Railways e-ticketing service gains popularity
Sharif Ahmed
The government has introduced a large number of e-services including railway e-ticketing. An electronic version of the paper ticket, known as an e-ticket, is made available through a digital ticketing system. According to a study on the Access to Information programme, titled TCV Analysis of Bangladesh Railway E-Ticketing System (2016), the Bangladesh Railway (BR) has sold 2,039,224 tickets online since its inauguration in 2012. The organisation has saved USD 1.6 million by adopting the e-ticketing system.
The total volume of transactions under this system was recorded to be around USD 10 million till 2015. President of the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB), Razib Ahmed, told The Independent that the e-ticketing system introduced by the BR was a welcome government initiative making tickets available online and through text messages.
Explaining the problems of this service, Razib AHmed said passengers now have to buy online tickets three days before the date of journey. He felt this time stipulation should to be changed to make advance tickets available seven days before the date of journey.
No government organisation provides services for online bus tickets. Bus tickets are available from online travel service providers such as bdtickets.com and shohoz.com. Both the companies are run and operated by private authorities, he added.
Describing the advantages of e-ticketing, Razib Ahmed said the system provided hassle-free services for which people did not have to wait in queues. As many as 90 per cent of ticket sale in Bangladesh would be through the online system within 10 to 12 years, he added.
Explaining the promotional strategy, the e-CAB president said aggressive marketing involving a high trading volume was needed to make people in rural areas aware of the advantages of the e-ticketing system.
He also said there was a wrong perception that rural people might face difficulties in using the system. He further said such fears were misplaced because 80 per cent bKash was being used by the rural people and even by those living in remote areas. If they can readily accept bKash, it should not be difficult for them to accept the e-ticketing system, he added.
Highlighting the payment methods, Ekram Kabir, vice-president of Communication and Corporate Responsibility of Robi Axiata Ltd, told The Independent that payment gateways were essential components for a flourishing e-commerce business in Bangladesh. In recent times, the huge popularity of Mobile Financial Services (MFS) had made it very easy for customers to avail the benefits of e-commerce, he added.
For e-commerce to benefit everyone, measures are needed to raise the penetration of MFS in the country. In this connection, the government could consider letting mobile phone operators offer MFS services as we have expertise to take it to the far-flung places of the country, he suggested.
Explaining the barriers, Ekram Kabir said one of the main obstacles to popularising digital ticketing was consumer behaviour. A vast majority of customers still prefer to purchase tickets physically across the counter. Besides, it has been reported that many customers have been deceived while availing online services. Unfortunately, this has given digital ticketing service a bad reputation. We need to address these practical issues, if we are to make it popular in the country, he added.
Responding to a question, Ekram Kabir said the e-ticketing system could be introduced anywhere in the country, as the mobile telecom network provided 99 per cent coverage. Moreover, the e-ticketing service can be accessed through Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD)-based channels and the payment can be done through mobile financial systems, which is also USSD-based.
The delivery of the e-ticket is done through SMS. In this entire process, there is no need for anything other than a basic phone with a mobile signal. So, as long as we can provide the right customer experience, people in rural areas will adopt e-ticketing service in large numbers, he added.
Talking about peoples perception about e-ticketing, Ekram Kabir said those comfortable in using the e-ticketing service found it a convenient way of purchasing tickets. These customers tend to be young, tech-savvy and open to changes as a way of life. Unfortunately, a vast majority of customers are yet to be aware that one can purchase e-tickets through digital platforms. We have a long way to go to establish e-ticketing platforms as an accepted way of purchasing tickets. We are very excited about the journey ahead, he added.
Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) president Mustafa Jabbar told The Independent that e-ticketing was a part of digital commerce or e-commerce. As many as 8 per cent of our population live in urban areas and 92 per cent in rural areas. So, e-ticketing service cannot be developed overnight in our country, he said.
To make e-ticketing services successful in the entire country, we need to address a few things such as making the Internet infrastructure and services accessible to people by making then affordable, fixing prices, and regulating prices of the Internet, he observed.
Bangladesh has a 71 per cent literacy rate and 85 per cent of the population use mobile phones. So, it is obvious that we have failed to develop peoples mindset about the use of e-ticketing services, he added.
