
Established in 1947 as a manufacturer of transit Fare Boxes and Donation Boxes, Diamond Manufacturing, located in North Kansas City, Missouri, is a family-owned and operated business that began producing Round Fare Boxes for coin fares over 70 years ago.
In 1972, after 25 years of producing Fare Boxes, Diamond Manufacturing was purchased by the Cull family, who three generations later, have expanded the line from 2 Fare Boxes to 8 Models, 3 Donation Boxes and various custom products for the transit industry.
The Fare Boxes, made entirely of stainless steel and aluminum, require little to no maintenance and operate very simply. A rider drops the cash or coin fare through a slot on the top, the driver then depresses the drop handle to deposit the money into the unit’s money vault which are designed with level 4 secure locks custom-made specifically for Diamond. To remove the fares, an agent representative inserts a key, removes the vault and replaces it with an empty unit. The Fare Box is now ready for more fares.
“It’s simple fare collection,” said Todd Cull, owner and operator of Diamond Manufacturing. “You install it, you use it, and you don’t worry about it. It has a 30-year life span. There are no software upgrades. It’s just a simple, reliable, cost-effective unit for cash collection.”
With an extensive life span and very few moving parts, maintaining the Fare Box is a straightforward, cost-effective process, says Cull.
“The parts are readily available, and customers can repair the units themselves, they don’t have to be sent into us, nor do you have to hire someone to take care of the Fare Boxes,” Cull said. “It’s pretty self-sufficient.”
Today, Diamond works with transit providers all over the United States, Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and Barbados. Fleets range in size from one to over 300 buses. The model of Fare Box utilized by an agency depends primarily on cash capacity as well as space.
“We can take care of any size transit system, whether it’s taking a few dollars to a few hundred dollars or more,” Cull said. “For a lot of transit operations, it doesn’t make sense to buy a larger fare system. Especially with agencies of all sizes taking in less cash. It becomes more cost-effective to simply buy a manual Fare Box.”
An agency that cannot afford a complicated fare infrastructure can turn to Diamond for Fare Boxes that fit their needs.
“A lot of transit systems are looking to have riders pay with a card or an app on their phones.” Cull said. “But there are approximately 15 percent of the population that are unbanked, and we can help with those cash paying customers.”
Cull says that while Diamond Fare Boxes have maintained their simplicity over the years, they have still managed to find a place in the world of rapidly developing smart technology. Diamond works with various companies that have developed sophisticated card systems or fare collection apps but need a basic way to still collect cash.
“There are a lot of card systems out there versus Fare Box companies,” Cull said. “Now, transit can marry that up with a simple fare collection. It puts us in a bigger playing field, and it’s certainly been fun to work with these companies and see the technology portion of the industry. Basically, wherever that market is, we try to have a solution for it.”