Snapper Card integration??

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Snapper Card integration??

gillks

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#59961 15-Apr-2010 15:48

I'm a big fan of integrated transport infrastructure (comes from be growing up in London i suppose). Anyway, the Snapper card is now well and truly bedded into Wellington life, and after a few teething troubles in the first year or so, it seems to be working quite well. I would liek to ask the following questions however, perhaps somefrom from Snapper could shed some light?

1) When will we be able to use the snapper on Tranz Metro trains?
2) Some banks have introduced a Visa debit card instead of using EFTPOS. (e.g. Kiwibank) These devices allow for using a debit card on the internet and abroad - given the Visa PayWave mechanism (smartcard), will it ever be possible to integrate this with Snapper? For inspiration see the Barclaycard Visa PayWave card with Transport for Londons Oystercard built in : http://www.barclaycard-onepulse.co.uk/cardDetail.html

how far away are we from doing this?

sbiddle

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#318898 15-Apr-2010 16:13

The decision to use Snapper on other forms of transport or other bus companies is a complex issue. Snapper only exists to provide a ticketing solution for Infratil's bus assets, in this case NZ Bus. It is not a Regional Council solution for ticketing across all forms of Council subsidised transport.

Any such decisions come more political now that NZTA have become involved in the tickting saga and have pledged funding for Auckland and other regions in NZ.

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#318919 15-Apr-2010 16:31

FYI: You do know that EFTPOS encapsulate all form of electronic-based fund transfer at point of sales (hence EFTPOS), and that includes VISA Debit, or Credit Card and bank cards...

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gillks

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#318927 15-Apr-2010 16:40

Hi cheifie,

Yes I do - but essentially, I am trying to make the distinction that a traditional EFTPOS card (regardless of the payment mechaism behind it) cannot be used overseas, nor can it be used to purchase over the internet whereas a Visa debit card can.

cheers

gillks

rscole86

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#318946 15-Apr-2010 17:05

gillks, you seem to be confused still, or maybe we just do not understand you?

Eftpos cards CAN be used overseas. Anywhere that has the 'plus' or 'cirrus' logos can accept debit cards, AFAIK this is limited to ATMs, and credit cards can be used in even more places.

nickb800

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#318961 15-Apr-2010 17:17

An issue to consider with the trains is that its a lot harder to implement - it needs a lot more infrastructure
Due to the multiple entrances to a carriage, you would need to have a snapper reader on every single door, with a way to control who enters at every door, and a way for cash users to pay and go in.
Buses are easy as they only have one entry door, and the driver happens to sitting right next to it.

From what i saw in sydney (and i presume london), they have turnstyles which take your ticket/smartcard/whatever as you enter the station. This could easily work at wellington station, but its a lot of work to create a secure envrionment at every little station along the line.

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#318999 15-Apr-2010 19:04

You can use an EFTPOS card at virtually any terminal worldwide that accepts Cirrus or Maestro cards. This includes both ATM's and retail POS terminals.

The train issue requires a fundamental move away from the current system. As mentioned above turnstyles need to be installed at every station or a fundamental change in the ticketing system to one like Melbourne where a ticket is valid for 2 hours on any form of transport within the same zone (and there are only 3 from memory).

I'd love to see integrated tickeing but to be honest the current system of guards is fantastic.

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#319199 16-Apr-2010 08:37

Snapper have been looking at setting up kiosks at train stations for alternative payment sources, but they have lost the right to have the integrated ticketing in Auckland.

The Snapper system doesn't need to be integrated into the transport infastructure as such, provided the authorities allow them to offer Snapper as a means of payment - hence the kiosk idea.

They are still committed to rolling out a far wider solution before the world cup as far as I know. But that's just second-hand anecdotal stuff, so I may not be entirely correct.

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mikman

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#321045 20-Apr-2010 22:55

@gillks

Thanks for your thoughts on Snapper

1. We can't talk about rail at the moment - read into that as you will!

2. We are doing a lot of the foundational work for integration of the Snapper application into other smartcards, and opening up the Snapper smartcard for other applications. To answer the question on timing - too soon to say at the moment. We are doing some interesting things with staff ID cards that point to where we want to go here. http://www.snapper.co.nz/blog/?p=2157Lots of technical and commercial work to do before we can say anything concrete.

In the meantime we're doing plenty of other things with Snapper driven off the retail purchase side of the business. You can use your Snapper to buy movie tickets at Reading, ferry tickets for East West Ferries and a bunch of other stuff at the more than 200 other retailers around.

The next big category on the horizon for us is taxis - expect to see close to 1000 taxis accepting Snapper in May/June this year.

We are also doing a bunch of work around standards that will allow integration with a bunch of other services. All very vague I know - we'll tell you more when we can.

Cheers

Miki
CEO Snapper