Passenger has announced announce support for operators that wish to sell £2 capped tickets on their mobile ticketing apps
As the Department of Transport’s £2 capped bus fare becomes mainstream news for its launch this month, ticketing specialist Passenger has announced its support for operators that wish to sell the capped tickets on their mobile ticketing apps. Guidance issued in November 2022 gave operators and suppliers like Passenger a chance to better understand the scheme, the challenges it might create and an opportunity to respond with any software changes needed to enable operators to opt into the scheme without revenue risk. Mobile tickets that are purchased via platforms such as that offered by Passenger typically have a set period where they need to be used, often 12 months so that customers have a reasonable amount of time to use the tickets they have purchased.
However, the app provider realised that this created a scenario where customers could ‘stockpile’ capped single mobile tickets during the scheme to use them long after it has ended, creating a risk that an operator’s funding allocation won’t cover the revenue loss from the capped ticket sales. Passenger’s Product and Engineering teams worked to provide a solution on its platforms, and so when creating the new £2 capped tickets on its app operators will be able to choose to set a specific expiry date, after which any tickets that have been sold but not activated will expire. Tickets will also be automatically removed from sale after the activation expiry date.
Dan Claydon, Product Manager at Passenger, commented: “Thanks to engagement from our wide operator base, we’ve been able to understand how the reimbursement for the bus fare capping scheme will impact them and what that means for how the tickets should be sold on mobile.
“Together we identified the revenue risk and moved quickly to close this down, ahead of our regular Christmas freeze on code changes. It really is a testament to our iterative approach to platform development, that we have been able to prioritise this and deliver the changes needed, in time for operators to make a decision about opting into the scheme or not. It’s been a real team effort which I’m delighted we’ve been able to deliver before the festive break.”
