The first practical mechanical registering farebox, developed around 1905 by the Johnson Farebox Company of Chicago, was for cable cars, trams and trolleys – with buses coming on the scene much later. These first registering fareboxes counted the money and gave the coins back to the driver or conductor to make change. The locked cashbox concept, introduced by the Cleveland Farebox Company, did not register the money but simply retained it under lock and key. These companies defined fare collection during the early part of the twentieth century and were merged during the mid 1930s with Johnson as the surviving company.

In 1955 the Johnson Company was bought by Keene Corporation, which introduced a vacuum coin extraction system that eliminated cashboxes. This technology is still being used by New York City Transit Authority. In the mid 1960s the Duncan Parking Meter Company was commissioned by the Chicago Transit Authority to develop a secure farebox and cashbox system based upon their work in parking meters. Duncan developed the first electronic registering farebox, which counted inserted money and showed the amount on a display.

Founded in 1980 as General Farebox, GFI acquired Keene’s farebox business and two years later bought Duncan’s transit division. The company soon became the leading manufacturer of bus fare collection equipment in the U.S. and Canada. GFI developed the CENTSaBILL electronic registering farebox, the Odyssey validating farebox, and the TRIM ticket reader/issuer machine. Other products include turnstiles, vending machines, and data systems. In the mid-1990s GFI was selected by the U.S. Postal Service to design and build more than 6,000 stamp vending machines, which are now in service throughout the United States.

All GFI fare collection products can now process “smart cards,” the latest fare collection trend. Smart cards contain an embedded microchip and are merely “tagged” to the farebox to register a fare.