Mobile Ticketing is very much the hot topic at this year’s UITP show with a raft of companies demonstrating solutions and references peppered throughout the conference agenda. The technology types being discussed cover the full spectrum from NFC to Bluetooth to Barcode and visual tickets. However while various vendors have differing views on which format will succeed, there was broad agreement on the drivers, benefits and opportunities that mobile ticketing brings.
In the conference session on e-Ticketing for seamless mobility all of the speakers were highlighting how central mobile is to this area. Interesting points included Ramona Mache from Infineon underlining the need for huge investments in transport ticketing with the fact that megacities can now generate more than 50billion journeys every year. She also explained that public transport systems must be Attractive, Accessible and Flexible and that transport operators should be offering a range of different ticket media including smartphones.
Roland Magiera from Giesecke & Devrient showed research that talked about the enthusiasm for mobile ticketing among the younger generations, with 76% of people below 18 prefering to have tickets on their mobile. He also highlighted how mobile ticketing must be easy and simple to use, convenient, secure and fast and how to be successful it is imperative to launch with the full selection of ticket types.
Lars Rembold from Scheidt and Bachmann discussed the rider expectations include smooth travel, multimode support, flexible payments and comprehensive information. All of which are well served by mobile. He also echoed a theme that future systems must support a range of tokens, making use of what the rider already has whether that be credit card, passport or smartphone.
On the Masabi booth (Stand 4D 126) we are demonstrating our end-to-end mobile ticketing solution JustRide as deployed in major cities like Athens and Boston (and soon coming to New York). We’re also demonstrating our bus scanning solution as being used by NICE Bus in Long Island US
The theme of Mobile Ticketing will continue tomorrow with Masabi Co-Founder and Head of Innovation Ben Whitaker presenting on “How to delight your customers and save money with mobile ticketing” at 9am. Head along to learn about real-world experiences in mobile ticketing or come back to the Masabi blog for our Day 2 round-up from the show!