Modern transit customers demand greater choice of payment options, fare media, and purchasing channels, while still requiring a user friendly experience. Meeting these demands challenges transit agencies to evolve systems, processes and business models.
In order to transform, it’s critical that agencies create a strong foundation for change by simplifying the passenger’s experience with fare collection, maintain a focus on security, and leverage evolving technologies to create a modern and scalable payments system.
Create a strong foundation with TVMs
For most agencies, the road to a modern fare collection system entails a gradual and transformational approach, integrating legacy systems with newer technologies. Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) can provide a solid basis for future opportunity.
TVMs combine modern cash management features, including bill/coin validation and recycling, secure contact and contactless card processing, with card-based and account-based smart card processing. This provides a comprehensive revenue management back office, designed to seamlessly integrate with a range of legacy, current and future transit technologies.
Regardless of what stage an agency is at in its transformation, this type of integrated hardware and software solution demonstrates the future of faring and provides a scalable back office to support emerging payments standards and technologies. As a strategic first step, TVMs provide a solid foundation for a modern, fully-integrated faring system, and the basis for simplifying fare payments go-forward.
Simplify payments management with integrated data
For agencies, the revenue management landscape is growing to be quite complex. Whereas TVMs help you take the first steps in migrating from simple cash-oriented, paper-based systems, adopting smart card and mobile payments are essential to simplifying experience and fostering data-driven decision making in the back office.
Agencies lose efficiency when they need to pull data from across a variety of disparate systems. Obtaining the performance data needed to manage the agency’s business should be a fast and simple process. A single platform that underpins all elements of the revenue ecosystem is essential.
With our solution, managers can see graphic views of operating TVMs or fareboxes and, at a glance, assess their status. This gives them quick insight on in-service equipment, inventory levels, vault status, etc. A range of reports and dashboards support revenue management reporting and reconciliation and easy access to rider behavior allows agencies to predict needs and optimize their service. All of this is powered by the integration of system-wide data, including the real-time data gathered by secure payment systems.
Focus on secure fare collection methods
Broader technical evolutions tremendously influence the way that public transit agencies handle fare collection, whether it’s on-board a bus, via Point of Sales (POS) devices, or at TVMs. One emerging trend in fare collection to be aware of involves chip and PIN credit cards that meet European MasterCard Visa (EMV) standards.
Going forward, banks may take the position of passing on the responsibility for credit card fraud to any vendor that operates using the less secure magnetic strip approach. This, in turn, creates a challenge for many transit agencies: transitioning from closed loop smartcard systems to real-time account-based operations. Clearly, the transition to EMV-styled chip and PIN systems is going to impact every transit agency with POS systems.
To navigate this monumental shift, the simple guidance is: stay away from magnetics. All agencies considering a fare collection system procurement or upgrade should seriously contemplate a smart card based e-payment component that offers hybrid functionality (e.g. closed loop and account based capabilities), and augment this with a mobile ticketing solution. Once deployed, these solutions will provide the basis for improved operational efficiency, greater fare evasion controls and excellent passenger experience.
Leveraging technical advancements
From an operations standpoint, it makes sense for agencies to not only enable digital technologies, but to incentivize passengers to use them, as doing so improves onboard efficiency and creates a wealth of information, including stop-level data, that is of tremendous value in operations and planning. For example, our integrated EZFarebox/ITS console automatically switches modes based on operation status. So, when the bus is moving, the ITS screens are up, and when passengers are boarding, the system switches into fare collection screens, providing a quick reference for drivers while simultaneously reducing their workload to accept cash fares.
The amalgamated EZFarebox system accepts cash and all the relevant forms of digital payments, including credit cards, contactless smart cards, QR codes and custom options, such as machine readable student cards. Data transmission is handled over Wi-Fi with support for GPS and a cellular data modem. The solution also includes intelligent vaulting for data storage.
Perhaps the most exciting updates have to do with new reporting options, which include a series of standard and customizable reports that deliver granular stop-level data, all displayed with rich visualization characteristics to help make it easier to spot trends and identify opportunities. The end result is a market-leading technology with a tremendous ability to scale and produce business intelligence of great value to your agency.
Final Notes
For years, transit agencies have struggled to find the means to navigate the evolving fare collection landscape, but new technology and more integrated data means that’s all changing.
Relief from validating cash fares is creating happier, more efficient drivers. Passengers enjoy fast, easy-to-use, modern payment methods, and data is quickly captured, transmitted and visualized for operational review. Furthermore, with both mobile and contactless systems, maintenance is minimal, thereby reducing operating costs.
Although it's still early to see how the industry will react to this technology advancements, the early returns on operational efficiency and improved passenger experience provide much optimism for the future of fare collection in public transit. Want to learn more? Download my new eBook on the Future of Fare Collection here.
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