Sponsored content: Supported by Masabi
Mobile ticketing, in which the mobile phone replaces the long-established paper ticket, is now a mainstream proposition, with growing numbers of bus operators both in the UK and globally adopting the technology. This move has been driven by the clear benefits offered to passengers, transport operators and authorities. These include reduction in cash handling, passenger convenience and the provision of real time information.
In addition, last year, an important factor emerged as a major driver for the adoption of mobile ticketing for buses: Congestion. In the report The Impact of Congestion on Bus Passengers for bus industry campaign group Greener Journeys, Professor David Begg identified a link dating back to the 1960s between increasing journey times and declining patronage. Among his recommendations to reverse this trend was to speed up the adoption of smart ticketing, which has a demonstrable effect in reducing dwell times at bus stops, speeding up overall journey times.
The UK has been at the forefront of this trend, with large operators looking to add convenience to passengers, and reduce dwell times, by implementing mobile ticketing solutions based on visual and barcode mobile tickets.
In 2016 National Express introduced a mobile ticketing application and others including First and Arriva have done the same. With these systems, tickets can bought and displayed on passengers’ phones either as a digital visual ticket or as a barcode capable of being scanned by a reader. This has the advantage that tickets can be bought on any smartphone, anywhere, without the need queue up at a ticket machine or when boarding.
In Professor Begg’s report, contactless ticketing, such as using barcode, recorded a fare transaction time of under one second, while boarding with change was nine seconds per passenger. This makes it clear that by moving to a contactless system, where passengers purchase tickets before they board and either scan their phone onto a reader, or show a visual ticket, bus operators can significantly speed up boarding times, improving services for all.
In fact, in 2016 Preston Bus launched mobile ticketing across its services in an effort to help reduce dwell times by 50% by 2020, and the applications has been warmly received by passengers with app usage nearly doubling month on month.
Now it is not only large bus operators who can bring the convenience of mobile ticketing to their operation.
Introducing JustRide Express – the market leading mobile ticketing for only £1,499 a month.
.png)
JustRide Express from Masabi delivers technology developed and proven with big transport authorities and operators, at a price point suited to all. It consists of apps for ticket purchase and display, together with back-end infrastructure for secure payments, ticket management, customer service, reporting and real-time analytics. Masabi’s technology signals the end of ticket lines, lost tickets and fumbling for cash, instead allowing passengers to quickly and securely buy and display tickets on their mobile phones.
JustRide Express is a world class and complete mobile ticketing platform with no upfront costs, is deployable within 90 days, and is available on a one-year contract.
The JustRide platform is already in use with over 25 transport agencies and operators around the globe, including; Preston Bus, National Express Bus, Thames Clippers, Transport for Athens, New York MTA & Nice Bus, Boston MBTA, Las Vegas RTC and New Orleans RTA.
To learn more about how your organisation can speed up journey times and to learn more about JustRide Express visit: www.masabi.com/justride-express/ or call (0)207 089 8860 referencing JustRide Express.
