Fare collection systems have gone through major mutation these past years with EMV® contactless payments implemented in a great number public transportation networks. Tap to ride has proven efficiency and convenience and has been widely adopted among users. The next era for payment and fare inspection is the introduction of advanced technologies like SoftPOS, combining traditional and trendy payment modalities.
SoftPOS (Software Point of Sale), AKA Tap to Phone, Tap on Phone, Tap to Pay or Tap on Mobile, is a technology that transforms a smartphone or tablet into a payment terminal, eliminating the need for physical devices. It works through NFC (Near Field Communication), enabling quick and secure contactless payments.
Payment terminals developed to integrate public transport networks must support specific configurations to accept EMV contactless payments. Unlike contactless payments in retail, open-loop transactions in transit environments must be performed within seconds to avoid queues at the gates. Major payment standards like Visa have defined specific rules for their contactless kernels implemented in SoftPOS solutions that are to be deployed in public transport networks, to ensure frictionless passenger boarding.
Transport and mobility companies can easily adopt this solution without investing in expensive equipment for mobile validation. This software-based payment solution ensures the compatibility between traditional ticketing process and modern versatile payment methods.
Passengers can quickly pay with their favorite payment method on buses, trams or trains, regardless of their profile. Passing tourists can use their payment card or mobile wallet. They do not need to look for money or for a ticketing machine to enter the transit network.
Payments are protected by advanced encryption technologies. Tokenization enables checking the payments operated with EMV cards in real time, facilitating fare inspection.
SoftPOS allows easy integration across different transport or mobility services within a single app. With a single mobile device, transit agents can collect and inspect EMV contactless or travel cards. They can read QR codes and mobile ticketing apps.
Agents in the public transport network can carry NFC-capable smartphones and tablets as versatile payment terminals to take contactless payments on-the-go. The NFC interface of the smartphone communicates with passengers’ contactless wearables, eg. smartcards or mobile wallets.
Fare collection is optimized with the integration of SoftPOS solutions in public transport systems, multiplying the points of payment acceptance during riders’ journey, whether to operate open-loop payment transactions, or to read transport card data.
In addition to taking payments and fares on the go, transport agents can use Tap to phone solutions to perform ticket and fare inspection. When a user taps their bank card to pay for their ride, a unique and random token is generated and stored in the back-end system. When the agent checks the card, the tokens are recognized and recovered from the back-end and the ride is validated.
The implementation of SoftPOS in urban transit systems offers a new perspective for public transport authorities, transforming fare collection into modern, digital and secure payment acceptance.
Alcinéo has been working for many years with payment integrators and transit operators on major projects to implement open-loop payment solutions in many cities worldwide. Our expertise in the development of contactless solutions for transit and our extended portfolio of off-the-shelf kernels enable our customers to build and deploy fully featured solutions and to rapidly reach their targeted markets.
SoftPOS SDK complies with transit kernels specifications
Our SoftPOS SDK embeds all the specific features needed to integrate a transit environment such as Offline Data Authentication (ODA) and fast Dynamic Data Authentication (fDDA) which are specific to EMV transactions in transit. For more information, refer to our article about Visa tap to phone in transit. It has been designed to simplify integration with open-loop payment systems in transit.
Enables seamless switch to close-loop app
Our solution also meets the need of payment integrators to enable to read proprietary transit cards. Through Alcinéo SoftPOS SDK, the switch from EMV to NFC forum mode is done instantly, without the agent having to do anything. The card data is read, and the switch is performed automatically according to the type of card presented.
MPoC security
The security mechanisms implemented into the solution comply with the most recent security requirements of PCI MPoC standard.
Tokenization
For fare inspection, the security mechanisms rely on tokenization, to ensure the protection of sensitive cardholder data.
Urban mobility actors are engaged to drive innovation and offer value-added propositions to transit systems users. SoftPOS represents a major advancement for open payment and fare inspection, combining performance, security, and user-friendly solution.
For more information, feel free to contact our team : contact@alcineo.com
SoftPOS technology enables the acceptance of contactless payments on NFC smartphones or tablets. It offers flexibility, convenience and security that agents in transit networks need to take contactless payments on the go and perform fare inspection.
Visa has updated their tap to phone specification to reflect this new use case and simplify the deployment of SoftPOS solutions in the transit payment system.
How to certify your SoftPOS solution with MPoC ?
The new security standard enables SoftPOS providers to certify that their solutions for contactless payment on COTS meet the security requirements, ensuring the accurate protection of cardholder data in a tap on phone / tap to phone / tap on mobile environment. The crucial challenge for SoftPOS solution providers is to ensure that their products integrate the highest level of protection of sensitive data and comply with the new PCI MPoC standard.
Coppernic has announced that they have integrated the Alcineo SoftPOS payment solution into their rugged handheld device ticketing offering for Public Transportation markets. Coppernic is a market leader for handheld ticket inspection devices in France, with installations in 80% of French cities with more than 100K inhabitants. Alcineo is a specialist in the development of EMV payment kernels, contact and contactless and logical security modules. They partner with payment solution providers in a number of market applications, including transit.
Focus on tokenisation in transit environment.
Indeed, the transformation of the card data in Card Number Alias or token enables to connect a card number to an individual card holder or an event.
This transformation is performed by cryptography computation.
The computation will always generate the same token for the same card if the same algorithm is used. This algorithm is a one way function, so, there’s no possibility to translate from a token to a card number.