National Express West Midlands gets mobile
on data collection for ticket avoidance
Inspectors rely on Casio’s IT-3100 to identify ticket
dodging and issue verified, on the spot Penalty Fares.
National Express West Midlands uses the Casio IT-3100 portable PDA to assist accurate
ticketing to its one million customers who travel on the 1,700 vehicles each day. Whilst
the majority of customers are fare abiding, there is a minority who deliberately avoid
paying in full to the detriment of the rest of the fee paying public.
Tickets are generally issued by the driver and are checked by a team of roving
Inspectors supplemented by frequent high profile mass ticket checking campaigns run in
conjunction with National Express, Centro and West Midlands Police. These checks
involve random boarding of vehicles to check every passenger’s ticket and whilst the
threat of a roving inspection provided a deterrent, National Express West Midlands
recognised from data gained at the Gateway checks, that current capture rates formed
just the tip of the fare evasion iceberg.
Chris Gatheridge Engineering Projects Manager at National Express outlines the issues:
“There remains a very small minority of bus users that deliberately try to avoid paying
by any number of means - from saying they had misplaced their ticket to deliberately
overrunning travel cards. These challenges are not new for us or any other transport
company for that matter. The decent fare paying public are infuriated by such individuals
and we needed to put into place a technology solution that allowed us to nip such
behaviours in the bud.”
Technology Progression facilitates On the Spot Penalty Fares:
Roving Inspectors were able to issue manual Fixed Penalty fares to anyone caught
overrunning their ticket conditions. The paper process, whilst relatively simple, was
subject to fraud with frequently a false name or address being provided with little that
an inspector could do to verify if the information given was accurate. Neither, with over
a million passengers travelling on the network each day, would they be able to identify if
an individual was a persistent offender facilitating further action and an increased fine.
Whilst offenders could opt to pay cash on the spot, most elected to be sent the Penalty
Fare to the address supplied and would have 14 days to pay, or face a further increase
in the fine. If still unpaid after 28 days, offenders then faced court proceedings. Chris
takes up the story. “We knew that the penalty fines that were eventually settled sadly
represented just a small percentage of Penalty Fares issued. We had to find a way to
make the system more efficient; fairer for the fee paying public and more empowering
for our Inspectors.”
Hence Chris began the process of identifying hand held PDAs to seamlessly check
offenders and issue the correct Penalty Fines for the Inspecting teams. Of all of the
mobile devices reviewed the Casio IT-3100 was the only rugged device in its class to
feature an internal printer. Further research revealed that the same system was
successfully in place within Manchester’s Metrolink system to service its 20 million
passengers, giving Chris an accurate testimonial point as to reliability and effectiveness.
Casio arranged for a trial device to be dispatched and following successful tests in which
the unit was put through its paces to assess usability, ruggedness, power efficiency and
speed, in December 2010, National Express West Midlands placed an order for a device
for every Inspector. The decision was reached in part through impressive ergonomics of
the device – it is a rugged, yet lightweight unit that is easy to use and features Bluetooth
technology. Integrated GPRS is essential in the enforcement role as this allows
Inspectors to connect on the spot to National Express’s head office to verify the
offender’s given details. Chris continues “Reliable wireless technology is key to the
success of the project – it enables us to immediately link to the back office server to
reconcile address checking software to verify the offender’s name and address, as well
as, to see if we are dealing with a repeat offender. A name and postcode is now all we
need.”
Given that information is now held centrally, Inspectors can verify a customer file within
seconds. Wizard driven software takes them through the screens automatically
populating fields until an entire record is enabled. This information then allows the back
office team to upload the file to take payment over the phone. (In the near future once
software encryption has been loaded onto the device, the team will be able to take on
the spot payments). For the benefit of all decent travelling passengers, the fare paying
cycle for offenders has now been decreased, as most offenders, now faced with a
definite fine arriving on their doormat, elect to pay within 7 days of the offence being
committed.
Previously gathered data illustrates that ticket dodgers tend to repeat offend within a
matter of months. Now, with the information captured on the Casio IT-3100, repeat
offenders face the prospect of a full investigation being launched against them. Triggers
are now in place which flag management to examine the case file and where necessary,
work in collaboration with the West Midlands police force.
Casio IT-3100 working on the Buses:
Easy adoption has been assisted by simple operation with auto screen prompts and a
large 9cm touch sensor adjusted display housed in a slim device make for easy viewing
and handling by the Inspectors. Battery life is also important. The IT-3100 needs to
withstand the entire shift without docking in the charging station. On average, the
inspectors manage to use the units for nine or ten hours between charges. This is thanks
to Casio’s effective power management within the unit that draws the lowest possible
level of electricity consumption.
The time for issuing tickets has been cut dramatically, meaning that Inspectors can now
visit more buses and conduct more checks. With the integrated high speed thermal
printer whizzing off up to 28 lines per second it takes a quarter of the time to issue a
ticket. Captured data is then transmitted directly back to head office, so that the fine
can be settled almost instantly lessening the load of inspectors and allowing for fines to
be paid quicker.
Not only has the IT-3100 allowed fares to be settled more efficiently, it has also allowed
more efficient deployment and management of Inspectors. Efficient management
reporting with statistics per inspector, per route and per driver can be seamlessly
generated, allowing management to build up a picture of routes that are susceptible to
fare abuse and may require further inspection. This mapping has allowed a doubling of
recovery rates across the region and an increase in revenue to the benefit of the
majority of fair paying customers.
In summary:
Chris surmises, “At the end of the day, what we equipped our inspection team with
through the use of Casio’s handhelds is a superb backup for Inspectors to be able to
issue the most appropriate penalty fares and have the confidence to take the case
further if required. Just the recognition that we are now equipped with an effective
visible deterrent has reduced the number of fare dodgers.”
For more information on this case study, please contact:
CASIO Electronics Co. Ltd.
Unit 6, 1000 North Circular Road
London
NW2 7JD
Guy Boxall
Senior Product Marketing Manager
Tel: 020 8208 7846
email: [email protected] or [email protected]