From lost revenue to recovering unpaid fines in the public transport sector
With millions of passengers travelling across borders, this national railway operator faced difficulties in recovering unpaid fines. Fare evasion and travel violations were leading to significant revenue losses. By working with Intrum, they improved efficiency, ensured compliance, and recovered outstanding payments fairly.
About the company
- The national railway company is responsible for operating one of the world’s most efficient and reliable rail networks, including public transport system, logistics, and international rail connections
- The railway operator faced significant hurdles in collecting unpaid fines from international travellers.
- By partnering with Intrum, the railway operator achieved significant improvements in debt recovery rates, ensuring that unpaid penalties were collected quickly and compliantly.
Ensuring compliance while protecting passenger relationships
Operating one of Europe’s most advanced railway networks, this national railway operator serves millions of passengers daily, offering seamless connectivity across borders.
While the vast majority of travellers pay their fares, a significant number of unpaid fines from fare evasion and travel violations created both financial strain and administrative burdens.
To ensure compliance while maintaining a fair, ethical, and effective collection process, they needed a structured international recovery solution that could handle fines efficiently across multiple jurisdictions.
The challenge: Recovering fines from international travellers
With passengers travelling across borders, the railway operator faced significant hurdles in collecting unpaid fines from international travellers. Differences in legal frameworks, payment behaviours, and language barriers made enforcement difficult, leading to:
To solve these challenges, they needed an internationally compliant, structured, and customer-centric approach to debt recovery.
The solution: A streamlined and ethical collection process
With local experts in 20+ countries and a handpicked global partner network, Intrum ensured:
To overcome the challenges of inconsistent results and jurisdictional limitations, the railway operator partnered with Intrum, leveraging a comprehensive and localised collection strategy that ensured fair and effective fine recovery.
The results: Fairer enforcement, higher recovery rates
Through this partnership, the railway operator achieved significant improvements in fine recovery rates, ensuring unpaid penalties were collected quickly and compliantly.
With Intrum's support, the client experienced following results:
1: Recovered more unpaid fines with higher success rates
With Intrum’s local expertise and legal know-how, the railway operator could now pursue fines effectively in each country, ensuring higher recovery rates and significantly reducing financial losses.
2: Reduced administrative workload
With Intrum as a single point of contact, case handling was centralised, drastically reducing the burden on in-house teams. This allowed the company to reallocate resources towards operational efficiency and passenger service improvements.
3: Maintained strong passenger relationships
Intrum’s ethical and customer-centric collection methods ensured that passengers were treated fairly, professionally, and with full transparency. This safeguarded the railway operator’s reputation while reinforcing public confidence in its commitment to fairness and compliance.
Now, they can continue delivering seamless travel experiences while ensuring fairness for all passengers—without the financial strain of unpaid fines.
