Vodafone Fiji Limited will be the front-end and back-end service provider for e-ticketing in buses, an initiative that the Fiji Bus Operators Association and Government want to start as soon as possible.

Vodafone Fiji Limited will be solely providing this service after Digicel and Bula Mai Fiji – the two other possible service providers – withdrew.

The association yesterday warmly welcomed the option of working solely with Vodafone Fiji Limited. Association members yesterday met with Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, and Vodafone Fiji’s chief executive officer Pradeep Lal, to chart the way forward for e-ticketing.

Association acting president Pyara Singh said they were eager to make e-ticketing work this time around and were hoping that the more than 2500 buses that service routes in Fiji are installed with state of the art e-ticketing consoles by August.

“This has been long time coming and we are grateful that Mr Sayed-Khaiyum and Government have taken the initiative to get all players onboard. We are keen to see this start as soon as possible. This is a huge leap forward for the bus industry and we need to make it work this time,” Mr Singh.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum made it clear to Vodafone Fiji that only the most latest technology would be acceptable and the most convenient options for Fijians travelling in buses need to be mapped out.

Mr Lal said Vodafone Fiji Limited was up for the challenge and confident that the installation and move towards using cashless facility for bus travels would be seamless.

He also revealed that users of smartphones who travel in buses may use their phones rather than carrying a separate card to pay for their bus journeys. The technology they intend to use – the latest which is also used in Europe and Asian countries – will enable smartphone users to pay with merely tapping their phones on the consoles.

With the successful implementation in buses, the next obvious step would be the installation of e-ticketing consoles in mini-buses and even taxis.

Mr Singh said all 56 bus operators in Fiji were counting down days till the installation of consoles was done.

The e-ticketing initiative will now see people paying for their bus rides with the use of pre-paid cards or even their smartphones.

Vodafone Fiji has more than 1500 agents throughout the country from where the cards could be topped up.

The company will also look at providing services such as real-time tracking of buses, possibility of wifi connectivity, cameras in buses, among other things.

The use of e-ticketing will show bus operators the real amount each bus earns at the end of the day by keeping a count of the number of adults and children travelling, keeping a tab on which areas have more senior citizens travelling from so that in future buses with lower steps could service those routes and Government could get correct taxes from the operators.

Edited by Naisa Koroi

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