Beep card sales near 1-M mark

MANILA, Philippines - The private concessionaire of the Automatic Fare Collection System (AFCS) for the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Metro Rail Transit (MRT) expects to sell a total of one million beep cards this year after sales hit 600,000 over the weekend.

AF Payments Inc. (AFPI) president and chief executive officer Peter Maher said yesterday they decided to revise the outlook due to the strong demand for the new payment system. AFPI initially expected to sell up to 400,000 cards this year.

“We weren’t expecting such a strong uptake of beep cards so the sales have been going strong and we’ve been ordering a lot more cards to come in to the system,” he said.

The beep cards, which replaced the old magnetic tickets, are expected to improve the overall commuting experience of Filipinos as they allow seamless transfer from one rail line to another.

During the pre-selling in key MRT stations last week, a total of 50,000 beep cards were sold.

With all three rail lines using the beep card, AFPI is now looking at ways to further improve the AFCS for the passengers.

“Our technical and operations team will now focus on ensuring that feedback from the train operators and the riding public are being consolidated, reviewed and assessed to see how the company can further improve the system. We will continue to work hard to ensure that all the equipment, from the gates to the TVMs (ticket vending machines) and the POS (point-of-sale) computers, are well-maintained,” Maher said.

He also said the sales of beep cards are seen to continue growing as their use is expanded to cover even retail stores and toll roads.

He said AFPI is currently in talks with convenience stores in the country to enable loading and acceptance of the beep cards beyond the train stations.

“We hope by the end of the year, we would be open to some of the leading convenience stores,” he said.

AFPI is likewise working on making the beep cards acceptable as payment for the use of toll roads.

“We’re hoping to get some progress on tollways again on around the end of the year and start it next year,” Maher said.

AFPI intends to start using the beep cards for the tollways of partners Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) and Ayala Corp. first and to include other toll roads afterwards.

AFPI, a consortium of MPIC and Ayala Corp., bagged the P1.72 billion AFCS deal under the government’s public private partnership program.

To get more information on the beep cards, individuals can check AFPI’s website www.beeptopay.com or follow them on Facebook (www.facebook.com/beepcardph) and Twitter (@beep_card).