It is being reported, and quite a bit, that many vending machine operators in Canada are urging the Bank of Canada to perform a much better job of it when they begin to introduce the country’s new $5 and $10 bills. This is expected to happen later this year. The reason they are doing so is because they are having to upgrade their vending machines in order to accept the new polymer $20 bill which is already in circulation and is proving to be a headache.
Back in November, the Bank of Canada sent out some 145,000 brand new $20 polymer bank notes. Since then, an estimated half a million vending machines that normally scan such bank notes (and these include food, drink, parking, slots, and self-serve machines) have had to be reprogrammed in order to accept the redesigned bills. The $20 is also the most popular bill denomination in Canada making matters even worse.
The president of the Canadian Automatic Distribution Association has been reported as saying that the Bank of Canada sent out the bills without allowing vending machine operators time to get their machines ready. He said that they could have used a lot more time to get ready for the flood of new bills. He also said that upgrading the machines has been expensive and annoying to customers.
In its own defense, the Bank has put out that it did all that it could to get machine manufacturers to upgrade prior to the release. They said that they included providing manufacturers with sample bills far ahead of the bill’s public release. It was reported that they gave machine vendors as much as six months to get ready before they sent the new currency into public circulation back in November.
According to Francois Bastien’s company Ventrex, which currently operates over 3,000 vending machines within the Ontario and Quebec areas, is company has already spent much of the previous year making their machines capable of accepting Canada’s new coins. He says that now they have to deal with new bills.
Generally, most of the machines will need a simple upgrade to their software. But some vending machines may need to be replaced entirely. Bastien has reported that in his case his company has already spent $100,000 to fixe machines to take the new $20 bills. He also estimated that for the entire industry, which includes casinos and slots, the cost could reach a quarter of a billion dollars. And that cost will go higher as the new $5 and $10 bills reach the public.
According to the Bank of Canada, the new $5 and $10 bills will come out at the same time, and that they are now scheduled for release into the public sector sometime in late 2013. No other details were given as to how or if the Bank would be able to further assist vending machine operators. No details were provided by the gaming industry itself as to how much the new currency change over has affected them.