Presentation Transcript

1. T-FLEx October 2007 Workshop

   The Future of Fare Collection Ed Oliphant, CFO Nashville MTA October 29, 2007
2. About Nashville MTA 8.5 million passenger trips annually Fleet of 137 transit buses, 62 paratransit vans GFI Odyssey Fareboxes Operate a pulse system with AM and PM peaks Utilize Smartcard technology through employees ID and the Easy Ride Transit Benefits Program Beginning AVL implementation, although not necessary for credit card acceptance
3. Overview What are the issues associated with accepting open system cards (credit cards) at the customer point of entry on-board buses in an off-line environment? Impact on Operations Impact on Maintenance Impact on Accounting Cost of Implementation
4. Operational Pro’s & Cons Very little bus operator training Faster boarding time Operating off-line vs on-line real time (AVL) Boarding times will improve as long as it is in an off-line environment Transaction speed needs to be 300ms or less Training for Customer Service & Accounting End of day probe time
5. Maintenance Issues Hardware and equipment requirements Upgrade Farebox Software Upgrade probing speed New maintenance procedures Potential for lost information ?
6. Accounting Considerations Picking the 3rd party processor Farebox software must be able to communicate with 3rd party processor Transactions should be sent to 3rd party processor daily (not necessarily processed daily) Processor must acknowledge and confirm receipt of transactions 3rd party processor must provide back-up from transactions processed that can be reconciled to farebox software transactional data
7. Accounting Considerations continued Level of Risk in Off-line Scenario How will bad/stolen cards be identified? Immediate validity checking (expiration, card type) 3rd party processor must be responsible What is farebox capacity for bad carding? Who manages the Hot List for bad cards? This process should be automated by 3rd party processor back to farebox software and updated at the farebox during daily probing. How often should transactions be processed by the processor? Daily vs some extended period (Aggregation) Impact on transaction fees vs bad card risk
8. Accounting Considerations continued Data Security Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards must be followed (PCI-DSS) Mandatory compliance program Security and confidentiality of customer information cannot be compromised Prevent internal fraud and scams with security Encryption software is required Farebox software and 3rd Party Processor must be PCI-DSS compliant. Subject to annual audits, quarterly network scan or annual self-assessment questionnaire depending on volume of transactions processed
9. Implementation Cost to Implement Cost of any new or upgraded hardware Cost of software upgrades 3rd Party transaction costs (Aggregation) Training Cost Flow of funds
10. e-Payment Technology Bad Cards Network Manager Chase Paymentech Probing Computer Bad Cards VPN Bad Cards ACH Link2Gov Bad Cards Farebox Bad Cards Transit Agency Transit Agency Bank
11. What Did Nashville Consider? Accepting credit cards for micro purchase of single ride tickets ($1.25), All Day Passes ($3.75), their discounted equivalents for youth, elderly and disabled and Night Owl Service ($4.00) (no signature required) Just like cash fares, a rider will inform the driver which fare they want to purchase The driver will hit the button associated with the fare desired and then the rider will swipe their card
12. Other Considerations GFI Genfare and Link-To-Gov software must be compatible The 3rd party processor must manage Bad Care List electronically Determining an acceptable number of days the Transit Agency takes the risk of accepting fraudulent cards Which credit cards to accept Expanding credit cards to Paratransit
13. Questions Thank You Ed Oliphant, CFO Nashville MTA October 29, 2007 or Comments??