AF Payments Inc. will give 125,000 free beep cards—amounting to P10 million in discounted retail costs—to commuters and is now developing a cashless payments platform as an alternative to its tap-and-go payments system beep.
The company, led by Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Ayala Corp., said it will help “ease the burden of passengers who have challenges buying a beep card” by providing free cards to “people in need.”
“This offer has been made possible by our Shareholders and Business Groups, who graciously donated the needed funds to pay for up to 125,000 free cards,” the company said.
Currently, beep cards are sold at P80 each, “which covers only part of the cost of logistics, production, initialization, printing and distribution.”
To recall, the Department of Transportation called for the free distribution of beep cards to commuters, after it received reports that commuters found it hard to acquire a card due to the cost.
It then threatened the company that it might be replaced with a different provider should it fail to do so.
The beep cards are currently being used in different modes of transportation, but the transport department highlighted the need for free cards for those who are riding the Edsa Busway.
Aside from the limited issuance of the free beep cards, the company is now developing a new payments system as an alternative to the beep card.
“In response to concerns that some passenger may not be able to buy a beep card, we have offered to the operators a system upgrade that will allow passengers who use the Edsa Bus Loop to use a QR ticket—paper or mobile phone—instead of a beep card. QR paper tickets will not cost anything in addition to the regular fare for the desired trip,” AF Payments said.
It noted that as soon as the QR code ticket system is in place it will no longer issue free beep cards to commuters.
“At this time passengers who do not want a beep card can instead avail of a QR ticket, which no additional cost attached and will only require the payment of exact fare between the desired stops,” the company said.
The upgraded bus validation will also be able to accept mobile phone based QR tickets that can be generated from bank applications or e-wallets.
“We invite all interested parties to sign up and participate as QR ticket issuer. We open-sourced the necessary technical specifications and made it available on the Internet free of charge for every interested party to develop the technology to issue a ticket,” the company said.
The transportation department has yet to respond to requests for comment as of press time.