Unicard

Staff at Unicard’s offices in the UK and Bulgaria have chosen local charities that they will support with fundraising events throughout the year. Everyone working at Unicard has the option to use two working days for volunteering, and each office organises events where staff can help to raise money for our selected charities. Our Ferndown office’s chosen charity this year is Diverse Abilities, Dorset’s disability charity. Staff at our East Kilbride office in Scotland are supporting Beatson Cancer Charity. And at our office in Varna, Bulgaria, our staff are supporting the charity I Believe and Help. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/e6Yt5Ja9

Meet the team: Michael Philliben, General Manager at our East Kilbride office. Michael’s role is multi-faceted, including business development, compliance, project support and everything that involves people and working culture. He collaborates with the rest of our senior management team to drive the collective Unicard business forward. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dwTRcawi

Staff from our Ferndown office in Dorset joined friends and family for Unicard’s annual summer get-together – held this year at a nearby beach. Against the picturesque backdrop of a setting sun and gentle waves, the beach party included delicious barbecue food and drinks, and activities such as beach volleyball and a sandcastle-building contest. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eEnUveEJ

From our experience delivering the Under 22's scheme in Scotland we strongly agree that youth schemes are a good idea! The good news is we're also seeing a number of our customers implement youth specific schemes in England - from a technical perspective it's comparatively easy to extend the existing core ENCTS provision out to other scheme types in our platform, not just youth and schools but refugee, jobseekers and similar. Obviously there are commercial agreements that need to be reached, but the technology is certainly not a barrier - not just for bus, but rail and other transport types too. We would love to see the new government consider this at a national level to help join up the patchwork of local provisions.

A report by Visa says three-quarters of transport authorities have reported moderate to large rises in operating efficiency after introducing contactless payments, experiencing lower overheads and greater use of public transport. Passengers and transport authorities are not the only ones who benefit from the use of contactless payments. It has a “halo effect” on whole communities as those passengers tend to use contactless payments throughout their journeys — not just for fare payment but also for food, drinks, shopping and other products and services bought near transport routes. The benefits of contactless payments and the “halo effect” align with Unicard’s efforts to secure environmental, economic and social benefits with our products and services. Unicard are supporting contactless payments with our Ticketing Hub service, bringing its benefits to both passengers and transport operators across the UK. Ticketing Hub simplifies and accelerates the deployment of contactless EMV transit schemes, particularly in situations involving multiple operators, modes, validator suppliers or back-office partners. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dFVauH8S

Meet the team: Joseph Hannam, Application Support for our customer support team. Joe acts as one of our customer champions, handling any issues that customers raise while using Unicard products. The support team investigates each issue, then collaborates with other teams within Unicard to ensure any required additional functionality is delivered and any problems are resolved. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/esJmjD65

Transport publications have been reporting the news that Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) has chosen Unicard to help it move from paper-based to digital ZoneCard ticketing. Users can now purchase a ZoneCard ticket via a website, dedicated mobile app or shop. Instead of buying paper tickets from the driver when boarding, passengers simply “tap in” whenever they travel. It improves the passenger experience and reduces the complexity involved with managing paper tickets. Unicard’s solution uses our industry-leading, mobility-as-a-service (MaaS)-ready ticketing platform, a central back-office solution encompassing a high-performance ITSO HOPS and flexible Smart Office Customer Management System, which securely processes all smart transactions. This combined solution is supported by a dedicated customer self-service web portal and a mobile app for iOS and Android devices. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/e3uNeCvs

It is great to see coverage of our project with Strathclyde Partnership for Transport which launched last week. The modernisation they have achieved with our industry-leading ticketing platform, ITSO HOPS, and customer app and portals will improve the passenger experience and reduce the complexity involved with managing tickets, as well as provide the right foundation to continue to deliver service and convenience improvements for the passengers in the region.

Unicard today announced that its smart ticketing platform has been contracted by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) on behalf of the ZoneCard Forum to digitalise paper-based ZoneCard ticketing on ScotRail, the Glasgow Subway and most bus routes in the west of Scotland. Users can now purchase a ZoneCard ticket via a website or dedicated mobile app, or from a shop. It has removed the need to buy paper tickets from the driver when boarding – instead passengers simply “tap in” whenever they travel. It is designed to improve the passenger experience and reduce the complexity involved with managing paper tickets. Unicard’s industry-leading, mobility-as-a-service (MaaS)-ready ticketing platform is supported by a dedicated customer self-service web portal, and mobile app for iOS and Android devices. The cloud-based solution can scale to support different modes of transport and mobility services as and when required. It can also be configured to support account-based ticketing (ABT) in line with fare capping and flexible travel schemes. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eQxnRj9v

Unicard are now supporting open loop EMV with our Ticketing Hub service, bringing its benefits to both passengers and transport operators across the UK. Ticketing Hub simplifies and accelerates the deployment of contactless EMV transit schemes, particularly in situations involving multiple operators, modes, validator suppliers or back-office partners. Passengers can tap and go with a credit or debit card, giving them more choice in how they pay for travel: be it open loop, pre-paid EMV or existing closed loop ticketing like ITSO. This makes it easier to travel using different modes of transport and different operators. You can read more about Ticketing Hub here: https://lnkd.in/enzpZPBY