Concessions

As long as your student ID is from a NZQA registered education provider (it has an NZQA number) we will accept it.

Student discounts vary across the region. We recommend getting a Bee Card and having your Tertiary concession added to this as it will ensure that you always receive your concession.

Email transport.admin@boprc.govt.nz  to have a tertiary concession loaded onto your Bee Card.

Assessment and agency contact

• First, you should review the list of approved assessing agencies relevant to your area.
• Next, you will need to contact one of these agencies to arrange your assessment. Assessors can either visit you or you can go to them.

Assessment process

• During the assessment, the assessor will evaluate whether you are permanently unable to drive a private motor vehicle.
• Additionally, they will determine if you can travel independently on the bus or if you require a companion.
• The assessor will complete an application form on your behalf, which will be emailed to Bay of Plenty Regional Council for review and approval. 

Approval and issuing the concession

• If the assessment is approved, the Regional Council will send you a letter.
• The letter will include a Bee card (with the Accessibility concession loaded) at no charge (the usual $5 fee is waived for the Accessibility Concession).
• The Bee card will also come with a red AC sticker applied to the front, indicating that the holder is an Accessibility Concession holder.
• If you are assessed as unable to travel independently you will receive an additional blue +1 sticker applied to the front of your card. This sticker allows a support person to travel with you for free (companions must accompany the customer throughout the whole journey).
• If the customer already has a Bee Card, the Regional Council will remotely load the concession and send the AC and +1 stickers to you to apply to their existing card.

Please note

There may be a cost for your assessment. Most assessing agencies do not charge a fee for the assessment, however some agencies assessments are around $30-$40 per person.

Tauranga/Western Bay of Plenty

Rotorua

Eastern Bay of Plenty

Once your Bee Card has been loaded with the Accessibility Concession you are ready for travel. You will need your Bee Card to tag on and tag off the bus.

Free at all times

Accessibility Concession members who are assessed as being unable to travel independently by bus may also receive free transport for their companion.

Their concession will include ‘+1’ companion travel. The Accessibility +1 Concession is a sticker that is added to the Accessibility Concession holder’s Bee Card (the companion does not need their own Bee Card to travel). Please show the bus driver the +1 sticker on your card when you get on to the bus.

You can contact us on 0800 4 229 287 (0800 4 BAY BUS) or by email at ac.admin@boprc.govt.nz

General

You must tag your accessibility concession Bee Card on and off the bus, or hand your card to the driver in order to receive your free travel. No accessibility concession Bee Card, no free travel – you will need to pay a valid fare.

This Bee Card is not transferable. It can only be used by the holder.

The accessibility concession is only applicable to the card holder, anyone else traveling with you will have to pay a valid bus fare unless you have a Plus One companion travel concession. The Plus One companion travel concession is for one person only and must be processed via the driver.

The accessibility concession is available for residents of the Bay of Plenty region only.

You must notify Regional Council as soon as possible if there are any changes that may affect your eligibility for the accessibility concession Bee Card.

The accessibility concession is available on most Baybus services within the Bay of Plenty Region. Please see Baybus.co.nz for an up-to-date list of services that can be utilised with the accessibility concession.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council (“Regional Council” or “we”) may request at any time that you secure further independent verification or reassessment of a transport disability from an organisation or person acceptable to the Regional Council. An authorised assessor or Regional Council staff member may request your permission to
gather more information form a third party about your disability so your eligibility for the concession can be properly assessed. We may revoke an accessibility concession entitlement in the event independent verification to the satisfaction of Regional Council is not provided within 20 working days of a request being issued.

A permanent accessibility concession will need to be renewed every 36 months from the date of card issue. The renewal process is published online at Baybus.co.nz and may be amended from time to time.

The holder of the card must abide by the code of conduct of Regional Council’s bus network.

We may revoke an accessibility concession entitlement either temporarily or permanently if, in the reasonable opinion of Regional Council, the concession has not been utilised in accordance with these Terms of Use or if you knowingly provide misleading or false information in your application or otherwise.

If your accessibility concession Bee Card is lost or stolen, you must contact Regional Council as soon as possible on 0800 4 229 287. We will organise a replacement. There will be a cost for the replacement card.

• Most buses on Tauranga and regional bus services are wheelchair accessible with dedicated space at the front of the bus. There are some services that are not wheelchair accessible at this time, however, this may change in the future. Please see Baybus.co.nz for an up-to-date list of services that are wheelchair accessible.
Please note that some large wheelchairs are unable to be accommodated on buses due to their weight and/or
dimensions and maneuverability.

We reserve the right to amend the accessibility concession programme (including the eligibility criteria) and/or these Terms of Use at any time without prior notice. The current version of these Terms of Use will be maintained on our website at Baybus.co.nz. Any changes to the accessibility concession programme will also be communicated via Baybus.co.nz.

If you do not agree with any aspect of these Terms of Use, you must not use your accessibility concession Bee Card.

Privacy and use of information

The information you provided in your application and during the assessment is used to establish eligibility for the accessibility concession and for purposes associated with your access to and use of the accessibility concession Bee Card. Your information may also be used for training purposes for Regional Council employees
and assessors.

Your information is also used for statistical and research purposes in a form which will not identify you as an individual.

Regional Council is able to contact applicants about the accessibility concession via the contact information provided in the applications or otherwise.

All information from your application will be held by Regional Council. We will ensure that all names and personal information remain private and confidential – internal access to the database is restricted to appropriate staff.

Regional Council will hold your personal information in accordance with its privacy policy, which is available here https://www.boprc.govt.nz/privacy-statement. If you would like us to send you a paper copy of the Bee Card Terms and Conditions, please contact us on 0800 884 880.

Regional Council is required to provide the Bee Scheme with your personal information in order for the Bee Scheme to deliver the services that you require. We will not provide any your medical or health information to the Bee Scheme. Any personal information provided to the Bee Scheme will be held in accordance with the Bee Privacy Statement, which is available here https://beecard.co.nz/Pages/Privacy. If you would like us to send you a paper copy of the Bee Card Terms and Conditions, please contact us on 0800 884 880.

We collect statistical information in the application so that we can report on the accessibility concession and plan for its future. Any information created using this statistical information (such as reports, spreadsheets etc) is anonymous and held separately from your application form.

We may provide anonymised information relating to the accessibility concession to a third party organisation for the purposes of undertaking transport research. Any information provided to third parties for this purpose will be such that it cannot be used to identify an individual unless they have provided their prior consent.

We may provide anonymised information relating to the accessibility concession to the New Zealand Transport Agency or Audit New Zealand for audit purposes.

When you purchase a Bee Card, please request that your SuperGold concession is added to your card – you will need to provide your SuperGold Card details (card number and date of birth) for verification with the Ministry of Social Development, and when validated the concession will be applied.

You can do this yourself on the Bee Card websiteopen_in_new, or you can call 0800 BAYBUS or visit your local Regional Council office.

SuperGold Cards can only be used by the person they are issued to.

Supergold passengers cannot ‘free-transfer’ onto a peak time service.

Customers cannot ‘free-transfer’ off an urban service onto a rural one.

For more information about SuperGold Cards, visit www.supergoldcard.govt.nzopen_in_new or call the SuperGold Card Centre on 0800 25 45 65.