Dan Beer Sheva
Efficient public transportation is one of the top priorities that the city of Be’er Sheva has defined in its quest to become Israel’s first smart city. A comprehensive mobile ticketing solution, powered by HopOn, enables cashless and hassle-free travel on the entire urban network.
Implemented within as little as three months and with zero upfront investment, the HopOn system currently supports CiBo validation. In the second phase, HopOn is to power the future of ticketing: automated ticket sale and validation (BiBo) in an account-based best-price model.
The Client
In 2006, the Dan Transportation Group founded Dan Be’er Sheva (DBS), with the aim to introduce and operate smart transportation in Be’er Sheva. The city is the commercial center of Israel’s southern Negev region, a hub serving 750’000 regional citizens.
With its growing tech sector, the city aspires to become Israel’s first smart city and focuses on advanced public transportation.
Since the start of operations, DBS has introduced a variety of technical means to improve safety, efficiency, passenger experience, and drivers’ work conditions. DBS operates 180 buses in the city, executing close to 3000 trips a day.
Business Model and Implementation
Working in a revenue share model, DBS didn’t have any upfront investment and only pays HopOn as passengers start adopting m-ticketing.
Within only three months, the flexible system was configured and implemented on the entire urban and suburban network. Any ticket – single, daily, weekly or monthly – can now be purchased through the mobile App.
Mobile Ticketing
When starting operations in 2016, DBS eliminated ticket sales on the bus as one of the first milestones. With paper tickets and smart cards originally in use, DBS was looking for an m-ticketing solution that could further improve efficiency and later support a modern account-based pricing model.
The HopOn ticketing solution for CiBo validation offers just this: A simple beacon on the bus identifies registered users upon boarding and sends them a push notification to confirm check-in. Be-out is registered when the passenger’s mobile phone no longer receives the signal. On suburban buses without beacons, GPS is used to identify passengers’ location when activating the ticket.
With the system being able to validate simultaneously multiple tickets, HopOn users simply hop on the bus without swiping cards or stamping tickets, reducing queues and boarding times.
Besides, the system also delivers DBS valuable data on passenger volumes and behavior, both real-time and for long-term planning.
DBS also selected HopOn as it supports their plan to implement automated ticket sales and account-based ticketing (ABT). In this BeBo scenario, a combination of GPS and beacon signals enables to capture passen gers’ exact bus rides and sell them tickets. The actual billing occurs only afterwards, according to the best
pricing plan available