No need for ‘student fares’

ALLOW me to comment on the rates and charges for  students and different classes of people on the use of various services.
Rates and charges for various services like park visits, transport and parties on students and other classes of people are determined using a lot of factors and not just guessing.
Most of the services are owned and managed by private entities and they always ensure that they operate somewhere above the break-even rate.
Apart from various other business objectives of a business entity or a fundraising event, profit orientation is the most important incentive and the managers or hosts will dwell on when determining the rates and charges for their services.
One of the important variables of the profit that will be generated from the services is the number of people who will be buying the services thus the managers and hosts will have to be deliberate on identifying the market and then classifying it into segments for the application of the rates and chargers.
In a school party for instance, students with a form of identification are charged a lower ticket rate because it is assumed that more students will participate in the event while adults will be charged a higher rate, usually a normal rate.
The difference between the student and adult rates is the incentive rate which is used to entice the student population to participate as a mechanism to prop up profits in the fundraising event.
The incentive rate is also used as a social obligation of entertaining the target population in the fundraising event.
On the other hand, a public transport service provider usually does not have a choice when it comes to altering rates usually below the normal rate because the service is a public service and there are no special groups for special treatments.
In other words, students have no specific user rights in using a public service as they are tradable common properties.
Specific rates can apply only if there is a subsidy scheme implemented with a third party for the use of a public service.
In this case, the so-called “student fare” is not applicable  where there is no subsidy schemes but most universities, colleges and schools opt
for a buy in scheme whereby transportation is provided by the institution and the students pay for it in a one off payment or in installments at a very low, usually at the break-even rate.
Thus in reality, students have no choice but to pay the normal fares for public transportation as set by the service provider or by the price watchdog, the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission or a combination of both.

Mike Haro, Via email