Euclid and Unicard to deliver disabled companion concessions in Scotland
ITSO members and specialist ticketing solution suppliers Euclid and Unicard have announced a joint initiative supporting concessionary bus travel throughout Scotland for disabled children under the age of five with a companion. Euclid and Unicard will provide to ITSO licensed member Transport Scotland, a back-office solution comprising Euclid’s Fareshare platform and Unicard’s ITSO HOPS supporting the extension of Transport Scotland’s ITSO National Concessionary Travel Scheme (NCTS) to accommodate eligible disabled under-fives and accompanying adult.
Children in Scotland under the age of five are eligible for free bus travel. However, the new legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament entitles eligible disabled children under the age of five to travel with a companion at no extra cost. To take advantage of the new scheme, disabled under 5s will be able to apply for a National Entitlement Card which provides eligibility to be accompanied by an adult companion travelling free of charge. The NEC is ITSO enabled, so every journey will be processed by Unicard’s HOPS as standard practice. Those transactions are then reconciled by Euclid’s Fareshare platform, which validates the concession, processes the usage data and calculates the correct reimbursement to the relevant bus operator.
Gareth Neal, Project Manager at Euclid: “Delivering the companion concession scheme provides a vital service that helps the community and we’re delighted to be making such a valuable contribution. Our solution classifies journeys and manages settlements with commercial operators, supporting all NEC travel schemes. By holding in excess of one billion transactions, Fareshare is used to generate reports, study passenger trends, analyse payments to operators and even identify fraudulent behaviour. Euclid will continue to support Transport Scotland as they adapt their travel schemes to provide more new passenger services”.
Sean Dickinson, CEO of Unicard, added: “We’re very proud to be playing an important role in delivering this concessionary travel scheme. The deployment marks another milestone in the long-term relationship between Euclid and Unicard. We’ve worked jointly on a number of major deployments across the UK, where our combined back-office solution has enabled customers to deliver concessionary and commercial services at scale. We’re committed to ensuring that all eligible passengers have access to concessionary travel, and our products and services enable the addition of new capabilities to meet the ever-changing requirements of the smart ticketing marketplace”.