OV-betalen for international travellers

Abstract

This study presents the development of a future vision and service proposition to improve the experience of international travellers when using public transportation in the Netherlands in a user-centred way. The focus is set on international travellers, who arrive at an airport in the Netherlands. Purchasing public transportation tickets in the Netherlands is a hurdle due to OV-betalen, which refers to different varieties of electronic payment in public transportation in the Netherlands. International travellers, who are most frequently first time users of the system, do not know how to acquire an OV-chipkaart (electronic public transportation ticket), what travel products to select and in general make more mistakes throughout their journey, because they do not have established routines like domestic travellers. This is a significant challenge to the Netherlands, as according to a study commissioned by NBTC Holland Marketing, “inbound tourism is a major growth industry within the Dutch economy”. In this study the third main complaint of visitors to the Netherlands is the lack of user-friendliness of public transportation, and it is suggested to improve the smartcard and payment options for travellers (the first is regarding information provision for travellers in general and the second concerns too high process for services). If the Dutch public transportation system provides a better service, not only the travellers benefit from the improved service, but the Netherlands as a country can largely benefit from the travellers. Travellers would have a convenient access to the whole country (as most inbound tourists only travel to Amsterdam) meaning that tourism would spread in the Netherlands. In this project, the TU Delft cooperates with Connexxion, GVB, KLM, NS, RET and Schiphol Group. The study’s approach focuses on the human, societal, technological and business aspect of the product-service system. The project emphasizes the human aspect; therefore the desirability of the product-service-system and the users’ needs and perspectives are prioritised. However, the expertise of the project partners is also fundamental during the process as it provides insight on the feasibility and viability of the proposed solutions. Future Vision: The Dutch public transportation is one system, ran by multiple operators, that cooperate in the backend to provide transparent and unified information to facilitate the usage of the system to its customers in the frontend, in areas, where they do not compete. Service Proposition: Improving infinformation provision and offering a homogenous array of tickets and payment methods it is essential to better the system and the experience of international travellers. To achieve this, the public transportation operators have to share certain touchpoints (such as a website, an app, the interface of ticket vending machines or staff), as well as cooperate to homogenize ticket names and payment options. In order to do so the operators should share a platform to provide information and facilitate ticket purchase. There are basic requirements that must be taken into account when developing the vision and service proposition: • Accessibility of information: Travellers should be able to access information about public transportation throughout travel phases (before, during and after usage), contexts of use and touchpoints. • Transparency of information: Travellers should have an overview of the available possibilities within the public transportation system in terms of transportation modalities, time of travel and price to travel. • Clarity of information: Travellers should be able to understand the information provided to them in the languages available, the terminology used and the design of the different touchpoints. The proposed service is based on a platform for payment in public transport, shared by the public transportation operators. It is embodied by a more digitized system, which also offers alternatives and back-up options to the digital services and a balance between self-service and service personnel. Ultimately, the future vision and service proposition focus on the users’ needs and are technologically feasible. Certain organizational changes must take place in order to make the proposition viable. The following recommendations establish steppingstones towards improving the experience of international travellers when using the Dutch public transportation system: • Cooperation amongst PTOs: It is imperative that operators work on the service of transportation as a unity, because they currently share a system, but do not always share their services in terms of providing information, assistance or tickets that build up the system. • Include all stakeholders in the process: Further stakeholders, such as tourism organisations, airports and passenger airlines, can positively contribute when developing solutions to improve the experiences of international travellers. The stakeholders share contexts and in some cases the touchpoints that travellers use and interact with. • Have a user-centred mind-set: Without travellers and their need of mobility, there would be no necessity of providing public transportation. The impact that the PSS design has on users is critical to provide a better service and also impacts the technological, business and societal aspect of the system. • Improve the accessibility of information throughout the system: Public transportation is a service designed for everyone in society, hence it is crucial to optimize information accessibility for everyone: different types of travellers, throughout different travel phases, in different contexts of use, that interact with different touchpoints must be able to access information. • Unify information provision: Unified information will avoid that confusing or misleading information is provided, as well as information overload. The information should be transparent and give enough knowledge to the travellers to make the best choices concerning their trip and their preferences. The PTOs and other stakeholders should facilitate the link for their shared platform to the users. • Simplify and unify ticketing & payment: Although the Dutch public transportation system shares one payment system (the OV-chipkaart system), the individual PTOs have different product types and ticket names. Simplifying the ticket range, unifying the product range and providing a wide range of the same payment methods throughout the system can make ticket selection and acquisition better for international travellers. Guided by these recommendations, a more user-centred and user-friendly public transportation service can be developed. Improving the public transportation system will benefit the users, the PTOs and other stakeholders, as well as the Netherlands as a whole.