The future of automated fare collection systems : a perspective from the eThekwini municipality

Abstract

In 2009, the National Department of Transport (NDoT) legislated, as per the National Land Transport Act (NLTA), 2009 (Act No.5 of 2009), that fare payments must be made through any bank-issued fare payment system and be interoperable through all participating banks. Commuters with participating bank accounts should be able to use bank cards and commuters without bank accounts should be able to use prepaid cards. NDoT defined an Automated Fare Collection (AFC) data structure that must be loaded onto all the Smart Cards and stipulated that the Europay, Mastercard, Visa (EMV) card is the standard of card technology that must be used to enable the hosting of the NDoT data structure. The eThekwini Municipality (herein after referred to as “the City”) went out to tender in 2010 for an AFC system that was compliant with the requirements of the Act and the system was successfully implemented in 2012 and is still in use today. The system did not meet all the objectives that it was originally intended to. There were aspects of the system that worked well but there were also several challenges that were experienced. One of the major issues with the system was related to the inoperability of the banks with the EMV/NDoT pre-paid cards. This issue only surfaced once the City had already implemented the first compliant system and was in the process of implementing a new system. The technical constraints were identified with NDoT and the participating banks at the time, but there was a lack of capacity by the banks to co-operate to resolve the issue. In addition the system was costly and complex to manage requiring cumbersome reconciliation processes and technical constraints imposed by the restriction to utilise the EMV/NDoT compliant card. The lessons learned from the AFC implementations conducted by the City to-date has informed the City’s procurement approach for future AFC systems. Research has been conducted through various literature and discussion with colleagues in the sector to establish the latest trends globally for AFC systems, exploring changes that have been made to the technology and implementation approach that is being adopted to cater for the future needs of Public Transport in the City. The findings show that the future of AFC’s should first and foremost take into consideration the needs of the commuters by providing convenience, ease of use and cater for seamless travel between multiple modes of ——————————————————————————————— 41st Southern African Transport Conference ISBN: 978-0-6397-8659-9 Produced by: www.betaproducts.co.za ——————————————————————————————— 10-13 July 2023 Pretoria, South Africa Conference Proceedings ——————————————————————————————— 41st Southern African Transport Conference ISBN: 978-0-6397-8659-9 Produced by: www.betaproducts.co.za ——————————————————————————————— 10-13 July 2023 Pretoria, South Africa Conference Proceedings transport. Consideration also needs to be given to the overall operating costs for the City and sustainability in terms of the ratio of AFC system implementation costs to fare revenue. The NDoT is in the process of legislating the South African National Roads Agency’s (SANRAL) Account Based Ticketing (ABT) system as the AFC solution to be adopted for all Public Transport in the South Africa (herein after referred to as “the country”). The City has engaged with other Cities regarding the benefits, pitfalls and views on the recommended approach with regards to AFC systems for use in Public Transport across the Country. Considering global trends, current limitations, and unique challenges within the context of the country, the collective view is that AFC systems should not be restricted to a “one-size-fits-all” approach and the objectives of customer centricity and minimising operating costs are paramount.