One of the UK’s biggest bus companies has signed a deal with Barclays allowing its passengers to use their mobile phone as a ticket.
First Bus customers are now able to download the Pingit payment app for Android and iOS in order to buy mTickets for their journey. The ticket can be activated when they begin their journey and shown to the driver. Customers can also opt to register their details in order to speed up the process if they make the same journey regularly.
The mobile ticketing scheme will apply on First Bus’ countrywide service, which runs 6,400 busses, serving 1.6 million customers, every day. In some areas, the company has already seen 7% of its ticket sales switch to Pingit, accounting for over 30,000 mTickets per month.
“I’m delighted we are the first nationwide public transport operator to partner with Barclays’ ground-breaking Pingit mobile payments service,” commented Giles Fearnley, managing director of First Bus. “This partnership puts First at the forefront of bus ticketing technology and reflects our commitment to grasp ever more innovative ways to make bus travel better, easier and more convenient.
“This partnership is another example of how mobile payments are being integrated across different industries, and shows the great potential for mobile payments as services like Pingit gain more widespread use,” added Darren Foulds, director of Barclays Mobile and Pingit.
“For quick, secure transactions on the go, mobile is fast-becoming a trusted method of making payments – whether from person-to-person or directly to a business. For consumers it offers a totally secure way of making payments that are at the same time quick – and on a device that almost everyone in the UK carries with them on a permanent basis.”
Since launching Pingit in 2012, Barclays has reported over 3.5 downloads of the app, with £775m transferred using the service. 48,000 of its users are businesses.
Whitepapers
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