the companies, it is necessary to create anticipatory mechanisms that minimize the financial impact that the companies will have to bear", conclude Agens, Anav and Asstra.
