Switchio Platform in Poland
- What the customer required
The project aimed to introduce a comfortable and fast method whereby passengers could pay for transport contactlessly, using Visa and Mastercard bank cards (including emulated cards in mobiles and smartwatches) or the local ŚKUP transport card.
The Contracting Authority was the Municipal Transport Council (ZTM) of the Upper Silesia Zagłębie Metropolis, which is the largest organiser of public transport in Poland. We collaborated on the realisation with Asseco Data Systems, which is the supplier of the central back office.
- Supplied solution
Validator in Tychy busFor the realisation, we used our own Switchio® Transport product, which fully accommodates the security and functional requirements of the card companies Visa (MTT) a Mastercard (PAYG). The fare model is Check-in/Check-out. Tickets for the entire day are aggregated in Switchio®, and settlement takes place 1x per day, which bring savings for both passengers (in the case of multiple trips, they pay a maximum daily fare) and the transport company (on transaction fees).
We supply the solution as a service – Software as a Service, with 24/7 service support.
In the first phase, the project includes 42 bus and 6 trolleybus lines. 550 Mikroelektronika payment terminals and 188 POS android PAX terminals were handed over to inspectors. We equipped them with certified Switchio® applications for the acceptance of cards, communication with the central payment switch, e-ticket inspection and payment of fines directly in the vehicle.
Configuration of Switchio® Transport
- Authorisation switch – used for transaction processing, and storage of detailed information regarding executed transactions
- Transport Comm – module for communication between individual payment terminals and the central switch
- POS management system – enables remote administration, terminal network management and secure management of the terminal network keys
- Risk management – module for the processing of offline transactions sent from individual public transport vehicles
- Collect – module for the aggregation of payment transactions (under the card number – PAN) and sending them for settlement
- Blacklist – element preventing the use of invalid or blocked bank cards
- Inspection library – inspection device module which can scan bank cards and transform their PAN into an anonymous token. The inspection application then verifies whether the passenger has a valid e-ticket. The library is available for both mobile POS terminals and for smartphones on the Android platform.
- Transport website – provides a detailed overview of transactions, payment cards and vehicle terminals
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Benefits of the Supplied Solution
For the transport operator – ZTM:
- A new service for passengers, enabling the self-service purchase of tickets by bank card, directly in the vehicle
- Introduction of e-tickets linked to a bank card
- Reduced paper ticket costs, savings on printing and distribution services
- Significant acceleration of the passenger check-in process – passenger check-in time of less than 1 second
- Acceleration of cash flows throughout the system
- Aggregation of transactions brings savings on transaction fees, and discounts on fares for passengers
For the acquirer – PEP:
- Entry into the transport sector
- Flexibility and openness in connection with other entities
- Low investment in the modification of the authorisation centre enables use in all new transport projects
- Future easy expandability to include other business directions such as e-commerce and POS terminals in retail
- The entire project was realised in 5 months. In the next phase, the agglomeration of Upper Silesia will participate in this solution, and a total of 3,700 validators and 400 inspection devices should be included.
