The
Gambia Transport Services Company (GTSC) will on 1 August 2017 launch a new
service called “Paperless Ticketing system.”
According
GTSC officials, this new service, is a pilot program meant to reduce the
tendency of tickets being lost or stolen.
This
new service, which will cover the Supex Express and Nuwari Express and is
limited only to the KM passengers, will operate for two months.
It
will then be extended to all regions and the sub-region, depending on the
success of the pilot programme.
Speaking
at the press briefing held at the GTSC conference room yesterday, the general
manager of GTSC, Habibou Drammeh, gave an overview of these new services.
He
said the paperless (Mobile and Email) ticketing system is intended to allow
passengers to obtain their tickets via mobile phones.
He
explained that mobile tickets reduce the production and distribution cost
connected with traditional paper- based ticketing channels and increase
customers’ convenience by providing new and simple ways to purchase tickets.
According
to him, the objective and advantages attached to this is to improve consumer’s
convenience, increase revenue by increasing accessibility of tickets, reduce
infrastructure cost, storage space, ticket transporting cost, and reduce ticket
printing cost.
Regarding
the implementation strategy, Mr Drammeh said the system would initially be used to sell tickets on
the Supex express and Nuwari express from Kanfing and subsequently for services
in the reverse directions.
He
said once customers pay for their tickets an SMS will be sent to their phones
indicating; travel date, time, destination and customer details.
He
added that prior to departure of the bus, a passenger manifest with all the
passengers’ details will be printed and given to the driver.
He
also explained that at the boarding point, the driver will check their text
details and match this against the manifest, and then put a check against their
names.
He
indicated that inspectors boarding the bus will collect this manifest and
validates SMS tickets against manifest.
He
said if the passenger’s phone battery is low or phone is missing, then their ID
cards details would be checked against the manifest to confirm payments.
Mr
Drammeh expressed hope that the new services will reduce the tendency of
tickets being lost or stolen.
