How do you get about a city that straddles more than 100 islands?
With a credit and debit contactless payment network provided by the partnership of Visa’s Cybersource, Conduent Transportation and Elavon the answer now: ‘easier than ever before’.
The world-famous Italian city of Venice has an environment, architecture, and history like no other, so its public transport is unique too.
The municipal’s public transport company, Azienda Veneziana della Mobilità (AVM), runs a fleet of water buses, speedboats, motorboats, and ferries as well as buses and trams to serve between 100-120 million passengers per year.
“The AVM mobility and public transport network is essential to our area, so we want to be sure that our system is accessible and convenient for residents and tourists,” says Giovanni Seno, Managing Director of AVM. “Bringing these leading companies together from the beginning allows us to meet the needs of our customers efficiently and in a timely manner.”
With the new system, passengers can tap and pay to travel using any debit-, credit- or prepaid-card, digital wallet, or any payment-enabled device, such as a smartphone or smartwatch. Conduent will deliver the end-to-end technical infrastructure while Elavon with Visa Cybersource manage the payment processing.
Opportunities with open loop technology
“An open loop system allows passengers to pay with any form of payment rather than a dedicated transport card,” says Russell Green, Head of Emerging Verticals Pan-EU and Ireland at Elavon Europe. “It makes it convenient and intuitive for the customer, whether on their regular commute or taking their first ever water taxi. It’s also a more efficient, resilient, and cost-effective approach for you as an operator.” He adds:
“A payment card or smart device becomes the only ticket needed.”
An open loop ticketing system (as alternative to a closed loop ticketing system) means there’s no special cards or apps required, and the technology allows operators, like AVM in Venice and ATM Genova, to configure fare caps to offer cost savings to passengers easily and efficiently.
Benefits of open loop ticketing system for passengers:
Wider choice – pay how you would like and quickly, reducing queues
No need for paper tickets purchased in advance
No need to carry cash or have the exact fare
Consistent and intuitive ways to pay - no need for tourists to learn new behaviours
Cost-savings – real time updates allow travel across the day with just one capped bill
Benefits of open loop ticketing system for transport operators:
Improved customer experience – reducing queues and widening payment choice to encourage ridership
No need to develop or service proprietary fare system, or navigate so many data-handling protocols
Reducing time and cost spent ticket issuing, distributing paper rolls and handling or securing cash - increasing your team’s actual safety and feeling of safety
Packaging fares results in lower acceptance costs for multiple single transactions
- Higher security standards of EMV cards
Find out, here, how Elavon and our partners can support your transport payment needs.