Flowbird’s transport talking points at Transport Ticketing Global

Our team’s getting ready for the big one – Transport Ticketing Global 2023 opens its doors tomorrow, Tuesday, March 7. We’re looking forward to listening to transport operators and agencies and finding out about their plans for ticketing and payments. While limbering up our vocal chords, we’ve given some thought to the topics that are likely to get everyone talking.

Account-based ticketing – what’s all the fuss about?

We’re not alone in our belief that account-based ticketing (ABT) is a cornerstone of modern mobility ticketing, as it undergoes a digital transformation and paves the way for Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS). But what is ABT, and what are its major benefits?

With ABT, a back office collates taps or ticket purchase data. It compares this information with network business rules, and calculates the best value fare for each passenger. ABT systems simplify ticketing and payments for passengers, who can use a range of ‘digital tokens’ to access transport services. Closed loop transit smartcards, cEMV cards, contactless enabled mobile wallets and QR codes can all be accepted.

Flexibility is one of the major USPs of ABT. Operators can configure and test travel products and fare rules with just a few clicks, and analyse performance data in real-time. This agile approach to ticketing allows continual optimisation.

Which fare cap saves passengers money and motivates more frequent public transport use?

…Operators can test until they hit the sweet spot!

The beauty of ABT for passengers is a simplified boarding experience – no queuing for tickets, no analysing ticket prices. They just reach for their chosen token – maybe a cEMV bank card or smartphone – and tap a validator to get on board. Boarding is faster, and trips and payments can be easily monitored using a passenger portal.

Any fare caps configured in the back office are automatically applied, so they know they will always pay the best value fare for the journeys they make. And if they need to raise any issues, communication channels in-app or online offer simple self-service.

When ABT is used with open payments, there’s great potential for transport operators and agencies to become leaner and stronger in their processes:

• Faster, frictionless boarding means it’s easier to stick to schedules
• Real-time sales data can be used to continually adapt and improve services
• Paper ticketing, cash handling and smartcard infrastructure costs can be reduced

There are so many ways an ABT system can support operators to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of ticketing and fare collection, which we look forward to demonstrating on Stand D20. Our CloudFare back office will be live on three demo pods, which will each focus on a different module within this comprehensive management system:

1. Account-based ticketing
2. Fares and topology management
3. Multi-operator revenue apportionment

Open payments and MaaS – the dream team for future mobility

Looking at the conference agenda at Transport Ticketing Global, it’s clear that open payments and Mobility-as-a-Service remain in joint pole position as the topics that capture the industry’s imagination. Many transport operators and authorities are keen to know where we are now on the road to MaaS, and how we can get to the finish line.

The good news from Flowbird is that we’re already there!

Our team will be proud to share what we’ve learned from over twenty deployments of open payments for transport throughout the world, and to explore the many benefits of our Mobility-as-a-Service app, which will be presented on a larger-than-life touch screen demo.

With an integrated mobile wallet, this white-label application provides a one-stop shop for journey planning and payments for multimodal journeys, involving parking and charging, public transport and mobility services. It hosts a ticketing marketplace for local attractions, enabling users to unlock everything a city offers through one app, one account.

Revenue apportionment – enabling multi-operator ticketing

Project Coral is the UK’s exciting start to multi-operator ticketing schemes and remains a hot topic. It aims to bring passengers a seamless open payment experience and added value from integrated fare caps when they use multiple transport operators for their journeys.

While the goals of simplifying local travel and providing incentives to use public transport seem to be a ‘no brainer’, the complexity of these collaborative schemes has been a road block. Data-sharing, multi-operator capping, payment certification rules and revenue apportionment in particular have been troublesome headaches to cure.

We’re pleased to offer a way forward with our PSP-agnostic broker service. This is a new module, soon to be available within our CloudFare back office, which handles transaction data from multi-operator journeys, and calculates the correct portion of fare revenue to be distributed to each cooperating operator after multi-operator caps have been applied.

Using our CloudFare back office, integrated with Business Intelligence tools, operators involved in a cooperative ticketing scheme will be able to see when multi-operator fare caps are triggered and how the revenue from capped journeys is distributed….the system is clear, transparent and reliable.

Take a journey of urban mobility innovation 

From the sofa to the city, the Flowbird team at Transport Ticketing Global (Stand D20) will show you how we are in a unique position to support every step of multi-operator, multimodal journeys:

• ‘Pay’ for your parking and charging using our parking terminal
• Scan your printed QR code on our open payment validators
• ‘Buy’ anywhere to anywhere rail tickets for today or tomorrow, using our touchscreen kiosk
• Unlock the city, with our ready-made MaaS application

Experience the engine room – our CloudFare back office – with ABT, Fares & Topology and Revenue Apportionment modules ready to be explored. We look forward to welcoming you.

Flowbird is at Transport Ticketing Global at London Olympia on March 7-8. Drop by Stand D20 to talk to our team about any of these themes, or to find out more about our vision for a connected future of urban mobility.