Arriva’s Guildford service has taken its 100,000th contactless payment, less than six months after launch. The company’s Guildford depot was the first to introduce contactless payment in the Southern Counties, using Ticketer Electronic Ticket Machines (ETMs).
Cornelie Alecsandrescu was the lucky driver who hit the exciting milestone payment on Saturday 28th April at 4.58pm, beating his colleagues in the race against time to be the employee who sold the 100,000th ticket.
He was presented with an Arriva certificate to mark the occasion, celebrating with colleagues for what has proven to be a significant achievement for the company in Guildford and the surrounding areas.
Arriva’s contactless payment system is quick, easy and secure for customers, providing bus users with a variety of ways to pay including debit and credit cards, and Apple and Android Pay from their devices.
Cornelie said of the milestone: “I’m thrilled to be the one to take the 100,000th payment. The introduction of contactless payments has really helped to make the experience of the customer and driver far better. Customers don’t always have the right money to hand and the contactless payments provide a far easier way to travel, saving time and resulting in a more efficient service overall.”
Oliver Monahan, area managing director for Arriva Kent and Surrey said: ““Our contactless payment trial at Guildford depot has been a great success and a step forward in opening up bus travel for those who do not often carry change. The move has helped create a faster, easier and more convenient way to pay for our customers in Guildford and the surrounding areas, which in turn has helped to speed up boarding time and improve journey times.
Oliver continued: “With the UK fast becoming a cashless society, Arriva looks forward to developing its contactless payment network further to ensure that bus travel continues to meet the needs of the communities we operate in during the coming years.”
The contactless Ticketer ETMs are the industry’s most innovative and cost-effective ticketing solution, and are designed to give passengers the widest possible range of payment options.
John Clarfelt, Managing Director of Ticketer, commented: “The speed with which Arriva has reached this milestone just goes to show how quickly contactless has been adopted by passengers in Guildford. A lot has been said about the benefits of giving passengers the choice, to make it easier for everyone to get the bus, but the sheer convenience of paying using contactless means that it will very soon be the payment method of choice.”
Arriva has rolled out contactless payment across its fleets in Guildford and West Surrey, as well as the North East of England.
Notes:
Arriva
Arriva Southern Counties run a network of local bus services across Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent and Surrey. Arriva Southern Counties is part of the Arriva group, one of the leading providers of passenger transport in Europe. Arriva employs more than 60,000 people and delivers over 2 billion passenger journeys across 14 European countries each year
For more information visit: www.arrivabus.co.uk
Ticketer
Ticketer is here to personalise public transportation, through ticketing software and devices that are customised for operators, and individualised to the lives that passengers lead.
Access ticket sales data and manage fares from anywhere with an internet connection. With Ticketer, nothing needs to be installed on site as the system is supported by a hosted managed service, accessed via the internet. The fixed budget cost structure ensures that there are no hidden costs or unexpected future payments, giving the product the lowest Total Cost of Ownership.
Ticketer is a UK based company; the software is developed and devices are manufactured in the UK, using industry standard components. This approach ensures technical, manufacturing, and assembly are all handled locally, in order to enable us to control production changes, maintain quality standards and keep timelines to a minimum.
www.ticketer.co.uk
For further information please contact:
Mercedes Llewellyn
mercedes.llewellyn@ticketer.co.uk