Is Account-Based Ticketing becoming the future of public transportation?
Closed-loop card-based ticketing systems often result in long queues, frustrated commuters, and significant operational costs for transport operators, who need to issue specific transportation cards for the users and suffer through integrating their system with third-party offers. Municipalities, on the other hand, face challenges in managing subsidies, ensuring transparency, and adding new city services into the ecosystem.
The answer is in open-loop account-based ticketing. In this blog we will see how ABT can help the public transportation industry to address these issues.
What is Account-based ticketing
Account-based ticketing (ABT) offers a solution that modernises fare collection and management by shifting the focus from physical tickets and transport cards to user accounts. Account-based fare collection can be delivered on-premise but commonly leverages cloud-based systems. This approach enables real-time fare calculation and validation, making it more efficient and flexible. By using popular technologies like contactless payments, mobile apps, and digital wallets, ABT enhances the user experience and operational efficiency. This innovative approach not only streamlines operations for transport operators but also provides substantial benefits to municipalities and commuters.
What are the benefits
For Transport Operators:
Transport service providers often struggle with closed-loop systems due to their limitations in flexibility. Closed-loop systems usually require on-premise installations, which fail to keep pace with the rapid advancements in technology and evolving consumer preferences for seamless, cashless transactions. Switching to ABT bears many benefits. It leverages widely accepted payment methods, such as contactless bank cards and mobile wallets, providing a more efficient and cost-effective approach.
Streamlined Operations. ABT simplifies transport service provider operations by centralising fare management under one unified system. This allows aggregated fare calculation and the configuration of complex business rules, it reduces the expenditures on additional hardware and infrastructure like ticket vending machines, eliminating the costs of handling physical cash, moving all end of the day accounting to digital web portal with convenient reporting.
Unified Data. With ABT, all fare-related data is consolidated into a single platform, be it fare collection, commuter data or statistics on a public operator’s fleet. This facilitates easy analysis and integration with other systems, enabling operators to make data-driven decisions to enhance service delivery.
Full Interoperability. The system supports interoperability across different transport modes and services. Whether it's buses, trains, or bike-sharing schemes, all transportation networks become open to any type of payment, while commuters can use a single account for all their transportation needsю
Easy Fare Management and Segmentation Creation. Operators can manage fares and create targeted fare segments based on user profiles, travel patterns, and other criteria. This flexibility helps in catering to diverse commuter needs and optimising revenue.
Reduction of Costs with Cash Handling. By minimising the reliance on cash transactions, account-based ticketing approach significantly cuts down on the costs associated with cash handling, such as collection, counting, and security, since everything is digitalised.
For Municipalities
Municipalities and government transport authorities often look for segmentation options for fares to configure ticket pricing in the way to make public transportation accessible for all groups of users. Account-Based ticketing open-loop solutions offer a scalable and inclusive alternative. By leveraging different payment methods, such as QR or mobile with NFC, these systems provide opportunities to expand across all city routes, enhancing user convenience and intermodality.
Subsidy Management. For government authorities, account-based ticketing enhances the ability to manage subsidies effectively. By having precise data per commuter account, they can allocate subsidies more accurately, making the transportation more accessible to different segments of users.
Easy Settlement with Businesses. The transparency of ABT systems facilitates easy and quick settlements with businesses involved in the transportation ecosystem. This fosters a healthier economic environment and encourages more partnerships.
Improved Transparency for Citizens. Given that account-based approach involves open-loop payments, this promotes transparency by providing clear records of transactions and fare policies done with any type of payment method by commuter, since everything is tied to a unified account of the user. This openness builds trust with citizens and encourages more people to use public transportation.
Partner Attraction. Municipalities can attract more partners by showcasing a modern, efficient transportation system. Modern systems can be integrated with various service providers, creating a robust and dynamic urban mobility ecosystem and foster cross-sell opportunities for partners.
For Commuters
Lastly, let's touch on the benefits of having a singular account for public transportation for commuters.
A Lost Card Does Not Mean Loss of Money. Commuters' funds are securely stored in their accounts, and they can easily block a lost card and transfer the balance to a new one.
Family travel accountability. O-CITY allows to create sub-account with different balances and statistics. This is perfect for family members to have the same balance source.
Flexibility in payments. The approach going in line with open-loop technology supports multiple payment methods, including mobile payments, QR payments, digital wallet payments, and contactless transactions, which not only ensures frictionless travel for a commuter, but also creates a friendlier environment for foreign travellers.
Historical Data at hand. Commuters can access their travel history through mobile apps or web interfaces to see spending patterns and other historical information on their journey. For example, by using O-CITY mobile application, commuters can not only link the card to perform payment on the public transport, but also utilise it to book seats for the bus or rail journeys, create parental hierarchy, and locate the nearest bus stop.
The future of Account-based ticketing
Account based approach enables the creation of a digital open-loop ecosystem, where different stakeholders can interact and collaborate seamlessly. By addressing the current challenges and offering a lot of benefits, we believe account-based ticketing is the future way for smarter cities and satisfied commuters.
Are you interested in introducing Account-based ticketing? Contact our experts today to discuss how O-CITY can help you to bring your business to a new level.
