Dominic Ward speaks to Punctuality and Reliability Manager, Matt Parker, and Commercial Manager, Simon Ford, about smart-ticketing and fare structures for First West of England
In a small office at Bristol’s Lawrence Hill depot, some of the biggest decisions the business will make are carried out – ticketing. Getting the fare structure and system right is crucial to the successful running of any bus operation. Matt Parker, Punctuality & Reliability Manager, and Simon Ford, Commercial Manager, sat down with me to talk through their ticketing strategy.
Joining the industry in 1988, Matt began as a driver at Birmingham-based Travel West Midlands, now known as National Express West Midlands, and over the next 15 years, progressed to the level of Depot Manager at Perry Barr garage. Moving to Bristol in 2002, Matt took on some of the IT-based work, including the implementation of real-time systems and company WiFi, whilst looking at how to use IT to improve punctuality. He has latterly taken on the ticketing aspect.
Beginning as a driver, Simon worked at the now closed Muller Road depot in Bristol, and holds a degree in Geography from the University of the West of England. Whilst at University, in addition to driving buses part-time, Simon completed his dissertation on the subject of university bus services. Applying for First’s graduate scheme with 24 hours to spare, Simon has completed placements in the South Wales, Scotland, York, Manchester and London, before moving back to Bristol in 2009, and has held a number of roles previous to becoming Commercial Manager in Bristol.
Shortly before CBW arrived in Bristol, the fleet had just received brand new Ticketer systems, which has been installed the previous Sunday – November 5.
Ticketer
Although only recently installed at the time of visiting Lawrence Hill, Matt was enthusiastic about the new technology: “We’re finding it a very good product and we’re enjoying its flexibility. Its functionality is far better than the products that we previously had, including the ability to produce and scan barcodes, as well as the forthcoming rollout of contactless payments. The extra benefits it can bring to the business are huge.”
The team in Bristol already had a taste of the Ticketer system, with it being used on the Park & Ride, and was one of three selected trial sites.[wlm_nonmember][…]
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Matt added: “There was another First operating company testing a product from Vix. It was what you’d probably best call a ‘beauty contest,’ and Ticketer was successful in getting the UK Bus contract.
“It’s an ambitions rollout programme, which will be completed next year. So far, the system has been rolled out in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Cornwall and Hampshire – we were next. They’ve now moved on to South Yorkshire – which is another big one!”
Simon and Matt then discussed some of the issues with the previous system. Simon said: “Looking at the commercial and strategic side, it was the lack of data we were getting from our ticket machines. A lot of it was a bit too much guesswork to be honest.”
Matt added: “It was fair to say that towards the end our previous ticket machines had become unreliable. They were limited in their capabilities, so we couldn’t see real-time sales, for example. We had to wait to update them or download them when they were back in depot.
“When we originally rolled them out, the aim was to expand them to have GPS and GPRS connectivity, and then to expand to have contactless, but that just proved that it just wasn’t possible. It was far better and more cost-effective to actually just move to a new platform that we can use to build on in future.”
Fairer fares
Simon and Matt added that the fare structure was simplified. As Simon explained, prior to November 2013, they had a confusing ticketing offer. For example, travelling one way for three miles in the city centre would cost £2.70. However, travelling three miles the other way would be £1.40. Matt commented that it was route-specific, and there were anomalies between the city and the country services, where you could have different fares for the same distance due to two different companies historically.
Simon added: “It was difficult to market and promote our tickets and products because it was complicated. It was clear that students and young persons are key parts of the market, and that we weren’t offering them anything special, apart from the odd university-specific ticket, and a discount for children.
“There was no message that we could communicate to our customers, so one of the main drivers was to actually have a new offer which was clear, fair, and really tapped into that market.”
Initially, the new structure was successfully rolled out in what is referred to as the Bristol inner zone – which saw a 20% passenger growth within a matter of months. It was particularly risky, as Matt explained, because they needed to hit 15% just to break even.
The growth in passengers left them in an interesting place, Simon said. Although carrying more passengers, the fares they were paying were less, so revenue was initially down, and they couldn’t fit everybody onto the bus. Simon added that they invested in putting extra vehicles on the road just to cope with the volume. The revenue started to increase after a short while, leading the team into faster fares.
Faster fares
Matt said: “One of the things we always struggle against is consistency in journey times. One of the things that we can tackle is dwell time. If we can reduce that, we can speed up the journey time. That makes us even more competitive to the private car, and that’s where faster fares comes in.”
Simon continued: “When mTicketing first came out, we decided to target some of the universities and students because they were going to be far more likely to buy into mTicketing. We then rolled it out to more of our commercial products, following the feedback we were getting from customers.
“We’ve done it in a number of stages. We introduced it in Bristol first, then Bath and then into the wider network, so we could target the marketing in quite specific markets and locations, rather than just trying to do the whole thing in one go and it being a bit of a half-hearted attempt.”
Simon added they then started to look at differential pricing, encouraging passengers to buy their tickets through the mTicket app by demonstrating they would benefit from it financially. Said Simon: “Not only is it cheaper, it’s faster, and now I think we’ve just go to the point where we need to be taking some resource out, and say ‘this bus is going to get from A to B quicker,’ so we can demonstrate the strategy is working in terms of reducing dwell times, and it’s helped with the traffic congestion on the road infrastructure, particularly across the city centre. Everything is starting to move in the right direction.”
Total off-bus revenue is 38% – 33% is mTickets and the remaining 5% is ‘other off-bus channels’ (travel shop at bus stations, Paypoint retail network, etc.). Simon said this number is higher in certain markets. He also pointed out that First West of England has recently been awarded a contract with the University of Bristol, where students get access to a dedicated bus, though they would need a ticket. Under its previous operator, this was done through a smartcard. However, Simon said they were not so keen to continue with this, and instead decided to push the mTicketing. “When they join the university, students are given a voucher code that entitles them to their bus pass,” said Simon. “We made an option available for anyone that wanted a traditional paper ticket, but the uptake was brilliant. The university was incredibly surprised as to how many people did adopt mTicketing.
Simon has also seen first-hand the benefit of mTicketing by visiting one of the student halls of residence, with students having their mTicket ready to go before the bus arrived: “It was great to see that because it’s making such a big difference and transforming the way we work.”
Matt also explained briefly how the mTicketing system is aiding them, not only in reducing fraud levels through the QR code scanned by the Ticketer machine, but also in terms of collecting data as well, as they can now look at their usage trends. To them, however, mTicketing is not already a thing of the past with contactless as the future. Instead, Matt told me they look at it differently: “For seasons, and even for day tickets, we think mTicket is the way forward. Contactless is still an on-bus transaction, so will still slow the vehicle down. Because drivers are not handling the cash, they do not have to work out their totals and pay it in, meaning we haven’t got the cash collection hassle. But you still have to do that individual transaction. That’s why we don’t really see contactless as the be-all and end-all. It is definitely a benefit against cash, however.”
The future
Matt told me that, although First West of England is not phasing out smartcards, they do represent a smaller market compared to mTicketing. Additionally, when Metrobus arrives, they will be aligning their products, and will move users across to Travel West cards, administered by the local authority. Matt said the card will hold First products on it, but it’s just the hosting that is changing.
Within five years, Simon sees a move to becoming a cashless operator, as well as a number of phases of being able to reduce journey and dwell times, which will take a good two or three years to fully deliver. Additionally, they will plan to review their fare structure again. Simon said: “Tickets are cheaper on mTickets, but we will have scope to actually change those mTicket prices, for example a £1.50 journey we could put up to £1.56. We don’t need to have rounded figures. That will be important when we’re looking at our yields and any increases in the future.”
Matt was also keen to add that drivers are happy with the system, as they don’t have to worry about the cash aspect, and can focus on delivering the customer experience.
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