By YOURI KEMP
Tribune Business Reporter
ykemp@tribunemedia.net
Digital technology was yesterday hailed as a key element in driving New Providence’s jitney industry towards the long-promised unified transportation system through an initiative that will launch in early 2023.
Harrison Moxey, the United Public Transportation Company’s (UPTC) president, told Tribune Business that the electronic UPTC Jitney Pass will give Bahamians access to 220 jitneys, and cover more than 40 routes, that collectively transport between 60,000 and 90,000 passengers per day. The Jitney Pass has been created via a six-year joint venture between the UPTC and Bluestone Labs, a Bahamas-based financial technology and digital identity provider.
It will be available through a new ‘Transit’ feature within Bluestone’s B-ID mobile app, which can be accessed via the Internet and downloaded on Andriod and iOS devices. The join venture partners, in a statement, said the app will feature “advanced smart routing technology to plan bus trips in advance, real-time ETA (estimated time of arrival) of buses, a rating system, and SOS reporting connected to the UPTC dispatch centres”.
They added: “Parents can have peace of mind watching live movement of busses on an in-app interactive virtual map, knowing that they will be sent notifications when their child has boarded, hopped off the bus and arrived at their destination.”
The Jitney Pass will also “phase out cash payments for bus fares in favour of digital payments, QR codes and value tap cards using The Bahamas’ Central Bank Digital Currency, the Sand Dollar. This will unlock interoperability with all other local payments service providers. All busses will also be equipped with free Wi-Fi”.
Mr Moxey said the partnership will allow the UPTC to “control the business”, and enable it to unify the industry and provide better quality service to the Bahamian public. He added that the “dispatch centre” located on University Drive will be unveiled by next week.
“Things were delayed this year with one or two items coming into place, but in the first quarter of next year we are going to start to get the ball rolling. We expect things to happen rapidly for the first quarter for next year,” he added.
John Bridgewater, Bluestone Labs chief executive, told Tribune Business: “Things are progressing very well. We begin the pilot phase in the early part of the New Year, and we will be launching the first dispatch centre on University Boulevard between this and next week.
“It is going to be modernised and more intuitive than what is available now. So persons will be able to access a mobile app, or they’ll be able to view it on the web, no matter where you are or where you want to go. It gives you a ride-share like Uber and Lyft’s interface.”
The biggest obstacle to jitney industry unification is the fragmentation of the franchise operators and their lack of cohesion around a single corporate entity. Mr Bridgewater dismissed those fears by asserting that the UPTC is already an organised body, and “they own 70 percent of the actual busses in the system” with considerable market share.
Mr Bridgewater added: “We are going to have multiple means of payment for the average individual. Forty-three percent of the bus passengers are actually school students. The young demographic of Bahamians have a very large appetite for digitisation.” He said the use of a digital identity for public transportation has several benefits, including improved efficiency and security.
“The UPTC Jitney Pass is a great example of how digital identity can improve public transportation systems. Using the Sand Dollar, we expect to drastically increase the volume of Sand Dollars in current circulation from $300,000 to roughly $18m yearly. This is currently on-par with the Chinese digital e-CNY retail roll out. We are proud to be a part of this important project, and we look forward to seeing the benefits it brings to The Bahamas,” Mr Bridgewater added.
Mr Moxey said: “We are excited to partner with Bluestone Labs to launch the UPTC Jitney Pass. The digital bus system will greatly improve the public transportation experience, decongesting traffic and eventually lead to more local adoption amongst our school children, parents, and visitors, and we look forward to the positive impact it will have on our community.”
The initiative will initially focus on registering students who catch the bus, and provide them with physical UPTC jitney pass student IDs. A second pilot project, running in parallel, will focus on the western district of Nassau which was branded as “the most travelled route” in the capital.
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