Dec 12, 2024
US Transit Agency LATS Launches Mobile App Based on HanseCom’s SaaS Solution
Hamburg, Germany – The Lawton Area Transit System (LATS), transit agency of the city of Lawton, Oklahoma, has launched its own mobile ticketing app. The LATS GO PASS app is based on the URpass SaaS solution from German provider HanseCom, a wholly owned subsidiary of init SE.
The LATS app, which is available for iOS and Android smartphones, puts the transit agency’s entire range of one-way tickets, multi-ride tickets and monthly tickets at the users’ disposal as a digital service. Tickets are validated by visual inspection when passengers present their smartphones with the virtual tickets during ticket inspections.
In the past, LATS passengers had to use cash to pay for their tickets on buses and in service centers. With the mobile app, LATS is now offering not just their existing customers an attractive and simple alternative. The new service also attracts new, digitally-savvy target groups. Moreover, since mobile tickets are purchased digitally via credit card, the company can reduce its cash handling costs at the same time.
Just before the go-live, the app was successfully tested as part of a public “friendly user test”. LATS employees approached passengers at bus stops and offered them the opportunity to download the app and use it to buy tickets. The test was carried out using real tickets and real payments, and the new service has received a lot of positive feedback.
The LATS GO PASS app is based on the URpass SaaS solution from HanseCom. This mobile ticketing platform was developed specifically for the North American market, where it targets small and medium-sized transit agencies. These can use the platform to set up a digital sales channel quickly and without any large upfront investments.
“We are very happy about the successful launch of our app,” said Ryan Landers, Managing Director of LATS. “URpass has given us an easy-to-use, cost-efficient way to embrace digital sales. All we had to do was customize the design of the white label app, configure our tickets and upload our fares into the background system. We were able to do most of this entirely on our own.”
HanseCom Managing Director Sebastian Neil Hölken commented by saying, “Many small and medium-sized transit agencies in North America are looking to modernize ticketing to make their own processes more efficient and transparent, while providing people with easy access to public transportation. With URpass, LATS is showing how it can be done.”
