Speaking from personal experience, the problem with the ticketing machines is one of management on the part of the bus company owners... There have been attempts to get rugged ticketing devices (the sort that farmers choice etc use when on the road) but they are not keen on them... One rugged device is around 2,000 USD. For 10 of them, you would need to invest in what would otherwise be a down-payment for a bus... Additionally the additional cost with regards to human resource and other ICT infrastructure is not considered worth it, by the bus companies... It's an unfortunate situation, given the obvious benefits a tech based system would have. The sad thing is all 3 major bus companies have basically reached a stagnation point with regards to operational efficiency and have barely increased their fleetsize in the last five years (proof is the fact that new bus companies, City Shuttle et al are coming into the space). On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 12:58 PM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>wrote:
Hi Listers,
A few days ago an was in a Kenya Bus and got a deja vu moment as I looked at the conductor standing in front of me dispensing his ticket.
http://quadrantshift.co.ke/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/kbs-ticket-machine.jpg .
The moment tool me back to 1978 and I a sitting in a number 29 bus coming from Eastleigh, where I went to school (now you can understand my lack of etiquette at times) to Buru Buru where we lived.
To date the machine remains the same with what seems to be a very basic activity, dispensing tickets. Which would explain why it remains the same no fancy additions or features, but what many of you might not know is that it seats at the heart of a very elaborate system.
This easily overlooked device gives Kenya Bus Management Company the wealth of information that keeps them ahead of the pack and kept them operational event after all the groups of raiders who have owned the company over the past 20 or so years, lose of their garage in Eastleigh, lose of the monopoly in Nairobi and Mombasa, lose of the sole use of the Bus Terminal in Nairobi.
Now that little gadget that we all take for granted as we start new transport organisations is what has kept them going. There is a product ready to be transitioned to the 21st century if only we stopped looking for opportunities for innovation in all the wrong places.
A true innovation.
Regards
PS. I am a sower, I leave harvesting to others.
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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