Mobile payment has become a payment method in public traffic for the first time in Finland – this payment method can now be used for buying bus tickets in Turku, Oulu and Hyvinkää. It is made possible by the cooperation of MobilePay and iQ Payments. Tickets are charged directly on charge card instead of phone bill.
Turku, Oulu and Hyvinkää are the first Finnish cities that have taken into use MobilePay as a payment method for bus tickets in their public traffic mobile applications. Turku’s Föli, Oulun joukkoliikenne and Hyvinkää’s Paikkuri applications make it possible to pay for trips mobile – payment can be made with just one swipe.
– In many earlier applications mobile tickets have been charged on phone bill instead of charge card. This has caused problems for example for people that have a company cell phone plan and have not been able to purchase tickets. We want to offer easier and more flexible possibilities to pay for traveling, says Anniina Heinonen, Head of MobilePay Sales and Partnering.
At the same time as cash usage is decreasing, the pace of urbanization is accelerating and mobility as a service is one of the future mainstreams of intelligent urban design. MobilePay and mobile payment startup company iQ Payments are part of this development.
– This is the reason why our cooperation with MobilePay is significant. We see that in the future various public traffic tickets, taxies, rental cars, city bikes, shared rides and event tickets can be paid for easier than ever before with our application – with one payment method, says the CEO of iQ Payments, Tuomo Parjanen.
Rapid Growth Expected in Turku and Oulu
The first cities that offer MobilePay are excited about the possibilities that come with the new payment method. Mobile tickets are very popular in Turku and Oulu: since April about 250,000 mobile tickets have been sold in these cities and sales are growing at a monthly rate of 15%.
Customers of Turku region public traffic Föli have been able to purchase modern mobile tickets for over two years. Mobile tickets have been delivered to Föli by Turku-based company iQ Payments Oy. Since the start of the service available payment methods have been bank and credit cards, operator billing and consolidated invoicing. More than 25,000 people have registered as users of the service and currently more than 10,000 tickets are bought monthly.
– Usage of the service has been growing all the time, which says a lot about the convenience of buying and using mobile tickets. Since the beginning one of the main objectives of developing the mobile ticket has been offering customers alternative payment methods, and taking MobilePay into use is a continuation of this course. I suspect that this will further increase the usage of mobile tickets, says the Development Director of Föli, Seppo Kemppainen.
– At the same time we are making preparations to expand our product selection so that in addition to single and day tickets also season tickets can be purchased with mobile phones. By developing our services this way we are answering to the needs of our customers, says Kemppainen.
In Oulu public traffic the number of passengers has been firmly growing. By the end of September 2016 there has been over 14% more passengers than at the same time previous year. Oulu is known as a strong technology city and new IT applications are taken into use boldly, and a mobile application for smart phones is not an exception.
The ample usage of the mobile application is partly explained by the youthful age profile of the city and abundance of students. Oulu public traffic values satisfied passengers and customers and offering new payment methods and alternatives to them is important and possible with smart phone application. So we had no hesitations when we decided to add MobilePay as an alternative payment method, says Hannu Honkanen, Head of Logistics at City of Oulu.
How does MobilePay work in public traffic?
- Open the public traffic mobile application and choose the ticket you want to purchase
- Choose MobilePay as your payment method and click buy
- MobilePay mobile payment application will launch automatically after you have confirmed the payment
- After payment has been made you will be returned to the public traffic mobile application where the mobile ticket will be ready and you can start your trip by showing it to the driver.
