City’s aim to increase bus usage will benefit retailers
Welwyn Garden City, 12 August 2014: Cardiff Bus has announced a new partnership with PayPoint to launch its new generation of electronic bus ticketing, while at the same time making it much easier for customers to top up their travel cards.
Cardiff Bus carries 100,000 passengers on 3,000 journeys covering 27,000 miles every day - the equivalent of going to the moon and back 20 times every year! The company’s current ITSO-compliant iff contactless smartcard allows customers to travel on its buses using prepaid cards, which can only be loaded on the bus or at the customer information outlets.
With over 180 PayPoint retailers in the Cardiff, Barry, Dinas Powys and Penarth area, the new service makes it much easier for all iff customers to top up their cards. Having obtained a smartcard from Cardiff Bus, customers have a range of ticket and value options each time they top up at PayPoint. PayPoint terminals and PPoS units are already configured to automatically read the contactless cards.
Announcing the partnership, Peter Heath, Operations and Commercial Director of Cardiff Bus, said: “The emphasis with the iff smartcard product range has always been on customer convenience and great value for money, but they also help to speed up bus boarding times, making overall journey times faster for everyone.
“Most PayPoint facilities are situated in local newsagents and convenience stores near households in both rural and urban areas so now people can easily top up their smartcard when buying daily groceries or the newspaper. Customers should just look out for the PayPoint sign, tell staff in the shop how much they want to load and the card will be instantly topped up.
“Our partnership with PayPoint makes travelling with a smartcard even more attractive and customer-friendly, and we hope many more people will take advantage of this facility to travel around our network by bus.”
Andrew Goddard, Retail Director at PayPoint, added: “We are delighted to be partnering with Cardiff Bus so that its customers will able to ease their bus travel by topping up their smartcards in advance at more convenient times and locations as most PayPoint outlets are open long hours, seven days a week.
“As a result, PayPoint retailers in South Wales will benefit from the extra footfall and top-ups as well as all the other payments and purchases customers will make while in the store. This is a great opportunity to win new customers!
“We expect to be expanding our smart ticketing capabilities across different parts of the country during this year and next, another illustration of how PayPoint is constantly striving to provide opportunities to increase footfall and sales in our retail partners’ stores. At the same time, we are continually introducing new schemes and service improvements to save them money and increase their profits.”
For further information on the new Cardiff Bus PayPoint top-up service, click www.cardiffbus.com.
ENDS
For further press information, please contact:
PayPoint Press Office
Karla Winch/Cathy Donald
Brands2Life
[email protected]
020 7592 1200 / 07793 287749 / 07821 571296
PayPoint
Peter Brooker
Head of Corporate Affairs
[email protected]
07900 418960
Cardiff Bus
Gareth Stevens
Business Development Manager
[email protected]
02920 787700
Notes to Editors:
PayPoint top-up prices are the same as topping up at any other Cardiff Bus sales outlet. Customers do not pay any additional charges to PayPoint retailers for any top-ups processed.
ABOUT CARDIFF BUS
Cardiff Bus operates a comprehensive network of services throughout Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan and to/from Newport from early to late seven days a week. Offering a wide range of value for money fares all services operated by modern, easy access vehicles that makes travelling by bus a real alternative.
