Rav Pass for Schools and Students – Israeli
Rav-Pass is a post-paid and account based mobile ticketing and navigation solution deployed across Israel’s public and shared transportation network.
The Rav-Pass seamless platform, developed by HopOn, supports all types of mass transit: buses, trams, trains, metros, as well as shared transportation (bikes, scooters, shared shuttles etc.).
With Rav-Pass, HopOn has created a universal, end-to-end system that is both easy to implement and operate; and one that simplifies the route planning, next bus, and ticketing processes.
When using Rav-Pass for students and schools, local authorities, school managers and administrators can provide students with a dedicated budget for use across their local mass-transit network. Budgets can be specific to each student linking to a transport card or mobile phone number. Once the budget is issued, students can use any means of transport subject to individual permissions managed by the school. Using the platform, school managers can limit budgets by multiple criteria such as specific days, times, routes and journeys, and in line with school schedules and locations. The platform also helps schools to combat unauthorised or fraudulent use of subsidised student transport.
In Israel, every school student living 3 km or more from school is entitled to free public transport to and from school. Local authorities issue each school with an annual budget for public transportation, and schools then provide eligible students with funds for their travel.
Previously, students received printed paper tickets which required validation on public transport services. These tickets were purchased and paid for in advance by local authorities, however they were open to fraud and were frequently sold on. This resulted in the local authority exhausting annual budgets whilst many tickets either went unused by the rightful holders or were transferred to ineligible passengers.
A solution was required which enabled the local authority to allocate a personalized and non-transferable budget to each student. Equally the system should not require payment in advance but would ensure that authorities were only charged for actual journeys made.
The Rav-Pass solution for schools and students allows local authorities to utilise and control budgets according to their needs. A specific amount (coupon) can be entered for each student, which is stored directly on the student’s personal travel card or mobile app and therefore cannot be transferred or sold on.
When paper cards were taken out of use, students began receiving Rav-Pass digital coupons, each with a specific allocation calculated in line with each student’s journey cost to and from school.
At the end of each month, the local authority is only charged for “used coupons”, i.e., coupons that have been actually used for eligible journeys.
The efficiency of the system has resulted in savings of more than 30% of the local authority student travel budget (equals – millions of Israeli Shekels annually for each municipality). Since deployment, the system has helped eradicate charges for unused coupons, and prevented the transfer of coupons to any person other than the intended user.
So far 40 municipalities (with many thousands of students) all over the country are using Rav-Pass with full visibility, reports, and control over budget spend in real time.