UK: Vix Technology Wins MasterCard Transport Ticketing Technology of the Year Award

At the Transport Ticketing 2014 Conference and Expo Jan. 27, Vix Technology was announced as the winner of the prestigious Transport Ticketing Technology of the Year. The award recognizes continuing advancements in the fare collection system Vix Technology originally designed and operates for Salt Lake City’s Utah Transit Authority (UTA).

The award recognizes the advances in applying contactless payment technologies, including support of prepaid contactless card products into the open-payment, electronic fare collection platform called Vix eO (easy and open). The new product is called UTA Farepay and is added to the list of existing payment types. Vix continues to leverage advanced contactless technology and the eO system enables riders to pay their fares not only with cards issued by the UTA, the Farepay prepaid card, but also with student and employee ID cards, bank-issued credit cards, ISIS mobile wallet and Google Wallets. This new technology is widely available as part of Vix global open payment fare collection offering based on commercially available off the shelf software components.

“UTA is excited to hear that Vix has been chosen for MasterCard’s Transport Technology of the Year award. It is a reflection on Vix’s unique open systems approach and the extensibility of the Vix eO platform architecture to be able to handle new payment methods for transit, such as pre-paid cards, so easily. We are eager to continue to work with Vix and the industry as we strive to continually make it easier to pay for and improve the overall transit rider experience,” said Clair Fiet, UTA’s chief technology officer.

The Vix system is account-based and the back-office software manages ridership processing – taps, trips, journeys, fare calculations, transfer rules, payment options and handles agency settlement and complex fare rules. For agencies, the value of an open-architecture, account-based solution provides flexibility and ensures a future-proof system that reduces costs and improves performance. 

“The Vix eO payment platform is business-critical for our customers. It provides the foundation for a great commuter experience and reduces operating cost for transit agencies. As a result, our systems must be able to effortlessly and rapidly process large volumes of passenger transactions regardless of the payment media,” said Doug Thomas, general manager, Americas, at Vix Technology.