Switchio: Integrating Transport Fare Collection in Prague
Introducing fare collection via contactless EMV card payment in public transport. In cooperation with CSOB, we are making commute and fare collection easier in several Czech cities while also exporting our technology abroad.
The Client’s Requirements
Československá Obchodní Banka (ČSOB) is a universal bank in Czech Republic and the biggest acquirer at one. MONET+ supplies core banking components that ensure smooth accepting and processing of bank cards on more than 70.000 POS terminals in retail. Thanks to fast spread of contactless bank cards and demand of cities for open loop account based ticketing in Czech Republic based on contactless bank cards acceptance had ČSOB decided to add a new module authorization system that will be able to serve the needs of cities for offline authorization mode of contactless bank cards in transportation.
MONET+ has a lot of experience in the acceptance and issuance of payment cards, in particular in the field of banking, fuel and loyalty cards, including custom personalization, which can be documented by the certified personalization workplace associations of MasterCard and VISA. One of the critical requirements was acceptance of a wide range of contactless bank cards in offline authorization mode directly in a vehicle, together with acceptance of various local MIFARE transport cards.
MONET+ together with ČSOB have realized a unified and scalable transport solution that was implemented in more than 15 Czech cities from 2014 to 2020. All cities were connected to the same central transport core solution that was delivered due to Software as a service model. Whole solution was designed as robust, centralized, modular and functionally extensible.
The solution delivered It did not take our team long to devise and release the transport module for the ČSOB authorization centre.
We chose an optimal technology for the vehicle payment terminals and then set about developing a suite of applications to permit the precise functionality of all the processes running on them.
Prague
- 854 POS in trams (368 mio. commuters transported per year)
- 730 POS in metro (461 mio. commuters transported per year)
- 1 168 POS in buses (356 mio. commuters transported per year)
- Check-in fare mode
- Offline transaction processing
- Local DESFire transport card Lítačka is supported Several surrounding city areas were connected to city transportation as intercity connections or close agglomeration that had the chance to be integrated in existing solution.
MONET+ has a lot of experience in the acceptance and issuance of payment cards, in particular in the field of banking, fuel and loyalty cards, including custom personalization, which can be documented by the certified personalization workplace associations of MasterCard and VISA. One of the critical requirements was acceptance of a wide range of contactless bank cards in offline authorization mode directly in a vehicle, together with acceptance of various local MIFARE transport cards.
The benefits delivered:
- Faster cash flow
- Eliminates issues associated with cash payments on vehicles
- Eliminates the need for paper tickets
- Significantly faster check-in – typically within 1 second (in offline mode)
- No black passengers
- Aggregation of transactions bring savings in transaction fees and discounted fares for passengers
