Retailers with PayPoint could soon be offering transport tickets as part of efforts to broaden the range of services offered to consumers through the terminals.
PayPoint has spent 12 months looking at how best to expand into the transport arena. It is currently running trials with Arriva in Cheshire, National Express in Brighton and One-Ticket, a travel card concept run by a consortium of rail and bus operators in south-east Scotland.
Talks are also under way with three national operators with a view to having more services go live early next year. And PayPoint says it will be offering a smartcard top-up facility by May of next year thanks to a deal with a “major regional service”.
MD Dominic Taylor is excited by the prospects in the transport arena, building on its success in dealing with London’s congestion charge service. In particular, he feels it will be able to tap into new opportunities with the £6m roll-out next year of a new PayPoint terminal. This features a touchscreen operating system, which makes it easier for retailers to handle complex services, and has a contactless card reader which will be ideal for topping up the smartcard transport ticketing systems being developed around the country.
“The new terminal will be our vehicle for driving business and future applications for the next few years,” said Taylor.
He added: “We want to create a basket of services that consumers can access through these outlets and bring things to convenience stores that were not there before, such as congestion charging.”
Taylor also highlighted trials of other new services, including mail order parcel collection and returns in Yorkshire, mail order payments for Littlewoods early next year and trials of a BT landline prepay facility.
Acknowledging the sustained criticism PayPoint has attracted over the low commission offered on utility payments, Taylor said the business was investing heavily to expand its basket of services. New services attracted better commission rates. Travel ticketing services, for instance, will come with commission of 2% or more.
Taylor pointed out that while utilities accounted for two-thirds of its transactions, that would fall to half next year.
And he expressed PayPoint’s frustration that its critics “cherry picked” its basket of services to highlight only the lowest commission element rather than the overall rates earned.
PayPoint has spent 12 months looking at how best to expand into the transport arena. It is currently running trials with Arriva in Cheshire, National Express in Brighton and One-Ticket, a travel card concept run by a consortium of rail and bus operators in south-east Scotland.
Talks are also under way with three national operators with a view to having more services go live early next year. And PayPoint says it will be offering a smartcard top-up facility by May of next year thanks to a deal with a “major regional service”.
MD Dominic Taylor is excited by the prospects in the transport arena, building on its success in dealing with London’s congestion charge service. In particular, he feels it will be able to tap into new opportunities with the £6m roll-out next year of a new PayPoint terminal. This features a touchscreen operating system, which makes it easier for retailers to handle complex services, and has a contactless card reader which will be ideal for topping up the smartcard transport ticketing systems being developed around the country.
“The new terminal will be our vehicle for driving business and future applications for the next few years,” said Taylor.
He added: “We want to create a basket of services that consumers can access through these outlets and bring things to convenience stores that were not there before, such as congestion charging.”
Taylor also highlighted trials of other new services, including mail order parcel collection and returns in Yorkshire, mail order payments for Littlewoods early next year and trials of a BT landline prepay facility.
Acknowledging the sustained criticism PayPoint has attracted over the low commission offered on utility payments, Taylor said the business was investing heavily to expand its basket of services. New services attracted better commission rates. Travel ticketing services, for instance, will come with commission of 2% or more.
Taylor pointed out that while utilities accounted for two-thirds of its transactions, that would fall to half next year.
And he expressed PayPoint’s frustration that its critics “cherry picked” its basket of services to highlight only the lowest commission element rather than the overall rates earned.
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