A large University offering a unique bus pass solution for students & staff.
The Challenge
- Create a bus pass solution that allows students at VCC to
use their student ID card to access U-Passes, a universal transit
pass program for students in British Colombia.
- Monitor had to think 'outside the square' for a unit that
will dispense the bus passes as required.
- Ensuring that each student only gets one pass per person
and that duplicates are not created.
- Reduction of cash handling and administration
costs.
- Ensure that students had a fast, efficient system to
avoid time wasted with manual purchasing of the U-Pass.
The Solution
With many meetings between Monitor's development team and eCard
ID Products Ltd, Monitor's partner in Canada, it was decided that
the best option was to use an autoloader to dispense the U-Passes
to students. This was the most efficient and cost effective
solution and has very little ongoing maintenance, an outcome that
VCC were very happy with.
The Result
Using the AL4000 series of autoloaders, the development team at
Monitor created a unit that reads student's ID card when swiped at
the terminal. Once swiped the card information gets sent back to
Supervisor Net where the users account is authorised to proceed
(providing there are sufficient funds in the users account). A
U-Pass is then dispensed to the student for use of various forms of
public transport throughout Metro Vancouver.
Five dispensing units were installed on campus at VCC and the
feedback from students has only been positive. The students are
elated in the speed of which their bus pass is dispensed from the
machines.
The installation of these machines has also meant that VCC have
not had to hire more administration staff to cater for the high
demands through manual distribution of the bus passes. Because of
this process it has also reduced the financial risk with the
existing transit provider.
The Future
The solution has been a huge success for VCC and Monitor. The
entire package of the hardware and software for the solution to run
seamlessly has been touted as a market leader amongst higher
education institutions in British Columbia. Monitor have installed
the solution in the following higher education institutions:
- The University of British Columbia
- Simon Fraser University
- British Columbia Institute of Technology
- Kwantlen Polytechnic University
- Capilano University
- Langara College
- Douglas College
"Students love it and in most cases are stunned at how quick they can get their U-Pass without lining up. We implemented five machines throughout the campus and there has never been a line up on any of the machines."
Ben Guanzon