Unicard is pleased to announce that it has been selected by Nottinghamshire County Council to provide the smart ticketing infrastructure that will support the County Council’s concessionary travel scheme. Nottinghamshire has adopted a suite of Unicard’s fully hosted and managed solutions that cover transport data management, integration and payments.
The integrated solutions allow Nottinghamshire County Council to manage all aspects of its ENCTS concessionary travel card scheme for elderly and disabled residents across the region. This includes Unicard’s Host Operator or Processing System (HOPS), Unicard’s Customer/Card Management System (CMS) and Unicard’s Concessionary Portal (CCRS).
The Unicard HOPS supports the full range of ITSO smart ticketing schemes, processing and validating concessionary fares and customer journeys. Nottinghamshire County council can use the HOPS to access transaction and travel data in real time to support the passenger or to reconcile fares with local bus operators, in line with ENCTS.
Unicard’s CMS is a web-based solution that enables the council to manage all aspects of their concessionary travel cards from cardholder registration to production. Once a smart card application has been processed, the new requests are sent automatically via the CMS to a local printing bureau for final production. Smart cards are then fulfilled and delivered to the cardholder’s address. And the CMS allows the ongoing management of the concession entitlement and associated cards.
The CMS will be fully integrated with the Nottinghamshire customer-facing website (CCRS), which is tailored for concessionary travel schemes and configured to meet end-user requirements. It is simple and intuitive to navigate, ensuring elderly and disabled residents can complete their applications online for travel smart cards in a few easy steps, with assistance as required.
Both the CMS and CCRS systems can also be used internally by council staff if required, to process smart card applications on a resident’s behalf in a matter of minutes. This process ensures that all eligible residents who qualify for concessionary travel can access the services to which they are entitled.
The contract agreement was made following a Framework procurement process set-up by Nottinghamshire County Council. The Nottinghamshire Framework is also available to other Local Authorities to procure the Unicard solution for up to 5 years with extensions available up to further 5 years as well as a complementary card bureau service from Euclid.
Dave Bennett, Ticketing & Client Engagement Officer at Nottinghamshire County Council said: “Concessionary travel plays an important role in the community. We’re committed to maintaining a reliable and accessible service for elderly and disabled residents. It was important that we were able to work with a partner that could deliver a service that can be easily accessed online and through traditional channels. Unicard provided the County Council with a set of integrated solutions that manage passenger data and transactions, and also deliver a consistent and high-quality user experience”.
Sean Dickinson, CEO of Unicard, explained: “Unicard has an excellent track record of working with Local Authorities throughout the United Kingdom. We are delighted and proud to be providing Nottinghamshire with a fully hosted and managed infrastructure that supports all of their ENCTS requirements. We’ve always worked closely with our customers to help them innovate and address new challenges and we look forward to developing our new relationship with Nottinghamshire”.
He added: “We deliver the capabilities to manage both concessionary and commercial travel schemes. Our smart ticketing and mobility solutions allow our customers to improve existing services and introduce new schemes that incorporate bus and rail, with bikes, e-scooters and other flexible travel options”.