Bus passengers in the East Midlands are getting a digital first with the launch of trentbarton’s mango app for smart phones.
The mango app is the world’s most advanced ticketing app for buses and will, in time, replace the plastic mango cards which have been in use since 2008.
More than 100,000 mango cards are currently active and 678,142 have been issued during the past 12 years.
The mango app is the world’s first account-based ticketing app from a bus company which calculates the right fare for the customer using scan on, scan off technology, via a QR code. Customers can download the mango app for free for their Apple or Android devices. The app has an on-screen balance and online top up.
After topping up with credit, either within the app or at a trentbarton travel shop, customers then use the app each time they travel. The mango app automatically generates a unique QR-style barcode to be scanned as the customer gets on board.
Customers will also scan their phone under the driver’s ticket machine when getting off. Each night the mango system will calculate the right fares to charge for the day’s journeys, including the mango discount on single trip cash fares.
As well as a daily cap on charges there are also rolling weekly and 28-day caps so customers can be confident there is a limit to what they spend, however frequently they travel on trentbarton buses. There are discounts for students and apprentices.
Existing mango customers can continue using their physical mango card for two months during which they can migrate at any time onto the app, easily transferring any credit from the card to the app.
Jeff Counsell, managing director of trentbarton, said: “We’ve taken the best bits of the mango card and put them into the mango app plus added more to bring mango into the smartphone age.
“By being purely digital, the mango app gives us the scope to keep developing mango in the future by adding in more features and benefits for our customers.
“trentbarton has always been an innovator and brought new firsts to bus travel throughout our history. mango was already a ground-breaking fare cap payment method and the app will propel mango into the future.”
Customers without a smart phone or device can still pay by tapping on and tapping off with their contactless debit or credit cards, or buy a saver pass or pay with cash.