METRO Pulls Off Industry Firsts with Q Card
Wednesday, April 09, 2008 7:10 PM
Nine days ago, we did something so rare in the industry that other transit agencies nationwide are touting METRO as a model.
We completed the switch to a smart card called the Q Card, and we completed our fare restructuring – at the same time!
Last week at a national conference in Boston of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), the premiere transportation trade group, METRO was the envy of other transit agencies.
“Most of the other transit professionals in Boston thought it was a Herculean accomplishment to not only implement new technology but a new fare structure at the same time,” said Jeff Linton, METRO’s director of revenue. “We got rid of 65 different types of magnetic and paper tickets and reduced it to two: Q Card and cash. That was to our counterparts in the industry, an amazing feat to accomplish in such a short time frame from January 2 to March 31.”
Other transit agencies that have switched to a smart card continue to use an assortment of fare media and passes.
Three main factors contributed to our success. First, we conducted 11 months of extensive testing of the system that began in February 2007. That testing included Q Card usse with our beta group of testers, METRO employees and consultants. Testing the Q Card long before the general public began using it helped us work out the glitches.
In addition, METRO conducted a comprehensive marketing and customer information campaign – blanketing the city with signs, brochures, commercials, and advertisements. The local media - from neighborhood freebies to the Houston Chronicle – covered the switchover. We created “Ask Me” teams who wore red vests and stood where are customers travel, handing out Q Card starter kits.
And thirdly, we layered that with “the due diligence and tremendous effort put forth by METRO’s staff to make sure all the different components of the Q Card worked and came together,” said Linton.
We had three critical dates with a separate marketing component within each date: Jan 2 – official kick-off of the Q Card; Feb. 29 – last day of cash transfers; and March 31 – last day to use magnetic striped fare media.
We also were driven by a mandate from the top to make the Q Card easy and convenient.
“The president and CEO, Frank Wilson, had a goal to ensure that customers had the ability to not only receive Q Cards, but to have locations where they could add value across the city of Houston and our service area,” said Linton.
So we developed a broad network of retail stores – Kroger, Randalls, Fiesta, Valero gas stations – where customers could pick up a Q Card and load money. We have about 370 devices at these locations. Click here for the full list.
We developed our Web site so that on Day One, customers could add to their balance on-line. As of yesterday, 305 customers loaded money on-line, and 604 Ride Sponsor clients loaded money. Total on-line revenue: $36,000.
We made sure our 16 transit centers were staffed Monday through Saturday for customers to pick up Q Cards and add money.
And METRO, along with its fare vendor, invented something no other agency has: the BBR – back-of-the-bus reloader where passengers can use cash to add money to their Q Card.
“We are the first and only one in the country to do that,” said Linton. “Our goal was to make sure there were plenty of opportunities for customers to get Q Cards and get reloads.”
In fact, the BBRs appear to be a hit with our customers. More customers are using BBRs to reload their Q Card than any other method, said Linton. As of yesterday, METRO recorded 16,058 transactions with BBRs, totaling $34,271.
Most of our customers are using the Q Card – 71 percent as of yesterday. That translates to 186,342 transactions, totaling $145,705.50.
Cash customers made up 28 percent with 54,894 transactions and $57,330 in revenue.
Single-use tickets on the Ticket Vending Machines (TVM) were used by 1 percent of our customers with 3,570 transactions, totaling $3,570 in revenue.
(All transaction numbers include transfers, which is why revenues are lower than transactions.)
While Houston has the same number of buses as Philadelphia and Boston, METRO’s service area sprawls out over hundreds of square miles. “Our geographic size made the implementation of the Q Card more challenging,” said Linton. “We had to reach not only our Park & Ride riders but our urban riders, as well. We had two distinct customer groups.”
It is appropos that next year’s fare collection conference will be held in the Bayou City.
“Everybody wants to come to Houston to find out how we did it,” said Linton.