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TEST DRIVE: New Ferqui Soroco for Bee Bee Travel put through its paces p48
BUS:Reading launches Scania-powered ADL E300 gas buses p6
COACH:Success celebrated at UK Coach Awards & UK Coach Rally p8
TECHNOLOGY: User-friendly WiFi & mobile ticketing from Mobile Onboard p20
Wednesday April 24, 2013Issue 1084 | £2.95
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Stagecoach lifts the lid on Megabus Gold sleepers p4
Inside this week...
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tHiS WEEK
CONtENtS
Is smart ticketing going the right way?
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4 NewsThe latest from across the coach and bus industry in the UK
18Guide Dogs NewsBus firms are failing people with sight loss, a Guide Dogs survey finds
20Supplier Profile Consumer focused ticketing, WiFi & marketing from Mobile Onboard
26Industry GuideA look some of the leading suppliers of garage equipment
32DriversBluestar driving apprenticeships and W&D driver turns author again
35MinibusFerqui Sorocco roadtest, CV Show & high-tec Mercedes-Benz. Plus news
40The Big PictureAn EVM-converted Sprinter for Enterprise’s Heathrow shuttle run
77Last Stop A lighthearted look at the industry. Plus Office Diary column
78PeopleAll the latest people moves from across the industry
Smartcard ticketing seems to be far more prevalent than mobile ticketing at the moment, but I really wonder why. It’s inferior to mobile ticketing in almost every way unless it has millions of pounds of infrastructure behind it.
Without the amount of backup you get on an Oyster-style system, which isn’t practical commercially unless the network makes a pretty spectacular turnover, overnight updating is as close to real-time as a smartcard system can get, but requires a significant amount of effort to achieve. This means the card can’t be used on the same day if the passenger realises there is no money on it.
These days, almost everyone owns a mobile phone and the majority of these people own a smartphone. Peter Heath at Cardiff Bus conceded in the operator’s feature last week that some passengers don’t want yet another piece of plastic, something which rings true with me and my already oversaturated wallet, but a phone will almost certainly be on their person at all times. Mobile tickets can be purchased when convenient and in real time, even on the way to the bus
stop. Mobile Onboard even removes a lot of the admin headaches, meaning operators barely have to worry about maintaining it.
The only drawback with mobile ticketing appears to be validation, which currently relies on the discretion of the driver. This is largely because most ticket machines being developed now do not include scanners for the QR codes on mobile tickets, having gone down the smartcard/NFC route instead, and mobile handset manufacturers seem reluctant to give their phones NFC capability, despite the technology very much being there.
The other excellent ticketing system which is becoming more prevalent is contactless payment,
using EMV contactless bank cards. This may well become the best option in the future, as it even removes the need for passengers to top up, providing they have money in their
account, while still allowing fast boarding using something they would be carrying anyway – their bank card. The difficulty here though,
particularly for smaller operators, is getting a merchant account to support it.
James Day News Reporter
Putting your training in safe hands www.wts.co.uk
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SUPPLIER PROFILE › MOBILE ONBOARD
The future of e-commerce
Above: Bakerbus extensively markets its WiFi. Above right: An advert for the service in Eastleigh Bus Station. Right: A sample mobile ticket
James Day travels down to Eastleigh to visit Mobile Onboard, providers of Mobile Ticketing and onboard online technology, to find out more about its consumer focused ticketing, WiFi and marketing products
Mobile Onboard is a company I’ve been very interested in since I first heard about it. There has
been no shortage of references to my love of IT over the months and I was very interested to visit a company which provides new technology for ticketing and on-board WiFi.
I met Matt Poole, Director of Technology, who explained how the company’s services are geared towards the consumer, while remaining as inexpensive as possible to remain available to operators of all sizes.
“Our success in this market has come from promoting something with low cost and high sophistication,” he said.
“We didn’t originate in the transport industry. We’re from an entrepreneurial space and work with customers, targeting the consumer end of the market and what they want.”
Aftersales is also key for Mobile Onboard, which tries to take the hassle of managing its products away from operators, allowing them to focus on transporting passengers.
Matt added: “We have a friendly rivalry with our main WiFi competitor – their kit is great, but we offer a different proposition. You buy our kit, install it and we manage it all.
“We have our own mobile data network with our own sims which we control. It’s on a similar tier to Virgin Mobile but designed for data from the ground up.”
Beam WifiMobile Onboard started working with the coach and bus industry
in 2009. The company originally specialised in Bluetooth marketing, launching a system where Bluetooth marketing campaigns could be delivered on buses relevant to passengers travelling at the time. It could literally advertise umbrellas during rain. Lynx ran a major campaign through Mobile Onboard’s Bluetooth content delivery system, and it was also used to distribute MP3s to promote local music festivals.
While this product was originally quite successful, a shift in the composition of the mobile phone handset market meant the company needed to adapt.
“We did a few years of this before handsets like the iPhone and Blackberry became really popular,” Matt explained. “iPhones don’t accept Bluetooth files and while Android works with it, it is off by default. Where before there was massive Nokia and Sony Eriksson base to tap into, our market dropped off within a year.”
Mobile Onboard adapted to this by creating full onboard web servers for each individual bus, using its own technology and code, allowing full blown hotspot portals on the vehicles.
“We can get around Bluetooth distribution now through landing pages,” Matt added. “It’s something significantly better than Bluetooth which is all discoverable.”
Many operators have reservations about installing WiFi on their fleets, due to extra administrative burdens and the potential for exceeding data limits, which can prove expensive. Mobile Onboard has tried to remove as many of these drawbacks as possible with Beam.
“A lot of operators were being put off, as they were worried about becoming a WiFi hotspot operator instead of a bus company,” Matt said. “Some suppliers just give you a box and that’s it. We looked at this approach and analysed how we could do it differently.
“Right now on buses every bit of kit has its own gateway built into it, which just can’t be cost effective or easy to manage. We’re working on providing smart boxes which combine all this into a single slim line device.
“The other big thing we offer is an unlimited service. Operators often have to deal with service limits, where there are huge charges if they go over their bandwidth limit.
“Across the board we make a profit on data and it’s actually much easier without the admin costs. We do have a fair use policy but we haven’t needed to use it yet.
“It’s just simpler. Operators know what they’re spending and don’t have to manage their WiFi use.”
It isn’t just local bus services which have been demanding WiFi – there is a growing interest from coach operators for a variety of purposes.
“WiFi is popular with tour operating companies and commuter services, which are really engaged.
“Coaches used by sports teams are also using WiFi. The teams have reporters on board doing match reports using our WiFi on iPads, which usually don’t have 3G connectivity. This means they can do their match reports on the coach on the way home and upload them straight to the team website.”
My Mobile TicketsMy Mobile Tickets, as the name suggests, is the company’s mobile ticketing system. Passengers can sign up to use My Mobile Tickets online, with no wait for their account to be activated. Once signed up, customers request tickets which are sent directly to their phones, which they then show to the driver as they board. The virtual tickets carry a picture of the purchaser,
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SUPPLIER: Mobile OnboardLOCATION: Eastleigh, HampshireESTABLISHED: 2009CONTACT: 08432 899897www.mobileonboard.com
information on the type of ticket purchased along with its expiry date, and a QR code which can be scanned for validation.
Only a single sign-up is needed in order for customers to be able to use the system with any operator supporting the My Mobile Tickets platform.
The Mobile Onboard system is very flexible and backwards-compatible with passengers’ handsets. Matt told me about a passenger who had contacted him to find out if she could use her Nokia E62 with the system – a Blackberry-style Nokia released in 2006.
Matt said: “We didn’t know ourselves whether it would work, so we simply asked her to try it. She did and it worked just fine. It’s an advantage we get from not using a system based on app tech.”
The inspiration for My Mobile Tickets came from one of Matt’s own experiences: “I wanted to board a Bluestar bus to get to a meeting, but the driver wouldn’t let me on because I had a £20 note. As a result I used the train instead of what would have been my very first experience on a bus and ended up returning to my comfort zone.
“It made me think about the potential for using a mobile phone. I’ve always been involved in mobile commerce so for me it’s a natural thing to use a mobile to buy things.”
Mobile Onboard’s unique selling point as a mobile ticketing platform is the ease with which it can be set up, but Matt is keen to ensure operators take their time to launch the service properly.
“What we’re running is mobile commerce as a service out of the box. It’s not much more expensive than a Barclaycard merchant account, if the operator can even get one, and can potentially be set up within 24 hours.
“Theoretically we could have it done by the end of the day if we start in the morning, but it’s usually better to build a campaign to get passengers on board.
“Sometimes operators don’t market it at all and wonder why nobody uses the service. We set up a marketing pack where we suggest operators do X, Y and Z to make sure it’s all happening before the system has gone live.”
MarketeersMy interview happened to coincide with the Eastleigh by-election, meaning marketing was a bit of a theme for the day. All
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SUppliEr prOfilE › mobile onboard
An advert for My Mobile Tickets seen on board an Abellio Surrey bus
Velvet Bus, Mobile Onboard’s first customer, still uses its WiFi and ticketing
over Eastleigh were TV cameras, suited-up party representatives in colourful rosettes and even advans adorned with loudspeakers driving around the town. The importance of raising awareness was certainly being displayed.
Marketing is an important aspect of the Mobile Onboard business. On Abellio Surrey’s buses and at the bus station in Eastleigh, there are posters advertising the company’s services, graced by its mascot Timmy Ticket. By establishing its brand with passengers, they can immediately tell when other operators support My Mobile Tickets if they were to use a bus in another area.
It isn’t just about Mobile Onboard establishing its own brand though – they are willing and able to help operators effectively market the service, to ensure the awareness is there and it is properly used.
“We are a technology company but we’re also marketers, which gives us a significant advantage,” Matt stated. “Honestly, the transport industry on the whole is not very good at marketing and we can help there. We’re quite different in how we market and brand ourselves – we have a very strong marketing background. It’s much stronger than our industry knowledge to be honest, where we have advisors to help us.
“We can hit the spot operators are interested in tapping into, particularly with the younger market. Nowadays car insurance is not cheap and we need to be encouraging people to use public transport.”
One advantage which the My Mobile Tickets platform has is its flexibility. It can easily be adjusted for promotions or discounted tickets, something which is particularly useful when trying to draw in new users.
“To help Bakerbus promote the system, Katie Luckwell, our Sales and Marketing Executive, went up to Keele university’s fresher’s fair,” Matt explained. “If students signed up, they got a voucher for a day’s free travel. It worked very well – it’s always good to do discounts on a start-up.
“One of the advantages of m-ticketing is the ability to do things like these special offer discounts, free tickets and other promotions. You can’t really do this with any other method.”
The nature of the sign-up process and the virtual tickets used on the
be sent out, including a link to a webpage where it can be renewed. It’s not something you can do with a smartcard.
“It’s almost like going full circle back to the Bluetooth marketing we used to do, and ties in with being able to see when people are logged onto our WiFi and which people. It helps us to understand the potential of specific services and package targeted marketing completely differently.”
Mobile Onboard is a small company with six employees, and as a result the business and enquiries it receives are enough to limit the amount of marketing the company needs to do for itself. At present, the company uses a combination of magazine adverts, Google links and trade shows, with the 2012 Euro Bus Expo being its first show. Matt said the firm receives plenty of referrals and is kept busy enough that just keeping its name out there is enough without needing to cold call.
Moving away from smartcardsThere are fundamental problems with any ticketing platform and there are some hurdles which Mobile Onboard needs to overcome. Some of drawbacks are inherent, such as mobile phone battery life, but work can be done to reduce the impact of other issues.
One such issue is validation. Matt explained that because of the prominence of smartcards, ticket machines in the UK do not come with 2D scanners as standard to read the QR codes on the mobile tickets, as the manufacturers have instead travelled down the smartcard route, focusing on card readers and Near Field Communication (NFC).
NFC itself is not completely trusted by handset manufacturers yet. It is not a feature of the new iPhone. “Apple would rather have NFC tied down to its own protocol, which goes against whole ethos of making things easy to use,” Matt stated. “There still seems to be quite a lot of questions and barriers on NFC.” The Samsung Galaxy S3 is NFC enabled, but not as prolific as the iPhone, meaning NFC is still mostly smartcard technology.
However, despite the problems with setting up robust ticket validation, it doesn’t appear to be a problem for operators and Mobile Onboard is working with Casio, as well as developing its
“We can hit the spot operators are interested in tapping into, particularly with the younger market. Nowadays car insurance is not cheap and we need to be encouraging people to use public transport.”Matt Poole
My Mobile Tickets system allows for cross marketing opportunities. The customer data belongs to the operator and has a lot of potential for targeted marketing or even just helpful prompts when a pass is running out. However Matt did stress that the passengers details are not sold on to third parties.
“We’ve got passenger’s mobile numbers, names, know what they look like and so on, so we can start to build a picture of who the customer is.
“It’s a really important tool for operators. For example, when a passenger’s monthly pass is running out, an SMS or email can
In CBW1077, an edition of Coach & Bus Week dedicated to Abellio, we included a feature on Abellio Surrey, a recent customer of Mobile Onboard.
“Abellio signed up in couple of weeks,” Matt said. “We met Alastair Willis at Euro Bus and he was already sold. He came to talk to us.”
At the time of my interview, the system had only been running live for on Abellio’s buses for a few weeks. Matt explained that the operator had taken its time to make sure the system was properly promoted, all of the necessary web content was in place to direct people to it and gave it a proper launch.
“The system was getting a lot of use straight away and Abellio has already been sending emails to us talking about expansion. It has been a great success so far.”
Abellio Surrey: looking to expansion
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Talking Buses
Malcolm Robson, Managing DirectorIpswich Buses
Ann Marie Slavin,Acting Managing Director, Network Warrington
Scott Pearson, Managing DirectorNewport Transport
“The audio visual talking information system makes bus travel
better for everyone and reinforces our commitment to offer our
customers the best possible service”.
”Buses play a vital role in enabling disabled people, including those who
are blind or partially-sighted, to live more independent lives.
Ipswich buses along with McKenna Brothers and Mobitec have helped
to provide some of that independence with the fitment of the Mobitec
Talking Buses System”.
“Newport Transport have been very impressed with the equipment andafter sales service provided by McKenna Brothers on our latest project tobring audio visual destinations to Newport South Wales.
From the initial discussions about can this be done, to install and aftersales support, McKenna Brothers have been absolute in their commitment and diligence in making the system work for our company.
This system will hopefully be rolled out elsewhere in the UK as we havefound the benefit to our customers to be excellent and the ease of use ofthe system for our staff ensure they are on board with the ethos of allinclusive bus travel”.
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SUppliEr prOfilE › mobile onboard
own devices, to assist them. “We don’t have any validation
hardware out at the moment, although operators don’t feel like they need it, but we have developed software on the Casio platform with our rules built in to work specifically with My Mobile Tickets,” Matt explained.
“It’s a handheld device similar to a PDA which is a great piece of hardware and capable of printing out paper tickets if necessary. They want to push it out but had no way of getting into the market.
“It’s great for spot checks and revenue protection but it’s quite expensive and not something which should be installed on every bus.
“We’re also developing a low cost offline fixed scanner. It just gives the mobile ticket a quick scan and displays a green or red light and it is able to fully integrate with a smart box and scan and update in real time. It keeps with our ethos of low cost and high sophistication. We’re also launching an Android app for scanning which a revenue protection officer can walk around with on a smartphone. It’s not ruggidised, but more and more staff are carrying smartphones.”
While validation can be a challenge for any system relying on visual checks from the driver, Matt believes the challenges which come with a smartcard system are much more significant.
“It’s quicker, cheaper and easier to adopt our system, while smartcards need upgraded ticket machines to function properly, along with all the back office infrastructure they require,” Matt claimed.
“The main problem with smartcards is they do not update in real time. It usually takes 48 hours for the ticket machines to understand you’ve topped up the card – sometimes 72 hours. With smartcard tech, data either needs to be read from a code on the smartcard or written onto the memory of all the ticket machines. Either way, the device scanning needs information about the ticket, which has to be downloaded onto the machines while they are at the bus depot.
“You can offer real time top-ups with smartcards, such as on Oyster, but you certainly have to pay for it. Oyster is an incredibly fantastic system but it also has £100m of infrastructure behind it. The EMV system just put in by TfL has a similar problem with infrastructure investment away from TfL. There’s
technology is vast.At present, Mobile Onboard
operates completely within the UK. All of the products are manufactured in this country and Matt is keen to ensure it stays this way. However, the company may soon have clients overseas.
“We’ve had a lot of interest from Ireland,” Matt said. “However the country uses different currency and has different regulations, so we need make sure we have everything we need in place to provide it.
“European countries all have slightly different e-wallet regulation and privacy laws which we need to stay on top of, but it’s all regulation rather than technical issues so it’s just a matter of time. We’re about to launch in Flensburg Showcity.
“European infrastructure has driven to us to do this. It will give us the platform and we’re currently getting everything translated for it, but we’re still focused on UK.”
also the matter of whether the operator can get a merchant account to use it, which isn’t much cheaper than our system.”
Matt believes as more operators adopt mobile ticketing, it will outperform smartcard systems in other ways from the perspective of passengers.
“Blackpool is a good example of where there are barriers with smartcards. The majority of passengers there are tourists, and there’s no point in getting set up on a smartcard system if you’re only around for a week. Our m-ticketing is useful because if a passenger has signed up elsewhere in the country,
Mobile Onboard was introduced to the bus and coach industry through Velvet Bus. The company’s venture into passenger transport was sure to happen sooner or later, as it has office space opposite the Eastleigh bus station. Velvet Bus trialled one of Mobile Onboard’s systems on its fleet when the company still knew very little about the industry. Its feedback helped develop the systems into what they are today and it still makes use of both mobile ticketing and onboard WiFi.
Matt said the operator had been particularly impressed with the impact virtual passes have had on cash handling.
“Before, parents had to give their kids £50 cash to get a monthly bus ticket, which as you may imagine wouldn’t always find its way to the bus driver. Now, parents are paying online and tickets getting sent straight to the mobile phone.
“Velvet’s drivers have been really happy with the reduction in cash handling, which used to be loads at the beginning of month when the passes needed renewal. The benefits are massive and operators are starting to see it.”
Velvet Bus said 50% of its passengers use My Mobile Tickets and it actively promotes the service on its website and social media.
Velvet Bus: helpful feedback
they won’t need to sign up again and the same system will work.
“Here, the utopia for us would be to have our system used by all operators in Southampton. Bluestar is part of Go-Ahead so it can be hard to get local decisions made in our favour there, but there a real opportunities for cross network coverage.
“It will be nice to travel the length of the country on our system someday. Right now it has been adopted by more operators around the Midlands than anywhere else.”
An International Future?E-commerce is still more advanced outside of the UK. Matt told me about Tesco Express-style virtual stores near subways in South Korea, where commuters could scan codes for products they wanted to buy and pick them up on the way home. The potential for mobile purchasing
The Timmy Ticket mascot is a feature in Mobile Onboard’s marketing
“It will be nice to travel the length of the country on our system someday.”Matt Poole
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