Passengers get new way to pay the ferryman

Orkney Ferries gets installs handheld ticketing system

Orkney Ferries has introduced a new ticketing system to improve efficiency and accept credit card payments.

The company, which runs nine ferries in the Orkney Isles, carrying 300,000 passengers a year, has ditched on-board ticket printers for mobile devices.

The Azur ticketing system runs on handheld RW420 printers from Zebra Technologies capable of withstanding poor weather conditions on deck.

‘Locals know the ferries accept only cash or cheques but tourists don’t, and we needed a system for the 21st century,’ said David Sawkins, ferry services manager at Orkney Ferries.

A trial tested Microsoft pocket PCs from Azur using Bluetooth to connect with printers.

But connectivity problems occurred when ticket collectors were close to smaller vessels’ radars, so Bluetooth has been replaced with cable between collectors’ handhelds and printers.

‘We needed a system to work fast enough for card transactions and the capacity with Bluetooth was not there,’ said Sawkins.

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