When Will Blockchain Technology Reach the Transit Industry?
When Will Blockchain Technology Reach the Transit Industry?
Staff at EDR Group and our affiliate EBP in Switzerland (www.ebp.ch) have been assembling information on how blockchain technology can be used by the passenger transportation service providers. We believe that there are plenty of potential uses that could also be beneficial to the transit industry and would be worth exploring further. Below are some of the potential use cases that this technology could provide for the transit industry.
Need / use case for BC |
Advantages of BC / remark |
Integrated ticketing for trip chains with multiple service providers |
Automatic real-time changes in reservations can be implemented in case of delay |
Incentive to become a regular rider - loyalty program |
Loyalty programs for multiple service providers are easily implemented without common centralized server infrastructure; loyalty points are tamper-proof |
Issue of tamper-proof, non-copiable tickets |
Preventing forgery and illegal copying of data is at the very core of BC |
Automatic, tamper-proof, and transparent accounting procedures between different service providers |
Payments because of non-compliance with punctuality targets (requires access to real-life travel performance database) |
Ticket-related use cases |
Examples: allow resale of unused personalized tickets (for a given fee), cancellation, and refund procedures |
Payments of statutory compensation for delays and defaults |
Automatic and transparent refund procedures |
Insurance against delays or cancellations |
Easy registration for insurance coverage, automatic payment procedures according to policy conditions |
Door-to-door transportation chain |
BC simplifies inclusion of ride-hailing services into one single ticket |
Demand-driven, dynamic provision of services by different carriers |
BC significantly simplifies matching of mobility demand in real-time, using standard procedures |
Automatic fare reductions linked to age, retirement, disabilities etc. |
Automatic processing / refunds (requires access to the necessary data) |
Use of linked passenger data |
BC allows passengers to easily provide and block the necessary personal data |
Tamper-proof documentation of vehicle-related data |
Examples: Date and type of maintenance work, origin of spare parts etc. |
Loyalty Program for Transit Riders | Automatic rewards for loyal riders, e.g. when they are ready to share their travel data or to adjust their travel behaviour. |
Exchange of data between vehicles in real time with a wide set of use cases, e.g. decision whether to break a scheduled connection, optimized use of fleets etc. |
BC spares the purchase of special hardware and development of carrier-specific software. |