In 2005 in Victoria, the government decided that the existing Metcard system was falling to bits, and the solution was a new system Myki which would replace the old system by 2007. It had a budget of $500 million dollars.
Today more than five years later and $700 million already spent on Myki, we are now told it needs several years more and another $700 million dollar to complete.
It has been a disaster, in the meanwhile the old system, is going at 99% efficiency.
One of the main problems is that few people are using Myki. For this, I can speak as an expert on one reason as I have been to several high level meetings about Myki.
One reason for that the seller gets almost no margin from it. If I was a retailer, and I am making almost nothing, why would I stock it? If the margin is so small, why would a business or organisation fight to get the product? As a result few stores stock it.
Those that do either have to as the head office insists e.g. 7-eleven or because they want to offer a service to their clients, but even so, these are not pushing this product? Most if a client comes in, they are almost always selling them the older Metcard leaving Myki unused.
The Victorian government and its department of Transport have not treated their resellers' fair, and the result is that their resellers are not selling their products.
