When upgrading a fare collection system, one of the decisions transit agencies must make is whether to adopt card- or account-based fare media.
With card-based fare media, the value of the card lives on the card itself. This means the intrinsic value of the “product” follows the media it is written to. When you think about it this way, cash could be considered card-based media, as the value follows the physical bills or coins upon a transaction. Similarly, tokens can also be thought of as card-based fare media.
With account-based fare media, the “product” no longer follows the media on which it lives. Instead, the product (the intrinsic value) is stored in an account housed in a back-office. The card is just an account identifier, or a representation/key pointed to the location where the product lives.
An example of account-based media would be a debit card. Two debit cards could appear to be nearly identical to one another — have the same issuing bank, same card brand, etc. — but what that differentiates the two debit cards is the accounts to which they are linked and the “keys” needed to access the value of the account.
The case for using both card- and account-based fare media
When I’m advising customers on whether to choose card- or account-based fare media, my answer is usually, “Why not both?”
Genfare is one of a handful of fare collection vendors that offers card- and account-based fare media running simultaneously, on both legacy and next-gen hardware. Genfare Link, Genfare’s cloud-native back-office, empowers system flexibility by enabling both card-based and account-based media to exist in the same ecosystem. This unique offering is part of our commitment to being a steward of equitable mobility.
We recommend both types to many of our customers because each type has its pros and cons, and which one works best varies by type of rider, routes, and use cases. They’re both useful in some situations. When you offer both, you get the best of both worlds and meet the needs of all types of riders.
Account-based fare media considerations
One of the biggest factors in determining if a transit agency will do well with account-based fare media is the consistency of internet connectivity along its routes and at its ticket vending machines. That’s because the farebox on the bus needs to know how much money is on the card to validate it, and that information is on the internet. If the bus can’t get online often, it can’t update the stored value or product against the card identifier in use. But I’ve found that even if buses get online for five minutes while sitting at the transit center between runs, that can often be enough connectivity to make it work.
For example, I was recently skiing in Colorado and noticed that in Aspen, the ticket vending machines are always connected to the internet, but the buses are often out of range due to interference from the terrain. This means that while I could add value to my account-based smart card at a TVM, if I boarded a bus, the hardware would only know my negative balance from the last time it was connected earlier in the day and not see I added funds. So the farebox would reject my card.
If I was working with Aspen on a new fare collection solution, I would recommend starting with a card-based system but configure the fare boxes to be able to accommodate account-based when bus connectivity improves.
When the fleet’s connectivity is good enough to support account-based fare media, it can accommodate features like:
Shared family purses
A family can maintain one account with multiple cards that everyone in the family can use. A parent can reload for all the students in the family at once.
Replacement
If a registered account-based card is reported lost or stolen, it can be replaced with the last known value on it.
Reduced fare groups
Riders can be identified once as qualifying for a reduced fare, such as senior, student, or veteran, and their account will reflect that and deduct the right amount with each ride. Reduced fares can also be applied to existing full fare accounts that are eligible. For example, the transit agency could receive a list of veterans from the local VA and “turn on” reduced veterans fares for all account-based cardholders on the list.
Fare capping
Fare capping has greater flexibility within account-based fare collection systems. It works whether the rider is registered or not. This also gives the registered rider the opportunity to check their ridership history to anticipate when they are going to reach the fare capping thresholds.
While fare capping can work with card-based systems, the sophistication of the fare cap is limited by the memory available on the card. Card-based media can only able to keep track of so many sequential transactions, making fare capping models such as monthly or semesterly nearly impossible.
Organizations
Employers, educational institutions, and social service agencies can set up and maintain funded account-based fare media, regularly checking their enrollment/employee list against the transit benefit list to keep it up to date. The media used could include smart cards, mobile apps, or the organization’s own technically compatible card or app.
For example, a student could pay their fare with the same card they tap to buy lunch in the cafeteria.
Anonymous users
Like card-based media, account-based fare media can be used whether it is registered or not. This allows riders who can’t or don’t want to share information to use it. Each card has a unique token; it just doesn’t have a name attached to it. If the rider doesn’t register, they don’t get all the benefits of account-based fare media, such as replacement, but can still use the card. Riders also can register the card later, so they can use it right after they purchase it then register it when they get home or to work.
Open payment
I won’t get into open payment here, but it is built on an account-based system, even though the rider isn’t creating a transit-specific account.
Data collection
Account-based media tells you more about the riders, and you can use that information to improve service. For example, an account could contain an identifier telling you the rider uses a mobility device. You can then look to see if the bus stop they use is accessible or if the buses on that route can accommodate their disability.
Cash digitization
Riders can digitize cash at InComm locations with account-based media only. They can digitize cash at other locations such as ticket vending machines with card- or account-based media.
Card based fare media considerations
I see two big benefits for transit agencies that use account-based fare media to also continue with card-based fare media.
Ease of distribution
For example, your agency could sell a pre-loaded box of magnetic cards with a specific fare (such as one ride or one day or one week) coded onto them to an organization, then the organization could hand them out quickly and easily without having to track them. For example, an emergency department at a hospital could hand out single-ride cards to discharged patients, or a teacher taking a field trip on public transit could distribute 1-day pass cards to each student.
Bulk distribution can also be handled by the transit agency directly. Transit agency staff could hand out single-ride cards like candy to the rush of people leaving a sports stadium after a game to speed foot traffic through a nearby transit center.
Ease of system access
The second benefit of card-based fare media is that the media knows it has value on it whether or not the farebox or validator is aware of the product or value on the card. For example, a seven-day pass has the same value whether the rider has used it once or 20 times, so all the farebox needs to know is that it’s a seven-day pass.
Keeping the value of the products or stored value locally does not require the fare validators to be aware of the media’s circulation for it to be accepted. Account-based fare media requires greater connectivity throughout the system for passes use.
There’s precedent for both
Most Genfare customers who are running account-based systems also offer cards. They could be sharing the same fare media for both systems or using, for example, magnetics for card-based and smart cards for account-based.
One customer that’s doing this really well is Capital District Transit Authority in Albany, N.Y. (Read the case study here.) They rely heavily on the organizations they partner with, who also use both types of fare media. An employer like a social service agency could set employees up with an account-based transit benefit system using the mobile app, but also issue card-based fares to its clients.
Today, the biggest challenge of account-based, as I mentioned earlier, is internet connectivity. But that is constantly improving all over the country, so even if your buses are frequently out of cellular or WiFi range today, they could be better connected next year. Genfare’s Fast Fare farebox is constructed modularly and can be configured to add components later. They could also come pre-installed but not in use until they are activated later. The open architecture of Genfare Link make co-mingling legacy card-based media and account-based media seamless.
You really can’t go wrong using card AND account-based fare media.
Card v. account at a glance
Daniel Gorey is a solution architect and interim Customer Care manager at Genfare.