Low cost and zero risk
It's sometimes said that independent retailers take 5% out of the industry - and that this money could be ‘saved’ by the rail industry if we didn't exist.
This is far from the truth; the real ‘cost’ of independent ticket retailing to the rail industry is very little - around 1% to 2% of ticket sales in the direct to consumer market, and nothing at all in the business market (where commissions are even lower). That’s a lower cost of sale than any other rail ticket retailing channel - whether a train operator’s own website, a station booking office, a ticket machine, or purchased on the train.
But the big difference is that we represent zero risk to the industry - if we don’t sell tickets, then we don’t cost anything at all. And that’s exactly what happened during the worst months of the pandemic, when rail ticket sales fell to 5% or less of normal volumes, and our costs to the rest of the industry reduced accordingly. In fact, as we continued to pay for industry systems, there were some months in which we were subsidising the rest of the industry. Whilst our costs fell dramatically, TOCs’ costs of retailing mostly remained the same, as staff and ticket machines were retained.
Find out more about where the commission goes - collectively independent retailers pay over £22m per year back to the rest of the industry in fees, for example - by taking a look at our publication “Britain’s rail growth partners”.